Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Dead Rising 2 (X360/PS3/PC) Review

There have been many games in which you are able to kill zombies, but very few games provide the sheer number of ways to kill the undead as Dead Rising 2. Filled with hours of intense rescuing and crazy psychopaths, Dead Rising 2 has some noticeable improvements over its first iteration. Unfortunately, it also failed to improve on some of the problems. What changed for the better? Well you’ll just have to click the link to find out more.

                The game started me off racing through a crowd of zombies on a chainsaw equipped bike. With this, the game starts to show off some of its new features. One of these new features is the ability to compete online in Dead Rising 2’s TV show; Terror is Reality (TIR). This allowed me to play mini games such as Ramsterball, where I rolled around in a giant Hamsterball ramming into columns for points, and Sliceycles, which is similar to the first mission in the game. My experience with the games was mostly enjoyable. Although confusing at first, I was eventually able to get a hang of the events and start to score a good amount of points.
                Another multiplayer option is co-op. Although players are not able to do local co-op, I was able to join other player’s worlds online to help smash zombies. Warning! This can be very dangerous if either of the players do not know what they are doing. Too many times I was either shot in the back or smacked in the head by my own teammate.
                The reason for this is largely due to the loose combat controls in Dead Rising 2. Most weapons have two attacks a light attack that does less damage, but tends to hit more foes, or a heavy attack which can sometimes result in an instant kill. However, it is mostly button mashing, which may cause you to hit the attack button one too many times adding an extra swing to the end of your attack. This can result in vulnerability or a dead teammate/survivor.
                As I killed more zombies and completed more missions I got PP points, the experience system in Dead Rising 2. When I leveled up I could receive a couple of powerups. These upgrades included; extra life, extra weapon slots, faster movement, farther throwing distance, and combo cards. Combo cards are new to Dead Rising. They give you recipes for creating new weapons. Items like the nailed bat, knife gloves, and boomstick are just a few examples. Many items also return for Dead Rising 2. Items such as a sniper rifle, hanger, and katana can all be found throughout Fortune City. There are many different options for beating down zombies, although not everything is easily accessible. Cars, SMGs, and, my personal favorite, the moose head can be hard to come by.
                One thing that did kill the game for me was the loading screens. Even for an open world, I felt as though the loading screens were excessive. In one instance, I went down a water slide and there was a loading screen upon entering and again after exiting. The reward, 10,000 PP, was nice, but I’m not sure if it was worth it.
                The boss fights in the game were frustrating at times due to the lackluster combat system. I constantly found myself getting wailed on by psychopaths running around the levels. Once you are able to master the “hit twice, then roll away” method, the bosses became at least manageable. Something that was a major pain during the game was escorting survivors. Every time I looked back to check up on them they were either shooting themselves or each other. If you were able to keep them alive long enough you could give them a gun and they actually became useful. There’s nothing like having a pack of five or six armed people behind you. (Unless they are shooting me)
                A big thing that drew me into the game was the great audio performance. The music selection for boss fights was entertaining. Each character seemed to have a very developed personality and was always voiced correctly. The craziness of the psychopaths conflicted beautifully with the seriousness of Chuck. One scene at the end of the game was particularly touching for me. I felt as though the characters had truly been hurt and really did feel the anger they were showing. Too many side quests and the twitching urge to kill more zombies distracted me from the central story in the beginning. However, as the game went on less side quests were available and I had already killed a couple thousand zombies. (Just kidding, that never gets old)
                Although the audio was great, the graphics failed to perform. Many times I passed by a zombie trapped in wall or trying to come through a shut door. Also, I was constantly running into zombies a couple of feet away from me. This was harmful because many times I had a survivor in my hands and when the zombie hit me I dropped them only to be swarmed by even more zombies. Exacerbating this problem, I repeatedly ran into invisible curbs while pushing a lawnmower or trash cart. This would take away from the gameplay experience because I did not have much time to be caught by ninja zombies or trip over invisible curbs.
The second installment of the Dead Rising will not disappoint fans of the series. Although the loading screens and graphics were nothing to brag about, the endless zombie killing and well cast voice actors made up for it. 


~William Dewey


7/10 
Good





No comments:

Post a Comment