Several years have passed since the Wilamette incident, and while Frank West was able to save America from a zombie apocalypse, the cause of zombification was not completely contained. This led to continued zombie outbreaks throughout the United States.Dead Rising 2 shifts the action from the everyday world of mid-West America to the glitz and glamour of Fortune City, America’s latest and greatest entertainment playground. People flock to Fortune City from around the globe to escape from reality and the chance to win big.The game sees the introduction of former national Motocross champion, Chuck Greene, as the main protagonist. Before he hit the big time with a team and sponsorship behind him Chuck was forced to repair his own bikes, leaving him incredibly resourceful; a real handyman. A single father, Chuck dotes on his daughter Katey who, since the loss of her mother, he will do anything for. With hundreds of zombies on screen at any one time, the original Dead Rising forced gamers to turn the everyday objects they found in the Mall into improvised weapons capable of fending off attacks. Dead Rising 2 promises to increase the carnage with even more zombies intent on feasting on human flesh and countless new objects with which Chuck can make the undead dead.Dead Rising 2 is being developed by Canadian developer Blue Castle Games in close collaboration with Capcom. A number of members from the original Dead Rising team will be working alongside Blue Castle Games throughout the development process, including Capcom’s global head of research and development, Keiji Inafune, who as the game’s Producer, will play an active role in the project.
Set several years after the events of the first game in the series, Dead Rising 2 contains all the fun and over-the top carnage which gamers associate with a zombie apocalypse. As with all releases in the Dead Rising series, it is a survival horror game. Players take on the role of an all-new character, with equally new motivations to survive and resources to do so. These resources include new weapons, expanded weapon combination/creation possibilities, and even two-player coop functionality. The game also features a 4-player online multiplayer mode, an optional prologue to the game available as downloadable content and a dramatic increase in the number of zombies that can be faced at once.
Story Dead Rising 2 delivers more of the signature gameplay that the series is known for plus a number of new features. Players who might need some help or simply want to share the zombie bashing fun with a friend will now be able to play in online 2-player co-op. Simply use the in-game transceiver to call for assistance at any time and once your partner has accepted, they will arrive by your side for double the action. With hundreds of zombies on screen at any one time, the original Dead Rising forced gamers to take everyday objects they found in the mall and use them as weapons. But now, in Dead Rising 2 with thousands of zombies filling every square inch of Fortune City, Chuck is going to need to be even more resourceful and inventive by creating combination weapons to save the day. Players will be able to take two objects, a roll of tape and with a little inventiveness create an advanced zombie-killing combo weapon – a piece of wood and a lawnmower become Portamower, the handheld mower that cuts zombies down to size in an instant; while a garden rake and car battery combine to create an electrified zombie prod. The more combo weapons a player uses, the more Prestige Points (PPs) they will gain along the way in order to level up Chuck. Optional Downloadable Prologue Ahead of the full game, Capcom will release original downloadable content Xbox Live with Dead Rising 2: CASE ZERO. This prologue consists of unique content not available in the full retail release of Dead Rising 2 and will introduce new protagonist Chuck Greene as he and his daughter find themselves caught in the desert town of Still Creek that has been overrun with zombies. Set two years after the Willamette incident and three before the action of Dead Rising 2, Dead Rising 2: CASE ZERO will help bridge the gap between the two titles and give players a taste of the new gameplay they will experience in Dead Rising 2 as they create combo weapons, rescue survivors and take on a ruthless psychos before making their escape. Development Team Dead Rising 2 is developed by Canadian developer Blue Castle Games in close collaboration with Capcom. A number of members from the original Dead Rising team have added their talents and experience to the Blue Castle Games team throughout the development process, including Capcom’s global head of research and development, Keiji Inafune, who as the game’s producer, and played an active role in the project. Key Game Features
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- Dead Rising 2: CASE ZERO, a downloadable game prologue released ahead of the game launch will give fans a taste of the experience while introducing you to the new characters and story that will unfold in Dead Rising 2
- New protagonist, Chuck Greene, is just the beginning in a long list of new characters, new survivors and new more vicious psychos that will be introduced to fans in the new world of Dead Rising
- Co-op play is introduced to the Dead Rising universe for the first time, as players can invite their friends to partner up with them at any time to take on the zombie massacre- tag-team style
- The in-game event, Terror is Reality, allows 4 players to compete in a gladiator type show that pits zombies against a group of players in the ultimate Vs. multiplayer blood bath
- Combine two items using duct tape to create the ultimate zombie killing creations such as the Portamower and Paddlesaw, unlocking combo cards that will help give players an advantage, as well as earn them Prestige Points
List Price: $ 39.99
Price: $ 28.26
Second verse, same as the first . . . only better.,
QUICK NOTES:
First off, Let me say that I give this game a solid 4.5 stars, or 9/10. It’d be great if Amazon would come up with a more precise rating system.
