3 Oct, 2010
Having never played the first Dead Rising, (What? I’ve only recently acquired a 360) and being a huge fan of anything zombie related, it was with some ignorance and a lot of excitement that I embarked upon the adventure with Chuck Greene.
Story
Chuck has traveled to Fortune City, a Las Vegas-esque resort, to take part in the controversial game show, Terror is Reality in order to raise money for the Zombrex that his infected daughter Katey needs to keep zombification at bay. After the show, in which contestants are pitted against hordes of zombies, there is an explosion and the zombies escape, infecting the public and bringing on another outbreak. Chuck manages to escape with Katey and, along with other survivors, finds an emergency shelter.
Learning that he has been framed for causing the explosion and subsequent outbreak, Chuck attempts to clear his name, which obviously involves leaving the Safe House and battling his way through hordes of zombies in search of clues to who was responsible.
To be honest though, the story is almost made irrelevant by the sheer fun of the gameplay.
Missions
Throughout the game you are given missions. Some are necessary to progress with the story in order for Chuck to clear his name while others are totally optional. All have time limits and, I have to say, this was my first gripe with the game. There is no way, that I can see, that you can get through all the missions in one playthrough. Okay, so maybe that isn’t really a legitimate gripe – at least it adds replay value, right? – but I did find it frustrating having the time limits imposed upon me when all I wanted to do what explore the different areas and kick some zombie ass.
Levelling Up
Like the previous game, Dead Rising 2 has a levelling up system where you gain PP (similar to XP) whenever you defeat zombies or carry out certain missions. As you level up, Chuck’s stats improve (more health, more attack power, etc.) as well as gaining new abilities. Saving survivors will gain you a ton of PP, as will defeating psychopaths.
And using Combo weapons.
Combo Weapons
Dead Rising 2 sees the introduction of combo weapons. Now, instead of just picking up whatever’s handy and smashing the nearest zombie over the head with it, you can put a little more thought into your method of mutilation! Many of the items you find can be combined with other items to make a combo weapon. To combine items, you’ll first need to locate a Maintenance room – located rather liberally throughout all areas. With a little bit of experimentation, you can create beauties such as the Helliblade, the Defiler or Flaming Gloves. If you don’t have the patience to try different combinations to see what works, you are given Combo cards which are basically recipes for these awesome combo weapons each time you level up or save certain survivors.
Playing Dress Up
When I first started playing, I didn’t know that you could change Chuck’s clothes – I know, I know – so imagine my delight when I discovered the locker in the restroom of the Safe House! After that, I think I spent a good chunk of time ignoring my fatherly duties (I was supposed to be finding Zombrex for Katey) and went to browse some of the clothes shops in the mall. The small detail of Chuck’s comments as he dons different outfits adds a lot of humour to the already amusing wardrobe change. Smooth!
My current outfit of choice? Denim mini-skirt, pink tube top, thigh-high, black gogo boots and a shaved head.
Endings
What ending you get depends on what missions you completed and how many survivors you saved and whether or not Katey lives.
At this point, I’m not sure how many endings there are but it’s obviously a great excuse to play through multiple times.
So, any negatives?
No game’s perfect, right? Dead Rising 2 is no exception. My main complaint would be the load times as you move between areas. This is particularly noticeable if you happen to be herding several survivors at once and one gets left behind in the previous area.
The other gripe, as mentioned previously, is the time limits. I guess this is really only an issue on the first playthrough when everything is new and shiny and all you want to do is explore and experiment with combo weapons and dodgy clothing. Granted, you don’t have to do missions if you don’t want to, you can spend your first playthrough running around saving survivors but you (obviously) will get a bad ending.
Verdict
Dead Rising 2 is amazingly fun to play. The combo weapons are gruesomely inventive and often hilarious in their results. Add to this the supposed-to-be-serious cutscenes where you have Chuck wearing a mankini while he confronts the bad guys and it just makes the game even more awesome.
[rating:4.5]
Absolutely spot on Sarah! If one aspect of this game is flawed to buggery it’s the load times, an unfortunate leftover from the first game. Apart from that it’s fun, fun fun!
I think we should do Dead Rising 2 Outfit of the Week, in the vein of WWPW! Mine would currently be yellow Kill Bill-style tracksuit, yellow sneakers, shades and a bobble hat! xD
In that sort of outfit, you best have yourself some sort of sword Andrew! ;)
My Chuck’s running around as a ninja, hehe.
You got the pre-order bonus then Zoe! We didn’t have any of that in the UK but I heard tell that the outfits you guys got will become available as DLC in the coming months. And my Chuck has the book that makes edged weapons 3 times as durable so yes, anything sharp! xD
Yeah, it’s pretty awesome actually. I’m curious how the other outfits (I think its Sports and Psycho?) work for their skill set.
Yeah, but you guys got the really cool collectors edition there – right jealous. I mean, the syringe pen is pretty cool… but I’d rather have the zombie action figure :(
This is a great review! I really need to get cracking on this game soon. I bought it and played it for about an hour, but I think I need to sit down with it for a good few hours to properly get into it.
We’ll all have to give the multiplayer a shot sometime.
Yeah, we so do! I played the multiplayer for the first time this morning and I actually really, really enjoyed it! Unfortunately, we can’t win prize money on Player Matches, but we can’t play together on Ranked Matches (unless we’re very lucky and get placed together) so that sucks.
I’ve been wanting to check out the multiplayer, but honestly been so wrapped up in the actual game that I haven’t had the time to give it a go.
It’s actually fantastic, considering how detached from the main game it would have to be. It’s like Gladiators with zombies! In other words – immense! Some of the game types are better than others but overall it’s just great, messy fun!