Dead Rising 2: Case West Impressions

Last month, Capcom released Dead Rising 2: Case Zero on Xbox Live Arcade, and since then, this downloadable prequel to Dead Rising 2 has sold more than 500,000 copies. That's a figure that the Japanese publisher has publicly expressed great pleasure with, and at a pre-Tokyo Game Show event tonight, we found out another reason for those big smiles. Capcom has just announced that the full retail version of Dead Rising 2 will eventually be followed up by a downloadable “epilogue” to complement the “prologue” that is Case Zero. Those were the words used by series creator Keiji Inafune as he announced the upcoming Dead Rising 2: Case West, also a stand-alone Xbox 360 exclusive.

Those who played the original Dead Rising will likely raise an eyebrow at the title of this upcoming downloadable follow-up. Well, the word “West” is no coincidence. Dead Rising 2 protagonist Chuck Greene will be teaming up with original hero and veteran zombie killer/photographer Frank West in a quest to further explore the zombie outbreak. A teaser trailer shown to the audience hinted at a plot that will revolve around Greene trying to clear his good name after he's been framed, but other than that, there weren't a whole lot of details on the story.

Inafune played it coy as to how this teaming up of heroes will go down, but because Dead Rising 2 will feature two-player co-op, it is likely Case West will as well--only this time with Greene and West forming the pair. Inafune hinted that “a lot has changed since Frank West's last adventure,” and left audience members to use their imaginations on where things go from there.

After this, Inafune announced that Capcom will be acquiring Dead Rising 2 developer Blue Castle Games and the shop will eventually be rebranded as Capcom Games Studio Vancouver. At the very least, this suggests that Capcom has been extremely pleased with the work that Blue Castle has done with the franchise, as the Japanese publisher has worked with a lot of Western developers in recent years but hasn't officially folded any of them into the Capcom family until now. With that news, it seems safe to assume that Dead Rising 2 and Case West won't be the last we'll be seeing of the series. Keep an eye out for more Case West coverage in the near future and be sure to come back for ongoing Tokyo Game Show 2010 coverage during the next few days.