Dead Rising 2: Off the Record

Overview

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is a re-imagining of Dead Rising 2. In this "what if?" scenario, Frank West enters Fortune City during the zombie outbreak and the game shows how things would've been different if Frank had been there instead of Chuck Greene.

The game features new weapons as well as new areas and missions. The game was released for reduced value price.

Story

Frank's back.

Frank West has hit rock bottom. After rising to fame for reporting on the Willamette Mall incident, he began living the good life full of alcohol and women. However, he ended up bankrupt and was forced to parrtake in Terror Is Reality (TIR), a television game show whose sole focus is to slaughter zombies. After the show, Frank over hears the game show host (TK) talking to an unknown villain and before he knows it, zombies invade Fortune City. Frank has a limited amount of time to unveil the conspiracy and get out of Fortune City.

The game's story differs from the one found in the original Dead Rising 2. Frank does not have to go back to the safe room anymore to give somebody Zombrex. Characters from Dead Rising 2 will appear in the game, like zombie activist Stacey Forsythe. There are new characters, psychos and environments (such as the "Uranus Zone", a sci-fi inspired amusement park) as well as new missions. The game also has a brand new checkpoint system where the game saves after every major plot point (for example after and before a boss). Players can change this in the options menu if they wish to save their game like in Dead Rising 2.

Story Deviations from Dead Rising 2

Off The Record plays out near exact to the events from the original Dead Rising 2--however there are still many differences, minor and major, that persist across the story:

• Frank West takes part in the Terror Is Reality game-show as a wrestler, who is to stave off and kill as many zombies as possible using the large grinders at each corner of the ring.

• Frank West also learns about the conspiracy revolving around T.K from the outset when he hears him talking with Brandon Whittaker.

• Brandon Whittaker is also shown to be the person who sets off the bomb to initiate the Fortune City outbreak.

• Stacey Forsythe is then thrown the blame for said bombing. (Her face was also remodeled for whatever reason).

• Chuck Greene has gone insane due to the death of his daughter Katey (which is implied was caused by not getting a zombrex shot in time), and will invariably attack Frank West during the story as a psychopath boss battle.

• Brandon is eventually fought as a ''main story'' Psychopath boss battle, this time in the toilets of Uranus Zone, and will also always kill his hostage; during Dead Rising 2, she was a potential survivor the player could escort to the safe house.

• When T.K kidnaps Rebecca Chang after his failed heist of Fortune City, he blackmails Frank into bringing him one million dollars in exchange.

• Stacey Forsythe is revealed to be the inside Phenotrans Agent, while Ray Sullivan is instead depicted as being a genuine Reserve Man for Fortune City.

• Ray Sullivan is killed by Stacey, while Rebecca is wounded and left unconscience (mistaken for dead by Frank).

• Stacey, now with the removal of what was a fake ponytail, is fought by Frank aboard a huge, giant Crab-Mech, that was originally disguised as just another large ornament in Uranus Zone.

• Should the player of given T.K zombrex prior to Stacey's unveiling, T.K will capture the wounded Rebecca and force Frank to collect a series of items in a similar fashion to the blackmail thrust upon Chuck.

• After T.K is killed, Frank and Rebecca begin what is insinuated to be a romantic relationship and the two journalists embark on getting the truth behind the Fortune City outbreak to the public.

Gameplay

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is all about killing zombies in the most imaginative manner possible while keeping an eye on the clock. Like in previous games in the franchise, missions are only available at certain times and failing to meet the time limit can result to a premature ending. Like in Dead Rising 2, the workbench is back where players can combine items to create combo-weapons of mass zombie genocide. There are about 10 new combo weapons that can be created such as the cryo chamber which is a combination of the wheelchair and the escape pod. And if there are no weapons at hand, Off the Record lets Frank take down zombies with new wrestling moves. The game also features vehicles such as the hummer and the motorcycle as well as the clown car, a slow moving vehicle that can carry an unlimited amount of survivors.

Frank improves himself by gaining levels by earning Prestige Points (PP). PP can be earned by killing zombies in creative ways and killing psychos. Off the Record marks the return of the camera. Being himself a journalist, Frank can take pictures of different things around the environment and earn PP. Each picture is graded and tagged as scary, funny, erotic...

Off The Record, like the original Dead Rising 2, will also allow the entire game to be played cooperatively. The guest player who joins will take up the role of Chuck Greene.

Gameplay Alterations

Despite still playing largely the same, Off The Record was privy to numerous updates, improvements and alterations to allow this to become the most accessible Dead Rising game to date. To note, there are:

• Checkpoints added into the game, allowing the player to restart from the start of the area they entered should they die.

