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In one of the biggest surprises of the year, I finished Dead Rising 2. This is a title I was interested in purely because of it's shiny factor. It was a new high profile release from a company I like and a genre that's relatively unique. But all year, I never had any intention to spend much time with it. But while in Japan during it's release, I began to get excited about the game. I came in love with the idea of playing the game even though I had no idea how it would play out and what improvements they had made. I came home to Brad playing it on the feed and I was instantly reminded of the things that kept me from playing the first DR.
Dead Rising 2 (Xbox 360)
Developer: Blue Castle
Publisher: Capcom
Released: September 24, 2010
So what were the biggest complaints from the first Dead Rising? The save system, the mission structure, and the timed gameplay. If those were major complaints for you, I'm sorry but largely the Dead Rising formula remains unchanged. As the player, you're still given a set amount of in-game time to run through the events in an attempt to complete as many objectives as possible. The missions are split into two basic groups either being story related Case Files or just plain sidequest involving rescuing survivors or defeating psychopaths.
But all in all, this real time blend is what makes Dead Rising unique. Much like Majora's Mask, there are different events going on at specific times throughout the three days and it's mostly up to the player to decide which they want to do and who they want to save. I think it's important to mention that much of the game play and leveling up in Dead Rising 2 is based upon the player seeking out some of these missions. A player can easily receive 20,000 PP (Level Up Points) for picking up and escorting a survivor while only receiving 10-250 PP for killing a zombie. Factor that in with the ability to carry up to eight survivors and a much more hands off survivor AI, and you'll understand why I spent most of my time in the game running around doing sidequests. Plus if you're just waiting around for story missions you're going to have a lot of time to kill as they only occur at certain times in the game.
But for someone like me who loves multitasking and trying to squeeze in as much as possible, I was always jetting around trying to pack in one last mission before the timer ran out on the next storyline. Often times this led to much more interesting gameplay as I was forcing myself to make these last minute deadlines. And much like watching a great sports games, the last seconds can easily be the most interesting.
One thing I've failed to mention so far is that I played the game completely Co-Op, a new feature added to the sequel. We had our problems early on with the guest character being kicked off every time I saved, but magically a few hours into the game, it disappeared. Even with the problems, having another character around made the game infinitely more enjoyable. I could imagine the game being rather tediousness and repetitive involved if playing solo, so I don't have any regrets. I don't think Dead Rising 2 is something I would want to run through by myself. The factors that make DR2 difficult are not interesting enough on their own to create the challenge is it's own reward payoff.
The combat in Dead Rising has always been horrible. There's little to no grace behind fighting zombies or psychopaths. Most of the times it's just an awkward hack fast with the occasional use of a health item. Overall the story is forgettable. As in most zombie games or films the most interesting questions of how and why are usually poorly or generically answered with a series of betrayals, conspiracy theories, or mega corporation. The biggest edition this time around being that the main character Chuck Greene's daughter is infected and needs a daily dose of Zombrex to keep her from turning. The player's daily first priority is securing his daughter's dosage for the next day. It's definitely a breath of fresh air in the video game world full of first and third person shooters.
The biggest complaint I have and the one I find most deplorable is the adoption of having a Prologue and Epilogue as DLC. Before Dead Rising 2's release, a lead up story explaining how Chuck's daughter was infected was released as it's own download game via Xbox Live. In the coming months, there will also be a follow up DLC game which will have the main characters from each Dead Rising meet up, seemingly wrapping up the current story so far. This is a total of ten dollars worth of content that I, still don't understand why it wasn't included in the full version. I have no problem forking over the money because I did not pay full price for the game. But I can say that had I been a normal purchaser of the game, I'd be much more angry having to pay that extra amount to get the whole experience. Maybe I shouldn't be speaking for them, but that's how I currently view the situation. As of right now, I've decided not to purchase either DLC for fear of encouraging this kind of practice but I may change my opinion later after inspecting the situation some more. So who knows?
Finally, some of the changes made to the Dead Rising formula may seem minuscule from the surface, but trust me adding a few extra save slots, an organized way of tracking missions, better survivor AI, and a refined control system go along way to making this a much more accessible satisfying title. Plus if you factor in that the original Dead Rising was an early Xbox 360 title, there's no doubt that visuals and presentation have improved. For the future, I'd like to see the series make an even more unique world. Possibly make it navigable with out arrows prompts or maps and maybe adding more variety to side quests while making a few features like combining weapons relevant. I even hope they remove loading screens to make it a persistent immersing world.
But for right now, I have no problem playing Dead Rising 2. I rarely play a game through multiple times but I could easily see myself picking this back up again in a few months. With my original character leveled up, I'd be interested in giving another go, trying to save more survivors than I did the previous try. Also, I'd be interested in hearing from someone who loved the original Dead Rising and seeing how they felt about this one.
Score: 86
(80-89%: Great - Only very minor issues get in the way of greatness)
Credits: erumaro87 for designing the review banner.
Comments
14 years, 1 month ago
i was con sidering getting this. i got the demo for case 0 and i liked it but i wasn't 100% sold on it and the fact that it had a weird cliffhanger-ish ending kinda put me off. i agree that i think the dlc should simply be part of the full game because from my point of veiw i most likelt won't buy it untill there is some kind of offer on the dlc and the game.
