Good morning everyone.
Last month Xbox Live Gold subscribers got access to some free games, among those titles was Dead Rising 2.
I've never played any of the Dead Rising entries but I've heard it was a really great game. Dead Rising 2 is the first game I have played in the series and I'm glad I didn't spend money on this.
Story
Dead Rising 2 takes place 5 years after the events of the original Dead Rising. Chuck Green, a former motocross champion, is currently in the fictional casino town Fortune City, Nevada, Chuck is taking part in a controversial sports show known as Terror Is Reality, a game show in which participating contestants kill zombies for fame and fortune.
Chuck is taking part in the show in order to win the prize money to buy Zombrex, a daily medication which suppresses the zombification process, he needs the Zombrex for his daughter Katey who was bitten by her mother who turned to a zombie in an outbreak that happened in Las Vegas a while back.
While Chuck is backstage the show's zombies is released causing a massive outbreak, Chuck rescues Katey to make it to a safe house and begins his journey to fight through the zombie infested casino town for Zombrex to make sure Katey doesn't turn into a zombie.
Chuck must make sure Katey gets a dose of Zombrex for the next 3 days before the military arrives, this becomes more difficult as a news broadcast that supposedly has video of the culprit behind the outbreak shows that the person responsible for the outbreak is Chuck Greene himself, Chuck has been framed for the outbreak on Fortune City, if the military arrives before Chuck can clear his name, Chuck will not be able to see his daughter again.
----------------------------------------------------
It's quite an interesting story, the more you dive deeper into the plot of the game it's actually quite stunning to see why the outbreak happens and even see the true culprit defend his reason for releasing the zombies upon Fortune City.
Let's take a look at the graphics.
Presentation
Dead Rising 2 may not be the absolute strongest in the graphics department but it sure does look stunning.
The bright lights and sounds of the many casinos in Fortune City, the soothing mall music and the neon light filled casino strips are fun to look and listen to. You'll even see posters to all sorts of fictional movies taking a swing at some popular films and actors, as well as seeing the occasional Playboy poster ;)
What's also stunning about the game is the amount of zombies on screen, it's mind boggling how many zombies can be on the screen and the game does not slow down in frame rate or lag due to the overwhelming amount of enemy models on screen.
When you find a vehicle that has speed and the ability to mow down an almost endless amount of zombies, be ready for your screen to be covered in zombie blood but not once slow down in frame rate.
Gameplay
The Dead Rising series is famous for it's insane amount of weapons you can use against the zombie hoard, those weapons being just about everything you see lying around in the casinos and malls.
Dumbbells, electric guitars, giant dice, security guard night sticks, shotguns, handguns, safety cones, baseball bats, sledgehammers, dildos, wire hangers, spray paint, purses, remote control toy helicopters, water guns, chainsaws and all sorts of other ridiculously awesome weapons.
As well as almost every object you see in the game being a weapon, almost every object can be combined with a different object to create a much more deadly tool to slaughter zombies. Found a baseball bat and nails? Go to a workbench so you can combine the two items to create a Spike Bat to whack every zombie to death.
At first you will be left wondering what items you can combine, but when you level up there is a chance for you to find a combo card that shows you what items you need to combine to create a ridiculously powerful yet awesome weapon. Some weapons however will be more powerful than others, you'll learn that in time after using some of the combo weapons.
In Dead Rising 2 players level up by rescuing survivors, killing zombies with combo weapons and defeating Psychopaths for Prestige Points(PP). You gain the most PP by rescuing survivors and defeating Psychopaths. There will be many opportunities to gain an extensive amount of PP through messages you receive, these messages are your side quests, missions that don't have to be completed but will be useful for you to complete, you can't do these missions at any time however, different missions will have a time limit, some longer than others. If you do other missions before taking on another side mission, there's a chance you'll run out of time and you won't be able to complete said mission.
The psychopaths are very difficult to defeat, they're not your typical bosses you can laugh at, these psychopaths will beat you and they'll do it with maybe only losing a few specs of health. I won't blame you for looking at a walkthrough on how to beat these psychopaths.
What I didn't like about Dead Rising 2 was the lack of checkpoints in the game, Fortune City is rather large so making it from casino to casino or any other kind of key location became a hassle, the only sense of checkpoints you had were the save points which are spaced out far apart from key locations. There's no fast travel in the game and Chuck is not fast or agile, so you're slowly trucking along through Fortune City with little to no means of faster transport.
Weapons in the game although fun to use can be quick to break right in the middle of your zombie slaying escapade, if you find yourself enjoying a particular combo weapon or weapon in general, be sure to find a spare or create more of the same weapon, they can quickly break after slaying a couple of zombies, you could be left defenseless.
Multiplayer
Believe it or not there is a multiplayer component to Dead Rising 2.
Unlike the tacked on multiplayers that do not enhance the experience of the game or poorly designed, the Dead Rising 2 multiplayer is neither.
You can 3 other players compete in Terror Is Reality, with different mini-games to compete and earn the most points to then earn the most cash to use in the campaign of Dead Rising 2.
If you're not finding a lot of cash in the campaign to Dead Rising 2, the multiplayer can earn you more cash so you can buy unique weapons and keys to use special vehicles you find in the game.
I would recommend trying out the multiplayer to Dead Rising 2, it's actually a lot of fun.
The Verdict
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Dead Rising 2, free or not, is a decent zombie slaying game.
It is very unique and is great for players who want to pass the time by slaying an endless amount of zombies with some ridiculously fun to use weapons, it does have flaws that can make the game turn into a hassle to play.
No fast travel system and no autosaves could mean that players will have to spend a great deal of time slowly walking through the game trying to make it to a key location they need to get to or want to get to, to complete a mission or find items to combine to create a unique weapon.
