Dead Rising Sequel Set in SoCal, has Themes of Illegal Immigration
Dead Rising: Off the Record came out just two months ago, but given Capcom’s history of running IPs into the ground it really shouldn’t surprise anyone that another one appears to be on its way. They are making some interesting choices this time though.
According to a report by Siliconera, the game will be set in the fictional California/Mexico border town of Los Perdidos, CA. The game will feature a new protagonist, a mechanic named Rick, who is attempting to repair an airplane to escape not only the zombie outbreak, but being caught up in the solution to the outbreak, a la Return of the Living Dead.
The more interesting part of the story has to be the suggestion of themes of illegal immigration the game plans to deal with. Now other, not so serious media have dealt with the issue just fine, but I’m a little concerned in this case. Not because its a videogame, but because of its source. If Capcom Vancouver (formerly Blue Castle Games) handles the development like on Dead Rising 2, I won’t be as worried, but Japan doesn’t exactly have the best record dealing with issues of race and ethnicity. This could go south in a hurry if they aren’t careful.
Man, I would love it if it was a Japanese studio trying to tackle illegal immigration. It’d be the most awful, offensive, near-sighted, hilarious thing that series can do from here, except maybe set it in Afghanistan.