Dead Rising 2 review

The first Dead Rising was a bit of a surprise, I don’t recall much hype but it turned out to be the next step in survival horror games and at the time it was only possible on the Xbox 360. With a cast of thousands and numerous endings you could save people or just leave them to inevitably become zombie fodder and save yourself for that last chopper ride out.  Now all but forgotten to the pre-owned shelves of your favourite shop, Dead Rising was a classic for its time, however a new generation is in town in Dead Rising 2, and with the hype and info dripping at a steady pace players can at last see what all the fuss is about.

For those into a story, we join Chuck Greene, former Motocross Champion and single parent who was last seen surviving Dead Rising: Case Zero. The game kicks off straight away with Chuck partaking in Americas most extreme game show, Terror is Reality; a show involving four contestants and numerous ways to dispose of a stadium full of zombies.  A quick spin around the track in your chainsaw modded motorbike and Chuck goes to share his winnings with his daughter Katey, who has been bitten by a zombie and requires Zombrex, a drug that delays the effects by 24 hours. As Chuck makes his way an unexpected zombie outbreak occurs, for which he has been blamed. Not best pleased with this Chuck sets out to obtain Zombrex for Katey, clear his name, save the surviving inhabitants of Fortune City and hopefully kick some serious zombie ass along the way. As before there are numerous ways to play the game while you wait for the rescue chopper, just don't leave your fellow survivors and Katey to die because that’s not very nice. When playing through the story, at certain points of the game a Case File will open, this pushes the story along and slowly unveils just how deep this recent zombie outbreak goes. For the best experience you should also try and save some survivors.  You will systematically receive calls advising that they have spotted potential survivors via the CCTV network, it's then up to you to make your way to them. Most of the time it's a simple chat and they follow, however you will on occasion get requests, like find food, a missing sibling or weapons. Once satisfied, survivors will follow you wherever you go, or by targeting an area you can send them ahead whilst you clear the way. If they have weapons they tend to fend for themselves but at times will be elderly, unable to walk or just damn lazy and require assistance, requiring you to carry them, use a wheelchair or just let them hobble after you. Once the survivors are safe you earn a PP bonus which goes towards levelling up, which in turn unlocks more health, stronger and more varied attacks, increased speed and the ability to carry more items. These come in handy for the Psychos, who are the mini-bosses scattered around Fortune City. The Psychos are absolutely insane and very hard to beat, mostly due to their attack patterns and speed. The Psychos are normal survivors who have cracked under the pressure of the outbreak; chefs are killing people for meat, magicians are looking for a new assistant to help with their terrifying tricks, a former opponent of Chuck is looking for a round 2 and an ageing diva wants to go out with a bang. All of these require skill, forward planning and a bit of luck to defeat so using the improved save system is a must. Spread through the city are toilets, use these to save your game otherwise you will be replaying an awful lot. If you get bored with saving people and being a good guy then why don’t you savour some of the delights of Fortune City by trying out one of the many mini games on offer; golf shooting range, bucking bronco, wheel of fortune and of course an abundance of slot machines which are there for you to enjoy; go on, you deserve a break. Though Chuck has a few brutal moves of his own, like leg and elbow drops and a life saving DDT, it’s in his surroundings that he excels. Picking up items with a wrench icon above them and you can take them to maintenance rooms and combine them with other items to create some truly awesome weapons, which range from a simple Molotov with whiskey and paper, combine fireworks and a dragons mask to a crazy Fountain Lizard which attract zombies and allows you to then take out all of them for a combo PP. Other combos will see you Pop a battery into a wheelchair to make a portable electric chair, allowing you to fry an unfortunate passers-by. You can also raid a toy store to create helicopters with knives for blades or a gun toting teddy bear and for all you Wolverine wannabes why not create some knife boxing gloves. Combine these with magazines which alter your stats as you hold them and special power cocktails and you can be nigh on invincible. That said, with all these weapons and power-ups available you just can’t seem to beat a good old trusty baseball bat with nails in it, very satisfying. Away from single player you have new online modes, there is a basic co-op mode, allowing you to jump into another game and assist or be a general pain, it’s up to you. Other areas of online multiplayer include a four player battle royale in Terror is Reality. There are 9 games in total and each “show” consists of three rounds and a final. The games are ingenious in their zombie killing ways, with the most points winning each round. Rounds included  in this online mode consist of, Zomboni where you drive a huge vacuum cleaner, sucking up zombies and spitting out the blood into evil clown mouths; Ball Buster, a turkey shoot with bonus zombies offering game winning powerups; Ramsterball, a Gladiators style event where you roll over zombies and bank your score; Master Shafter, where you carry a large lance and catch falling zombies on it by shoving you opponents out of the way by way of a button mashing mini game and Pounds of Flesh, which has you donning huge metal antlers and throwing zombies onto scales. Once the three rounds are up, time penalties are applied and you get on your Slicecycles, chopping up as many zombies as possible. The action over the 9 events is fast paced and has a great wrestling style commentators constantly jabbering away in the background, adding a stadium feel to it. The added bonus is that any money won can be transferred to your single player game, so if you’re struggling for Zombrex, have a few rounds of this to help out. I don't know if it is because I am a seasoned Dead Rising player but the sequel seems easier than first game, it's possibly due to the improved save system, but it was over all too quickly. There is an Overtime mode once the main story has finished plus the co-op mode and achievements to farm things out, but when it ended, I just wanted the story to go on. Dead Rising 2 has been a long time coming, away from the obvious tweaks in graphics, saves and size, little has changed. The game feels all too familiar as you are still essentially in a massive shopping mall/casino killing time and zombies until the next set piece. That said, its fun and will last multiple playthroughs. One final word of warning, we tested both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions and the load times were unacceptably slow, on occasion taking a few minutes to load and sometimes it’s hard to tell if it's still working. Once installed on the Hard Drive, on the Xbox 360 at least, the loading issues seemed to be resolved. Overall, Dead Rising 2 is a fun game to play, though it's certainly not going to win any awards for originality or its storyline.

Rating: 7/10

Please register or login to post comments