Dead Rising 2
  Publisher: Capcom
  Availability: Available in leading stores
  Genre: Zombie

  Reviewed by: Alex D'souza

  Rating: 8.3/10

Dead Rising 2 is the sequel to Capcom's most popular zombie killing action-adventure horror game Dead Rising. Originally released in 2006 Dead Rising gave us with a game in which the protagonist Frank West, was trapped in a mall within the fictional town of Willamette, Colorado. To Frank West’s bad luck the town is infested with zombies and Frank has to survive the attack and get to the root cause of what had caused the zombie outbreak.

The story of Dead Rising 2 goes as follows. In the game the zombie infestation has spread around the whole of the US such that zombies occupy a large part of the United States. The gamer plays as a former national motocross champion Chuck Greene who has lost his wife in a zombie outbreak and now is the sole guardian of his one and only young daughter Katey. Unfortunately for Chuck his daughter Katey was infected in an attack by her zombie mother and relies on regular doses of the medicine that suppresses the effects of a zombie infection. This medicine is called Zombrex.  The game starts in the fictional setting of Fortune City as Chuck tries to earn some money by appearing in the very popular in-game TV game show 'Terror Is Reality'. The show challenges four players to kill as many zombies as possible with the one who kills the most taking away the prize money. The zombies caged for the show are soon on the loose and Chuck and his daughter are running for their lives through the streets looking for safe place to hide. Once they make it to a local defense shelter Chuck have 72 hours to wait until the army shows up to save the day. Unfortunately Chuck has run out of Zombrex for Katey, which she needs to take every 24hrs at around 7 in the morning, and Chuck seems to be being framed for releasing the zombies and causing problems.

Visuals – 8 out of 10

 In the original Dead Rising game engine the limitation on the number of onscreen zombies were about hundreds. In Dead Rising 2 Capcom has made improvements to their graphics engine to accomodate thousand zombies onscreen. Now you can really feel the shock of a real zombie attack as the sheer numbers are overwhelming. This also adds to the chaos ingame and gives you a true feel of what a zombie attack can be and how horrific it can feel. It truly gives a sense of a zombie infestation and the thought of having to deal with a magnitude of creepy brain dead creatures is frightening.

Character designers have worked hard and done a good on making the zombies look scary and of course when we start to decapitate and rip them to pieces the blood really starts to flow. You will notice chuck dripping with zombie blood after he’s killed a few zombies. With the amount of blood, gore and body parts flying around I’m not surprised to see why this game has an 18+ rating J.

The environment is beautifully created, with lots of detail visible for the gamer to enjoy. The design of Fortune City is, without doubt, taken from Las Vegas however the whole mix of nightclubs and a mall and parks of modern day US give us a wide variety which is truly required or else the game seems to happen in the same place.

 

Game Play - 9 out of 10

 When you play Dead Rising 2 you have to complete a number of missions. You can earn both cash and Prestige Points by undertaking missions and completing them successfully and by rescuing survivors we find out as we go about the missions we’ve chosen. Cash can be spent on buying new items and Prestige Points are used as a form of 'experience points' to enhance Chuck's abilities and make him a better Zombie killer.

What do you thing when you wanna protect yourself from zombies? Pick u anything and swing away right? In dead rising you could pick up anything not joined to the floor and use as a weapon to combat zombies. In Dead Rising 2 it works the same way be it a baseball bat, a broom, a woman’s purse, chairs etc. but the best part is the ability to combine items to make combination weapons. This has taken the game to a whole new level. For example, we can combine a broomstick with a chainsaws to make a weapon or a baseball bat with nails to inflict more damage.

How could online co-op play be left out of the picture it’s what every game is demanded to provide. New in Dead Rising 2 is online co-op play. You can play online with friends, teaming up with a friend to take on the zombie infestation. Alternatively you can actually play the game within the game 'Terror Is Reality' online. We can take on 3 other players online in the various gladiator-type games available in the in-game TV show.

The painstaking loading time was a buzz kill but slowly got used to it and accepted it as I progressed through the game.

About the controls, the layout used on Dead Rising 2 is simple and easy to master. On the PS3 edition I had for my review the left analogue stick controlled movement while the right controlled the camera like many games so you won’t have trouble moving about. Chuck always moves forward and the way the camera is facing is very easy to turn quickly or jump through groups of zombies. The combat and item controls are accessed from the usual square, circle, triangle and cross buttons. Overall it felt very natural to maneuver Chuck through the hordes of zombies and it didn't take me long until I was able to escape quickly or take down a larger group of undead in fun and unique ways.

 

 Sound and FX – 8 out of 10

 The voice acting in Dead Rising 2 is good, without as you could expect in and good game. The characters are all believable, though they do tend to seem a little familiar easily. The cut scenes are very watchable and do build the story very effectively.

While out and about in Fortune City the ever present moaning of zombies ensure you never forget how close they are and there are also many other audio queues that absorb us into the game.

Fun Factor – 8.5 out of 10

 Zombies + Las Vegas = Fun. Killing zombies is not fair because they are brain dead and are’nt too creative about killing. This game though can really get your creative juices flowing when it comes to creating combination weapons which are much stronger than regular weapons. The other best part is when you are left among a multitude of zombies and you have to run through them to reach your mission destination. This part is truly fun. You can fight your way through or evade the zombies as you pass by them. Jumping through them is really fun and gives you a thrill as you miss being bitten by them.

Overall some fun zombie kills that can give you some chills J

 Re - play - 8 out of 10

Dead Rising 2 builds on the original very well with more environments to explore, more missions to undertake and many more zombies to kill. At its heart this game is all about killing zombies, it is a simple premise which is very well executed. The storyline is engaging, the missions are interesting / challenging and there is nothing more exciting than taking down a street full of zombies with two chainsaws and a motorbike. You definitely will not get bored of this game if you enjoy zombie killing. Grab the Snack and coke... turn off the lights and have a whole heap of fun.

 My verdict is 'PLAY'

 

Alex D'souza signing off

MAXIMUM GAMING