This game is hard to describe. Parts are really well done and some other parts will have you scratching your head.
STORY: Takes place many years after Dead Rising 1. You are Chuck Greene a motorcross champion who plays on TIR (Terror is Reality). Its a giant gameshow where contestants kill zombies. He only does it so he can get Zombrex for his infected little girl. After a few events zombies get loose and infect the entire fortune city, and Chuck gets blamed. Thats all I'm going to say about the story. Its actually well done. Chuck struggling with trying to save his daughter really makes you care about him. Unlike in Dead Rising 1 where Frank West was just a macho photographer. Also I have seen a lack of cheesy one liners which is good!
GAMEPLAY: Action, RPG. You run around a massive mall littered with zombies trying to save survivors and progress the story. Also heads up, survivors are still stupid. BIG LETDOWN for me. Similar to the first game, Dead Rising 2 is structured around an in game clock. Missions appear at certain times and if you miss them you loose them forever. Yes this pushes the story forward and keeps pacing up to speed, but it makes you miss out on exploration. This game begs to be played through multiple times. This time instead of leveling up by taking pictures, you level up mainly my combo weapons. These are made at workbenchs all around the mall. EXAMPLE: Take nails and a baseball bat to make a spiked bat and you get PP (Exp for Dead Rising) for killing zombies. This changes the game but keeps it the same.
This time Multiplayer has been made. You star as a no name no face character on the game show TIR. I was unimpressed. Its fun with friends on a mic, but by yourself it gets boring. No ranking, no progression, no nothing. The other mulitplayer mode succeeds however. Co-op. A buddy can drop into your game or vice versa. You just play as another Chuck. No explanation just the fact two Chucks are running around beating up zombies.
PRESENTATION: Graphically it ain't good. Yes I realized that the game has a art style to it. I understand that and enjoy it, but then in some cutscenes there are pixels scattering the screen and theres pop-in during the game. I understand the pop-in because they jam alot of zombies in on one screen. Impressive I say. The pixels still bother me.
Over all with its highs and lows Dead Rising 2 is a better sequel. Yes the survivors are still dumb, but not as dumb. The multiplayer TIR fell flat on its face, and some parts will have you questioning Capcom. Regardless if you loved the first one as much as I did you should go pick it up.