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Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition vs How to Survive 2

Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition is an FPS horror game from Techland (2016) while How to Survive 2 is an open-world RPG game from Eko Software (2016).

Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition

2016 · Techland

6.3GamingPickz Score

$19.99

Steam: Mostly Positive

How to Survive 2

2016 · Eko Software

6.4GamingPickz Score

$14.99

Steam: Mixed

What each one is

Steam files Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition under FPS and Horror. In contrast, it files How to Survive 2 under Open-World and RPG.

Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition

Welcome to the zombie apocalypse experience of a lifetime – more beautiful than ever. Caught in an epic zombie outbreak on the tropical island of Banoi, your only thought is: Survive!

Description from its Steam store page

How to Survive 2

Dead or Alive? Make up your mind, stranger. We don’t like that undead business here in Louisiana…Survive solo or with friends as you look to fulfill your basic needs of food, water and shelter, crafting your own tools and weapons while you secure your camp and face flesh hungry zombies.

Description from its Steam store page

At a glance

Dead Island: Riptide Definitive EditionHow to Survive 2
GamingPickz Score6.3/106.4/10
Steam ratingMostly Positive (71%, 13,002)Mixed (69%, 11,014)
Critic aggregateNo aggregate69/100
Price$19.99$14.99
Install size10 GB8 GB
Steam Deckverifiedplayable
Released20162016
DeveloperTechlandEko Software

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition vs How to Survive 2, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Dead Island: Riptide Definitive EditionFPS horror game
    How to Survive 2Open-world RPG game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Dead Island: Riptide Definitive EditionZombies, Co-op, Open World
    How to Survive 2Survival, Zombies, Open World Survival Craft

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Dead Island: Riptide Definitive EditionScore 6.3 · 71% on Steam
    How to Survive 2Score 6.4 · 69% on Steam · 69 critic

    The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

  4. Content and scale

    Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition13,002 reviews · 10 GB
    How to Survive 211,014 reviews · 9 add-ons · 8 GB

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition$19.99
    How to Survive 2$14.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

  6. On a Steam Deck

    Dead Island: Riptide Definitive EditionVerified
    How to Survive 2Playable

    Valve's own Deck compatibility rating.

How to Survive 2 takes 2 of the marked rounds to 1. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.

The two on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition and How to Survive 2 on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.

2 games have both

01000100PlayersPopularity

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

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How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The higher-rated of the two: How to Survive 2 (GamingPickz Score 6.4)
  • The cheaper right now: How to Survive 2 ($14.99)
  • Better on a Steam Deck: Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition (verified)
  • Lighter on storage: How to Survive 2 (8 GB)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

ZombiesCo-opMultiplayerOpen WorldGoreActionSurvivalAdventure

Where they differ

Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition is also

First-PersonHorrorOnline Co-OpFPSSurvival HorrorViolent

How to Survive 2 is also

Base-BuildingLocal Co-OpThird PersonTop-Down ShooterShooter4 Player Local

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. How to Survive 2 is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 1 accessibility feature for Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition and 1 for How to Survive 2. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition and How to Survive 2 in scope?

Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition has drawn 13,002 Steam reviews and installs in 10 GB. How to Survive 2 has drawn 11,014 Steam reviews, ships 9 add-ons and installs in 8 GB.

Is Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition or How to Survive 2 better?

By the GamingPickz Score, How to Survive 2 rates higher (6.4 to 6.3). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.

Which is cheaper, Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition or How to Survive 2?

How to Survive 2 is cheaper right now at $14.99, against $19.99. Prices move, so this is read live from Steam and can change.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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