Ok, let me start off by saying I never played Dead Rising before this prequel, but I've always wanted to try it. Now, for some reason I'm having a lot of difficulty succeeding. Whenever I venture out of my safe house, I almost always have at least one or two Spiked Bats on hand, but they break so quickly, and when I go to find a non-special weapon, I either get completely surrounded or it takes 2-3 hits to kill a zombie. I just feel so powerless, there are so many damn zombies and yet I just can't seem to kill enough of them to get to the objective. 
 
Basically, what can I do to not suck anymore?

Stuff that works for me:
* Stick to the sides of the road, there are usually less zombies - avoid them
* Jump when you are close to one, it will not be able to grab you
* If they are really in the way, take them out. 
* I find the sword is pretty good for keeping yourself from being swamped, as it does this little 360 swing which kills anything around you.
* Use the moose head to get somewhere quick, you can just run through the zombies
* Level up 

" @fedfierce: Let yourself die and start over from the beginning. "

" @T0mF5 said:

" @fedfierce: Let yourself die and start over from the beginning. "

Just wondering, but what would that accomplish? Do the zombies sort of increase in difficulty as I progress through the story? "

" @T0mF5 said:

" @fedfierce: Let yourself die and start over from the beginning. "

Just wondering, but what would that accomplish? Do the zombies sort of increase in difficulty as I progress through the story? "

You're kind of hitting on the point of the game - the zombies one by are no trouble, it's in groups that they cause problems.
 

• Don't always fight - you'll accomplish more of the story goals by simply bypassing the zombies when you can.
• Don't get attached to your weapons - everything breaks, you can find books to increase the 'health' of items, but in the end it will break.
• Quick Step - go to the dinner, mix Bacon and Pie in the blender, increases your run speed significantly.
• Queens - After you bring back the bike Queens will start spawning, look for a zombie grabbing its own head and kinda spazzing out, kill said zombie and harvest the Queen. When you throw a Queen to the ground it will kill anywhere from 20 to 50 zombies around you. There's also a way to make Queens using the blender, the recipe escapes me at the moment, but it's on another DR:CZ thread.

" @T0mF5 said:

" @fedfierce: Let yourself die and start over from the beginning. "

Just wondering, but what would that accomplish? Do the zombies sort of increase in difficulty as I progress through the story? "

" You're kind of hitting on the point of the game - the zombies one by are no trouble, it's in groups that they cause problems.
 

• Don't always fight - you'll accomplish more of the story goals by simply bypassing the zombies when you can.
• Don't get attached to your weapons - everything breaks, you can find books to increase the 'health' of items, but in the end it will break.
• Quick Step - go to the dinner, mix Bacon and Pie in the blender, increases your run speed significantly.
• Queens - After you bring back the bike Queens will start spawning, look for a zombie grabbing its own head and kinda spazzing out, kill said zombie and harvest the Queen. When you throw a Queen to the ground it will kill anywhere from 20 to 50 zombies around you. There's also a way to make Queens using the blender, the recipe escapes me at the moment, but it's on another DR:CZ thread.

"

Also, you could focus on leveling up so you can have more item slots before you try any of the story goals.  I found it helps to think of the game like it was "Groundhog's Day".  Instead of Bill Murray, it's you.  Instead of trying to get the girl, you kill zombies.  You learn more about what's going on and then try to find ways to achieve what you want while you get stronger and stronger.   And never get surrounded by more than 3 zombies.

Yeah, avoiding zombies is best most of the time. If you have to fight, only kill enough to make a clean escape, don't try to fight the whole street.

When I play the game, I think to my self "Be woody harrelson" and I tend to do very well.

I never really got into the "new game+" or the "die/restart/grind/die" flow of the first game, but it seems MUCH better designed this time around, so I'm hooked. I didn't end up rescuing everyone until I hit the level 5 cap and then some.
 
All of these posts have good advice (especially invoking the mindset of Woody Harrelson) and the only other thing I really have to offer is just keep learning where things are and how you can reduce the amount of time it takes you to get essential items and items to create more powerful weapons. Let yourself explore further in a new direction each time. It's odd, but in this game, dying can be a good thing - since you can just restart the story with your XP (er, PP) and abilities.  
 
Also, like the moose head, the red push carts/dollies can be helpful for plowing through crowds of zombies and getting somewhere a bit faster. There's one behind Bill's Dept. Store. Press "B" to get behind it, then hold X to drive it. 

You're probably trying to play it like a third person action game instead of trying to play it like Dead Rising.

AS a general rule of thumb, if playing a DR game does not result in you breaking the left thumb stick, you're doing it wrong.  And if you don't find yourself yelling "fuck" alot, you also are doing it wrong.  I never found myself dying and having to restart because I was not leveled enough to kill the zombies, but have found that in fighting psychos to be the case.  The jump kick is something like the most amazing way to travel from point a to b completely.  Also spamming the attack button when you have a weapon like the spiked bat or sledgehammer which hits multiple enemies works.  I recently found out the IED is fucking amazing but takes like 5-10 minutes of real time to do and use in this game successfully.