Game title: Dead Rising 2
Consoles: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Developer: Capcom
Release date: September 24, 2010 (PS3 and Xbox 360), September 28, 2010 (PC)
Pregame:
Zombies are real, everybody knows it, and nobody cares. That's the setting for Dead Rising 2. Well, some people care, but most like to make fun of them. It's vaguely reminiscent of the ending of Shaun of the Dead, where everyone just accepts zombies as a fact of life and moves on.
In Dead Rising 2, there actually exists a game show - ironically named "Terror is Reality" - that's all about killing zombies. This is filmed in front of a live audience right in the center of the fictional Fortune City, Nevada, America's entertainment playground - now that Las Vegas is a zombie wasteland.
Think about that for a second, TV executives. You made a show full of the living dead and filmed it in the middle of a densely populated city, then filled the stands with hundreds of potential zombies (i.e. normal humans). This seemed like a good idea?
Play-by-play:
Naturally, the zombies break out, and the new protagonist, Chuck, is framed for the outbreak. Chuck hears about this on national news from a reporter broadcasting live in the heart of Fortune City. Wait, what? She's reporting on location in the middle of a zombie outbreak? Listen lady, this isn't some pansy-ass hurricane and you're not Jim Cantore. Seriously, this game is one terrible idea stacked on top of another.
Now Chuck must practically wade though crowds of zombies to uncover the plot that has him framed, and he has just three days to do it. Why break the formula, y'know?
Speaking of formula, the concept of the game is pretty much the same as the original Dead Rising. There's a city full of zombies where you have to complete various missions and save bystanders, but the rest is up to you. The missions and bystanders once again take a backseat to simply shredding zombies for fun, and creative and brutal ways to do so are the core of the game's entertainment value.
So what's a game developer to do when the old standbys like bowling balls, TVs, benches, red-hot frying pans, gumball machines, garbage cans, guitars, cash registers, guns, knives, swords, sinks, books and lawnmowers get old?
The answer is combo weapons. This may have been a bit obvious from the box art, but these things can get fairly ridiculous. Players can combine two basic weapons to make something truly vicious... or just really silly. Case in point: the Fountain Lizard. Chuck can make one of these using fountain fireworks and a lizard head mask, then jam it on a zombie's head to turn him into a fire-breathing Godzilla impersonator.
There are a ton of other combinations, ranging from your basic baseball bat and nails combo to hooking up a fire extinguisher to a water gun to make an ice blaster. You'd be surprised what'll actually combine. I had a bag full of gems and a flashlight and Chuck ended up holding a lightsaber. Technically it's a "laser sword," but it still cuts zombies in half, so I'm not picky.
The first game's timing system is back, much to my displeasure. Every mission has a starting time deadline, and if you miss it, the mission disappears. This applies to main story missions as well, and if you miss one of those, the rest of the story is locked. If you want to do every single mission, you better lace up your Nikes and not look back. Thankfully, starting a new game maintains Chuck's level, meaning that all the increased health, speed, damage, etc. will carry over.
Since subsequent playthroughs will be easier, it's common for players to spend a while shredding through zombies and levelling up, then tackle the story missions. For the most part, zombies are easier to kill than lemmings, but stats gained will help with boss fights and general mobility. There are stronger zombie versions that appear later on in the game, and a crowd of these will make you wish for the good old days when zombies were slow and weak.
As for me, I went for the plot right out of the gate, meaning I missed a fair amount of sidequests. One quest you cannot miss - if you're not a monster - is finding and administering Zombrex (a drug that delays zombification by 24 hours) to Chuck's daughter once a day.
Speaking of poor little Katey, she's handling all this remarkably well. The little tyke is 7 years old and this is her second zombie outbreak, and she lost her mother along with a sliver of her humanity in the first one. Despite all that trauma, Katey doesn't seem scared or even sad for 99% of the game. She just sits on her couch with her headphones on and plays her game, which looks a bit like a red PSP, while society collapses around her. A gamer to the core.
