Dead Rising 2: Off the Record (XB360/PS3): I've covered this game, you know....

So after the hideous abortion that I suffered through in Dead Island, I have been pretty eager to get around to playing this one. When the Xbox 360 was first released I was never a hurry to get one, and didn't till 3 years after release. They just released a shooter then a sport game, then a shooter, then a sport game. This continued for friggen years and I told myself I wouldn't get a 360 till they released some titles I had to have. One of those titles was Dead Rising, at the time a fresh angle from they typical Capcom survival horror genre to one of more hacky slashy action. With some minor frustrations it gave me everything I wanted in it. The subsequent sequel, they fixed many of those issues, but then took away the iconic hero we've come to love. So they've since released another version in....

DEAD RISING 2: OFF THE RECORD (XB360)

Basically the story picks up from the events of the first Dead Rising following the original protagonist Frank West. After being the journalist who uncovered the zombie infestation in Willamette, Frank was on a rocket to super stardom. Best selling books, hot girlfriend, meetings with the president, tv appearances, etc. But as his rise to fame inflated, it eventually had to burst. His TV show gets cancelled and he begins to bottom out, spending his time alone and drowning in the bottom of the bottle. As zombies become more common place he makes the decision to get his life back in order he'd make some money by going to Fortune City and fighting on a reality show apparently hosted by the Rock called Terror Is Reality, where he uses his zombie fighting skills to earn money. After an empty feeling victory, as he leaving he see's the Rock (actually called TK) make an a suspicious transaction with someone before fighting off some thugs who have cornered him. As he leaves the building there is an explosion that releases hoards of zombies and begins killing innocent people. After making his way to the saferoom with other survivors, a news story runs pinning the explosion on an zombie support activist group called C.U.R.E and their leader Stacey. So Frank and Stacey take to the zombie infested casino resort to discover the truth....

Did some of that sound familiar? Yeah, it did for me too. Almost like I have played this game already. Probably because I have, but then it was just called Dead Rising 2. Originally I thought it was intended to be an alternate timeline, like the game would follow along with the events that took place with 2's protagonist Chuck Greene. But as I found out right out the gate, its more along an alternate reality because aside from the story pretty much following the exact pattern of the first one, the first 2 that is, there is a cutscene and boss fight very early on where you actually have to fight Chuck Greene on his chainsaw motorcycle. Really, it was the most interesting scene because it painted an interesting picture and let me imagine how Chuck failed between Dead Rising: Case Zero and Dead Rising 2 and makes it a believable reality. That's always been an interesting concept to me, to take the hero of one game and make him a villain in the next, something that I believe was tried in Tales of Symphonia 2 and the now scrapped but being reconsidered Final Fantasy VII-2.

Chuck in DR2:OTR is one of the best scenes ever. The whole time you can imagine
 his decent from defeat to denial to insanity in the brief moments you see him. 

I'm getting off topic. Originally with this idea, I wasn't bothered that this is what they did. It fits well and its fun to see Frank's reactions to somethings.  But what bothers me is that it feels like in some of the scenes, Frank is just repeating the same lines of dialogue that Chuck delivered in the original version. I might have to replay 2 to confirm this. Frank does add to end of some fights some terrible cheesy one liner when he wins, and yes at one point he brings back his infamous catch phrase, but he delivers it with a smug irony, like he knows the humor of it now. However, when I feel the game starts to become something its own, sometimes someone will just say "Hey you're Frank West! Original dead rising 2 dialogue line!". This to me is somewhat irritating because it feels half assed. While the setting was the same, I hoped that the way the story played out would be different. Sure some scenes change subtly, but just call this what it is: Dead Rising 2: The version people wanted and we should have released first.  

Bibi is one of my favorite Pyscho's. Just an aging showgirl who just doesn't get it.
both Chuck and Frank act like their being hit on by their mom. Hilarious.

So for the most part, most of what made DR2 good is still here. Most of the controls haven't changed so its easy to pick up and start playing. Leveling up Frank functions the same way as the previous Dead Rising games, The best rewards are found from saving survivors who, like in DR2, are generally much smarter and braver than in the first DR game. So keep a handgun or shotgun handy for when saving people and order them ahead. They dash to the point and then huddle up and shoot anything that comes by. Much easier to save them in groups now. Bosses provide fairly decent PP as well and most of them can be found in the same places and times as the previous DR2. In addition to that, It wouldn't be Frank West if you didn't take pictures as well and taking them at the right time offers big PP opportunities, (lol, big PP.. It may be juvenile but its still funny). And yes the timed mission mechanic is still pretty annoying but at least you can just use the zombrex at the hour you need to than running back to the safe house to do it.

They have added some new weapon combinations and all of the old designs still work. The Bowie Knife + Boxing glove and the Broom + Machete combos are still the same arbiters of zombie decimation I grew to love in the previous game.  Some of them are good for a laugh but you'll basically stick to one or two powerful weapons and then if you are smart, you'll get the entertainment and blade magazines, when you get the Katanas you can pretty much the ride out the game with two swords that never break. Another good tip is when you find bars or coffee places, try to collect Wine or Coffee Creamer, combining 2 of each of those in a blender make a quickstep drink which covers a lot of ground quickly. So when not saving people its good to know where to make those because when saving people, they get the quickstep ability too, makes some rescues a breeze.

