FreshHalibut

Shadows of the Damned is quite the odd game. I'm familiar with some of Suda51's work, enough to know this is considered one of his biggest stains, by him at least. I know that Travis Strikes again contains an entire narrative where Travis talks about the development troubles of SotD.

 

So I went in expecting a much worse game than I got.

What I played was a perfectly competent 360 era over the shoulder shooter, but an extremely confused game.

 

As far as core gameplay goes, moving and shooting work basically fine, it's a poor man's RE4 or Dead Space.

You've got your basic handgun, shotgun-ish thing, and SMG-ish thing, and a Light Shot.

The light shot is used for some enemies, some puzzles, and can stun enemies for a RE4 style follow up.

All fairly normal stuff.

 

Now I mentioned above that it had extremely troubled development. While the gameplay is a little simple, the levels are all over the place. They will introduce mechanics for two levels before never touching it again. There are enemy types that have mechanics built for an entirely different version of the game. There are areas that make no sense for the type of gameplay you're doing.

 

It's like the game cuts between

1: Levels authored for the released version

2: Levels scrapped from an old version

3: Levels scrapped from an even older version

 

The beginning of the game in the city isn't too bad. There's a darkness mechanic that feels well integrated into the early levels where you have to balance fighting enemies with banishing darkness to enlarge the arena and allow you to kill enemies.There's a mid level boss which is a neat puzzle fight with a bootleg garrador. A couple levels later you finish this area with a boss fight that's a little glitchy, but would feel right at home in a survival horror game. Then like two rooms after it, is another boss which abandons the survival horror theme and is a straight up bad third person shooter boss.

 

The next act is in a swamp, they give you a charge up bomb attack and introduce new enemies that you have to use the attack on, but they start forgetting about the darkness puzzles and start using them as scene transitions instead. This area of the game is mostly combat and light puzzles with the new bombshot ability. It feels like this section was designed closer to RE4 and nixes the survival horror elements for Evil Dead references. They also introduce an enemy which is weak to darkness, but strong against light, including an entire cutscene showing how you can instakill the big scary enemy by allowing the small weak ones to spread darkness. This never comes up again, and every other time they show up you just shoot them. The boss of this area is another bad third person shooter boss.

 

The act after this has you entering a castle environment and doing light puzzle solving. They introduce a new darkness mechanic, which is that the room is dark.... Instead of the darkness being an otherworld like the rest of the game, there are a few sections here where the darkness is actually just dark and enemies are scared by the light. Kind of a pointless thing when you have dodgerolls, a shotgun, and a bunch of healing by this point. These areas feel designed for another different draft of the game. The boss here feels less bad, like it could've fit in a spookier draft of the game. They also tack on an extra bit outside the castle that feels like a bootleg version of the RE4 village. The village area feels like it could have been a vertical slice of the first act.

 

The final act has you entering catacombs and adventuring a dungeon to start. The level design again feels like it was meant for a different game. There's an entire puzzle room which is pointless because the mechanic it was built around doesn't exist. But at least the levels are somewhat connected. The first half of Act 5 feels like whatever they had laying around that was mostly done. There's a few new puzzles, but mostly it's middling RE4 combat in a sewer/dungeon.

 

There's a big combat arena which serves as your final test of the released version's combat. It's a bit spammy, but it feels authored for the version of the game that came out. It's a decent ammo and health sink and sends every enemy type at you. It's just a tough combat arena, but it's a combat arena for the released version and not one repurposed from some other draft of the game.

 

Right after this it falls directly to pieces though. Area portals, elevators, disjointed level design, everything after this feels like scraps trying to get you to the finish line. Barely any enemies, areas that make no sense for the stage of the game you're in, again there are sections that feel like vertical slices from other drafts, but much smaller and less complete. There's a couple areas with like three zombies and a silent hill motif which makes no sense when you just went up against an army of demons and are carrying a small arsenal.

 

After the last scraps of level design, the final boss is just, bad.

But it's bad in a way that feels like it wasn't reauthored for the release version of SotD.

It feels like it was maybe made for act/draft 2 and they never changed it or even polished it up for the release version.