Chuck, on the other hand, isn't so much brave in the face of danger as he is utterly devoid of human emotion, barring the occasional angry outburst. His face seems to be composed entirely of cardboard that's been bashed in with a shovel; it's scarily flat and sports a permanent scowl. Occasionally, he'll do a half-smile in a cutscene, but it looks forced, like he's an actor unconvincingly playing the role of Chuck Greene. For reference, imagine Lewis Black trying to look genuinely happy. There you go.
The fact that Chuck will appear in a cutscene sporting whatever clothing he had on when the cutscene started doesn't help ground the performance. It's hard to keep a striaght face when you're trying to have an emotional moment while wearing a beer bottle hat. It is, however, hilarious.
There are characters that actually have personalites, but they're not the good guys. They're the psychopath boss fights that pop up occasionally on sidequests. They are truly demented, and despite their outlandish nature, many of them are just disturbing.
Take Brandon, for example. He's a dreadlocked super-hippy following Chuck's supposed example by helping the zombie virus spread "equality." Brandon comes across as twisted and sick, and it makes him a really creepy villain. Others are hugely overblown, like the Deliverance rednecks sniping survivors for fun, but a few are surprisingly dark. However, those moments lose their flair when Chuck stumbles into them wielding a lawn dart.
Final Call:
It seems mean to say "just ignore the story and the characters and it's a great game," but there isn't really a nicer way to say it. What this game lacks in plot and characterization it makes up in sandbox-y fun. If you like, you can let the story time out and just run around like a zombie-seeking wrecking ball until you feel like doing otherwise. You can always start fresh with newly earned skills and higher stats.
That's exactly what I'd recommend, actually. Go forth and lay waste. Play through the story at some point, but do so at your leisure. Hang out, level up, try out some combo weapons, put on some new clothes and enjoy the game.
You can even do so with a friend via online co-op, although there is sadly no split-screen co-op. Online co-op is the same as single player story mode, but there are two Chucks at once to cause twice the mayhem. If you feel like shredding zombies mini-game style, you can also play "Terror is Reality" online to earn in-game money to use in single player mode. Ramsterball is a personal favorite mini-game.
Overall, this game has plenty to do. A ton of missions, a couple dozen psychopaths, hundreds of weapons, a few vehicles, and droves of zombies just waiting for you. Rev up the chainsaws, duct tape them to your kayak paddles, and get to it.
Consoles: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Developer: Capcom
Release date: September 24, 2010 (PS3 and Xbox 360), September 28, 2010 (PC)
Pregame:
In Dead Rising 2, there actually exists a game show - ironically named "Terror is Reality" - that's all about killing zombies. This is filmed in front of a live audience right in the center of the fictional Fortune City, Nevada, America's entertainment playground - now that Las Vegas is a zombie wasteland.
Think about that for a second, TV executives. You made a show full of the living dead and filmed it in the middle of a densely populated city, then filled the stands with hundreds of potential zombies (i.e. normal humans). This seemed like a good idea?
Play-by-play:
Naturally, the zombies break out, and the new protagonist, Chuck, is framed for the outbreak. Chuck hears about this on national news from a reporter broadcasting live in the heart of Fortune City. Wait, what? She's reporting on location in the middle of a zombie outbreak? Listen lady, this isn't some pansy-ass hurricane and you're not Jim Cantore. Seriously, this game is one terrible idea stacked on top of another.
Now Chuck must practically wade though crowds of zombies to uncover the plot that has him framed, and he has just three days to do it. Why break the formula, y'know?
Speaking of formula, the concept of the game is pretty much the same as the original Dead Rising. There's a city full of zombies where you have to complete various missions and save bystanders, but the rest is up to you. The missions and bystanders once again take a backseat to simply shredding zombies for fun, and creative and brutal ways to do so are the core of the game's entertainment value.
