PJ's Halloween 2k10 - Dead Rising 2 review

PJ’s Halloween 2k10
Rise of the Dead

Dead Rising 2, a PS3 review

The year is 2006. Yoshinori Kawano helmed a game that was produced by Keiji Inafune. This game would go on to become a legend within the Xbox 360 library as it didn’t just offer a great game, but it also gave the world one of the most recognized game characters, Frank West.
Dead Rising was a sandbox game that gave the player a vast amount of restrictions during playtime that could be completely and utterly neglected if you wanted to, giving the player a great experience throughout every playthrough.
Frank West is a photojournalist who willingly goes to a small town called Willamette to see just what exactly was going on. There he found that the streets weren’t peaceful at all as zombies roamed the streets freely. Frank, who knows what he’s doing because he has covered wars you know, orders his helicopter pilot to lower the choppah to the roof of a nearby mall. After telling the pilot to return in three days, Frank heads in to the mall to try and find out as much as he can. Through his adventure he discovers what exactly created these zombies and why there was an outbreak.

2010. The team that brought us Dead Rising returns with another entry in the franchise that this time spread across a couple more platforms, including the PS3. Dead Rising 2, like it’s predecessor, is a survival horror game with a comedic twist to it. Whilst many people seem to agree that this game is more of a 1.5, I am here to tell you what I thought of the game. I myself have only seen a playthrough of a perfect run of the first game so it isn’t exactly a perception of someone who hasn’t played the first game. Still, let’s do this!

Multiplayer

Not a lot of people may know this but there was actually a TV tie in gameshow linked to Dead Rising 2. Whilst the first incarnations only received a mild following, the show grew exponentially to its latest run, the seventeenth season. Terror is Reality is an American Gladiator esque show where four players are pitted against each other in several games. Whoever rakes up the most points, wins. Seeing as the points are converted in to dollars no matter which spot you’re in, you still go home with a fair amount of money.
Tyrone King, the host of Terror is Reality, stands on stage and segways the show from one minigame to another, accompanied by his twin assistants that would even get a zombie going erect. Whilst he’s the host of the main show, TK is assisted by two commentators who don’t just report the score, but amuse us with some witty banter in the meantime. There was this one time one of the commentators said something about this myth he heard that some zombies sparkle. Both of them agreed that was pretty ghey.
In any case, there are several minigames in which you can participate with almost none being boring. Each episode the players will have to go through four minigames, the last one always being the game called SliceCycles, where you need to slice through as many zombies as you can whilst sitting on a motorcycle that has chainsaws attached to its handles. Other minigames require you to dress up zombies, tackle zombies on to a weight plate, puree zombies and spray the remains in to a canister and more.

The multiplayer of Dead Rising 2 is tons of fun if you play it a couple episodes at a time. Whilst there is a variance in the minigames per episode, TK still says the same lines for the individual minigame. The commentators aren’t funny at all and are only useful to let you know who’s in the lead or who’s catching up. Whilst normally there are a few skilled players around, you’ll mostly play against either insanely good players that are either 12 years old or cheating, or you’ll be pitted against idiots. That is, if you manage to get a team at all. There are almost always players to be found, but I’ve had my fair share of connection errors and not findable matches.

There’s also a Co-op to be found in this game. Here you have a host that invites someone to come and play. Two Chuck’s are now in the playing field but the only thing the partner is getting is a fun experience, as only the host will reap the in-game benefits.

Let’s move on to the main game now.

Story

Five years have passed since the Willamette outbreak. Chuck Greene and his daughter Katey made it out of the Las Vegas Outbreak just barely. Although they did lose misses Greene right before there eyes. Not only that, but poor little Katey was bitten as well. Because of Frank’s heroics during the Willamette outbreak, the world has a way to treat the simplification. So, Chuck has to administer a medicine called Zombrex to Katey, otherwise she’ll turn. After a series of incidents along the way, Chuck and Katey made it to Fortune City. Here Chuck rolls up with the seventeenth installment of Terror is Reality to make some green so that he can buy Zombrex for Katey. Luckily, there’s a new Zombrex on the market that only requires a shot every 24 hours.

