Video Game Review: Dead Rising 2.

That's a rather Dr Seussian title. I like it.

So anyway, Dead Rising 2 is a survival horror video game set in an open world environment published in September 2010.

You play as Chuck Greene, a blond haired motorcyclist trying to get his hands on Zombrex for his young daughter Katie which must be replenished at a specific time every day otherwise she turns into a zombie. He tries to do this through a reality game show involving zombies. You also somehow get embroiled in a massive plot development five minutes in in which you are framed for the zombies that the reality show uses getting lose and trying to eat everyone and have to clear your name in three in-game days before the military shows up.

As you can see, the story is complete bananas.

Let me explain briefly.


Capcom.

I am not a huge fan of this game. For a start, I was playing through a good hour of gameplay and about fifteen loading screens before I got to hit a zombie. There are loading screens for cutscenes and then loading screens after. At one point I went through a vent. A cutscene started of him entering the vent, followed by a loading screen, followed by a cutscene of him getting out of the vent at the other side and smiling like a shithead. Followed by a loading screen.

I only needed one loading screen and no cutscenes, Konami. If you can't hide loading screens BEHIND cutscenes, you're developing a game wrong. Games involving the undead need pacing, and this game kills it dead.

There is a 24 clock reminder to get Katie her meds. Every mission is linked to a planner. All hostages that can be saved are only around for a finite time and often don't want to be saved until you've found their friend or rubbed their back or bought them a bag of crisps. There is a constant countdown until the military arrives which pops up on screen every time you enter a new area, which is frequently because you spend more time watching loading screens than playing the actual game.

Once you're in the game, a lot of the action is centred around making weapons, which is incredibly fun. At one point I made a fire extinguisher nail bomb thing which froze enemies solid and covered them in nails, causing their health to tick down.

But all the fun you can have is marred by that constant timer. It doesn't make the game suspenseful, it just ups the tedium. Like you're on a roller coaster but have to step off halfway through to do some washing or you're on a bouncy castle/trampoline and you have to get off to walk someone's dog after ten minutes.

Who do these clothes belong to? Who's dog is this? I wanted a game without stress, where I can find the best ways to murder the undead without having to check a darn timer.

But of course, it's arcade-y and I just don't get it.

NO.

Left 4 Dead & Left 4 Dead 2 were arcade-y but didn't make me feel as if the controller was snatched away from me every mission by someone with severe autism who insisted I do missions in order, helped civilians in order and did a bunch of dull chores because he said so.

I bought this game (Well ok, I didn't. I just happened to get it from someone else) so don't tell me how I'm going to distribute my fun.

Timers suck and ruin games. Dead Rising 2 is so much wasted potential.