The Good
What makes Dead Island:Riptide so great, is the little nuances; you can tell Deep Silver did what they could to tweak and add to DI:Riptide to make it a better experience for newcomers and their fans.
Character Development: Unlike the original Dead Island, Dead Island: Riptide gives you 14 skill points off the bat to distribute among your Fury, Combat and Survival skill trees. There are 3 pre-defined skill sets that will divide most of your points to whatever you feel is most important or you can choose to divvy up the points yourself; essentially, this means you start the game at level 15. One feature that was greatly appreciated, was the ability to import my old save file into the game. You won't have the extra 15 points, but all the skills that you worked hard for, transfer right over into the new game. The undead match up close or to your level no matter how you choose to start your journey in Dead Island, whether from scratch or save file.
Though your chosen character has a predetermined weapon specialty (Purna: Firearms, Sam B:blunt weapons, Xian: blades, Logan:throwing weapons and John: Hand-to-Hand combat), the more you use objects outside of your comfort zone, the more efficient you become with those types of weapons! For example, as Xian, you will have ample time to level up within your blade/knives specialty, (you encounter blades and blunt weapons the most) but you will also have more opportunities within the game to use firearms (and other weapon types, of course). The more you use firearms, the better you will be at handling them! The option to choose to develop your character's confidence in using other weapon types, makes your growth in Dead Island more customized to your taste!
Gameplay: DI: Riptide doesn't throw you into the game, assuming that you know what happened when they left Banoi. It starts off with a recap of what happened on Banoi and what lead them to their helicopter ride, that they thought would grant them freedom. The pop-ups provide a mini-tutorial and explains the games interface, which serves as a guide for new survivors and DI veterans in case you need a refresher.
One of my major complaints in the original Dead Island, was that the aim for firearms made you feel like you were shooting into thin air with hopes that it would hit something... ANYTHING, so your efforts wouldn't be wasted. Deep Silver has successfully fixed the aim and I was surprised at how easy it was to aim and shoot at my target. Still, I knew if I developed my survivor's firearm level, I'd be able to handle the recoil better. I didn't feel like I was wasting ammo for the sake of getting rid of a few zombies, which is extremely important since, if you've played Dead Island before, you already know ammo isn't that easy to get, so use it only when you absolutely need to.
Here's where it gets interesting: The camp fights are amazing yet frustrating, but not frustrating enough to make you rage quit and play another game. The bunker provides you with fences to block main entrances and it's up to you to find resources to set booby traps around the perimeter to stall the zombies while you take them out and help other survivors. The best part about bunker fights is: you're not defending it alone! All of the survivors help kill the undead, so if you need to focus on putting up more fences in the middle of a battle, the AI (which is magnificent) will do its best to take care of whatever zombies are in the area. The survivors are NOT immortal, which means they have a meter over their heads showing you how much life they have left in the battle, so if you're the type like me, that hates to lose any of your group, you'll need to be alert and prioritize what you feel is more important to finish first. After helping a survivor, they will run to assist others if they are being attack by zombies! Once you move to a new location, you'll have to reinforce that bunker, too, since you've been drawing in the undead from all around from your relocating.
Team Quests: These quests develop your team's strength and efficiency with defending the bunker. Team Quests involve volunteering for various side missions (often gathering items that you find on other main quests), from other survivors in your camp (including the other 4 main survivors) to help them build weapons and level up. Completing team quests, will boost your group's morale and influences their energy during combat! The higher the group level, the easier it will be for them to not only uphold the bunker, but defend themselves, one-on-one, from the undead.
The Bad
Dead Island: Riptide really could have been the "perfect" game, if it wasn't for some minor quirks that annoyed me enough to write about them.
The BIGGEST of my issues with DI: Riptide is the fact that you can volunteer to take quests from your fellow survivors, but you didn't have the option to send the immune team members out on scavenger missions to find supplies/items that you need! It would have saved a lot of time if I could send out a few survivors to get specific or even generic items that were randomly generated for them to bring back, while I'm out completing missions. This was Deep Silver's chance to take advantage of the team quest feature. Even if they didn't want the player to send out other survivors, bartering for parts would have been useful as well.
Enemy cut scenes: In Dead Island, when you encountered a type of undead that you've never encountered (a Suicider for example), there would be a cut scene that allows you to appreciate and prepare for what was going to attack you. In DI:Riptide, all you received was a quick pop that says you unlocked the undead threat, leaving me open to attack since I had no idea what the heck was going on!
And lastly, I'm absolutely sure a patch can fix this, but in certain parts of the island, zombies would appear out of thin air. Like, literally popped up on the screen. No sneaking up, no running at you, just standing still and the zombie would suddenly flash in front of my eyes. It's not a big problem, but it can be annoying. Nonetheless, I bashed their heads in all the same.
The Results Are In: Despite it's faults, Dead Island: Riptide is a great follow up to the original. The attention to detail and addition of defending your "tower", survivor A.I. and new weapon mods and blueprints made this game more enjoyable than ever. If you're looking for something more intense and involved than a regular zombie shoot-em-up, Dead Island:Riptide is your go to game!
Random tip: To play by yourself is great, but give the online multi-player a try. I was lucky enough to get a great group and we played 10 HOURS STRAIGHT.