Review – Dead Rising 2 0
Despite my last post’s rant about load times, there is still a game here to be played – and reviewed. Dead Rising 2, now under development by Blue Castle Games, takes place after the first game, and in a Las Vegas inspired setting. Unfortunately the setting is too similar to the first. It’s really just a mall. But again, there is a game here to be played.
I might not remember the first as much, but this is very much survivor focused. You can get by without killing many zombies, although, that’s really the fun part. What’s introduced here is weapon crafting. Various weapons can be combined in maintenance rooms to create some badass weaponry that really helps out when swimming through an ocean of the undead or taking out psychos. Beside that crafting element, it is essentially the same game as the first. With some other tweaks.
Rescuing survivors is quite easy. I didn’t really have to worry about them getting lost or killed by zombies. Two I didn’t rescue were due to me accidentally defecting them. One, actually required a combo’d weapon of sorts that trigger a gameplay event. This is not as common as it could have been, but is used to also thwart psychopaths. Out of all of the psychos I found, one, I couldn’t find out how to get to (you’ll see), and another required said weapon combo of some kind that I didn’t figure out (I’m assuming. This guy wouldn’t die). Speaking of psychos, they were rather easy to kill. Just have health on you and take the heat as you melee up close. Make sure to use a weapon combo. Though, psychopath story lines were generally pretty lame, and I tended to just skip them to get to the fight.
Graphics are OK. The motion blur is gone, which I preferred. The textures also aren’t some of the hottest, but they sure did a great job with the ladies. Also, there were many times with frame-rate slow-down. I think it’s quite inexcusable that this occurs, especially coupled with the load times. It passes though. The story here is alright. Not as zany as a true Japanese-developed game would get, but still seems to be the type of game to introduce gameplay elements and try to explain within the plot down the road. No complaints. I got to ending ‘A’ on the first try. I think it was a good ending, and slightly emotional.
I think the game is certainly worth the asking price. There’s really a lot to do here and many things I have yet to do. It plays like the first game, just a lot easier. I not once had to restart the game. I played this three days in a row non-stop, addicted to what the game offers. I haven’t even touched the online mode to gain extra cash, or even co-op. I’m assuming co-op bumps this up quite a bit. I just hope the next game incorporates a unique setting, similar to Case Zero. The mall got old.