So what's a game developer to do when the old standbys like bowling balls, TVs, benches, red-hot frying pans, gumball machines, garbage cans, guitars, cash registers, guns, knives, swords, sinks, books and lawnmowers get old?
There are a ton of other combinations, ranging from your basic baseball bat and nails combo to hooking up a fire extinguisher to a water gun to make an ice blaster. You'd be surprised what'll actually combine. I had a bag full of gems and a flashlight and Chuck ended up holding a lightsaber. Technically it's a "laser sword," but it still cuts zombies in half, so I'm not picky.
The first game's timing system is back, much to my displeasure. Every mission has a starting time deadline, and if you miss it, the mission disappears. This applies to main story missions as well, and if you miss one of those, the rest of the story is locked. If you want to do every single mission, you better lace up your Nikes and not look back. Thankfully, starting a new game maintains Chuck's level, meaning that all the increased health, speed, damage, etc. will carry over.
Since subsequent playthroughs will be easier, it's common for players to spend a while shredding through zombies and levelling up, then tackle the story missions. For the most part, zombies are easier to kill than lemmings, but stats gained will help with boss fights and general mobility. There are stronger zombie versions that appear later on in the game, and a crowd of these will make you wish for the good old days when zombies were slow and weak.
As for me, I went for the plot right out of the gate, meaning I missed a fair amount of sidequests. One quest you cannot miss - if you're not a monster - is finding and administering Zombrex (a drug that delays zombification by 24 hours) to Chuck's daughter once a day.
Chuck, on the other hand, isn't so much brave in the face of danger as he is utterly devoid of human emotion, barring the occasional angry outburst. His face seems to be composed entirely of cardboard that's been bashed in with a shovel; it's scarily flat and sports a permanent scowl. Occasionally, he'll do a half-smile in a cutscene, but it looks forced, like he's an actor unconvincingly playing the role of Chuck Greene. For reference, imagine Lewis Black trying to look genuinely happy. There you go.
The fact that Chuck will appear in a cutscene sporting whatever clothing he had on when the cutscene started doesn't help ground the performance. It's hard to keep a striaght face when you're trying to have an emotional moment while wearing a beer bottle hat. It is, however, hilarious.
There are characters that actually have personalites, but they're not the good guys. They're the psychopath boss fights that pop up occasionally on sidequests. They are truly demented, and despite their outlandish nature, many of them are just disturbing.Take Brandon, for example. He's a dreadlocked super-hippy following Chuck's supposed example by helping the zombie virus spread "equality." Brandon comes across as twisted and sick, and it makes him a really creepy villain. Others are hugely overblown, like the Deliverance rednecks sniping survivors for fun, but a few are surprisingly dark. However, those moments lose their flair when Chuck stumbles into them wielding a lawn dart.
Final Call:
It seems mean to say "just ignore the story and the characters and it's a great game," but there isn't really a nicer way to say it. What this game lacks in plot and characterization it makes up in sandbox-y fun. If you like, you can let the story time out and just run around like a zombie-seeking wrecking ball until you feel like doing otherwise. You can always start fresh with newly earned skills and higher stats.
That's exactly what I'd recommend, actually. Go forth and lay waste. Play through the story at some point, but do so at your leisure. Hang out, level up, try out some combo weapons, put on some new clothes and enjoy the game.
You can even do so with a friend via online co-op, although there is sadly no split-screen co-op. Online co-op is the same as single player story mode, but there are two Chucks at once to cause twice the mayhem. If you feel like shredding zombies mini-game style, you can also play "Terror is Reality" online to earn in-game money to use in single player mode. Ramsterball is a personal favorite mini-game.
Overall, this game has plenty to do. A ton of missions, a couple dozen psychopaths, hundreds of weapons, a few vehicles, and droves of zombies just waiting for you. Rev up the chainsaws, duct tape them to your kayak paddles, and get to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment