Meet Chuck. See Chuck kill zombies. See Chuck kill many zombies. See Chuck become bloody from killing so many zombies.
Taking place in between Dead Rising and Dead Rising 2, Case Zero introduces you to DR2's star, Chuck Greene, an ex-motorcross rider. He's arrived to a small town called Still Creek with his daughter Katey, whose been bitten by a zombie. A treatment called Zombrex staves off zombification, but it only lasts for twelve hours at a time, so Chuck is under constant pressure to find more doses to keep his little girl alive. Holed up in a gas station, Chuck has got to find a way to get to Fortune City before the army arrives and quarantines his daughter.
Case Zero is very short, clocking in at about two gameplay hours. Your first objective, of course, is to obtain Zombrex for Katey, and then Chuck will come across a broken down motorcycle that he'll need to gather parts for. In order to round up all the parts, he'll need to interact with civilians threatened by zombies and then escort them to safety. In turn, they'll help Chuck by either giving him a much needed part, or telling him where to find them.
If you've played the first Dead Rising, you'll know that escorting survivors was a giant pain in the butt. If Case Zero is any indication of Dead Rising 2, escorting should be a bit smoother this time around. They no longer sit around and let themselves get swarmed by zombies; they'll actually fight back. It also uses the same time limit system that shows a bar of how much time you have to bring them back to your safe house. The main game is also governed by its own time limit, which is twelve in-game hours that amounts to two gameplay hours.
Just as with the first Dead Rising, your main character levels up. PP points are used to increase his main attributes, as well as give him extra inventory slots and new skills to use. Case Zero has added in a new feature called combo weapons, and the bonus effect is that any zombies killed with these combo weapons will increase the PP Chuck earns. To make a combo weapon, look for weapons that have a wrench icon on them, and then try mixing them together. It takes some trial and error, but when Chuck levels up, a new recipe will be given to him in the form of Combo Cards.
Speaking of recipes, the blender's back, so you can whip up all sorts of concoctions that heal you or give you bonus status effects. The Dead Rising games aren't of the "stop being attacked and magically heal up" variety, so you're going to need to avoid getting hit as much as possible, and eat or drink in order to regain that health. Also, there are magazines now that when held in your inventory bequeath to you more bonus effects.
The core gameplay of Dead Rising: Case Zero remains intact, and that's slaughtering wave after wave after wave of zombies. It's not surprising if a player finishes this two hour game with more than one thousand undead slain. Just about everything that isn't nailed down can be picked up and used, such as two by fours, propane tanks, benches, cacti, acoustic guitars and bowling balls. The real fun is roaming around and finding the truly powerful weapons, such as broadswords and chainsaws.
Graphically, the game could have been tweaked a bit more, but there might have been data compression issues to keep in mind, as this is downloadable game. With that said, it still looks pretty good, with well-built characters and detailed textures. A really cool effect is watching a clean and fresh Chuck become completely blood soaked after he's bashed his way through fifty zombies. You just can't help but go, "Ewwwwww!" Hopefully, Dead Rising 2 will look a little better overall.
Audibly, the game's pretty enjoyable. Just as with the first Dead Rising, the sound effects are wonderful. Bats bludgeoning zombies, chainsaws ripping through them, and the sick wet thunks of bowling balls caving in their faces just make you cringe. For most of the game, though, the music is noticeably absent. Maybe it's to enhance the eerie feeling, but it somehow ends up making it feel a bit empty. The voice acting is great, but the NPCs don't voice over all of their lines, probably to keep the file size down.
Here's what you're getting when you purchase Dead Rising: Case Zero. You're getting a two hour game filled to the brim with zombies. You're getting a taste of the new gameplay mechanics Dead Rising 2 will have to offer. You're also getting a boss battle with a character just as terrifically designed as the bosses in the first game. And to reiterate what was said earlier, you're getting it for a great price of five dollars! Most arcade titles debut at 10 and hardly offer half the fun of Dead Rising: Case Zero, so you really don't have a reason NOT to buy it! Plus, any levels you've earned (Chuck can go up to a maximum of five) will transfer over to Dead Rising 2, so that's just another reason to play this title now!