If you’re somebody who’s never played Dead Rising, I think you may still find this review helpful in deciding whether to buy Dead Rising 2. If nothing else, check out sections 8 and 9.
If you’ve played the original Dead Rising and don’t want to read a review this long, you should scroll down to parts 3, 8 and 9.
Tabel of Contents
1. Introduction & Background
2. Overview & Story
3. The Save System
4. General Gameplay
5. Enemies, Weapons, & Combat
6. Graphics
7. Sound
8. Summary
9. Who Should Buy This Game?
1. INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND:
It’s been over four years since the original Dead Rising was released exclusively for Microsoft’s then-less-than-year-old Xbox 360. It featured a wildly fun blend of improvised using, a vast and varied game world to explore, dozens of original characters, and plenty of over-the-top Japanese humor. Oh, and Zombies. Lots and lots of old school, dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks, slower-than-Rosie-O’Donnel-after-a-big-meal Zombies. And we found them as fun to kill as they found us delicious to eat.
All of these things served to make Dead Rising stand out from the pack, not just of games in general, but also the survival horror genre itself. I mean, what kind of game allows you to use a machine gun on your enemies one second, and the next, if you so choose, throw a giant stuffed teddy bear at them? What kind of game pits you against not only the undead, but enemies such as an opera singing clown, who twirls around with two chainsaws, or a 300 pound police woman, or a Rambo wannabe who runs a camping store? No doubt about it, Dead Rising is truly a modern classic. Unfortunately, for all of it’s virtues, it had several very obvious and frustrating flaws.
Seeing as how many of the people reading this will be familiar with the original Dead Rising, I will make reference to it throughout this review, comparing the two games along the way, noting improvements and, in some cases, setbacks.
2. OVERVIEW & STORY.
I’m not a big fan of reviews that go deep into plots (they usually just end up spoiling the game, don’t they?), so I’ll only make a few remarks in that direction.
You don’t have to look any further than the game’s package to realize that you no longer play as photographer Frank West. Instead, you play as former Motocross champ Chuck Greene. It’s been 5 years since the outbreak at Willamette, and the hordes of undead have been either killed or captured. But before the zombies were contained, Chuck’s wife was killed, and his daughter, Katey, bitten. Fortunately, there exists a drug, Zombrex, that prevents a bitten person from turning into a zombie. Thing is, it’s gotta be administered every 24 hours, or the transformation will take place.
As if Chuck didn’t have enough to worry about, shortly after the opening of the game, a horde of zombies is intentionally released, and Chuck is framed for it. After the outbreak, our hero manages to get to a safe room (which plays the role the security room did in the first game), along with his daughter and a handful of other survivors. From there, Chuck must venture out into the mall in search of Zombrex for Katey, other survivors, and the person who framed him.
3. THE SAVE SYSTEM:
Let’s get this question out of the way right off the bat. Anyone one who played the original Dead Rising knows what a joke its save system was. First of all, you were only allowed one save slot per storage device, so multiple games, safety saves, and experimentation were out of the picture. As if that weren’t bad enough, you had to either go to the security room, or else find a bathroom in order to save your game. Problem was, bathrooms were few and far between. That’s a pretty big deal when you’re playing a game that runs on a sensitive and strict time limit. You’d very often find yourself doing the math on whether or not you had time to go save your game. I mean, let’s say you take 10 minutes to find a save point, that could very well have meant that when you loaded up your game next, you found yourself with too little time to complete an objective, because finding the save point took too long. And if it happened to be a main story objective that you didn’t have time to coplete, well then it sucked to be you, because that meant you had to start the game all over again if you wanted to finish the story. Or let’s say you came across an unexpected boss battle on the way to a save point, and you got yourself killed — that could mean hours and hours of gameplay lost. What a…
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|Good sequel with a decent Collector’s Edition.,
Customer Video Review Length:: 2:00 Mins
The following review will briefly cover the Dead Rising 2 game and then the Zombrex Edition content.
