Dead Rising 2

This week, i picked up my copy of Dead Rising 2, ready for some mindless, zombie killing fun. And while I did indeed get that; i honestly got more than i expected. Allow me to elaborate in my review.

Dead Rising 2 is a zombie based action game developed by Capcom and Blue Castle Games. It's out now for the PS3, X-Box 360 and PC; and is a sequel to Dead Rising.

STORY
Dead Rising 2 follows Chuck Greene, a survivor of a previous zombie outbreak; and his daughter, Katey, as they get caught up in the latest Zombie outbreak, this time in Fortune City. This is where things get interesting, you see, Dead Rising is one of those games where absolutely everything is optional.
You may do the main story missions, and save chucks daughter with her medicine... or you may just ignore all that and kill zombies for the 75 in game hours you have.

When it comes down to it, you are Chuck. You are trapped in Fortune City, with thousands of hungry zombies and 75 hours to kill. The summary of this game is pretty much, play it your way.

While completely optional, the actual story was better than i had initially expected. Its got its twists and turns, and has a unique gameplay feature, in that every mission is timed. You didn't complete an objective in time? The story has been failed, and you get a new ending. This also adds a new layer of difficulty.

PRESENTATION
So, DR2 isn't the best looking game, but it certainly is adequate to say the least. People look how they should, but the game lacks any CG cutscenes; so all the story driven cutscenes are performed within the game engine. Helping the look of the game are the various locations there are within Fortune City.
Places like the Western Themed casino or the under construction hotel really add some variety to the locations you experience in Chuck's adventure.
ALSO there are a cubic buttload of zombies on screen at once, with minimal technical issues; which is a feat in itself.

Now, there is also some horrible pieces of dialogue. Theres nothing wrong with the voices saying the lines, but the lines themselves are atrocious. The script is full of innuendo and horrible puns; so bad that it makes the script kind of endearing. That doesn't excuse it from being horrible though.

Along with some fairly good voice acting, the soundtrack to the game is really quite excellent. From mall style music (similar to elevator music), to heavy metal music for the "boss fights"; Dead Rising really does create a unique feel with its in game music.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay of DR2 has 3 main focus points. First of all, Zombie Killing: it's really quite entertaining, even though its more or less the same action over and over again. The variety of weapons AND weapon Combos really makes the zombie killing experience a more unique one than games like, say, Left 4 Dead.
While guns are available, your main arsenal will consist of every day items you'll find in the casino/mall city that you're trapped in.

Second of all, you have the fetch quests. These include saving survivors and getting items for certain saved survivors (or medicine for your daughter). As well as these, though not really "Fetch Quests", are the "Boss Fights". All of these missions are set to a time limit; which normally lasts a few in game hours.

This leads us to the 3rd gameplay mechanic; Time Management. In Dead Rising 2, you're required to do any of the missions you choose, in the time that has been set. This is displayed by a bar in the right side of the screen.
This makes it easy to know exactly how much time you have left to do a certain task, and allows you to figure out what you want to do with your time; as not every mission can be accomplished.

Everything in the game gives you Prestige Points, which allows you to level Chuck up. PP is earned from killing zombies, saving survivors, killing psychopaths, or doing certain random tasks (such as rolling a seven on the giant craps table).
Levelling up gets Chuck new skills and higher levels of health, speed and attack damage; making each replay easier and easier.

My biggest problems with the game are as follows. First of all, at lower levels, some of the boss fights are absolutely cheap and rather difficult; while offering very little in the way of hints to defeat them. Secondly, if you die, you get transported to your last save. While I applaud this title for using this mechanic to make the game more difficult, I find it annoying when I forget to save, then get gang raped by fifty zombies. Oh well, perhaps that's my fault.
Also, money is sometimes hard to come by (aside from a few missions). Though not essential to the gameplay experience; to get some cool additions to the game, you will need money.

REPLAYABILITY
As it stands, I have played through Dead Rising 2 three times; and yet I haven't gotten all of the endings yet; let alone found all the combo cards, or survivors; and i have a hell of a lot more zombies to kill.
This game offers a lot of mindless zombie killing; and anyone who picks this up is practically guaranteed to play it again, if only to level Chuck up to the level cap.

As well as this, DR2 offers the "Terror Is Reality" multiplayer mode; where players compete in various zombie killing games for in-game money. While not a core part of the game, it offers an excellent distraction to the main game. Think of Dead Rising 2 as a big juicy piece of steak; well the T.I.R games are like the big, golden, crunchy chips that are served with it. God I'm hungry.

Lets not forget about the trophies/achievements for all you hunters and whores out there. Some of them are really a lot of fun, and I intend to get as many as I can. Happy hunting!

OVERVIEW
Dead Rising 2 isn't the most intricate, arty game around. And it doesn't ever try to be. Dead Rising knows what it does best, and that's Mindless Zombie Massacre. However, in addition to this, Dead Rising 2 also offers a surprisingly well thought out story, and lots of variety; in both locations, music and combat.

It also offers a lot of replayability, so if you like killing zombies, you will cream yourself over Dead Rising 2. Unless you're more into guns and fast sprinter zombies (as opposed to the classic slow movers), in which case, GO BACK TO LEFT 4 DEAD!

Should hopefully have a review of FIFA 11 between now and next Thursday, in a special edition of Tophat Gamer; if not, go to hell. See you next time! =D