Dead Rising 2 gets a good 7 out of 10
Thank you for reading.
Last month Xbox Live Gold subscribers got access to some free games, among those titles was Dead Rising 2.
I've never played any of the Dead Rising entries but I've heard it was a really great game. Dead Rising 2 is the first game I have played in the series and I'm glad I didn't spend money on this.
Story
Dead Rising 2 takes place 5 years after the events of the original Dead Rising. Chuck Green, a former motocross champion, is currently in the fictional casino town Fortune City, Nevada, Chuck is taking part in a controversial sports show known as Terror Is Reality, a game show in which participating contestants kill zombies for fame and fortune.
Chuck is taking part in the show in order to win the prize money to buy Zombrex, a daily medication which suppresses the zombification process, he needs the Zombrex for his daughter Katey who was bitten by her mother who turned to a zombie in an outbreak that happened in Las Vegas a while back.
While Chuck is backstage the show's zombies is released causing a massive outbreak, Chuck rescues Katey to make it to a safe house and begins his journey to fight through the zombie infested casino town for Zombrex to make sure Katey doesn't turn into a zombie.
Chuck must make sure Katey gets a dose of Zombrex for the next 3 days before the military arrives, this becomes more difficult as a news broadcast that supposedly has video of the culprit behind the outbreak shows that the person responsible for the outbreak is Chuck Greene himself, Chuck has been framed for the outbreak on Fortune City, if the military arrives before Chuck can clear his name, Chuck will not be able to see his daughter again.
----------------------------------------------------
It's quite an interesting story, the more you dive deeper into the plot of the game it's actually quite stunning to see why the outbreak happens and even see the true culprit defend his reason for releasing the zombies upon Fortune City.
Let's take a look at the graphics.
Presentation
Dead Rising 2 may not be the absolute strongest in the graphics department but it sure does look stunning.
The bright lights and sounds of the many casinos in Fortune City, the soothing mall music and the neon light filled casino strips are fun to look and listen to. You'll even see posters to all sorts of fictional movies taking a swing at some popular films and actors, as well as seeing the occasional Playboy poster ;)
What's also stunning about the game is the amount of zombies on screen, it's mind boggling how many zombies can be on the screen and the game does not slow down in frame rate or lag due to the overwhelming amount of enemy models on screen.
When you find a vehicle that has speed and the ability to mow down an almost endless amount of zombies, be ready for your screen to be covered in zombie blood but not once slow down in frame rate.
Gameplay
Dumbbells, electric guitars, giant dice, security guard night sticks, shotguns, handguns, safety cones, baseball bats, sledgehammers, dildos, wire hangers, spray paint, purses, remote control toy helicopters, water guns, chainsaws and all sorts of other ridiculously awesome weapons.
As well as almost every object you see in the game being a weapon, almost every object can be combined with a different object to create a much more deadly tool to slaughter zombies. Found a baseball bat and nails? Go to a workbench so you can combine the two items to create a Spike Bat to whack every zombie to death.
At first you will be left wondering what items you can combine, but when you level up there is a chance for you to find a combo card that shows you what items you need to combine to create a ridiculously powerful yet awesome weapon. Some weapons however will be more powerful than others, you'll learn that in time after using some of the combo weapons.
In Dead Rising 2 players level up by rescuing survivors, killing zombies with combo weapons and defeating Psychopaths for Prestige Points(PP). You gain the most PP by rescuing survivors and defeating Psychopaths. There will be many opportunities to gain an extensive amount of PP through messages you receive, these messages are your side quests, missions that don't have to be completed but will be useful for you to complete, you can't do these missions at any time however, different missions will have a time limit, some longer than others. If you do other missions before taking on another side mission, there's a chance you'll run out of time and you won't be able to complete said mission.
The psychopaths are very difficult to defeat, they're not your typical bosses you can laugh at, these psychopaths will beat you and they'll do it with maybe only losing a few specs of health. I won't blame you for looking at a walkthrough on how to beat these psychopaths.
What I didn't like about Dead Rising 2 was the lack of checkpoints in the game, Fortune City is rather large so making it from casino to casino or any other kind of key location became a hassle, the only sense of checkpoints you had were the save points which are spaced out far apart from key locations. There's no fast travel in the game and Chuck is not fast or agile, so you're slowly trucking along through Fortune City with little to no means of faster transport.
Weapons in the game although fun to use can be quick to break right in the middle of your zombie slaying escapade, if you find yourself enjoying a particular combo weapon or weapon in general, be sure to find a spare or create more of the same weapon, they can quickly break after slaying a couple of zombies, you could be left defenseless.
Multiplayer
Believe it or not there is a multiplayer component to Dead Rising 2.
Unlike the tacked on multiplayers that do not enhance the experience of the game or poorly designed, the Dead Rising 2 multiplayer is neither.
You can 3 other players compete in Terror Is Reality, with different mini-games to compete and earn the most points to then earn the most cash to use in the campaign of Dead Rising 2.
If you're not finding a lot of cash in the campaign to Dead Rising 2, the multiplayer can earn you more cash so you can buy unique weapons and keys to use special vehicles you find in the game.
I would recommend trying out the multiplayer to Dead Rising 2, it's actually a lot of fun.
The Verdict
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Dead Rising 2, free or not, is a decent zombie slaying game.
It is very unique and is great for players who want to pass the time by slaying an endless amount of zombies with some ridiculously fun to use weapons, it does have flaws that can make the game turn into a hassle to play.
No fast travel system and no autosaves could mean that players will have to spend a great deal of time slowly walking through the game trying to make it to a key location they need to get to or want to get to, to complete a mission or find items to combine to create a unique weapon.
Dead Rising 2 gets a good 7 out of 10
Thank you for reading.
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