 

It's layers upon layers of conflicting ideas and design goals the whole way through. Sometimes it feels like you're playing through some other character's game, like if you inserted Isaac into RE4. It never plays offensively bad, it's just a soup of ideas scrambled together after EA meddled with the development time and time again. I don't think I'd ever replay it, but it's really interesting to look at posthumously.

 

Also, the elephant in the room.

 

Yes, SotD is an eight hour series of boner jokes. The default pistol is literally called the "Boner" on account of shooting demon bones as ammo.

I've owned Tyranny for a long time, but never got around to playing it until recently. It's on the shorter side for a CRPG which was part of the reason I wanted to play it. After finishing it, I can kinda see why it's so short.

 

The good:

 

The party members are all oddball and cool.

The game is very reactive to your choices, people constantly bring up stuff you did in your Conquest or did earlier in the game.

Interesting main villains/character to talk to.

The magic system is super neat and based on sigils, as you learn more sigils you can modify the different schools of magic, of which there are eleven. Instead picking from a book of spells while leveling up, you gain new spells by finding or buying new sigils and expression cores which you combine for different effects.

 

The bad:

 

The game is short where it's obvious they had more planned. There are a lot of things which go unanswered and are left to speculation. There are breadcrumbs that lead nowhere because there just isn't more game.

Playing a martial character feels pointless when you can't even get proper Tank skills compared to your companions. Spellsword is great, but a full on Swordy boardy is better left to your party.

There's parts that are clearly unfinished and the DLC area never got the bugfixes it needed.

 

The other:

 

Tyranny doesn't have much in the way of dungeon crawling. After the first act of the game, you're spending most of the game chatting with people instead of stabbing them. Unless you choose to stab everyone I guess.

The game is very reactive which is cool for replayability, but it's comparatively short because of it.

While the game is called Tyranny, and encourages you to be evil, it's actually not super advantageous most of the time. This sounds like a "well duh, why would being evil be good?" but this was explicitly the RPG where they were supposed to make the evil options more interesting/appealing. Many of the evil options are just "Kill this dude".

I feel that Psychopomp is a game about the journey and not the destination. Every level was eerie and messed up in different ways and you have only a few hits before dying making things tense when you encounter an enemy. Considering you can only see a few feet in front of you, enemies can catch you off guard and quickly end a run. The game isn't hard, but it keeps things tense because there's zero checkpoints.

 

This led to high stress gameplay where you're constantly on the lookout for anything that might try to attack you and force an entire level restart. It was tense exploring levels for the first time unsure what the enemies even look like since every character in the game is a messed up meat golem of some kind.

 

So the tense dungeoneering I can get behind, first time through any level was a spooky and tense experience from the combination of unknowns and low visibility.

 

Where I think I didn't vibe with the game is on the story. There's a lot of plot threads, Some of these are answered by the end of the game, but much of the plot is left up in the air for speculation or a sequel. I'm really not a fan when games have lots of symbolism and breadcrumbs that amount to "It's up to your own interpretation".

 

Pychopomp is dripping with atmosphere, but I didn't get the story payoff I wanted. It was a memorable experience with a great first playthrough, but the lack of any kind of satisfying conclusion sours me on the ending. It's almost an anthology of levels with how little the plot mattered in the end.

 

Edit: I ended up reading a story guide, and there is a throughline. I still stand by being unsatisfied with the ending, but there is more dot connecting than I initially thought. There still isn't a conclusion though, just worldbuilding, which is my main complaint.

You visit EH1 and find Yellow, which was an alternate ending of 1 where Red decided on inhabiting another puppet instead of achieving the true ending.

The aftermath of this alternate ending was shown in EH2 where the people involved in that ending are dead and everyone else is in hiding.

 

As for EH2 itself, it doesn't need to exist, but the game essentially looks you in the eye and says "I exist because you wanted more". While the initial goal is set up like EH1, once it's completed EH2 just starts inventing things for you to do, which seems intentional. I mean, one character stares straight at the screen and says "I just love battles". They added official workshop support so people could battle forever if they want.

