Less Overdue Review: Dead Rising 2 (PC)

Ever the zombie fanatic, Butler delves into Dead Rising 2's Fortune City to see if there may be even more on the market to scratch his undead itch.  More after the jump! 



I am a man who loves his zombies.  And this is not just some "vampires vs. zombies" facebook bullshit.  I have paid money to see 3/4 Resident Evil movies in theaters (and have only not seen the 4th because I haven't had time yet), will legitimately defend the 28 (increments of time) later series as great movies (not just fun), and keep a copy of The Zombie Survival Guide with me wherever I go (no joke, it has literally traveled from Colorado, to New York, to Oregon with me).  I found Capcom's Dead Rising, however, to be a great game idea dragged screaming into the abyss by some of the most horrible design flaws to which I have ever borne witness.  It was pretty much impossible, however, to avoid the storm surrounding Dead Rising 2, and the facts seemed to indicate that a lot of the things I disliked about the series' first installment (the photography component, inability to move and shoot, weapon and inventory issues, OTIS) were remedied with chainsaw-staves.

You thought I was just hyperbolizing, didn't you?

Anyone who owned a 360 early in the life cycle owned Dead Rising.  This is a fact.  Those who did may or may not be pleased to know that the first installment's protagonist, Frank West (who has covered wars, you know), is nowhere to be found.  Instead, you play as the stalwart Chuck Green, washed-up motocross... guy who competes in a televised zombie killing competition called "Terror is Reality" to get the money for the medicine to keep his daughter from turning in to a zombie.  As things are wont to do in all things zombie, something goes wrong, outbreak, panic, zombies, conspiracy etc.  We're all familiar with this general plot line, yes?  Good, because in terms of story, this game has nothing to offer.  The characters are all your standard zombie movie archetypes ("heroic guy", "weirdly calm child", "conventionally cute girl", "sexy girl (probably betrays you or dies)", "guy who is suspicious of everyone", "mr. panic"... you get the idea) and the overarching story is... well, to put it mildly, bollocks.

But this is not why we care about DR2.  For months leading up to the game's release, all anyone could talk about was the ability to combine things from your environment to make DER UBER-VEAPONS!  And I am happy to report as a thorough critic that yes, one can do this.  The implementation is somewhat marred by incredibly esoteric combinations (a stuffed bear and machine gun make an automated turret, for example), but when you do find those combos that work, it can be incredibly satisfying.  I will cherish always the day that I discovered that the combination of bottle rockets and a lead pipe gives me a 75 round medium range/strength rocket launcher.  Still, the weapons are often discovered by trial and error, and more often than not your inventory slots will be full of a whole bunch of useless shit that you picked up just to see if you could make anything.  Then you realize that you are surrounded by a massive horde of the undead and have a fish, fire extinguisher, traffic cone, bucket, and water pistol to fight them away.  And even those will break somewhat obnoxiously quickly.

Would that any combination in the game would yield this.

Well, I've gotten rolling on the flaws, so I see no reason not to continue and see if we can't knock these off right quick.  The way that the plot is completely affixed to in-game time is incredibly stifling and means that by necessity you will have to A) miss many quests on your first go round for no good reason, or B) spend a good amount of time in the shelter checking your in-game watch because you don't have time to go on another quest before the main plot mission starts.  The "get Zombrex" (the medicine that staves off becoming a zombie) fetch quest is rendered meaningless by the fact that playing the online multiplayer for 40 minutes gives you more in-game money than you could ever spend and thus the whole quest feels entirely unnecessary.  And the boss fights. Oh sweet Christ the boss fights.  I have never had less fun than trying to take on these nigh-invincible cocksuckers that kill you in as many hits as you have points (you start with 4 and slooooooowly get more, one by one).  Every one of them moves faster than you, can take you out in a matter of seconds, and swap between about 3 spoken lines, which they yell every 2 seconds as long as you are in the same part of the map, which makes replaying these fights (which you will do. A lot) abso-goddamn-lutely infuriating.  True, they are mostly optional, but the end of day 2 (out of 3) has a mission with a mandatory boss fight that is almost impossible, even if there are two of you.  The game begs for a checkpoint system, but does not have one, relying on the player to use the all too sparse save points themselves.  Not too terrible until you notice that every area looks the same, you can't place your own map markers, and your next save point is almost always 2 load screens away.  I lost so many 30 minute chunks of time in this game getting caught up in zombie murder only to realize I hadn't stopped to piss (no joke, that's how you save) right as some undead asshat takes me to the great beyond.

Pictured: Salvation.

This review is running a little long, but I promise, it's for a special occasion.  You may have noticed that I mentioned online multiplayer above.  Yes, that's right, I actually played some optional online multiplayer, so I might as well review it.  There are two modes: 4 round mini-game death matches and co-op campaign play.  The former consists of 3 rounds of random mini games that are pretty simple followed by a chainsaw-motorcycle zombie slaughter match.  Everyone who competes comes away with a metric ton of money, even if you come in last, so it's easy to keep everything casual.  This was good for me, as I was playing on my PC and a lot of the mini games control like ass on a mouse and keyboard, with quick time events and vehicle control being a particular pain. This is something I feel would be rectified were I playing on a controller, but given the price of controllers and the fact that I don't shit money, M/K is what I had.  But even in spite of the control issues, the competitions are fun little diversions when you're looking for a break from the main campaign.  Co-op campaign is... well, exactly what it sounds like.  You and a buddy get to roam the area together, progressing the campaign of whoever is hosting.  I've only played it for a few hours, but my initial impressions are positive, and it actually seems necessary for a few of those godless-bastard boss fights.  Occasional necessity aside, though, it is a LOT of fun to just have another human being with whom to cause mayhem, swap weapon combinations, and help out when the undead hordes become too thick.

All in all, Dead Rising 2: Electric Boogaloo is a very satisfying game.  It certainly has its flaws, and thus will not be supplanting Left 4 Dead 2: Stayin' Alive (I'll stop) as the best zombie game for your buck.  When it's all about the weapon making, zombie killing fun, this game can be as satisfying as they come.  When they try to make you care about anything other than where more zombies are and why their heads remain unsmashed, however, the flaws come screaming in to the room with air horns and megaphones.  If you're someone who is a fan of the idea of a game where the overall concept is you + stuff + zombies = smash zombies with stuff, then you will find this game a hearty entrant into the zombie milieu.  Those who cannot adapt to somewhat dodgy controls, or who care about characters or a worthwhile narrative, may find this game lackluster.  But seriously, I have two words that should get those types to come around:

"Chainsaw motorcycle"