Dead Rising 2 Review

Story: (8 | 10)
"Dead Rising 2 is set several years after the infamous zombie invasion of Willamette. Unfortunately, the zombie virus was not contained at the conclusion of Dead Rising, spreading unchecked throughout the United States and Dead Rising 2 depicts a country where zombie outbreaks continue to strike."

The story in Dead Rising 2 starts off fairly basic but leads to some pretty good story telling as well as some nice twists and turns throughout the games story, which is a nice change from most games that typically fail to deliver a well told storyline. The story for the characters can also be good in some cases for the main cast (ex. Chuck or Stacey) but is generally poor for the supporting casts like the survivors and some of the psychopaths.

Gameplay: (9.5 | 10)
The gameplay in Dead Rising 2 has heavily improved from Dead Rising, you can now walk while using guns (some of them, weapons like the Blambow or the Spear Launcher will force you to stand in place), survivors don't get stuck onto objects nearly as much as they used to in DR1 and the best addition being the combination feature. Throughout the game you will find items with a blue wrench on them, which can be crafted to create such weapons as the Blambow, the Spear Launcher, Defiler etc. which adds onto the amount of time you will spend to find every single combo-card.

The game does also suffer from unacceptably long load times (20-35 seconds) and the problem where if your host saves during co-op, you may be kicked out but both of these features are forgivable due to how well they did with the other features of the game, plus with the addition to the multiplayer mode, Terror is Reality, it adds in a lot more to do multiplayer wise since all the money you earn in TIR can be used in your game to buy whatever you want, even if you lose!

Graphics: (7.5 | 10)
While the graphics are a huge improvement over the original title, there still are problems with small details throughout the environment which can look glitched or just plain ugly, but for the most part the graphics are generally pretty good and you shouldn't have an issue so long as you don't pay really close attention or sit really close to your TV.


Music: (10 | 10)
The music selection throughout Dead Rising 2 is pitch perfect, you'll notice music mainly from the band "Celldweller" but there are a handful of original scores crafted by the team (unsure of who the artist is who did it) that will keep you entertained from the boss fights to the minigames throughout the game, such as from Cash Me if You Can.

Pros:
Tons of combo weapons to create and find.
Co-op mayhem!
Fun multiplayer (TIR)
Lots of weapons to use.
Amazing soundtrack.
Good storyline.
Good voice acting.

Cons:
Not that well detailed graphics.
Small glitches.
Really long load-times.
Not as much story on supporting cast.
Xbox-LIVE multiplayer/PSN only (Co-op and TIR)

Overall: (9.5 | 10)


Rank: 100% Purchase
Dead Rising 2 has its issues, but it's still an absolute blast to play as long as you have a friend to play with and don't mind a lot of collectibles to get in order for you to go on a mayhem killing zombies, if you liked the absurdity of Saints Row 2 and the zombie experiences from games like Left 4 Dead, then you should already own Dead Rising 2 or you should be running out the door to buy it right now.