|
Dead Rising 2
For such a hideously disfigured premise,
the world has embraced zombies with open arms. Yes my dead readers… err
dear readers,
we love zombies and once again THQ have returned us to the wonderful
universe of Dead Rising. In Dead Rising 2, players take control
of Chuck Greene, hero extraordinaire and closest psychopath because he
does enjoy a zombie bashing or two. Unfortunately for Chuck, his
daughter was bitten by a zonbie but thankfully, a drug called Zombrex
was available that retards the zombie process, provided they continue to
take the drug.
In order to save his daughter, Chuck was
forced to sign up for a strange game show called Terror is Reality in
order to win the funds needs for his daughter but not everything goes
according to plan. And here we are again, in Fortune City, a Las Vegas
type city that has become overrun with zombies and our hero is straight
in the middle of it all, being accused of unleashing the undead into the
city.
Your job is simple, keep searching for
medication for your daughter, kill an unlimited number of zombies using
any means possible and clear your name. Want some politics as well?
You’ve got it because the pro-zombie organisation called CURE are the
ones responsible for sectioning off the zombies until a “cure” is found
and those infected can be reversed. That's the beauty of Dead Rising 2,
the great back story that not only pays homage to the original but
progresses on the ideas.
The game contains quite a few zombie
clichés such as the sexy reporter or the Heavy Metal Man that can use
their instruments to dispatch zombies... just think of any zombie movie
and you'll see that person here, whether as a supporting cast member for
Chuck or as a zombie. Okay, so we’ve established a rather cool story and
an interesting protagonist named Chuck Greene but what about the number
one factor in a game… the gameplay?
This game is deliciously entertaining as
you are literally thrown into every Zombie movie created as you hack,
shoot, bash, maim, drive, insert a hundred more Zombie takedowns of your
choice to survive in this zombie infested city. As you’re killing these
zombies, Chuck has access to a wardrobe that would make a woman blush
that includes serious items of clothes such as uniforms to something
Daisy Duke would wear and even a Borat mankini that although looks
disturbing is truly a Champaign comedy moment.
To the game itself, Dead Rising 2 is an
open world game, however there are a variety of objectives and missions
that need to be achieved and to make things challenging, there is a
clock counting down. So as your juggling to ensure that your daughter
has her Zombrex medication or you need to perform task A and B, it does
become quite challenging at times and the best part of the game is that
there are a variety of different ways of finishing this game. This opens
the game up for several more plays in order to see the different
cutscenes.
For gameplay, Dead Rising 2 is a presented
in a third person format but combat plays an integral part of the title.
You can virtually use just about anything in the game to dispatch your
zombie attackers such as sledgehammers, bins or proper weapons like shot
guns. Another cool aspect of the combat engine in Dead Rising 2 is that
you can link certain items together to create new weapons and this is a
fun part of the game, trying to think of ridiculous weapons to kill the
undead. For example, a blower that knives attached to it. Then you have
vehicles which is another fun way of disposing these undead creatures.
Another key to combat are combo cards which
are rewarded to the player by completing a set number of tasks such as
rescuing the living or killing zombie bosses. In turn these cards are
used to “power-up” your weapons and create some over the top takedowns.
Levelling plays another role in the game and by completing objectives
and killing zombies, this helps to “power-up” Chuck and by the end of
the game, you could easily be considered a superhero. Levelling also
helps unlock various new fighting techniques as well, which in turn
inspires the gamer to continue playing because you always know you’ll be
nicely rewarded with something, whether new statistics or some cool new
zombie takedown.
The control system on the PS3 is well
mapped and both novice and experts of the Dead Rising universe should
have no issues in picking up the controller and start playing. The only
annoying aspect of the control system is when you get too close to a
zombie and sometimes you have to struggle with the controller to get
away but if you think about zombie law from movies, this is rather
accurate… it’s just a little frustrating. To compliment the
single-player, Dead Rising 2 contains a fun co-op mode that actually
makes the gameplay a little easy due to combined strategy and a game
based on the Terror is Reality that is quite reminiscent of Running Man
but there are zombies here as opposed to prisoners. The cool thing about
playing this mode is that any cash earned here can be used for Chuck in
the main game.
Graphically, Dead Rising 2 is a very good looking game and even though
it’s overly populated by zombies, the frame rate remains quite constant.
Apparently the number of zombies displayed on screen at once is tens
time more than the original. On FULL HD, the graphics are extremely
detailed and the characters look quite very realistic. The backgrounds
of Dead Rising 2 look a little clean but other things make up for this
lack of dirtiness like the special effects and lighting. One issue with
the graphics are the load times which is probably due to the amount of
zombies on screen at once which is a little annoying. The cutscenes
however are fun as is the soundtrack and more particular the over the
top voice acting that is oozing with clichés and euphemisms. Your
co-stars in the game are fantastic with some great one-liners and then
you have all the grunts and screams of the zombies that sounds
phenomenal through a surround sound system.
This is what gaming should be about
sometimes, a mindless and fun destructive experience as you dispatch
zombie after zombie. Thankfully the story enhances the overall gameplay
that features a plethora of genres from comedy to horror and even
romance. The main character in Dead Rising 2, Chuck Greene is quite a
likeable fellow, so it's easy for the player to relate to this man
forced to fend for himself in order to save his daughter. Great stuff! |