The original Dead Rising was a fun but flawed game. The game just had one too many issues that at times made it frustrating to play, but never unbearable. Thankfully, many of these problems have been fixed or improved in Dead Rising 2, making the experience of playing the game a great deal more fun.
The first thing you will notice that has been improved in Dead Rising 2 over the original is the AI for human characters. One of the major aspects of both games is saving human characters, in the original this was sometimes a real pain. I honestly can not give you an accurate number on how many times a human character got stuck in a doorway, in front of a random item, or walked into zombies while I was playing Dead Rising 1. However, in Dead Rising 2 things are incredibly different. The human characters are much smarter, very rarely running into zombies and never really getting stuck within the environment. Guiding up to 8 characters at a time to your safe house within the game is a lot more plausible and nowhere near the headache it was in the first game.
Another nice improvement over the original is the addition of multiple save slots. In the original Dead Rising you only had one save slot for your game. If you ever saved your game after making a major mistake or taking too long to finish a case file then you usually suffered for it. Since Dead Rising 2 now has 3 save slots you can use while playing through the game this no longer really becomes an issue. By using all three slots while playing you can revert to an old save if you make a mistake or take too long during a specific case file.
The case files in Dead Rising 2 are also less frustrating than they were in the original. Best of all if you manage your time correctly you can actually save most survivors within the game and do the case files at the same time. This was something that was fairly difficult to do in the original game (your first time through anyway), but it can be done in Dead Rising 2 with the proper time management.
Despite all these improvements in gameplay, one negative aspect of the original still remains. Dead Rising 2 contains some truly annoying and frustrating boss battles. This is partly due to how cheap and strong their attacks can be. Many of the bosses can knock you down to the ground and continue attacking you, not to mention how resistant they seem to be to certain weapons. The best strategy when confronting these bosses is to have at least two large health items and some powerful combo weapon (liked the spiked baseball bat for example). The bosses can still be somewhat annoying but with the combo weapons, things are a bit easier.
Dead Rising 2 really is a great deal more fun to play than the original. It may not be nearly as creative as the first one was, but a least an effort was made to improve the issues the first game had. My only real issue continues to be the bosses within the game, but otherwise this is a fun game to play.
Now as far as the Zombrex Edition is concerned, well it is neither terrible nor great. There are quite a few items contained within the set but most are somewhat forgettable or maybe even cheap looking. Below I will break them all down for you:
1. Zombrex Steelbook – The game and bonus disk are contained within this case that looks like a big pill box/case. A nice looking steel-book and a cool idea.
2. Dead Rising 2 Bonus Disk – The disk, which is designed for the Xbox 360 and plays in HD, contains a “making of” for the game and the Zombrex Dead Rising Sun movie. You also get an extended ending for the film as an extra. Not a bad bonus disk, although the film can be downloaded off Xbox Live it is nice to have it on a disk.
3. Zombrex Prospectus Brochure – This is a nice idea and quite funny. Basically this is one of those medical brochures that is trying to sell you the latest prescription drug, in this case Zombrex. Unfortunately the booklet is so big the only way it would fit in the Collector’s Edition box was to fold it up two times. This more or less leaves fold marks on every single page of the booklet. This probably could have been avoided by making the brochure smaller in size, but unfortunately that was not done.
4. Zombrex Safety Card – Again, a nice and funny little card on how to deal with zombies and stay safe. Nothing really special in all fairness. This could have come with every single copy of the game and not just the Zombrex Editions.
5. Zombrex Syringe Pen and Bandage – One of the nicer items in the set. The pen comes in a box that resembles those used for the Zombrex drug found in the game. The pen although small looks really cool and comes with a small bandage, a nice little touch…
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