Dead Rising 2

For some time now, games with zombies have experienced a real renaissance. There are not only new installments of the Resident Evil series on the market, but also such great titles as Left 4 Dead or not less addictive Plants vs. Zombies . Capcom also made a contribution by releasing the game Dead Rising in 2006. What could be cooler than killing hordes of zombies with dozens of the most sophisticated weapons? All you need to do is add some pungent music, a bit of crazy humor and we have a simple recipe for a surefire hit. Unfortunately, not everything that looks good on paper works just as well in practice. Dead Rising 2 , released this year, is a clear example of this.

In the game we play the role of Chuck Green, who is trying to earn money by taking part in the controversial motorcycle competition Terror is Reality. Their participants drive around the skatepark-like arena and have to kill as many zombies as possible in the shortest possible time. It may not be the most sophisticated form of entertainment, but in a world full of undead, it is hugely popular. Our hero, however, is unlucky. After one of these "races", the city in which the show takes place is taken over by an army of zombies, and the media accuses Chuck of causing the whole disaster. The player's task is to find the real culprit of the confusion, clear the good name of our hero and survive the invasion of the undead until the rescue team arrives. By the way, we must also take care of the constant supply of medicines to our sick daughter and save as many inhabitants of Fortune City as possible.

The gameplay model has not changed much since the first part of the game. Dead Rising 2 is a typical sandbox in which the player is given complete freedom of action. It is only up to us whether we will continue the main plot, save the surviving residents, or simply exterminate the undead. When it comes to zombies, there are a lot of them in the game. The corpses occupy virtually the entire surface of the city, and it's hard to find even a single building unattended by these mindless sacks of meat. Fortunately, their possibilities are very limited. All they can do is walk at a slow pace and "cuddle" with people passing by. When one of such zombies takes over our hero, we lose health point, and to free ourselves, we have to press the button displayed on the screen. Unfortunately, the aforementioned "hugging" works very randomly. Sometimes it is possible to run through a whole group of living dead without the slightest scratch, and other times it is enough to have one undead who has just started the appropriate script for our hero to be hugged to death. The best defense in such a situation is, of course, a preventive attack. There is a really huge arsenal of weapons at our disposal. In combat, we can use virtually any element of the environment: a bench, a garbage can, a hanger, a fire extinguisher, a painting or even a teddy bear standing in a children's store. There are also more common murder weapons, such as baseball bats, meat cutting knives, swords, and various types of firearms. Most of the items in the game can also be combined with each other. The inventions created in this way are not only more effective, but also make fun much easier. We gain recipes for new types of weapons by completing various tasks and jumping to the next levels of experience, but nothing prevents us from experimenting ourselves.

Killing the hosts of the undead with the toys mentioned above is a lot of fun at first, but all this is only occupied for a while. After a few hours, the constant fight with the same opponents becomes really boring. From time to time, there is a stronger enemy, but we spend 90% of the game time on mindlessly breaking slow sacks of meat. In addition, apart from the use of sophisticated weapons, our hero's capabilities are very limited. It is enough to mention that only after a few hours we acquire the ability to kick, and we learn to flip at the very end of the game.

In addition to mindless extermination of opponents, we can also take on various tasks. They are divided into those related to Chuck's story and into side missions, the completion of which is not necessary to complete the game. Interestingly, both of them represent quite a high level when it comes to the script. The main plot, although predictable, can really engage, which is largely due to good dialogues and great English dubbing. On the other hand, the side missions are not too complex, but they definitely make up for in originality and humor. During their performance, we meet, among others an old stripper, a crazy postman, a cannibal cook, or a woman who took a shower during an attack and now hides behind a palm tree in her underwear. Unfortunately, the scenario is one thing, and the mechanics are another. Almost all missions in the game are exactly the same. Our task is to find the poor man who survived the disaster and take him to a safe bunker at the other end of the city. Sometimes, before we can take care of the escort, we need to find a specific item or defeat some crazy guy, but that doesn't change the fact that all missions are basically the same. The fights with the above-mentioned bosses are also not the most original. Most often they consist of running away, dealing 2-3 blows every several seconds and taking advantage of game errors. So the whole thing is not very satisfying.

As in the first part of the series, time plays a very important role in Dead Rising 2. All tasks can be performed only in strictly defined hours (game time), and after exceeding the deadline, it is not possible to repeat them. This also applies to the main storyline, which is interrupted when you leave at least one mission key to the story. When this happens, we can continue the game, but we no longer have a chance to learn about the fate of the hero and his friends. To make it even more interesting, the developers limited the possibility of saving the game. We can only do this at special points (toilets), and we only have three memory slots. While I consider the system itself to be a good solution, forcing the player to be more cautious, artificially limiting the number of entries does not make any sense. It is enough to make one small mistake, overwrite save in the wrong place and it may turn out that we have to start all over again. This is not at all unlikely given the high difficulty level of the game.

