Dead Rising 2

Feel an un-dying need to slaughter thousands of the undead? Then look no further, cos' this is the game for you! Some games are dramatic, packing an emotional and deeply affecting story. Others are a high octane thrill ride that are a drug to play (COD: Black Ops). And then there are some that are just quite simply a fun ride (or, if you happen to be Mass Effect 2, you are all of these). Dead Rising 2 is this category of gaming. It may not tug at your heartstrings or send you through a wild ride but it does make you gleefully grab the controller and play more. This a game where you essentially just kill hundreds of Zombies with hundreds of different weapons. How do you like your Zombie? Cooked? Frozen? Minced? Gutted? Or how about just wearing a crazy dinosaur mask (and then blowing it to bits with a shotgun afterwards)? This game lets you decide. 

   
The story of Dead Rising 2 is about 30-year-old Chuck Greene. His daughter, Katie was bitten by a Zombie and in order to stop her from turning into one he must find or buy the drug Zombrex each day and give it to her every 24 Hours. Zombrex is expensive, so he must participate in a Reality TV show (aptly named 'Terror is Reality') and kill Zombies to earn money. Things take a turn for the worse, as someone breaks the Zombies out from their prison underneath the arena, and they spread out into Fortune City, causing yet another Zombie outbreak. Worser still, that 'someone' who had broke the Zombies out from their cells has framed Chuck for the whole thing. And with the military arriving in 72 Hours, Chuck must uncover the truth about the outbreak (while not only saving and rescuing survivors and returning them to safety) but must also keep supplying Katey with Zombrex. And when you add a time limit into the mix, things are NOT going to be easy...

 
Dead Rising 2's plot is about average, no changes-the-way-we-look-at-games praise this time. But the Story serves its purpose, and does pull a few neat twists and turns towards the end. Chuck Greene is a much more developped character than Frank West (the main hero of Dead Rising 1), who was basically a one line sprouter ('I've covered wars, you know!')  the fact that his daughter needs Zombrex every 24 Hours really ramps up the tension (I found my last Zombrex with barely ten minutes til' she turned into a Zombie! That was close!) and it does get TENSE towards the end. The time-limit is both an annoyance and a praise, and it does provide some tense last-second moments but being on time is just a pain in the butt. More killing Zombies, less time limit! Speaking of Zombies, (who's grisly/gory details are much more lovingly rendered this time around) this game has alot of them. Fat, skinny, limp, armless, bald and cool, the Romaro-type Zombies just wander round in their thousands, waiting to feast on more Human flesh. Killing them could NOT be any funner, and doesn't get old, mainly because you can kill them with just about anything that isn't bolted down. From cash registers, to lawnmowers (shredding Zombie perfection) to chainsaws, or shotguns and even a poker table, this game has the most awesome variety of weapons I've ever seen in a game. With more than 750+ weapons and an army of the walking undead you've got your work cut out for you in the next 76 hours. The new ability in Dead Rising 2 is that you can COMBINE Weapons to make an ever better one: what do you get when you combine fireworks with a lead pipe? A Rocket launcher of course (yeah, they push the realism a bit)! How about a machine gun with a Robot Teddy Bear? KILLER BEAR, thats what (I call mine Ted. Great name for a Bear). And if the Zombies are a bit boring for you after endless hours of slaughtering, then you can try your luck with a nearby physcopath! 

This guy took me ages to kill...

Physcopaths are people that have responded badly to the whole Zombie Outbreak thing. In other words, they're completely BAT-SH*T INSANE! And very hard to kill on a low level, which is what you'll be on for most of your first Playthrough, so that SUCKS. Dead Rising games start you off weak but you slowly get more powerful as you level-up. So things that you find hard to kill on Level 1 will appear easy when you're up to Level 50 (which will require at least four playthroughs of endless survivor saving to get). Physcopaths are still tough competition even when your health has increased, and the lack of automatic save spots can make for faustrating gameplay. Half the time you just want to see the cutscene, which depicts a gloryful physcotic coupled with a cool death scene: two deranged magicians who actually SAW a lady in-half and accuse me of being a critic are great examples. Both funny and horrifying at the same time. The survivor rescue missions can be a chore, just so you can level up quicker, and some of them are assholes (pay you £20,000 so I can SAVE your Ass? NO! I'LL LET THE ZOMBIES EAT YOU INSTEAD! *OPENS DOOR AND ZOMBIES RUSH IN*). 

Zombie No 6500 and still not breaking a sweat!

Overall this simply is a fun game. Sure there are a few slip-ups here-and-there but still greatly improved over Dead Rising 1. You will pick up this game, play it for a few Hours, get bored with it and switch it off.....Only to come back the following day and play the heck out of it! And the same will be said for the following Week. Its not really suited to gaming marathons but as far as relaxing Zombie killing goes, there is NOTHING better. It's a break game really, something to just relax your brain after a long (and ardous) day of School and just have fun. Its no Mass Effect 2, but I don't want it to be. I just want to have a good time playing it. Now, back to more Zombie slaying...OH HE TOTALLY HAD THAT ONE COMING! OUCH! NOW THAT WAS JUST TOO MUCH! POOR ZOMBIE...HA! DIE YOU EVIL FLESH MUNCHERS FROM HELL!!!!