Killing zombies in creative ways is great fun.................for a while.
User Rating: 7.5 | Dead Rising 2 X360
I played and beat the first dead rising several years ago and never reviewed it. I just now got a chance to play through its sequel; dead rising 2. I had a good time playing the first game, but took issue with several of its gameplay aspects, but lets not get into that right now. Here we are at the sequel and I guess some things never change. Dead Rising 2 is still an awesome 3rd person zombie hack and slash. It's also still plagued by a number of annoyances. This time around you play as a character named chuck greene. Greene is an ex-motocross star who's wife is dead, his daughter is infected with the zombie virus, and his job is killing zombies with a dirtbike on a game show. Greene's life is well put together. Once again there is a massive zombie outbreak and Green has been framed for the whole thing. The game also takes place in a huge mega-mall again. The environment is bigger, there more of a variety of weapons, and more psychopaths to kill. The addition of weapon combos is nice and adds to the bloody fun. Think football grenades, gas filled super soakers, and chainsaw oars. The music is still a varied affair, and the graphics are slightly improved from the first game. There is still a good mix of humor and there is a large array of characters, each with a little bit of a back story. This keeps things moving along with the main plot line. The missions consist of either rescue/escorts, fetch quests, and boss fights(psychopaths). The rescues are a little smoother now because the AI controls the people you are escorting with more proficiency. There are more psychopath fights and they are pretty varied and they usually yielded a cool weapon. I do have a few gripes. The controls are a little unresponsive at times. The load screens are long and frequent. The game uses a timed mission format; meaning you have to complete missions before they expire. If you miss a mission then you are screwed. If its a main plot mission then the story is forfeit. This keeps you constantly watching the clock so you don't miss something important. On the good side it keeps things immediate and urgent. On the bad side you don't have time to explore or do all the side quests. You can always restart the story, but if you're like me you've already gotten tired of the game after one play through. Which is the last complaint: the game is just kind of redundant. The missions are redundant and the slaughter of zombies gets that way too.
Summary: Apparently there are about a million ways to kill zombies and after playing the story mode for 8-12 hours you will have your fill of zombie killing regardless of whether you found all million ways.
