Double Down- Dead Rising 2 Review

One of the irrefutable highlights of the 2005 of the Electronic Entertainment Expo was the original Dead Rising. The game was an ideal showcase of the capabilities of the soon to be released Microsoft 360, displaying dozens of reanimated corpses shambling around a series of well-detailed environments. For someone who grew up worshiping George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, the concept of being able to direct a character through an undead-overrun mall was nothing less than awe-inspiring.

Sadly, Dead Rising‘s aspirations were impeded by a number of enigmatic design decisions. While slaughtering hordes of zombies with provisional hardware was suitably visceral, the title’s prohibitive save system, inept AI characters, and  insipid protagonist often diminished any primal pleasures. Despite a pan-Pacific shift in development studios, Dead Rising 2 corrects many of the nagging problems of its predecessor. While the game still has its share of blemishes, those troubled by the first game’s design might want to consider a brief sojourn to Fortune City’s expansive landscapes.

Professional motocross racer and reluctant reality television star Chuck Greene’s plight presents a far more resonant impetus that Frank West’s journalistic intentions. A vicious siege in Las Vegas left Green’s wife dead and his daughter infected by the virus. Transitory hope exists in Zombrex, a drug which has the ability to delay zombification, but the remedy is in extremely short supply. Although Dead Rising 2‘s subtext isn’t as powerful as Romero’s riffs on race or consumerism, it does offer a cursory examination of human behavior. Beyond using the game’s apocalyptic setting to show a variety of coping styles (typically ranging from opportunistic to psychotic ), the game serves as a litmus test for players. Do you feel a moral obligation to rescue as many survivors as possible or is the lure of obliterating the undead in increasing perverse ways more of a temptation?

Beyond this moral quandary, Dead Rising 2 rarely takes itself too seriously. Like its predecessor, the game presents a series of interconnected maps brimming with a myriad of comical methods to annihilate the undead. From children’s toys, hardware, weaponry, and furniture, most environmental objects can be reappropriated into tools for gratuitous zombie bloodletting. Players may even generate certain devices out of two found objects. Take a Blanka mask and car battery to the workbench, and you’ll generate a morbidly amusing death shroud called Roaring Thunder. Unlike most of the title’s equipment which has a woefully abbreviated life span, these amalgamated contraptions last longer, as well as grant players additional experience points. 

While players may experiment to uncover different death-dealing devices on their own, specific blueprints for some of the more unusual devices are sporadically offered by rescuing a survivor. Fortunately, Dead Rising 2‘s helpless denizens display little of the foolishness displayed by the original title. No longer do gamers have to escort belligerent half-wits; NPC’s do a much better job at keeping pace with the player. With the additional assistance of a co-op partner, the tedium of saving survivors is rarely exhibited. The synergy of having one player play offensive linesman while the other directs the AI, proved to be enduring. Too bad the same can’t be said of Terror is Reality, the online multiplayer competition- while do you get to transfer your winning into the campaign, the component’s slack controls and simple mechanics won’t hold a players attention for long.

Although Dead Rising 2‘s faults are spare, they are conspicuous. Some will bemoan the often rigid time limits, which forbids players from fully exploring the fascinating landscape their first time through. At times the title can feel like going to Disneyland with an obsessive-compulsive scheduler, as you race around each of Fortune City’s locations without taking the time to appreciate them. Performance-wise, the game’s occasionally pixelated textures and recurrent load times are no match for more contemporary engines.

Players habituated to the ‘play-beat-abandon’ cycle of gaming might be disappointed by Dead Rising 2. Most likely, a single play-though will only reveal a fraction of Fortune City’s intricacies, as participants are shepherded through the game’s locations. Despite access to armaments like a teddy bear sentry gun, persistence might just be the more formidable weapon of all.