The soundtrack rocks my ass off. Dead Rising always has a kick ass soundtrack. The ambiance for the casinos and malls is the same plasticy "muzak" you would hear in actual malls. But when you would fight the psychopaths or other bosses, you get some kick ass hard rock, hardcore, or metal soundtrack that really amps up the fight and makes them very fun and entertaining. These soundtracks kick ass and totally make some of the fights and if you don't think so then you are brain damaged. Go to youtube and check out Celldweller's "Own Little World" or Chuck's boss theme "Firewater". Capcom understands boss fights and making them feel awesome.

There is also a sandbox mode, basically you get the freedom to browse the map and try to do various challenges that rank you online and reward you with money. You can carry this over to the actual story mode but It really isn't necessary as there are many was in the actual story mode to build money, its a neat little time sink though for the completionists.

The presentation in this game is what you have come to expect, graphically nothing has changed from DR2 to DR2:OTR. The survivors and zombies are pretty generic looking save the showgirls but not horrid. The major characters and bosses though, are all pretty well designed and have been polished up for the release, and with the proper HD sheen the characters could look downright lifelike, especially Rebecca Chang who admittedly I rule 34'd (don't judge me). The Boss characters are generally well designed and diverse as well, some of them just downright hilarious. A few of them reference some throw backs to previous DR games as well. I don't know why I didn't notice this before but something with the voice acting didn't settle with me. While most of the male characters act reasonably normal given the situation, all the of major female speaking roles with the exception of Stacey seem to be like they are all delivering their lines like they were hired by the soft core pornography actors association. All the dialogue they give is over sexualized and drenched in innuendo, and you barely get a feel for an actual character until much later in the game.

"Your performance was a little limp tonight, Frank. At that age you need pills for that."
I wish I was making that line up.

Rule 34: Its not always a bad thing... (seriously, Don't judge me)

One thing I wanted to specifically address about the presentation is Frank's actual appearance. When I first started playing the game I watched the intro cinematic and even the beginning play through, I thought little of it at first. "Oh there's Frank! This is gonna be awesome." But as I played on, in one of the first cutscenes the Rock mentioned that Frank sold baldness remedies, and it reminded me about the cover. I couldn't help but notice when I looked at it that Frank was definitely balding on the cover. It just looked strange, and now that they mentioned it I couldn't help but notice it. Then I started looked at his actual appearance as I played. I noticed Frank doesn't really run as much as he has kind of a waddling shuffle. He had that in the first DR but it definitely was more noticeable in this one, he also looked a bit more heavy set as well. I thought it was just design of the suit but nope, Frank got fat. At first I was somewhat off put by it, but then something clicked. Frank is an actual everyman. He's not a superhero, he's not some well cut trained soldier or a well traveled adventurer like say Nathan Drake. He's a dude who let fame get to him and lived a fast paced lifestyle that crumbled around him and fell into some bad vices. That topped on the degenerative nature of being bit by a zombie in the first game, it was completely natural and believable that he would let himself go. You tend to hear a large number of female gamers complain how women portrayed in video games are just over sexualized bombshells with massive chests. Now you are starting to see women in gaming starting to have more normal and regular appearances, but you don't really notice this kind of thing about men. I am going through the list of games across from my bed here, and aside from games with create a character, most of the male leads all have the same generic hero archetype. I stumbled upon this article that describes this realization pretty well. Perhaps this is a bit liberal arts douchey of me to make note of, but I thought it was an interesting point and I think I would like to see more actual average joe's as game protagonists.

Sorry about that, let me get back on track here. So if the game seems to be the exact same game as the one I played before, and not much of it seemed to just seemed to show any other variance the one before it, why would I continue to play it? Well, that's just the inherent beauty of this games design. Its just fun to run around to mash zombies into paste. And as I played through, the story does eventually start to branch off from the original path about half way through, making the game an alternate timeline as well.  I guess it still somewhat fits but the last boss is nothing short of ridiculous. But as soon as I finished, even having like 3 other games to play, I wanted to keep playing this one because I wanted to save all the survivors and keep leveling my character, keep discovering new weapons, want to rip through with my stronger character to see all the endings. I ended up playing this back to back just so I could rip through with all the levels and abilities I've earned. My same reaction to the other Dead Rising games.

Its a cool little add on to Dead Rising 2 but really it didn't need to exist. I, like most people, was pretty disappointed when Frank wasn't the star of the sequel but it was cool that Capcom listened to the fans and eventually gave them what they wanted. 40 Bucks for this title seemed a bit steep for something they didn't add all that much to, but I'm glad that I have it and its added the to play life of a game I was done playing. If you are a fan of Dead Rising, I would say it is worth a pick up but I might recommend waiting on it coming down in price a little bit.