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    Dead Rising 2

    Game » consists of 18 releases. Released Sep 02, 2010

    Dead Rising 2 is a third-person action-adventure survival horror game that takes place five years after the end of the original Dead Rising, moving its zombie apocalypse setting into the glamorous Fortune City.

    Dead Rising 2 Review

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    Toomz

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    Edited By Toomz

    Capcom has long been known for developing games involving viruses that inevitably lead to zombie outbreaks, but one of their more recent endeavors in undead mayhem is the Dead Rising series, which received its second entry last September. Dead Rising 2 is the next logical step in how a sequel should improve upon past concepts and  gameplay choices made in the first game. There's still plenty of zombies to hack, slash, and burn, but this time around the weapons you use to do so have become a bit more experimental. The general premise of saving survivors and fighting psychopaths is still present, and the standard 72-hour timed mode of gameplay featured in the first game also makes its return.  Dead Rising 2 feels like more of the similar content found in the first game, with some cool new tricks, and a new story and characters to help create the familiar atmosphere of a zombie apocalypse.
     
    Dead Rising 2 takes place in Fortune City, a casino resort located in Nevada that has managed to contain the zombie population, saving the masses of undead for the use of a televised killing spectacle. You fill the role of Chuck Greene, a former motocross champion turned out of desperation into a participant of "Terror is Reality", a game show that involves killing zombies in various ridiculous ways for prize money (not limited to but including the use of chainsaw equipped motorcycles). Chuck agrees to be a part of the show, being strapped for cash, which he needs to buy a temporary vaccine called "Zombrex" for his daughter Katey, who has been infected with the undead virus.  Eventually, the horde of contained zombies are let free by a mysterious figure wearing Chuck's gear, and he is blamed for the incident, which only makes things harder after he and Katey try to find refuge in the nearby mall. The two are almost turned away at the only safe house they can find because of Katey's virus, but they are accepted in on the condition that Chuck provides Katey with her Zombrex. After hearing suspicion against him for the outbreak from the survivors inside, Chuck decides to do something about it. Out to prove his innocence, and find out who is behind everything, he ventures into Fortune City and its many extravagant locales. 
     
    Throughout the game players will continuously be updated with new tasks from Stacey Forsythe, Chuck's contact inside of the safe house. Stacey provides intel on the next major case files in Chuck's investigation of the outbreak, as well as the reminders for Katey's next Zombrex dose, and side missions where you can find the vaccine and complete other objectives. Side missions usually involve going out into the zombie infested resort and saving survivors, who are sometimes fending off zombies or are in need of rescue from psychopaths. These psychopaths are human characters who are more difficult to defeat than your average walking corpse, and they sometimes require a bit of trial and error with certain weapons that get the job done better. Speaking of weapons, the selling point of Dead Rising 2 is the ability to combine specific weapons together in order to create more effective, or sometimes just purely amusing tools for zombie destruction. Using combined weapons will gain Chuck more PP, which is what allows him to level up and gain new attacks. While not all of the combinations are always the most efficient for combat, it is pretty fun to throw a bucket with multiple drills attached to it onto a zombie's head and watch chaos ensue. While all of this is good fun, sometimes I felt like I was just waiting around for the next case to start and doing some of the side missions seemed tedious and out of the way. That being said, saving survivors and killing psychopaths is the easiest way to gain large amounts of PP, which in turn will make the rest of the game easier. And even if you don't want to stick your neck out for some guy looting a casino on the other side of the map, inevitably there will be plenty of survivors close to wherever you are in Fortune City.
     
    As I mentioned before, combination weapons are fun, but most people will probably end up making spiked bats on their way out of the safe house because it's a good tool to fend off the horde on the way to your next destination. That isn't to say that there aren't other, better, combo weapons, but some might find that convenience outweighs going to greater lengths to craft a better weapon that's just going to break the same as any. And that brings us to how weapons are used in the game, how you fight these undead crowds. Dead Rising has been known for combat that is kind of basic, some might say rigid. Apart from the weapons that you shoot, where you aim and have a reticule, most of the other weapons are melee. Basically what that amounts to is a lot of pressing x until things are dead, and sometimes using a secondary attack by holding x. And when it comes time for boss fights, it really boils down to having enough good food items available to heal you own health while chipping away at the enemy's bar, and not getting hit of course. So while the weapons are sometimes really creative and awesome, the basic combat isn't always so.  Luckily there are also combat skills that Chuck unlocks when he levels up, and these skills can sometimes come in handy when you don't have a good weapon to use. Skills are activated by a specific button combination, for example: you might press right trigger and the attack button at the same time to do a dropkick. They're pretty fun to use, and work in a pinch, adding a bit of spice to an otherwise sort of bland combat system. 
     
