Wade Manns- The Corsair
Dead Rising 2
By Capcom and Blue Castle Games
Genre: Third-person action/exploration
Raing: M (Mature) for Blood and Gore, Use of Alcohol, Intense Violence, Language, Sexual Themes
Players: 2-player co-op; up to 4 competitively
Back in 2006, a game was released by Capcom, makers of one of my favorite series as covered here, Resident Evil. The game saw a lone photo-journalist, Frank West, fighting for his life against a relentless horde of zombies which had taken over the town of Willamette, New Jersey, mostly its mall. The game was lauded for its excellent graphics and atmosphere, Frank’s ability to pick up basically any item in the game-world and wield it as a weapon, as well as the game’s ability to keep track of dozens, even hundreds of zombies at once, but was criticized for its lack of a decent save system and slow, deliberate controls.
While I did enjoy Dead Rising and its sequel (this time starring Chuck Greene, contestant on a reality game show that exploits zombies for entertainment) for its good points, it was those two major criticisms which I must report occur in both games, which turned me off to them in the end.
Sure, you get to see dozens of zombies all shambling towards you, wanting to eat your brains; that’s what they do, right? Unfortunately, even though you’re an ex-motocross champion (in the sequel), you have just about as much difficulty getting around as Frank West did – and more often than not get chewed on by the ravenous undead while you’re just trying to get from point A to B.
I would really, really enjoy this game, I have no doubt, if it were more forgiving; the graphics are indeed wonderful and evoke a feeling of being alone in an excellent-looking mall with hundred of the poor infected souls. I do enjoy seeing what kinds of weapons I can find in my environment (to the point of absurdity; hoisting a park bench and carrying it around as easily as an electric guitar?!), and the story this time around is more compelling; Chuck has to find extremely scarce medicine for his daughter, who was bitten by the zombies.
Yet, again, I have to say thumbs down to this game for its annoying checkpoint/saving system. To be more specific: there are now multiple save slots, which is quite good indeed, but there are still no checkpoint saves! If you let yourself get hurt one too many times while you’re far away from a bathroom – too bad, you just lost around twenty minutes of slogging through the zombie apocalypse. I would have liked at least a checkpoint for each new event or location in the mall that you enter, for anything can happen even in these little shops.
If you are patient, if you can concentrate on multiple things at the same time, if you are prepared to be punished, sure, I’d recommend Dead Rising 2. It’s a great game; it’s just not for me. I’ll be generous for its great graphics, sound and atmosphere and give it three out of five stars.