Nukezilla Review: Dead Rising 2 (Xbox 360)

It’s no secret Capcom’s global development strategy has put them on a roller coaster ride over the past few years. Dead Rising was released nine months into the Xbox 360’s life in the US. Development was overseen by legendary producer, Keiji Inafune of Mega Man and Onimusha fame. Reaction to the title was mixed with many complaints focusing on the game’s steep learning curve, time-based missions, single save slot and a tendency for its triggering of the now infamous “Red Ring of Death”.

My launch Xbox 360’s disc drive was put to rest on account of Dead Rising’s excessive disc accessing and my near-obsessively long play sessions. When Dead Rising 2 was announced as being developed by a relatively unknown Canadian studio (whose only previous high profile releases were The Bigs 1&2 for 2K Games), fans of the first game feared Capcom had given the keys to their most promising new franchise to the wrong castle.

Enter Dead Rising 2: Case Zero. In a surprising move, a prequel episode of the final product, Dead Rising 2: Case Zero was released for 400 MSP exclusively available on Xbox Live. Regardless of critics’ opinion of this strategy, Capcom had a massive success with Case Zero as the game broke records for week one purchases on XBL. The game offered a preview of new features, such as the weapon combination system and an introduction to Chuck Greene and his daughter Katey.

Chuck’s daughter has been infected with the zombie virus, which is now treatable with a controversial drug, Zombrex. This new mechanic added yet another time-based objective to the original game’s formula of surviving 72 hours with constantly expiring rescue and plot related missions. My initial impressions on the demo were downright negative.

In the 4 years since the first Dead Rising, I had forgotten how clunky and unintuitive the combat controls were in Dead Rising. Blue Castle, while improving many aspects of the game’s mission structure, did little to change the basic mechanics from the first title. I initially dismissed the game, but after some convincing by a friend at work, I gave the game another stab (and another, and another yet again). You see, the magic of Dead Rising 2: Case Zero was its short length and verisimilitude with both DR and the then soon to be released Dead Rising 2.

Once I got over the frustration that none of the core mechanics of the game had received an overhaul, I began to enjoy it for all of the fantastic new toys offered up and the pure joy of massacring shambling hordes of the undead. To date, Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is the first and only Xbox 360 title where I have obtained 100% of the achievements. I gained enough PP (experience points) to boost Chuck up to level five in the full game and eagerly awaited the impending release.

The full game delivers on all of the promise and disappointment I came to expect thanks to Case Zero. Fortune City offers a larger playground compared to Frank West’s (he’s covered wars, you know) Willamette Mall. Here, a majority of the zones are split fifty-fifty between casinos and exaggerated, themed American malls. Unfortunately, while impressively detailed and opulent, the scenery doesn’t have much of an impact on the overall experience.

Unless you abandon the main plot of the game, which is allowed, every story mission plays out with you running from point A to point B (and sometimes points C, D and E) killing zombies that get in your way and escorting civilians to safety. Your followers are a lot more self-sufficient this time around but still require infrequent pathfinding assistance. Most will take the weapons you offer, including pistols and shotguns.

Each survivor has their own story and personality, but the audible presentation is limited to a few words of complaint or encouragement as all of their dialogue is delivered via text prompt. This method of delivery is something that’s downright depressing for a game released in 2010.

There are occasional breaks to the repetitive point-to-point mission structure, but with few notable exceptions. There are looters that appear in the mall’s shops from time to time and groups of armed mercenaries to take care of as well, but neither of these enemies present a significant challenge. Occasionally, you’ll be tasked with taking out a merc team and disabling their equipment, but nearly every other mission in the game involves traversing the map through the ever increasing mobs of the undead. The best action sequences are presented in the cutscenes, though thankfully there are no quick time events.

Whenever you complete a mission or mini-boss, deliver Zombrex to Katey or defeat a mini-boss, the game likes to show off its dark and sexually immature sense of humor. The psychopaths make a return as the game’s enraged and absurdly deranged mini-bosses. Fighting any of the game’s psychos is futile until you get a hefty number of levels under your belt. This time around you can exit the area of the fight after you trigger their introduction cutscene, similar to losing aggro in an MMO, but I felt compelled to defeat them on the spot which made the first handful of encounters miserable.

Dead Rising 2‘s real superstar feature is the combination system which replaces Frank’s photography as your source of bonus PP. A subset of the game’s plentiful items are labeled with a wrench icon. These items can be combined to make a bizarre tool of destruction or a hilarious sight gag, some of which never seem to get old. There are approximately 50 combinations to create, but bizarrely a large sampling of these combinations are placed directly outside of the game’s limited number of construction rooms. There is a system in place to help you keep track of the valid item combinations. Scratch Cards are awarded when you stumble onto a weapon combo on your own, but don’t provide you with any bonus PP. You can create all possible combinations without possessing the Combo Cards. Combo Cards are awarded when you reach a certain level, discover a combo via in-game movie posters, kill a specific psycho or save a special survivor.

At first it seemed helpful to have both items in close proximity to the workbench where Chuck creates his impromptu masterpieces, but a larger matrix of combinations or more obscure pairings would have made discovering each one more exciting.  I found myself completely ignoring non-combo weapons early on. By my second playthrough I ended up sticking with my personal favorite: knife gloves.

Also new to the mix this time around is online play. There’s a competitive multiplayer mode called TIR (Terror Is Reality) where you can compete against other contestants in short online score challenge mini-games. Think American Gladiators crossed with zombies. The games are pretty terrible and won’t keep your interest for much more than one short evening, however they do offer a great way to boost Chuck’s wallet quickly. I averaged $50k per completed set of ranked matches. None of this matters by your second playthrough because you’ll have figured out how to break the game’s economy, but it’s very helpful early on; allowing you to purchase Katey’s Zombrex medication and powerful weapons from the ramshackle pawn stores that are littered throughout the map.

The co-op mode is a wonder. It is completely broken in some very critical areas (like the save system), but enjoyable throughout. The person hosting the game sets the game’s story progress and mission markers. Your friend, or random drop-in partner (unless you reject them or set your game to private) acts as Chuck’s invisible doppelganger. Chuck #2 can wear any custom costume and will accumulate PP and cash, but not story progress.

There are no co-op specific changes to the single player experience, but playing through the game with a friend is astonishingly fun. Dead Rising 2 goes from being tense and frustrating to exhilarating. My co-op experience was limited to a complete replay of the story from beginning to end where I started at high level with a maxed out partner. We blew through each boss battle with ease and completed the time-sensitive rescue side missions hours ahead of schedule.

There was one point where we had no tasks available to complete for nearly 10 hours, so we roamed the map looking for secret areas and hidden missions, of which there are many. If you are playing the game in single player and finding it too difficult, co-op is probably the best solution to your problems. But as with any online game the experience is only as good the communication with your partner will allow.

In the same vein as Dead Rising before it, Dead Rising 2 is a game that is packed with fun surprising experiences. Interacting with NPCs and objects in the game world is a chore; one that is only improved upon in small, but appreciated degrees here. With all of its collectibles, hidden items and survivors, Dead Rising 2 offers a daunting challenge for completionists, but one that is reduced with the aide of a knowledgeable friend.

Blue Castle did what no other “western” developer has been able to do with a Capcom franchise as of late: stay true to the original experience, slavishly so in areas, but also retain what worked in the first place and build upon it. Dead Rising 2 is not a perfect game, but if you can stomach the awkward controls, laughable B-Movie story and constant nagging fear of time running out you may find a lot to like here.