Dead Rising wouldn’t be Dead Rising without zombies running loose. After Chuck finishes things with that night’s Terror is Reality episode, he makes his way to his daughter, only to be knocked out in the elevator. Waking up to hear familiar, though terrible sounds, Chuck wakes up in the middle of yet another Zombie outbreak. No time to rest as Chuck goes to find his daughter and get to a bunker made specifically for outbreaks.
Zombrexless, Chuck goes out in pursuit of some only to find out that his predicament doesn’t end there when he returns to the shelter. As it turns out, there’s footage of someone in his track gear, helmet included, setting these zombies loose. With only three days left before rescue, Chuck has to find evidence of his innocence, keep his daughter alive, save as many citizens still out there and defeat all the living madmen that threaten the survivors even further.

The plot of this game fit’s the genre very well. As a comedic Zombie game, Dead Rising delivers with a somewhat serious plot packed to the brim with over the top and “Are you shitting me?” characters.
Speaking of the characters, they are all pretty memorable if you ask me. I mean the non survivor ones. The Psychopaths, the main characters and Chuck himself are all pretty damn awesome. Some psychopaths are really fucking scary in their own right. My god, what sick fucks.

The story and the characters within are very good and are certainly a lot better than what I expected. It kind of reminds me like a B-movie version of 24 only with zombies. Okay, so I am now envisioning Dead Rising with Jack Bauer. AND IT IS GLORIOUS.

Also, Chuck Greene > Frank West. Chuck is actually the kind of guy that I expected Frank to be. Whilst Chuck was a suave, badass with a loving heart towards his daughter, Frank was kind of a douchebag with an annoying voice. Plus, Chuck is the son of MacGyver.

Also, also,  SKITTLES! <3 Who’s a cute kitty! Here Katey, have a kitty! I really am the father of the year.

Graphics and Sound

Let it be known far and wide is that the style that Dead Rising 2 was going for, is exactly what I want out of a game. I really love the way the game looks, from people to places. It’s not too complicated, it’s stylish and it looks like a game instead of a game trying to be a live action movie.
Although I like the style, I still have to deduct a couple of points in some places. For one, whilst the graphics do look good, the shadow’s are clearly not done right as they can get pixelated. The borders of the shadows tend to bear close resemblance to a fucking chessboard as, for example, Chuck’s neck alternates between light and dark like that.
There’s one thing in the game that isn’t so much a gripe as it is something that gets noticeable really fast is that Chuck only has one animation for eating food. That does get old really fast.
Lastly, there’s one other animation gripe that I need to address. And that is that some of the Psychopaths are invulnerable sometimes whilst performing a specific animation. It’s something that you don’t take in to effect when you’re calculating how many hits you can get in before you need to pull back.

Still, even with all that wrong, the graphics department still has a lot too offer. The zombies look genuinely terrifying and are actual zombies in terms of intelligence and behavior. Psychopaths can look normal at first but once they get their gameface on, they really can get quite scary. There’s plenty of blood and gore to be found and Fortune City is complete with all the bells and whistles. You’ll never be bored when if you’re there for the visual.

Spread throughout Fortune City are a number of stores where you can find clothes that Chuck can wear. This from a fancy suit to a woman’s dress. Personally I’m not too fond of most of the clothes you can find, though I have been wearing a fedora and sports sunglasses from an hour in to the game. Still, it’s something to entertain you and it is rather hilarious to see good ol’ Chuck beating up zombies whilst wearing a woman’s dress.

Soundwise, things are pretty much A-ok. Seeing as the area you are in is one gigantic mall, the elevator music fits right in and doesn’t bother at all. After a while it even blends in with the background noise. During Psychopath battles, things get really good as a killer soundtracks kicks in that is supposed to and does get the blood pumping.
In the Effects department, things are pretty A-Ok as well. Zombies go ooooooooooh, deader zombies go splat, baseball bat goes tonk, guns go blam and everything sounds like it’s supposed to sound. Nothing wrong in that department.
IMDB literally has no information on Voice Actors at the time that I am writing this review so I can’t give you any actor names. BUT, I can tell you that all of the performances are top notch. Even from the survivors who don’t really say anything important. The actors with the bigger parts (main leads, psychopaths, robbers, etc etc etc) all do their parts well. Too well maybe for the vibe I’m getting from the game. Remember when I said that Dead Rising 2 is like a B-movie? Well, the voice acting is done so well, it kind of reminds me of the quality of Uncharted 2 and Arkham Asylum.

Oh and Chuck Greene has some really cool one-liners.

Gameplay

First things first. I know that a lot of people are still doubting about this game and for one reason only. The constrictions on time. So, I’ll be digging in to that first.

After Chuck Greene reaches the bunker with his daughter, he is informed that rescue is coming in three days. That is when the overall timer starts ticking.
You can keep track of the time on your watch and the overall time you can check up on as it pops on screen every time you enter a different zone.
Instead of happening in real time, the game deducts time with every action you take. Picking up survivors, going in a maintenance room, saving your game. All of that.
Missions come in three forms: Survivors, Psychopaths and Case Files. Each mission comes up at a certain time in the day and gives you only a set amount of time to do this. Times up? Too bad, CARRY ON. No, really. If you miss a timer, have no fear because an ending is near. No matter what you do, there is going to be an ending. Make it through those three days and you will find a lovely little cinematic at the end of your playthrough.
For those of you who want to play through the entire story, you should do fine if you just concentrate on the Case Files and make sure you do all of them.

For the people that just want to get through the story, I have some very good news. The Case Files tend to have enough time on them to complete them so you can lighten your load of survivors and psychopaths to make it through the case files relatively unharmed. Hell, on your first playthrough, handle Survivors and Psychopaths only and go nuts in leveling up so that on your second playthrough, you can carry over them expees and kick some major ass in the Case Files.

Because folks, here’s the thing: This game SCREAMS for a replay. Even if you get a perfect run the first time you tackle this game, you could still go back and do it all over again but ignore the case files or ignore everything and just go on a killing spree. That is the beauty of this game. If it’s the time that’s keeping you from buying this game, then forget about it now and go buy the game. Because in the end, the game will go on whether or not you care about the time. The time is perfectly manageable.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Chuck Greene is FUCKING SLOW. Oh dear sweet Jesus. I can’t begin to tell you how aggravating it is to play this game that is all about MANAGING TIME and then to be controlling this unbelievably slow guy that just won’t hurry the fuck up.
There I am, knee deep in survivors. I went off the taken path to go out and get not only a Zombrex that was lying around, but also Skittles … I mean Snowflake. Time is of the essence here. So I go and do the case file mission (which I’ll get in to after this) and after that I still need to get two construction workers. Fuck me! I’m running out of time here as it is and now … Let’s just do this. So I go and get the construction workers and I see time slipping away to get Katey the Zombrex. But I’ll be FUCKING damned if Chuck doesn’t becomes slower and slower. It really feels that way because all he can manage to do is slightly jog.
Then there’s his animations. For regular old zombies they’re fine and dandy. They’re regular zombies anyways so they’re not fast and braindead to boot so there’s a good chance that 8 out of 10 zombies won’t attack you before you attack them. You’re completely screwed against human enemies though. They are faster than you and will defeat you in regards of animations as they will cut you up many times. Plus, the game advantages them greatly by adding these massive attacks that do away a lot of health or give the enemy a quality that has them hide from you to jump out or eat food so they regenerate health.

Buuuuuuuut, I like that actually. It gives the game this strategic element. Let’s take for example Chef Antoine. Here we have a chef who’s running his own version of Hell’s Kitchen. The man throws pans at you that you can’t dodge unless there’s something in the way. (seriously, these pans will curve if you move so you’ll always get hit unless it hits something else first) He also tosses a lot more shit at you and he has a pan in his hand with which he can … well, pan you and knock you on your ass. If he manages to knock you on your ass, he will more than likely climb on you and shove something nasty down your throat.

Anyhoo, even though Chef Ramsay here is a fat fucking donkey, he’s still outrageously fast and will run for food any moment he can. Plus, the man does a lot of fucking damage. Here you really need to learn the man’s patterns. He swings, misses and then you swing and hit. Repeat once and then run because the third time he’ll swing twice in a row. Try to get him in a routine of running from one food area to the other and make sure you can catch up to him before he starts eating. Kill every zombie that makes it way in to the court because the chef will get distracted then and above all, have some food on you.
You see, the game forces you to think things through. Also with your weapons because A: your weapons break fast and B: you have a limited amount of slots.

I know what you’re thinking, is it really that hard to control Chuck? Not at all! The slowness is well compensated by the fact that the controls are quite good and easy to understand. You can literally just pick up and play this game. Grab the controller, do a little “Oh that’s that” and be on your merry way slaughtering zombies.
Although there are vehicles in this game and the controls there are way to underdeveloped. All you can do is steer, go forward and go backward. I would have appreciated some more depth in these vehicles. Although, this makes the vehicles easy to learn, easy to master.

There are two more things that need to be addressed about the gameplay. One is saving. You need to understand here that the game has no checkpoints. If you die, you reload the game. If you miss a deadline, you reload the game. If a survivor dies that you didn’t want to die, you reload the game. This can very easily set you back for half an hour. A half an hour you could possible do again several times in order to do it right. Because you can’t do things one at a time because of the time constrictions. So all you can do is save when you can and ONLY in bathrooms. That’s right, you need to go take a dump in order to save. Hasn’t he seen Zombieland god damn it? Still, sometimes you’ll have survivors with you and they’ll cover your ass! Just make sure that you haven’t eaten any beans or something otherwise things could get rather euh … embarrassing.

The other thing I need to talk about is the Maintenance rooms. At one point in the game you will receive the skeleton key to these maintenance rooms, allowing you access to every single one of them. What do these rooms do? They allow you to combine shit with duct tape. Take for instance a baseball bat and a box of nails. Yes, you duct tape the nails on to the bat, what’s your problem? Or you can Wolverine boxing gloves and machetes. Or you can create a light saber. Or a lot more cool shit that you just need to find out for yourself. This is where you’ll have a lot of fun. Creating these tools of destruction is loads of fun and you’ll definitely enjoy splattering zombies with your newly made gear.

Oh and here’s a tip for all you players out there: there are books in the game that can be found in a book store or a book stand that will allow you to upgrade stats like health or weapon durability.

Complaints

I’ve encountered a few things that are definitely complain worthy, which I will now address.

For one thing, Case Files don’t necessarily mesh all too well with the survivors and shit. Right after Chef Antoine, there’s a case file that seperates you from any survivor you have with you … VIA A VEHICLE CHASE. And you have to do this otherwise you’re boned. So that means that you have to go back about a fucking ten minute walk and pick up the stragglers, lead them back to the top and get back home even though your timer is running out as it is. Although that did give me a big lol when I found an underground exit that was a metal ladder going up. And I had Skittles with me so I was imaging them hoisting up a tiger all the way back to the safe house.

Another thing is the partner A.I. Yo guys, I AM NOT A ZOMBIE. I may get bitten every two seconds, but I’m not a fucking Zombie. Capiche? SO THEN STOP HITTING ME.

Last complaint that I have is that I am way to likely to hit friendly NPC’s. Targeting is pretty much basic as you point Chuck one way and he’ll just swing for it. So you’re very likely to hit friends which means that they’ll turn on you eventually or … well, die.

Praise

Yup.

Final Thoughts

Dead Rising 2 is a game not for everyone. It’s a sandbox game and so many people think GTA styled gameplay, whilst in fact it plays a whole lot more like Mafia 2, only that you have a lot more options to do in Dead Rising 2.
One thing is for sure, this game is worth every penny as you’ll more than likely get loads of playtime out of it. Because after the 72 hours, there’s still a lot more story to go if you managed to solve all the cases.
And as I said, you can follow the story or do fuck all and just have a blast. You’ll still get an ending. Which is actually quite unique for a sandbox game.

8/10

And a Rent First recommendation if you’re still on the fritz after reading this review. This has been Puddle Jumper with a Dead Rising 2 review for Teh Pwn Shop. See you later.

Chuck Greene > Frank West