Because Dead Rising 2 is a really difficult game. Personally, I love such titles and I spent many hours on Demon's Souls or Monster Hunter series, but none of them irritated me as much as Capcom's latest work. Unlike the aforementioned games, Dead Rising 2 does not require special dexterity or hard work of gray cells, but is simply underdeveloped. First of all, the location of save points is very frustrating. They are so far apart that we spend a lot of time running around the city without having to complete missions. The second element that can lead to white fever is the ubiquitous zombies. Although they only have one attack, due to its random nature, it is difficult to defend against it. Especially at the beginning of the game, when our hero has a small amount of health, he dies very often after being "hugged" by an ordinary undead. It's hard to imagine a more annoying death.

As befits a good sandbox, the world in Dead Rising 2 is very extensive and exploring it can be a lot of fun. In addition to the aforementioned weapons, in the stores you will find many funny clothes, original hairstyles and bizarre gadgets that significantly change the appearance of our hero. In free time, we can also take part in interesting mini-games. Among them, disassembled poker deserves special attention. Although our opponents are not very good at bluffing, I must admit that I had a lot more fun playing cards than completing escort missions and killing endless swarms of zombies. Visiting the world is made difficult by the lack of a minimap. To determine your location, we have to use a large map all the time, which takes a lot of time and is very inconvenient.

The visual setting of Dead Rising 2 deserves praise, which is one of the strongest sides of the game. Both the character models and the surroundings are very well made and it's hard to fault anything. The only thing that caught my attention are the shadows, which are sometimes too angular, but this does not spoil the positive image of the whole. The audio track looks as good as the graphics. The voices of the characters were well chosen, and during the game we are accompanied by a variety of music. When we visit a cowboy restaurant we hear country tunes, and in the techno club we are struck by a huge amount of bass. Of course, this is not the level of the Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack, but everyone should find something that suits their tastes.

There is also a place for multiplayer gameplay in the game. In addition to the standard cooperation mode, allowing a second player to join at any time of the game, the creators also prepared something extra for people who like competition. By selecting the appropriate option in the menu, we can fight other players in the Terror is Reality motorcycle competition. As I mentioned earlier, they are all about running over zombies in time, and whoever kills more undead gains not only fame but also a cash prize. The dollars earned in this way can then be spent in single player mode, making it easier to complete the game. The whole thing is not too complicated, but as a short stress reliever after a frustrating single it works perfectly well.

I approached Dead Rising 2 with a lot of optimism. All the time I believed that despite the average prototype, in my opinion, the "two" would catch up and use the potential of the series. It was enough to introduce more original tasks, improve the combat system a bit and diversify the opponents, and we would be dealing with a very interesting production. Capcom, however, preferred to stick to proven solutions. So we received a clone of the "one", which probably will satisfy the fans, but personally does not convince me. The whole thing is just too simple and primitive. The tasks are repetitive, the opponents are still the same, and the difficulty level is artificially high. The game has its good sides, of course, but for an interesting scenario and great dialogues, it is not worth going through so many hours of torment. Fans of the first part of the "two" will definitely not disappoint, but everyone else should stay away from it.

Michał "Kwiść" Chwistek

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Dead Rising 2 initially evokes mixed feelings. Extremely difficult level of difficulty, slow traversing corridors full of zombies, repetitive tasks, including sometimes extremely tiring escort missions. The experience of playing on the Xbox 360 is not improved by frequent and long loading. Unfortunately, despite shredding the game world into small locations, the developers did not manage to get the full smoothness of the animation. There is no shortage of scenes where the frame rate drops below a decent level.

The game defends itself with an engaging main plot (the manifestations of Chuck's paternal love affect emotions), a non-linear construction and a high level of replayability. RPG elements, although simplified, are perfectly woven into the game. The development of the main character gives a lot of satisfaction. In the early stages, Chuck can barely deal with even small groups of zombies, and then becomes a veritable slayer of entire undead herds. And there are countless ways to overcome these methods. From traditional firearms to elaborate blends of bizarre gear, just discovering combinations can pierce all the manufacturing flaws. And these become less and less noticeable with time - Chuck moves significantly faster, gets access to shortcuts and means of transport, and side tasks can surprise positively.

Meetings with psychopaths are particularly commendable. Capcom has prepared a real gallery of tightly twisted types here. Virtually every encounter with such a boss is unforgettable - sometimes grotesquely funny, other times disturbing. This mixture of various conventions - from almost comedy to the one straight from psychological horror - will not appeal to everyone. However, the atmosphere of Dead Rising 2 convinced me, and the gameplay itself did not fall out of the tail. It is worth a try.

Grzegorz "Gambrinus" Bobrek