    The graphics in Dead Rising 2 are up to par, and look great considering the sheer amount of walking dead on screen at once. I noticed that there was sometimes a pretty bad drop in framerate in the 360 version, but it wasn't enough to break the game. As for the voice acting, it isn't going to win any awards, but it gets the job done.  And while some might find the often sporadic Canadian mannerisms for the characters unfitting and cheesy given the locale, I found them to be kind of quirky and it never really bothered me. The music is what you would expect to hear playing in a casino resort overrun with the living dead. A lot of jazzy elevator music is played in most parts of Fortune City, which oddly fits the kind of semi-casual zombie killing atmosphere of Dead Rising 2. There is also some heavy metal and even some techno played during boss fights.  
     
    If you played the downloadable prequel to DR2,  Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, you can import your combo weapon cards, skills, and stats up to level 5 when you start a new game.  There is also an online co-op feature for two players where both play as Chuck in the main story, gaining experience and items that can be kept and brought back to their own file. However, the only person who actually makes progress in the story is the host. Another extra feature is that "Terror is Reality", the deadly TV show briefly touched on at the beginning of the game, can be played online with up to four players for in-game money. It consists of playlists with four different mini-games where players compete to kill the most zombies.
     
    Dead Rising 2 is constructed with the kind of quality returning fans will expect, and features quite a bit of replay value. Each play through can be different depending on which side missions you decide to complete and which combo cards you've unlocked, and there are plenty of acheivments to warrant multiple playthroughs. After I had completed the game with the S Ending, I still wanted to jump back in and kill Zombies, even after some of the frustration I experienced near the end of the game. Some of the features can seem a bit gimmicky, or the side quests a bit repetitive, but if you're willing to put some of it's flaws aside you'll find a fun challenge in this zombie infested sandbox.

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    Toomz

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    #1  Edited By Toomz

    Capcom has long been known for developing games involving viruses that inevitably lead to zombie outbreaks, but one of their more recent endeavors in undead mayhem is the Dead Rising series, which received its second entry last September. Dead Rising 2 is the next logical step in how a sequel should improve upon past concepts and  gameplay choices made in the first game. There's still plenty of zombies to hack, slash, and burn, but this time around the weapons you use to do so have become a bit more experimental. The general premise of saving survivors and fighting psychopaths is still present, and the standard 72-hour timed mode of gameplay featured in the first game also makes its return.  Dead Rising 2 feels like more of the similar content found in the first game, with some cool new tricks, and a new story and characters to help create the familiar atmosphere of a zombie apocalypse.
     
    Dead Rising 2 takes place in Fortune City, a casino resort located in Nevada that has managed to contain the zombie population, saving the masses of undead for the use of a televised killing spectacle. You fill the role of Chuck Greene, a former motocross champion turned out of desperation into a participant of "Terror is Reality", a game show that involves killing zombies in various ridiculous ways for prize money (not limited to but including the use of chainsaw equipped motorcycles). Chuck agrees to be a part of the show, being strapped for cash, which he needs to buy a temporary vaccine called "Zombrex" for his daughter Katey, who has been infected with the undead virus.  Eventually, the horde of contained zombies are let free by a mysterious figure wearing Chuck's gear, and he is blamed for the incident, which only makes things harder after he and Katey try to find refuge in the nearby mall. The two are almost turned away at the only safe house they can find because of Katey's virus, but they are accepted in on the condition that Chuck provides Katey with her Zombrex. After hearing suspicion against him for the outbreak from the survivors inside, Chuck decides to do something about it. Out to prove his innocence, and find out who is behind everything, he ventures into Fortune City and its many extravagant locales. 
     
