So about a year, or two ago I was at my friend's house watching him play the newly released Dead Rising 2, the first day it came out.
At the time I was not a very big fan of Zombie/Survival games, although I had played my fair share, but I had heard a lot of good things about Dead Rising, and I also heard a lot of Skepticism.
When you first start playing Dead Rising 2, the main character, Chuck Greene, a famous motocross star, is put on a TV show called, TERROR IS REALITY. On the show Terror is Reality, your host, TK, explains the rules of how you must basically kill all of the zombies in the ring, using your bike, and whoever kills the most wins.
Simple Enough, Might I add, Terror is Reality is also Dead Rising 2's multiplayer, and before I go on let me talk about how much fun it is.
There are about 8, or more different mini-games, or so I have seen , where you compete against other players by killing Zombies in different ways.
There are 3 "games" to play which could consist of shooting zombies, killing them and spurting zombie blood into zombie heads accross the court, or even rolling in a hamster ball like a game of tag. The 4th round always ends with the original challenge where you try to kill as many zombies as you can on your bike.
The multiplayer may sound stupid, but it is in fact a lot of fun! Also, a major plus of playing the multiplayer is that you win cash from it, that you can actually cash out at the end and put it into your Story mode of the game, and it is completely usable for Chuck.
As for co-op you can also go into any game and play with someone else slaying zombies.
Now for the main plot of the game, again you are Chuck Greene, and you and your daughter are running from zombies, and barely escape alive into a safe house in Fortune City, Nevada. Apparently, Chuck's wife died from a zombie attack, and his daughter Katie was bitten, and can turn any day, if you do not bring her the antidote: Zombrex, every 24 hours between 7am - 8am.
Chuck and everyone else, is stuck in the safe house until the military arrives in 72 hours. The guy running the safe house will not let you stay unless you bring back Zombrex for Katie.
In these 72 hours of the game you can: Save survivors in fortune city which are scattered, do quests, which involve saving people, or fighting mini-"bosses", or just run around and slay as many zombies as you can, create combo weapons, or mix drinks ect.
As for the combination weapon system, it is AWESOME. You can pick up random items as long as they have a wrench icon, and mix and combine different weapons to create an awesome one. For example you can combine a flashlight and gems to create a lightsaber. Use Water guns, boxing gloves, chainsaws, propane tanks, wheelchairs, guitars, you name it. There are plenty of combinations, and stores to keep you busy for hours.
At the core of this is a really good game. It could keep me busy for hours, if I wanted to do a playthrough run of just slaying zombies and ignored the side quests and the main story, which you can do.
But overall, the story is pretty deep, and also entertaining, personally, I could play this game through a few times whether it be the story, or just running around on my own leveling and such.
Dead Rising 2 is an awesome game, and I can't wait to play more. Don't be skeptical if you are, I would try it if I were you since you can typically get it anywhere for 20 dollars now. It's well worth it if you're looking for either a shorter plotline, and countless things to do.
Might it also be noted, that there is some customization other than weapons in Dead Rising 2. You can also customize Chuck with different outfits, different hair, and even ride around on a skateboard, drive a hummer, ect. Chuck can also bring back toys from toy shops for his daughter Katie, giving him an experience plus.
Dead Rising 2 is a game that you shouldn't pass up if you are into zombie survival games for sure. It has plenty to do, and a great replay value.
Overall, I give Dead Rising 2 a rating of 9/10.
