Dead Rising 2

After the first chapter, the story really starts to suck you in, but the gameplay is too repetitive for being entertaining a long time.

There's a strange juxtaposition between restriction and fun, and I still don't feel they've accurately nailed it.

If you didn't have a fun time in Dead Rising, things aren't going to change with Dead Rising 2. It is more of the same which doesn't have to be a bad thing.

A challenging and at times flawed experience - one that serves up plenty of frustration along with the rampant good times. Because no matter how hard you try or how carefully you plan your outings, you're almost certain to hit some kind of wall.

Dead Rising 2 is a sequel that tries so hard to appeal to fans of the original that the rest of the gaming world might not find the mass slaughter of zombies quite so appealing. We loved it from start to (stupid) finish, though the many reasons others might not are plain to see and completely understandable.

A videogame that, though potentially excellent, doesn't have much reason to exist, and scuppers itself time and again through silly design decisions. [Issue#64, p.84]

Of course, Dead Rising 2 knows how to be efficient, but we could expect a bit more from this second episode.

Dead Rising 2 doesn't really present anything new compared to the first game, other than the co-op and the ability to combine objects to create interesting weapons. The graphics are dated and the lack of variation in gameplay will bug a lot of players. There's still much fun to be had, thanks to the funny story, bizarre characters and millions of ways to slaughter the zombies.

If it were possible for Marmite to return from the grave, Dead Rising 2 would be that game.

Without a doubt, Blue Castle Games and Capcom continue to show us abuse of the undead makes for good gaming-it's just unfortunate Dead Rising 2 accomplishes little else.

It can be said that the game is made for players to start over, but it doesn't seem like a fair or enjoyable trade-off that a person should be willing to go back to square one of the story mode as a result of experimenting with and enjoying the item-crafting.

Me, I wish the game had better inventory control and an item storage system to allow you to really explore all of your weapon options. But it's the other stuff--the still messy survivor AI and poorly built boss battles--that really mars the Dead Rising 2 experience. It's not an impossible game to love, but as with the first game, you'll have to look past a lot of blemishes to find happiness.

The solid foundation residually left over from the original and the new hybrid weapons system create a basically appealing package from which a decent amount of fun can be derived, but the lackluster presentation, uninspired story, outright broken multiplayer, and atrocious amount of glitches makes Dead Rising 2 less of a flawed gem and more of a somewhat polished pile that incrementally smells worse the longer you let it sit in your disc drive.