Dead Rising 2 is an adventure zombie action game with horror elements and a third-person view. It develops the ideas and universe laid out in Dead Rising (2006), in a new location and with a new main character. The sequel's events take place in the resort city of Fortune, five years after the zombie incident in Willamette. Former motocross champion Chuck Greene participates in the competition "This Cruel World." After a tragic explosion, the city streets are filled with hordes of the living dead, and only Chuck must find out what really happened.
Gameplay, World, and Single Player
In Dead Rising 2, there is no large open world with various buildings, roads, and landscapes as in the subsequent games of the series. The game world of the sequel is a mix of several floors of an amusement park, an arena, and shopping centers. Everywhere, there are crowds of sluggish, constantly respawning zombies who show interest in the player only if they come close or make noise.
Gameplay repeats the formula of the original — you need to fight through crowds of zombies using various, mostly melee, weapons, as well as the environment, for example, mowing everyone down with a wheelchair.
At the beginning of the playthrough, the player finds simple weapons — bats, axes, and saws, and later can upgrade them in several workshops using various items (nails, chains, wires) collected on the map. By discovering combo cards, the player unlocks unique weapons, like a handheld grenade launcher.
There are more zombies, and more ways to interact with the environment. Boss battles are done in the spirit of the original. Occasionally, you encounter psychopaths — people who lost their sanity during the zombie outbreak or used it to fulfill their cruel desires.
Single-player gameplay boils down to moving from point to point, completing main and side quests, and exploring the game world. Variety is achieved through numerous ways of killing zombies.
The events of Dead Rising 2 are built around the interaction of a few survivors:
- The main character is Chuck Greene. To treat his infected daughter, he needs the expensive drug "Zombrex," and he is forced to participate in the show "This Cruel World."
- Katie Greene is Chuck's little daughter and the meaning of his life. She hides in a bunker under Stacey's supervision, leads a normal life, and receives doses of the drug if Chuck brings them to her.
- Stacey Forsythe is Chuck's love interest, lives in the bunker with Stacey, monitors the world through cameras, and directs Chuck to points of interest, but does not play a significant role in the story.
- Tyron King (T.K.) is the villain and host of the show "This Cruel World." He is behind the zombie invasion in the city, constantly harassing Chuck, but he is far from the main bad guy.
Dead Rising 2 offers a twisted plot with a number of unexpected turns. At the very beginning, the player tries to survive and save Chuck's daughter. Later, he witnesses the disunity of the city's surviving residents. Some try to escape, looters strive to rob every casino, and the military conducts mysterious experiments.
The game offers 7 different endings, depending on the player's actions — whether he brought "Zombrex" to Katie or not, how he survived the encounter with T.K. and the kidnapping of Katie and Stacey. Самого Чака обвиняют в террористической атаке на город, и он вынужден искать доказательства собственной невиновности. Под конец сюжет предложит еще один лихой поворот.
Многопользовательская игра
В Dead Rising 2 есть соревновательный мультиплеер и кооперативное прохождение. Их поддержка продлится до отключения серверов Xbox 360.
Соревновательный режим рассчитан на четырех человек и называется «Террор — это реальность», его «ведет» Ти Кей. Игроки сражаются друг с другом за наибольшее число убитых зомби внутри арены. Можно использовать оружие, транспорт, а также мешать друг другу, применяя разные формы «грязной» тактики.
Есть также мини-игры, например, в Zomboni нужно управлять автомобилем, превращающем зомби в сок, а затем стрелять этим соком в цель и получать очки. Во время Bounty Hunter игроки обезглавливают зомби и могут выбить джек-пот с дополнительными баллами.
Также присутствует онлайн-кооператив на двух игроков. Каждый отыгрывает роль Чака Грина, а напарника видит как случайного попутчика. Кооператив реализован по системе хост-клиент и рассчитан на то, чтобы входить и выходить из режима в любое удобное время. В остальном геймплей не отличается от сольного прохождения Dead Rising 2.
Дополнительный контент и переиздания