holoz0r's A-Z of Steam: Dead Rising 2

Dead Rising 2 is a very pleasant surprise in my Steam Library. It’s a game where you fight an endless horde of zombies. It is also published by Capcom, who are very big in the Zombie genre, see: Resident Evil. Instead of tense survival horror, Dead Rising 2 takes Zombie outbreaks to the humorous, comical level.

You play as Chuck, a dude who rides motorbikes professionally, and kills zombies with chainsaws attached to said motorbikes, it is all part of a game show called Terror is Reality.

And that’s exactly what Dead Rising 2 is – terror, mixed with reality.

Combine weapons, slaughter zombies, and proceed through the storyline. You’ve got to look after Chuck’s daughter Katey as the story progresses, and as you explore a Las Vegas look alike town and all its inhabitants (both zombie, human, and croupier-alike) you get to see an excellent embellishment of what it would be really like if a zombie apocalypse broke out in the Vegas strip.

You’d have drunk strippers roaming about the place, some Texans on holidays (with guns) – and all other manner of American stereotypes. This is a very well put together, and fun arcade game, where if you die, you keep your progress (Prestige Points) and level. You also keep your wisdom of what items combine well together.

Take a power drill and a bucket, and you’ve got a very potent zombie killing weapon, or my early game favourite, a baseball bat reinforced with nails. Another fun one is boxing gloves and knives. The possibilities seem endless.

Its impressive that there’s so many bodies on screen at a single moment. Especially so that this game was released on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Even with so many bodies on the screen, it feels like they’re all richly detailed.

This makes Dead Rising feel like a bit of an idle clicker game, as each time you reset, you’re stronger and run through the early stages of the game faster and faster, which leads to more and more success. You feel as though there’s a constant sense of achievement, and as a result, the game remains captivating, fun, and enjoyable.

I’ve piled seven hours into the title so far, and it seems like there’s no end to the joy it can give me after a difficult day at work. I can’t believe this game is nearly TEN years old and it’s been sitting in my Steam collection for probably just as long.

I never played the first Dead Rising game, and I’m pleased to see that there is a Dead Rising 3 in my steam collection, which I’ll be off to play shortly, because 3 is always better than 2, right? There’s also another game… Dead Rising 2: off the Record, which takes the original game’s hero and thrusts them into the world of Dead Rising 2.

Given I’ve not played the original….

I plan on seeing the key differences between these games as I delve deeper into the titles. You may not see another post in this series of my Steam games collection for a while…