2/2

Boxers or Bondage?
All this carnage really adds up and Dead Rising 2 is one blooding delightful game. The best part of all the macabre killing is that Dead Rising 2 never takes itself too serious. One factor that always helps lighten the mood besides defiling zombies with everything in the game world is dressing up in various outfits found around the mall. Just like the original you can dress up in some outlandish outfits including everything from Arthur's Boxers (Ghost n' Goblins) to woman’s clothing and bondage gear, to leisure suits, ninja (via download), yellow jumpsuits, and the list goes on. The best part of dressing up is that you outfit stays on Chuck when cut-scenes are activated. This makes for some hilarious spots, especially when confronting the crazy psychopaths in the game. Chuck might not be as crazy, but he can sure look the part.

We Love our Crack-Brained Lunatics
Since, I've brought up the psychopaths so much in this review. Let's take a look at the crazier side of Fortune City's deranged. Dead Rising 2 has over 20 unique story driven psychopaths to encounter and face, if you choose. Unlike the first game, most of the psychos are optional battles with only a handful being part of the normal prose. For a ideal you will brave some real zingers that range from a pair of overly friendly sisters to a military man suffering from an extreme case of dissociation. Each crazy has their own little story and different weapon and style of attack.

Psychopaths are truly some of the most frustrating parts of the game, and until you get up there in levels, they are hard to kill. The technique you use doesn't have to be fancy, just run around and wait for them to get tired, and attack. It's elementary, but it works. The problem, the controls can sometimes be sloppy and hard to judge distance and your movement speed. In this instance a parry or block button would have been awesome, rather then always rolling out of harms way. Too many times in a fight I went to block an attack only to realize, I can't. That is super silly and needs to be adjusted in future games. Nevertheless, you need to rely on your avoidance abilities and your arsenal of weapons. One good tip, have some food, and a nice set of knife gloves, and get ready for a fight. Even though these crazies can be avoided they are worth checking out, and if curiosity wasn't enough there is even an achievement for killing all the crack-brained lunatics.

Terror is Reality
Terror is Reality, the game show where you begin your adventure is also the multiplayer mode. In this mode you act out like you're a participant on the show, earning money that can be transferred over to the single player game... and its the best way to make money. There are 9 fun filled zombie killing modes that has you killing zombies for points and sometimes grinding them up and spewing their blood into a points hole. The modes a clever, fun, and very different from a “typical” multiplayer layout. The main trick here is that four people play through these modes with the winner being awarded a bonus after a number of rounds. Think, 'American Gladiators' meets 'Dawn of the Dead' with some Schwarzenegger action to top it all off. All-in-all, I was extremely surprised how much fun the multiplayer is, which serves as a nice break form the normal stress of playing through the campaign.

Chuck Greene x2
Dead Rising 2 also supports a co-op mode as you can head into the madness as two Chuck Greenes' and take down the story together. The host player doesn't reap the rewards either, only the progression of the story. Whoever earns a combo card or gets cash goes to the player who did the deed, which is perfect. The only problem with this formula is that you have to stay in the same vicinity as each other. It would have been awesome to split to cover more ground and just maybe accomplish everything in one run. Unsplit the game is still fun and is worth checking out, if you have friends with the game.

Dead Rising 2 is impressive with its carefully crafted plot, new features, and increased scale, making it an interesting option to the rest of the zombie killing games on the market. Chuck Greene is a great lead wrapped in a narrative really holds up, but that won't matter if you are looking for the game to play differently then the original. This is still a Dead Rising game, so time matters as the core gameplay remains untouched. Delightfully mischievous, Dead Rising 2 is so close to being amazing, you can feel it. However, a few flaws and some missed features truly hold Dead Rising 2 back from being this years action game of the year. Nevertheless, Dead Rising 2 is still a zombie-slaying good time that any fan of zombies, chainsaws, and conspiracies should check out.

Reviewed by DowntownJimmy | 10.11.10

		successful followed up the series with a new hero addressed “some” of the issues from the original great characters, especially the psychos super fun zombie killing action, now with Co-op multiplayer mode is a fun diversion from the main game multiple saves and new games carry over violence, humour, drama, for a “Zombie” game this is one hell of a story
		no way-point marker!! conversations/interacting with survivors is sloppy some targeting and clipping issues difficulty might put off some gamers graphics are a mixed bag of good and bad no way to block or perry attacks

Similar Games: Zombie Apocalypse (6.5) | Dead Island (8.6) | Left 4 Dead 2 (8.8) | Dead Rising (9.0)