Pretty sure. See here's the problem. I loooved Dead Rising 1. First game I ever had on the 360. The 2nd game is fine... but. Ok, let me start over. Dead Rising is a video game about zombies taking over a city/mall. You are a survivor, and you have a gallon of different missions to choose from, and 3 days in which to do everything. Oh and you can fight.
I played the game until the 2nd day when I had to get more medicine for my daughter. (There is a daily requirement that you obtain a specific medicine for your daughter and bring it back to her at a specific time, 3 days pass during the game, so you have to do this 3 times).
Well, you have to get to your daughter at 7am, and it was like 4am, and I was fighting this guy on a motorcycle with chainsaws, and I kinda had the feeling that if I killed him, I'd get his bike.
Long story short, I was done at like 5am, and had 2 hours to get to the other side of the map and find medicine and get back to my daughter. Can't be done.
Aaaaaah. Dead Rising's inherent problem: Time specific objectives.
For instance, a storyline mission will start at 8pm. Let's say it's 3pm now. You are busy collecting and returning survivors as is your secondary objective. 5pm rolls around and you get an updated mission that you think might get you better gear. Well... you can either go do that new gear mission, or the storyline mission. But you have to choose.
Don't do the storyline and the story won't progress, don't do the gear mission and you might be under-equiped for whatever is coming up. And that's the problem with Dead Rising's concept. You're constantly feeling like you're behind, or you won't get to do everything you'd like to do. Some missions are fairly tough, the story line missions tend to be a bit easier. However, either way the only way to raise your characters skill level is to do side missions and retrieve and rescue survivors. Too bad you're too busy doing storyline missions.
It was the same problem in the first game, but it's somewhat hard to address. I feel as though the creators simply want you to play through multiple times; once doing straight storyline missions, once with side missions, once just screwing around. But I don't have that same desire. I like doing the storyline missions, and completing the side quests as well. (I'll have WoW to thank for that). Problem is, you're being timed. You have to be at specific places at specific times.
Alright, all that aside, is the game any good? Yes!
They took everything we liked about the first game, and transferred it over. Controls are the same and simple (jump, punch, use weapon, throw). I did notice that our new character (Chuck Greene) is a bit less pugilistic than Frank from the first game. I think this is the creators way of getting us to use more weapons. And there are a various a-sundry of weapons to use. Everything from matrimonial aides to MMA gloves. The possibilities are endless.
Oh, you say there's something else? Ah yes, combining weapons. Take a box of nails and a baseball bat, get some tape, and you have the "Moe Szyslak Alien Killer", more commonly know as board with nails in it. A bucket with a power drill? A hilarious helmet. Some combinations are revealed to you during the course of the game, while others are found at specific sides (maintenance closets). Some aren't even mentioned at all until you try them. There's a great deal of fun to be had trying out different combinations and seeing what works. As in the first game, the weapons will eventually break, and no weapon is greater than the other. (The crowbar, while effective, has to wide attack, while the baseball bat is weak on single strikes, the strong attack has a huge range and arc). Every weapon has a light and strong attack, and some have special effects when thrown.
Might I mention the online play? You mean online play that Doug actually enjoys?? Wha?? Yep, it transforms the game into a co-op game anytime you'd like. Find a particularly hard mission? Jump online and see if someone will help you out, complete strangers or friends alike. Want to try the in-game mini-game "Terror Is Reality" to make some cash? You sure can, with again complete strangers or friends. People can jump into and out of your game, and you can do the same. It's a nice little feature that would be awesome if more people were actually playing the game, haha, but it works.
Cons? Aside from the timing issue, Chuck seems a bit slow at running for a former motocross pro. You don't get the melee attacks from the first game right away so running into a horde of zombies without a weapon is sketchy to say the least. The storyline is a bit farfetched. Yeah. I said it, a zombie story is a bit farfetched. Hilariously nowadays there are believable zombie stories, and unbelievable ones. You'll see what I mean when you reach the train level.
Pros? Tons of zombies to kill, lots of weapons, tons of missions, lots of comedy. The replay is through the roof, many times through and many different possibilities.
Should you buy this game?
Not unless you enjoyed the first one and know what you're getting into. There will be DLCs though, so don't worry too much if you do buy it. Plus the co-op allows for tons of fun later on.
Should you rent this game?
Sure! It would be an extremely fun weekend adventure without the feeling of devoting something to it.
It's killing hundreds of thousands of zombies, in hundreds of different ways. Take it or leave it.
No comments:
Post a Comment