Dead Rising 2

It's become beyond cliched at this point, but Dead Rising 2 is in fact more Dead Rising.  And that is both a good and a bad thing.  Zombie killing is still great fun and is now enhanced with new tools.  The mall-like setting is still fun to explore and filled with little hidden goodies, outfits, and easter eggs.  But Dead Rising's main game formula remains badly flawed and in need of serious rethinking.  

 You step into the shoes of Chuck Greene, ex-motocross superstar and current contestant on the zombie-killing reality show Terror is Reality.  After zombies are set loose in Fortune City and Chuck is blamed for the outbreak you have 72 hours to clear Chuck's name and keep his daughter de-zombified by regular injections of Zombrex, a temporary cure for the zombie virus.  Time passes with everything you do, so you have to keep track of the time, locations, and your inventory in order to accomplish everything by the deadlines presented.  

 As before, along the way you can rescue survivors for bonuses and fight a variety of twisted psychopaths ranging from a soylent green-inspired chef to an S&M fan attempting a chainsaw wedding in the midst of the zombie outbreak.  The characters involved in these activities are entertaining, but the act of rescuing or defeating them isn't.  Rescuing survivors has been made much less annoying by the way of survivor AI that now actually avoids trying to get eaten, but beyond some fun interaction with them, its mostly just running back and forth from the safehouse avoiding zombies.  Psychopath boss battles are still downright broken encounters that become a fight with the wonky game mechanics more than anything else - either beat them by breaking the AI or by brute force and a ton of healing items.  

 Outside of the story, the setting and mechanics of Dead Rising are great fun.  Fortune City provides for a great expansion to Willamette Mall of the first game - replete with stores, restaurants, and a variety of different themed casinos.  Inside, you'll find all manner of weapons to kill zombies with, and a new mechanic allowing you to combine weapons in creative and surprising ways - such as a bat with nails or a car battery with a wheelchair - makes this killing a ton of fun.  Fortune City also contains the same variety of clothes for Chuck, food to eat, and easter eggs to discover as the original Dead Rising. 

 However, the Dead Rising series really brings out my inner game developer and wonder what the heck the designers were thinking.  In order to play the actual game and finish the story, you miss most of what's fun about the game.  You don't have time to sit around and kill zombies, try out combo cards, or explore Fortune City in any meaningful way.  Its a waste of time to do any of those things, and you don't need any of the cool weapons, especially since they take up your valuable inventory slots.  And since efficiency and timing are king, this means you just end up running from place to place with a few food items, a gun, and some basic spiked bats you can make right outside your safehouse.  If headshots are ruining shooters, the nailbat and orange juice are ruining Dead Rising. 

 In a game where creative zombie killing is its draw, the act of killing zombies is counterproductive.  Zombies are obstacles that are best avoided when traveling, as they slow you down and are more likely to get you hurt if you stick around fighting.  And when carting survivors, killing zombies means you're leaving your survivors to sit around and get munched, whereas if you keep running you can usually make it back unscathed. 

 The main difference in the story between this game and its predecessor is that its no longer as frustrating or as brutally difficult to finish the main story.  You have plenty of time for most plot-important events, and improved AI, multiple save slots, and easily obtainable effective weapons take out a lot of the difficulties of the first game.  This is a good thing, to be sure.  But this just makes you realize that the main story is not well designed for the setting.  It's satisfying to complete, but not nearly as much fun as just screwing around and leaving your daughter to rot. 

 There were a few shining moments in the story and good setpieces, but those mainly made me wonder why the developers didn't construct better battles in the story.  Most of the story is running from place to place, keeping track of your time, restocking your inventory with the same easy-to-locate items, and an occasional broken psychopath battle.

The multiplayer had a lot of polish - a series of minigames comprising an episode of Terror is Reality - but didn't have much life beyond a couple hours and maybe some supplemental runs to keep Chuck flush with money.  The co-op likewise made for some fun two-player zombie bashing, but it wasn't integrated in the game in any serious way.  The second player receives experience, but doesn't factor into the story at all.

I come to the same place as I did with the first game.  I got a ton of fun out of it, and will probably get a lot of fun out of it in the future, and so it was mostly successful in my eyes.  But I really just want some other developer to take the Dead RIsing engine and setting and construct their own game that isn't the Dead Rising story formula out of it.  You can create your own fun with the game, but the fact that you have to avoid the actual game to do so is still mind-boggling.