Dead Rising 2

- Reviewed on PS4 -

Dead Rising 2 released on September 24th, 2010. 

Dead Rising 2 is the second game in the Dead Rising Game Series. Dead Rising is an extremely popular series and even has its own movie!

I have personally only played the first two Dead Rising Games, and right off the bat, I can say I prefer the second game over the first. 

With more characters, more zombies, and more content in general, the second Dead Rising game is a huge improvement over the first Dead Rising game that released on August 8th, 2006. 

Due to console improvements (at the time), Dead Rising 2 was able to have more playability and the developers were able to add much more content for its fanbase to enjoy!

This review WILL have Major Spoilers so keep that in mind before continuing...

Dead Rising 2 follows the story of Chuck Greene (the protagonist of DR2) and his survival of the Zombie outbreak. 

Chuck is a former motocross champion and has a daughter named Katey Greene who plays a significant role in the video game. 

Dead Rising 2 (within the game world) takes place five years after the first Dead Rising game. 

The game takes place within a fictional casino town of Fortune City, Nevada. Chuck must survive this Zombie outbreak within Fortune City and also take care of his infected daughter Katey who was bit by her infected mother back in Las Vegas. 

Players take control of the former motocross champion Chuck Greene and explore the huge map of Fortune City to find answers surrounding the Zombie outbreak. 

Players have specific time limits to meet however, which was an in-game mechanic that the first Dead Rising game had as well. 

Two of these time limit missions are Zombrex and the Main Story Mission(s). If players don't complete these two missions within the time limit, they fail the entire game and must restart from a previous checkpoint (autosave). 

Zombrex missions revolve around Chuck's daughter Katey, who again, is infected from the start and can't be changed. Zombrex is the name of the drug used to cure victims of Zombie bites (infections). 

However, Zombrex does not completely cure the victim, it only slows down the infection. Due to this, players must have Zombrex ready every day (within game time) and give it to Katey in the right time zone.

My experience with Dead Rising 2 is a very enjoyable one, much more enjoyable than the first Dead Rising Game which I did indeed play as well. 

Dead Rising 2 (in my opinion) had much more memorable characters and a much more memorable / fun location to play / survive in. DR2 takes place in Fortune City, Nevada inside a huge Casino type area. 

Players can go into all the stores within Fortune City and collect a whole assortment of items, including different clothing, weapons, money, health (food and drink), and more. 

Speaking of items, you can now collect Weapon Combo Cards. 

After leveling up, you can use a workbench around Fortune City to combine two weapons into one greater Zombie killing machine!

Now let's talk characters! Throughout your playthrough of DR2 you will come across endless amounts of people, each with their own personalities (good and evil). 

There is your main assortment of story characters such as... 

    - Rebecca Chang (an Asian-American News Reporter looking for the truth)
    - Stacey Forsythe (the Secondary Antagonist of DR2 and leader of the group CURE)
    - Ray Sullivan (A Reserve Man who secretly is Evil towards the end of DR2)
    - Katey Greene (Daughter of Chuck Greene and is Infected)
    - Tyrone King (Host of Terror is Reality and also One of the Main Villains of DR2)

There are your psychopaths such as...

    - Randall "Randy" Tugman
    - Theodore "Ted" Smith
    - Snowflake (Theodore "Ted" Smith's Pet Tiger)
    - Brent "Slappy" Ernst
    - Bibi Love

Finally, there is your optional survivors. Some examples of these optional survivors are...

    - Doris Elchart
    - Chad Elchart 
    - LaShawndra Dawkins
    - Gordon Dawkins
    - Esther Alwin 
    - Kenneth Walsh
    - Brittany Beck

Saving other people within Dead Rising 2 is one of the main side quests to do. The process starts with Stacey Forsythe calling you (Chuck Greene) on the walkie talkie / radio and she tells you where these survivors are.


You then can open your map up in game and set a marker to show an arrow of where to go. 

When you get to their location, you then must complete whatever they ask of you (mainly to kill the zombies surrounding them) and then you must escort them to the bunker, where all the main characters are settled. 

After saving each survivor, they stay in the bunker and you can visit them and talk to them whenever you want, which I really enjoyed doing especially towards the end of the game where you hopefully have saved a lot of people. 

When I played this game, using these arrows was a life saver, and these features are the same in the first Dead Rising game so returning players of Dead Rising (such as myself) did not have to worry about saving survivors being a new process.  

I won't spoil the end of Dead Rising 2 but in conclusion, I loved this Dead Rising game, and I enjoyed it much more than the first. 

I took a break from the first Dead Rising before coming back and completing it, however for DR2, once I started, I never stopped till I beat it and it was a great time beginning to end! 

Memorable Characters, not so much Memorable Survivors Except for a Few, Location was an Improvement of the First Dead Rising, and Overall, the game was much more interesting! 

Pros: 

    - Great and Fun Location to Play / Survive In  
    - Characters were Memorable (Main Story Cast) 
    - Plethora of Weapons and Combos to Use / Create
    - Fun Side Quests
    - Saving Survivors was much Less Stressful and Hard than the First Dead Rising Game

Cons:

    - Dialogue was not the best it could have been 
    - Lots of Cheesy jokes 
    - Story wasn't as long as I preferred it to be
    - No photography mode (which was a fan favorite aspect of Dead Rising)

My Rating for Dead Rising 2 (on PS4):

4 / 5


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Disclaimer

All Reviews, Ratings, Pros, Cons, and Opinions Shared on this Blog (Press A Reviews) are my (Connor Butler) own Thoughts and Feelings.



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