PlayStation 3 Review: Dead Rising 2

I have said it before and I am sure that I'll say it again – at this point in time, the zombie apocalypse seems like a foregone conclusion.  I don't know when it will begin and I don't pretend to know what the impetus will be for the rise of the undead, but it is coming.  The best that we can do now is to learn all we can from the pop culture zombie films, books, games, television shows, etc. with which we are constantly bombarded in order to learn as many survival strategies as we possibly can for the day dead begin to walk the Earth.

One excellent place to begin this search for strategies is with the Capcom/Blue Castle Games title Dead Rising 2.  Picking up five years after the initial Dead Rising and with an entirely new main character, Chuck Greene, Dead Rising 2 showcases all the different everyday objects that can be used to bludgeon, dismember, and generally eliminate the undead.  Much as with the first Dead Rising, there are a plethora of objects than can be used to eliminate threats to Chuck's life.

Dead Rising 2, as with all good sequels, goes a bit further than the original, incorporating the ability to combine weapons to form new, better, deadlier (are they still called "deadlier" if they're being used on the undead?) ones.  For instance, combine a baseball bat with a box of nails and you get a spiked bat which is quite useful when being attacked by multiple zombies.  Combine an electric drill with a bucket and you can place it on one of the walking dead's heads with astounding results.

The game certainly has its freakier moments, but as should be apparent from the above, it falls more into the comedic zombie apocalypse mold than the terrifying one.  This remains true even when you're taking on crazed humans (bosses) instead of the undead.

This time out, the franchise has moved to the fictional Fortune City, which is a Las Vegas-like city in Nevada (though Vegas does exist in the Dead Rising world) full of gambling halls, malls, hotels, eateries, and the living dead.  It is also home to the pay-per-view spectacle show Terror is Reality VII: Payback, which is where Chuck starts out.  The former motocross star is taking part in the zombie killing show in order to get some money so he can by Zombrex for his little daughter, Katey (Zombrex being the uber-expensive drug that will prevent an infected human from turning into one of the mindless maneaters).  

Article Author: Josh Lasser

Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. …

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