When the release for Dead Rising 2 hit the streets, my first thought was, “Eh, wasn’t too thrilled for the first one.” So I didn’t give the info much more thought. Enter: Dead Rising 2 Case: “0”(Zero) for the XBLA. This would be Dead Rising 2’s prequel to its upcoming release. I saw people on my Friends List playing it, so I asked one of them how it was. The response I got was better than expected. I then asked the local GameStop’s Assistant Manager about what he had heard…
The AM gave me an “uninformative” answer, but threw in a couple excited remarks about “upgrading” weapons and the price tag; $5 (400 M$ Points) He also said that it was easy to get all the achievements. This got my attention. Killing zombies with a chainsaw is one thing… but strapping that TWO chainsaws to a Kayak paddle and flailing it carelessly and getting GamerScore for it is squeee-tastic! I’m fairly certain that as soon as I got home that day; I Queued it up for download, poured myself a drink, and loaded it up.
The story took a page from an old horror flick right from the start. Refugee Protagonist pulls into a small town in the middle of nowhere, something happens to his vehicle, Hell breaks loose. Chuck Greene and his daughter, Katey is running to find a “living” civilization and they come across Still Creek, a small town already quarantined by the military at one end… they just didn’t make it to the other. I’m not going to give you the full story here, I want you to play it and experience it for yourself. It’s $5, take my word for it, “You won’t regret it!”
The Good: –>Combo Weapons.<-- There are many ways for you to dispatch these zombies, then you can put weapons together for even more ways to do so. The "Boomstick" is my favorite, of course. You can even make combo food items to help heal yourself as well. (The “Beer Hat” is amazing!) <-- and there's a free hint for you. For an XBLA game, it's got hours of zombie killing fun, better storyline, and Broadswords…that is all.
The Bad: The AM at GameStop said it’d be easy and quick… easy?; depends on who you ask…quick?; only if you’ve played it five or six times already… The town is small, but you have to learn the layout quick because you don’t have much time to do everything. It will take a few playthroughs to get there… but at least you have six different endings to view. Yes…I did say SIX.
SadFace: No Bruce Cambell yet…
The Price: $5 (400 M$ Points) as previously stated. WORTH IT. You’ll play it a few times, see the endings, kill thousands of zombies….but best of all; your progress in leveling up Chuck (Cap at 5), Combo Cards, and money moves from your game save to the full version of DR2 when it’s released!
If you plan on getting DR2, pick Case “0” up, who doesn’t want a head start in leveling and upgraded weapons?
Platforms: XBLA
AMMIH Rating: 5/5
SMS Rating : 0/5