    Throughout the game players will continuously be updated with new tasks from Stacey Forsythe, Chuck's contact inside of the safe house. Stacey provides intel on the next major case files in Chuck's investigation of the outbreak, as well as the reminders for Katey's next Zombrex dose, and side missions where you can find the vaccine and complete other objectives. Side missions usually involve going out into the zombie infested resort and saving survivors, who are sometimes fending off zombies or are in need of rescue from psychopaths. These psychopaths are human characters who are more difficult to defeat than your average walking corpse, and they sometimes require a bit of trial and error with certain weapons that get the job done better. Speaking of weapons, the selling point of Dead Rising 2 is the ability to combine specific weapons together in order to create more effective, or sometimes just purely amusing tools for zombie destruction. Using combined weapons will gain Chuck more PP, which is what allows him to level up and gain new attacks. While not all of the combinations are always the most efficient for combat, it is pretty fun to throw a bucket with multiple drills attached to it onto a zombie's head and watch chaos ensue. While all of this is good fun, sometimes I felt like I was just waiting around for the next case to start and doing some of the side missions seemed tedious and out of the way. That being said, saving survivors and killing psychopaths is the easiest way to gain large amounts of PP, which in turn will make the rest of the game easier. And even if you don't want to stick your neck out for some guy looting a casino on the other side of the map, inevitably there will be plenty of survivors close to wherever you are in Fortune City.
     
    As I mentioned before, combination weapons are fun, but most people will probably end up making spiked bats on their way out of the safe house because it's a good tool to fend off the horde on the way to your next destination. That isn't to say that there aren't other, better, combo weapons, but some might find that convenience outweighs going to greater lengths to craft a better weapon that's just going to break the same as any. And that brings us to how weapons are used in the game, how you fight these undead crowds. Dead Rising has been known for combat that is kind of basic, some might say rigid. Apart from the weapons that you shoot, where you aim and have a reticule, most of the other weapons are melee. Basically what that amounts to is a lot of pressing x until things are dead, and sometimes using a secondary attack by holding x. And when it comes time for boss fights, it really boils down to having enough good food items available to heal you own health while chipping away at the enemy's bar, and not getting hit of course. So while the weapons are sometimes really creative and awesome, the basic combat isn't always so.  Luckily there are also combat skills that Chuck unlocks when he levels up, and these skills can sometimes come in handy when you don't have a good weapon to use. Skills are activated by a specific button combination, for example: you might press right trigger and the attack button at the same time to do a dropkick. They're pretty fun to use, and work in a pinch, adding a bit of spice to an otherwise sort of bland combat system. 
     
    The graphics in Dead Rising 2 are up to par, and look great considering the sheer amount of walking dead on screen at once. I noticed that there was sometimes a pretty bad drop in framerate in the 360 version, but it wasn't enough to break the game. As for the voice acting, it isn't going to win any awards, but it gets the job done.  And while some might find the often sporadic Canadian mannerisms for the characters unfitting and cheesy given the locale, I found them to be kind of quirky and it never really bothered me. The music is what you would expect to hear playing in a casino resort overrun with the living dead. A lot of jazzy elevator music is played in most parts of Fortune City, which oddly fits the kind of semi-casual zombie killing atmosphere of Dead Rising 2. There is also some heavy metal and even some techno played during boss fights.  
     
    If you played the downloadable prequel to DR2,  Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, you can import your combo weapon cards, skills, and stats up to level 5 when you start a new game.  There is also an online co-op feature for two players where both play as Chuck in the main story, gaining experience and items that can be kept and brought back to their own file. However, the only person who actually makes progress in the story is the host. Another extra feature is that "Terror is Reality", the deadly TV show briefly touched on at the beginning of the game, can be played online with up to four players for in-game money. It consists of playlists with four different mini-games where players compete to kill the most zombies.
     
    Dead Rising 2 is constructed with the kind of quality returning fans will expect, and features quite a bit of replay value. Each play through can be different depending on which side missions you decide to complete and which combo cards you've unlocked, and there are plenty of acheivments to warrant multiple playthroughs. After I had completed the game with the S Ending, I still wanted to jump back in and kill Zombies, even after some of the frustration I experienced near the end of the game. Some of the features can seem a bit gimmicky, or the side quests a bit repetitive, but if you're willing to put some of it's flaws aside you'll find a fun challenge in this zombie infested sandbox.

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    RobotHamster

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    #2  Edited By RobotHamster

    Good review, I'll probably wait for it to drop to maybe $20 or I'll just give it a rent if I get the chance.

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    Aetheldod

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    #3  Edited By Aetheldod

    Loved Case 0 . didnt like DR2 , because fortune city was just Willimete Mall 1.2 , I wanted a city not that thing where we had to play on .... oh well

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