• Manual Waypoints, allowing players to place their own way-points anywhere on the map to follow.

• All of the buff books have been rearranged.

• The order of which Survivors will be alerted to the player by Stacey have been remixed and Stacey will also deliver the messages with full spoken dialogue this time around, too.

• Certain items and Zombrex boxes that can be found in the world have also been moved around, altogether forcing even veteran DR2 players to go on the hunt for the best supplies.

• Money looting is made to be significantly easier, with slot machines and ATM's dropping a much larger amount of cash.

• All three of the vehicle keys in the pawn shops are more expensive, however.

• During Case 2-1, as T.K is heading off on the underground train with his small squadron of mercenaries, the bike riding segment is completely cut, initialising the player on the train from the outset.

• Many more context PP opportunities have been added into the city--most of which are hinted at during loading screens.

• There are now a series of keys the player can find that'll unlock a number of safety deposit boxes (which reward a variety of goodies, including Zombrex) in the Fortune City vault located in Uranus Zone.

• The Money Hacker combo weapon also has a slightly slower deterioration rate.

• Whenever looters are in close proximity, their theme will begin to play alerting the player.

• Littered through Fortune City are ''jump-scare zombies''; zombies that'll either hang around a corner, or pretend to be dead, then quickly strike at the player with a loud instrumental cue often catching the player off-guard.

• From the outset at level 1, Frank will be able to perform a small four-hit hand-to-hand combo, the Jump Kick, a charged Karate Chop and his roll--which also now features varying animations depending on what direction Frank will roll.

• As Frank, certain standard weapons perform with different animations over Chuck's, including the baseball bat, 2x4, pick axe and many more. This can even lead to different Power attacks, such as the acoustic guitar featuring a lunge attack over its comedic smash-over-zombie attack.

• The Mercenary Assault Rifle has a larger ammo count of 45, raised from DR2's 30.

• The color of the chainsaw's body has been altered from orange to blue.

• Frank won't go through a reaction animation when he ''returns clothes'' after trying some on.

• Denyce, the first survivor the player encounters in Roy's Pharmacy, has a large increase of health to benefit any attempts at the Alpha vs Omega trophy/achievement.

• Pieces of DR2's DLC costumes can be found throughout the world for the player to collect as apart of the main game. Some of which are unlocked via other means, however, such as beating a boss or earning specific trophies/achievements.

• The hostage Vikki Taylor, held by Brandon Whittaker, cannot be saved in Off The Record for she is killed by Brandon during his introductory psychopath cutscene.

Combo Weapons in Dead Rising 2: Off The Record

All combo weapons from the original Dead Rising 2 return, alongside some ported over from Case West, and even more have now been added into the ever-growing combo card archive. Some make use of the extra standard items, while others are made up of items that were already in Dead Rising 2 but weren't able to be combined. See the Dead Rising 2 page for a complete list of the original DR2 combo weapons.

Case West Imports

New Combo Weapons

New Psychopaths

Alongside the already substantial list of psychopaths taken from Dead Rising 2, there are three extra Psychopath Boss Battles thrown into the fray; one is simply a re-skin of Leon Bell from DR2, the other an optional while the final is a mandatory battle at the end of the game.

Sandbox Mode

Hats!

Off the Record features a brand new Sandbox mode where players will be able to mess around freely in Fortune City without having to worry about time or missions. This mode lets players kill as many zombies as they want as well as experiment with new weapons. The mode features optional challenges where players can earn medals by, for example, putting as many hats on zombies in a limited amount of time.

Throughout the city, the player will encounter all of the same psychopaths (minus T.K and Stacey) and survivors from the main game. The psychopaths will spawn in their respective locations from the story, but only for a limited time during the time-frame when they spawned during the story. Even when beaten, they will eventually resurface in the same location. They reward cash, PP and their weapon(s) much like the rewards for beating them during the story mode.

Survivors are also hostile and will attack the player on sight. They function just like a ''defected'' survivor and similar to the psychopaths will award the player with some cash and whatever weapon they were using to attack the player. These too only spawn during specific times of the day, and if killed will respawn once more after an allotted time has passed.

Player progress made between this and the Story Mode is completely tied; whatever PP and cash Frank has, and what costume Frank is wearing, will persist across both modes.

System Requirements

• OS: Windows Vista®/XP, Windows 7
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz or better, AMD Athlon X2 2.2 Ghz or better
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800GTS or better, ATI Radeon™ HD 3850 or better
• DirectX®: DirectX® 9.0c or greater
• Hard Drive: 8.5 GB free hard drive space
• Sound: Standard audio device