Spooky Plays: Dead Rising: http://www.rfgeneration.c...lays-Dead-Rising-3793.php

A couple years ago Spooky Plays looked at the first Dead Rising, a fun and unique open world zombie sandbox experience that's not really much of a horror game. Its more of a love letter to classic zombie movies with some other horror tropes thrown into the mix. Lawyers working on behalf of George A. Romero even sued Capcom for how similar Dead Rising is to classic zombie movie Dawn of the Dead. For most of the game the zombies are little more than a nuisance and the real horror comes from the game's still living Psychopath boss fights. After the success of Dead Rising, Capcom tasked Blue Castle Games with development of a sequel, which would release in 2010 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and a bit later on PC.





Dead Rising 2 starts off in a much different way than the first. Players start the game by taking control of Chuck Greene during a run on a new and popular reality gameshow called Terror is Reality. He is in another gambling and casino hub called Fortune City for the show. Chuck is a former motocross professional who lost his wife during a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, his daughter Katey was also bitten during this attack. Katey has been prevented from turning into a zombie through daily doses of Zombrex, a drug meant to prevent those bitten from turning into a zombie. A zombie breakout occurs shortly after Chuck's run on Terror is Reality. Shortly after finding safety and more Zombrex for Katey, a news report on TV shows Chuck being framed for the breakout of zombies at Fortune City. A woman named Stacey Forsythe gives Chuck a radio to communicate with him once he leaves the safehouse.

Dead Rising 2's gameplay continues right where the first game left off. The main mechanical addition is the ability to combine items found throughout Fortune City into stronger and more powerful combination weapons. The formula for these weapons are represented as cards, and can be unlocked through leveling up, rescuing survivors, or finding inspiration from one of the many posters around Fortune City. The marketing of the game focused heavily on this feature, with the cover art featuring Chuck Greene holding the Paddlesaw, two chainsaws duct taped to a paddle. Survivors must be found throughout the various places in Fortune City, and most of their locations are told to Chuck through the radio Stacey gave him. Most Psychopaths are also revealed to Chuck through the same radio, but there are a couple surprises.


Dead Rising 2 featured much improved graphics over the original game. The first Dead Rising released within the first year of the Xbox 360's life, and it comes across as rough in many areas. The second game improves a lot of the technical aspects such as the smoothness of control, but still does not quite perfect them. The Remastered releases look even better than the original releases, but retain a lot of the grainy feel of these early HD games. Dead Rising 2's music and sound design is almost as stellar as the first. Many of the mall music themes from the first game return for the second, and the psychopaths continue to have themes from licensed songs, although the selection feels much weaker than the first game's psychopath themes.

Dead Rising 2 is a great follow up to the first game. It does feel like some of the original, cheesy charm was lost and replaced with little more than empty stereotypes for both survivors and psychopaths. Players can expect to see virtually anything that they can imagine would inhabit Las Vegas and does not infringe on any copyright. Mechanically, Dead Rising 2 adds just enough to the base formula while retaining the feeling of what made the first game so special and unique. And if Chuck Greene is not your cup of tea then there is Dead Rising 2: Off The Record, which is basically the same game with Frank West shoved in as the main character; this game includes some story, survivor, and Psychopath changes to go with Frank. Dead Rising 2 also had a downloadable prequel called Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, which is a prequel to the second game. On top of the base game was a DLC called Dead Rising 2: Case West, that features Chuck and Frank working together.

Sadly, the following games would diverge more and more from the original design of the first game, and the series basically died in the eyes of fans for it. This is the last true Dead Rising game, the two main, numbered games afterwards are not worth playing for fans of the first and second. But, Capcom has taken series that they have previously mismanaged and rebooted them to much success, especially recently. Its possible a Dead Rising 5 could bring the series back to its roots, with much more polish in certain areas such as the controls, but the real magic of the series will always be its oblong charm.

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