$19.99Is Dead Rising® 2 worth it?
Dead Rising® 2 is worth it if…
- you want a zombie game that is as funny as it is gory
- you like crafting weapons from whatever the mall has on the shelves
- you play better under a deadline than without one
- you want a campaign to run with a friend online
- you enjoy a story that takes its absurdity with a straight face
Screenshots
Duct tape engineering
The heart of the game is combining two everyday objects into something much worse for the undead. A paddle with chainsaws bolted to both ends. A lawnmower you can carry. The game calls these combo weapons, and finding the recipes is half the fun: combo cards unlock along the way and show you which items work together. With thousands of zombies crowding the screen, a weapon built for crowd clearing is not a luxury, it is a plan. And when the plan fails, there is always a bench, or a potted plant, or whatever is not bolted down.
Seventy-two hours in Fortune City
You play Chuck Greene, a former motocross champion framed for the zombie outbreak that tore through Fortune City, an entertainment playground of casinos and shopping arcades. So the story runs on a clock: rescue survivors, hunt down the truth, dose Katey, all before the military arrives. The timer shapes every run and keeps the pressure on, which some find stressful and others find exactly the point. Multiple endings mean what you manage to save changes how it all ends.
Bring a friend to the massacre
The whole campaign can be played online with a friend, tag-team style, and they can drop in at any time. Two people loose in a mall full of zombies with novelty weapons is where the comedy really lands: one holds the crowd, the other tests whether the Portamower works as advertised. If you would rather compete, Terror is Reality is a four-player TV show that pits humans against zombies in gladiator-style events. Co-op here is simple to set up and mostly an excuse to cause trouble together, which is the best kind.
Questions before you play?
Can you play it solo?
Yes. The campaign is a full singleplayer story, and co-op is an option you invite a friend into, not a requirement. Playing alone, the 72-hour clock and the rescue missions are all yours to juggle, and leveling Chuck up through kills, rescues and stunts carries over between runs, so each attempt starts a little stronger.
How does the time limit work?
The story gives you 72 in-game hours before the military arrives, and missions, survivor rescues and Katey's Zombrex doses all sit on that same clock. You cannot do everything in one run, so you choose what to chase and what to leave, and the multiple endings reflect those choices. It is a game about triage as much as about zombies.
What are the psychopaths?
They are human bosses, survivors who snapped under the apocalypse, and they range from tragic to outright deranged. Each one is a fight with its own personality behind it, and they tend to guard something you need, like a survivor or a Zombrex dose. The zombie hordes are the backdrop; the psychopaths are the fights you remember.
Do weapons break?
Yes, weapons wear out with use, which is why the game keeps handing you a mall full of alternatives. When your Paddlesaw falls apart mid-horde, you improvise with a bench, a sign or a frying pan, and the combo card system means you usually know which two nearby objects make something better. Scarcity is part of the survival rhythm, not a punishment.
