Dead Rising 2 review

October 1, 2010 | Author Chris Lockey
“When there’s no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth”. And Hell is officially full. I’m Chris Lockey, this is VGR, and I’ve been going medieval on some zombie ass in Capcom’s Dead Rising 2. The “grab it and gore” gameplay that made the original Dead Rising a success is back and better than ever. But does this survival horror sandbox put its predecessor in its place? Stay tuned for the low down on this special breed of walking dead.

Story

Dead Rising 2 picks up five years after the events of Capcom’s original 2006 hit, which finds you in the middle of a zombie outbreak and puts everything but the kitchen sink in your hands to combat the massive undead horde. An homage to Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, Dead Rising broke away from the Resident Evil mold to introduce a liberal amount of comic relief to a hallowed tradition of zombie slaying.
Our new hero Chuck Greene used to be a motocross champion. These days he makes a living in Fortune City, Nevada as a regular on the hit TV show “Terror Is Reality” (sort of like Running Man with zombies). Fortune City is built upon the not-so-fortunate remains of Las Vegas. Fortunately for us, however, this means Willamette Parkview Mall from DR1 has been supplemented with all the glitz and glamour of the Tropicana strip.
Following a mysterious backstage sabotage of the “Terror Is Reality” holding pens, the undead “American Gladiators” are let loose from their shackles and run amok. And someone is trying to point the finger at Chuck, whose sole interest is keeping his semi-infected daughter from mutating into a cannibal corpse. I don’t want to tell you too much more about the plot of Dead Rising 2, because once you get past the relentless zombie slaughter there’s a surprisingly taut thriller about corruption, greed, and the persistence of human spirit. That is, if you get past the relentless zombie slaughter…

Gameplay

Much like its predecessor, Dead Rising 2 has a lot going on for an arcade action survival horror game. And while you have a ton of options — zombie slaying, psycho killing, mystery solving, weapon crafting, achievement hunting — there’s really only one road to victory. If you don’t solve each case of the mystery by its designated deadline, it’s game over and back to your last save point. You’ll have to reluctantly abandon the game’s more exciting fringe features just to keep going. And if you manage to lock in a poorly timed save, you may just have to start all over.
The good news is that just like DR1, your experience and level rewards carry over to each new playthrough. Combat mechanics are essentially the same, and the cumbersome photography mechanic from the first game has been replaced by an innovative weapon combination system. For instance, you can strap a car battery to a wheelchair to craft the Electric Chair — lightning powered hell on wheels for those pesky zombies. Fans of the original will agree; this is a feature that should have arrived sooner. It’s perfectly aligned with the premise of using anything and everything as a weapon against an often humorous horde of walking dead. In these respects, Dead Rising 2 feels more like a second draft than a sequel.

Graphics

The zombie apocalypse looks a little better than it did a few years ago. The Vegas-styled art direction lends a great deal to the absurd nature of the sandbox you’re playing in. To the game’s benefit, the textures are more polished, the animations more fluid, and the characters just a little closer to the right side of the Uncanny Valley.
But Dead Rising 2 didn’t need too much of a graphics overhaul: just enough to place it closer to top-tier Capcom titles like Resident Evil 5 (whose animations were so stunning, I couldn’t help but constantly draw a comparison between the two).
Repetition is a bit of an issue. I got sick of seeing the same zombie tourists staggering around ad nauseam, especially when I’d find random groups of the same model. But the size of the sandbox and versatility of the environments (especially the casinos and pawn shops) kept me happily amused.

Sound

The sounds of Dead Rising 2 are on par with the sights. Most of the music in the game is source, that is to say most of the tunes are practically emitted from the game environment (think cheesy Vegas elevator music). And the score that punctuates the cinematic cut scenes is appropriately creepy. But it didn’t quite measure up to some of the very sinister and unsettling themes from the original Dead Rising.
Nevertheless, the cast of voice talent is much more convincing this time around. Much of Chuck Greene’s appeal as a leading man (especially compared to that douche bag Frank West) can be attributed to a voice that really matches the face and an understanding of the character behind it.

Multiplayer

One of Dead Rising 2’s innovations is the addition of a multiplayer element. You compete in non-linear, out of context “Terror Is Reality” events to earn money to spend in the regular campaign. There isn’t much substance to this game mode, and it more or less feels like a repurposing of the game’s opening sequence. But Dead Rising is all about the grind and every little bit helps.
The introduction of cooperative gameplay is another addition that seems to take its cue from Resident Evil 5’s style of jump-in, jump-out multiplayer mayhem. It certainly adds fuel to your chaotic fire, but it makes the game’s time-sensitive situations much more difficult to manage with an extra cook in the kitchen.

Bottom Line

I have a love-hate relationship with Dead Rising, past and present. I’m totally in love with the idea of kicking ass and taking names during a slapstick zombie outbreak. And I love the MacGyver-esque utilization of weaponry. But I hate the crippling sense of defeat that comes with it. No matter how you cut it, Dead Rising 2 (like its forerunner) is one of the most frustrating games in history. If you can solve the case on time, you’ll spend countless hours on one of the most bombastic and entertaining horror titles to date. If you can’t, you may very well want to break the disc in half. So don’t forget to save your game — it just may save your sanity.

Sumber : Machinima