Dead Island Riptide Preview

Kotaku's writer Tina Amini is offering her own take on Dead Island Riptide, based on a hands-off demo at this year's PAX Prime. Here are some of the things that impressed her:
5. Mines? Now we're talking.

Fortifying defense hubs are a new kind of mission in Dead Island: Riptide. You'll build fences with the barricade system to cover the gaps in the dilapidated church, and plant mines around the perimeter to keep the incoming horde of zombies at bay. The water pump you're using to help you escape makes a lot of noise. And every faithful zombie lore reader knows that noise equals lots and lots of zombies, so planting mines around your fortified church is a welcomed addition. It's not just explosive mines, either. There seems to be a healthy variety of mines, like poison mines and sonic mines.

6. Oh man, I think my head is spinning.

There's lots of running back and forth involved in these defense missions. Especially when you have a movable, mounted machine gun at your disposal, and can set it in the front or back of the church to rid the swampy perimeter of those fodder enemies.

7. Did that zombie just throw something at me?! What the HELL, zombie. I'm going to stab you in and around the face for that.

The Grenadier zombie can throw grenades at you. These are some sophisticated jerks! Even with the machine gun, you'll probably still want to run up to zombies to thin out the crowd before it becomes too massive to handle. So lots of close-ranged combat is still an emphasis.