Dead Rising 2: Case West

There's a moderately satisfying amount of entertainment to be found in Dead Rising 2: Case West, but the $10 cost seems high for the 2.5 hour play time.

Case West picks up right where Dead Rising 2 left off, with Frank West making a comeback from the first game in the series. You can immediately tell that the game is built for co-op, and is a blast with a friend over Xbox Live. Playing on your own is a different story, as the AI controlled Frank is so efficient at killing zombies that you often feel like a useless hang-around. Still, if you liked Dead Rising 2, you will like this as well.

Case West is not as good as Case Zero. It costs twice as much as its predecessor and the changes it has undergone don't go along with the series' roots, even though it's still a great pleasure to slaughter hundreds of zombies. If you've enjoyed Case Zero and Dead Rising 2, you will also enjoy Case West. Just not as much.

Another excellent download that's arguably more entertaining than the main game, with an improved co-op mode and a more focused adventure.

Not as good as Capcom promised, as Case Zero was much better, but you'll have to pay for it if you want to enjoy the true ending for Dead Rising 2.

This is a must-buy for series followers, but for no one else. It's a really short game, although faithful to Dead Rising 2, but we miss any new feature to justify shipping it separately, and also more options in the cooperative mode, its main new feature.

A lack of core changes means this loses some of Dead Rising's novel excitement, but there is still plenty of zombie-smashing fun to be had in this downloadable offering.

For Dead Rising's last chapter we would have expected a higher challenge level, however this problem doesn't affect the basic gameplay completely, due to the good amount of new weapons that still brings a lot o fun.

Dead Rising 2: Case West is a fun game, but the dull setting and lack of shopping makes this my least favorite installment yet.

At any rate, Dead Rising 2: Case West should please gamers who haven't grown tired of Dead Rising 2's incessant zombie slaying. It's puzzling as to why Capcom feels this DLC is worth $10 when Case Zero was more fun (and half the price...), but fans of zombie games and Frank West will probably feel right at home here.

As a standalone XBLA offering, Case West is technically a decent value, a bite-sized slice of Dead Rising 2 with online co-op, but the game it's wrapped around is nothing special.

Case West will satisfy those who haven't sold their copy of Dead Rising 2, otherwise I would hold off until the next installment of zombie-bashing from Blue Castle.

If you loved Dead Rising 2, then there's no reason you shouldn't continue the story with Case West. There are some disappointments, but it's good, gory, Dead Rising fun.

This isn't a particularly inventive release, and while having Frank West is certainly cool; his presence alone isn't enough to atone for some of the flaws I have issues with. I was really hoping for a bit more here, but overall I feel kind of let down by what Case West has to offer.