14 years, 1 month ago
I was hoping for them to fix the things that were wrong in the first game, but sadly as i watched you and brad play it, i felt that they lightly touched upon the things that needed more attention: like making a seamless environment that felt like a Casino-Vegas like but instead felt like willamete mall with casinos when it loads different areas and just the way it looks. You pretty much touched on my feelings towards this game. nice review :)
14 years, 1 month ago
Damn David you have really been plowing through games in the past few days. I enjoyed this and Reach interview quite a bit.
14 years, 1 month ago
The game looked pretty fun when you played it with Corvus.
I'll see if I'll get this game, depends if I can get someone to play it with or if Steam lowers the price (PC gamer).
Also Case Zero and Case West will apparently be Xbox exclusive, so PC Gamers won't get to play either prologue or epilogue...
14 years, 1 month ago
the visuals and the movement of the characters is putting me off buying this. But since you can have a head with a rotating blade on it to head butt zombies i might just wait to pick it up in a bargain section
14 years, 1 month ago
I'm surprised you liked it so much, David, considering your feelings on the first game. I loved Dead Rising and I think the sequel is better in pretty much every possible way.
14 years, 1 month ago
Now I really liked the original Dead Rising, sure I am not going to dismiss its problems, but people didn't realise that to be good at Dead Rising, you had to play the game multiple times and explore. I confess I had to stop with the first one, purely because I struggled with the later game, in the end I had to youtube the story.
The game has now come out and I have to say, WELL DONE Blue Castle!! We have seen a few sequels come from different studios this year and most have disappointed the large majority, however this game is a job well done. Whilst there hasn't been an overhaul the accumulation of lots of minor improvements and additions have really improved the game.
Everything seems to flow better, the story has stayed really good, world is bigger and the controls feel easier to handle. Sure some psychopaths are still an annoyance, but generally I felt I had a better chance at facing them. There is so much to experience that will take me several playthroughs to see (I am on my 3rd and I haven't seen everything).
As for the DLC, I don't mind, Case 0 was worth it and a lot of fun, I am sure Case West will be fantastic, as Capcom have made Frank a popular character, so why would they ruin him? For most games I would say DLC should have been in the game, but these are substantial standalones. DR2 was a bigger world, so I can see why they didn't pack these in because then we would be getting 2-3 different worlds in this game.
14 years, 1 month ago
I loved the first Dead Rising and found the second one to be a fantastic sequel. My only major complaint is its technical performance. It’s mainly the loading times and online multiplayer.
Usually I can’t stand it when companies announce and release overpriced add-on DLCs for a game before it comes out but Case Zero wasn’t really an add-on. It felt more like a stand-alone, bite-sized game to hype up a bigger game like what Bionic Commando Rearmed and Dark Void Zero did. In Case Zero, the only story about how Chuck’s daughter was infected is one dialogue in a cutscene, which was also mentioned in 2.
I don’t know much about Case West but I don’t see any loose ends in 2 that need to be tied up. Case West seems like a way to bring Frank West back without him overshadowing Chuck in the second game. I find it kind of odd this would bother people when the $10 Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, although great, has major story elements that affect the world of Mass Effect.
14 years, 1 month ago
Glad to see you liked it David. I hope to hear what you have to say on the next show!
14 years, 1 month ago
David im glad you liked it i am also hoping to get my hands on this game soon.
14 years, 1 month ago
Well seeing you play it and reading your review have sealed this game's place in my to-do list.
14 years, 1 month ago
I wasn't amused by how to dimensional some of the supporting characters were in this one, and the story felt lackluster & predictable compared to the first's in my opinion. The Psychopaths felt uninspired, also their deaths were less graphic & visually satisfying, often traded off for forced puns that usually weren't funny.
It also didn't really feel like there was a need to outright replace Infinity mode with a shitty multiplayer mode(as in TIR, not co-op).
14 years, 1 month ago
best review out of all of them david!
14 years, 1 month ago
Good review David, I originally loved the first Dead Rising, even though the story line got a little weird and rushed towards the end, however I do enjoy the idea of self creation of weapons and leveling system. Why try and kill a pointless amount of zombies to level up when you can rescue a survivor and kill some along the way for more points? This is definitely an achievement game, being that once getting it and beating it, I'll do a re-run through and go for the cheevos. Good review for a good game.
14 years, 1 month ago
I lived the game in a whole myself, so many vast improvments than the last game but i do have one problem tha may sound shitty or wrong for some of you but anyways.
The Psychopaths in a whole i felt were very easy, infact too easy apart from one or 2 battles i did them first try, without the painkiller technique (which just makes figts a cake walk), i was especially disapointed with the overtime boss. Granted the overtime boss in 1 was hard as balls, it was the final guy so youd expect that.
It may be a small quarell but thats how i felt, dead rising 1 was challenging the survivors were terrible at surviving BUT the phycho battles were very challenging (w/o mega buster obviously ;3) but hey i can live with that in a way, i just hope to see good things with the series and blue castle.
P.s Dead rising 3 in an amusment park K tnks <3
13 years, 11 months ago
Great review man, liking the site -- and I've been enjoying the podcasts.
I've gotta say I disagree or at least see something differently:
THE DLC
The prologue and epilogue are tied to the story, but barely. Both DLC games have crafted independent experiences that DON'T fit into the main game, especially Case West which feels entirely different, and improved, than either previous release.
As far as it being a 'cliffhanger' of sorts with the way it ends -- that's exactly like the first game, so it didn't bother me.
Love the game, good review
Cheers
James
Thesystemaddicts.com