 

I found the battles in EH2 both better and worse than EH1. I think the generic battle mechanics are better from an RPG rhythm battle perspective, but the individual gimmicks are worse. There's nothing quite as memorable as the gnome jumprope battle in EH2 or even the initial dance battle where the music picks up and you're suddenly dodging laser vision. But that battle system is fun and so EH2 just invents more things for you to do. I think it never reaches the highs of EH1, but it's still a good time overall.

 

Everhood 2 is a sequel that doesn't need to exist, but the journey is fun and I'm glad that it does. I just really wish they had decided to write another story instead of a meta commentary on the nature of sequels. Now, if they had decided to actually write another meaningful story while retaining the same game mechanics (Like you said, Deltarune) that could've been a 10/10 maybe.

 

Rogue Trader

Really good CRPG set in 40K, really super long though. I want to replay it with another alignment, but it's like 200 hours and still jank in places. I played the first DLC and that was really tight and well written. Looking forward to the second DLC whenever that comes out.

 

Helldivers 2

Has been my go to game for a couple quick matches of bot or bug stomping. I pretty much just play with pubs, but have been having a good time.

 

Dragons Dogma 2

Man did this really come out this year? It feels like it came and went. I enjoyed my time with it, but it's got a whole different set of issues than the first game dragging it down. Adventuring was really fun, but the low enemy variety and plot that kinda goes nowhere prevents me from wanting to go back to it.

 

Mullet Mad Jack

Oh yeah, this came out this year too. Really fun frenetic Roguelite shooter that takes PostVoid's formula and turns it into an 80s OVA. Got a couple of updates post launch, but I got my fill beating it on the standard hard difficulty. Check it out if it goes on sale.

 

Robobeat

Rhythm Game shooter like Metal Hellsinger or BPM but with a focus on like, electric and jazz and stuff instead of rock. I really enjoyed this one, but skill issues prevented me from finishing the 3rd floor and beyond. They blended Ultrakill into the formula and so you're jumping, sliding, and reflecting bullets back while also shooting to the beat. Being a roguelite however, you're heavily punished for taking damage unlike Ultrakill where as long as you keep going nuts you can rubberband your health back. Also has DeadCells like progression where you collect not-cells during your run to deposit at checkpoints to unlock more gear which makes it a little more grindy than I like.

 

Fallen Aces Early Access

Super cool first person brawler thing that blends Deus Ex style exploration and open level design with detective niore punching. You can go in guns blazing, but I found myself doing silent takedowns on most of the Giani goons. Lots of ways to do your obejctives, but no skills or stats to level up. You're relying on your wits and whatever you can pick up to make it through.

 

EDF 6

Kind of a mixed bag of things. It's more EDF which I like, they've made some meaningful changes to the way the classes work, but it's also got EGS integration which makes the online more annoying to jump into. On the upside they've merged online and singleplayer progression, but you have to deal with EGS nonsense to take advantage.

 

Space Marine 2

Really really good follow up to the first one. The campaign was a blast to playthrough in coop. The multiplayer missions are fun as well, but I don't have the motivation to grind the same 5 missions over and over as they get harder. Darktide has that same issue. And also I'm not very good at the game and get slapped by Tyranid if I try to play harder difficulties.

 

Crow Country

PS1 aesthetic survival horror set in an abandoned amusement part. Saw one of the plot twists coming a mile away, but it was appropriately spooky and not super long to run through. Didn't quite 100% it, but I managed to get all the secrets and upgrades. Definitely check it out if you're a fan of RE1 style survival horror, minus the inventory management.

 

Silent Hill 2

Stands next to or slightly below the original as an atmospheric scary good time. It loses some of the quiet foreboding the original had but replaces it with atmospheric tension you could slice with a knife. Great environments, great atmosphere, fun to control, and tells the story well.

 

420 Blaze It 2 (Yes Really)

So it has the aesthetic of an ironic meme game, but it actually plays really tight. The gunplay and movement are really super solid and it ends up feeling a bit like a meme'd out version of FEAR. It's not super long and every level has a different gimmick to keep things constantly changing. I actually 100%ed it because blazing through the levels blasting things was fun and the cheevos were all pretty reasonable. Would MLG 420 Blaze it again.

 

Sulfur

Early Access and needs more time in the oven, but had a lot of fun with this one. FPS Roguelike where you have to make the best of your starting gun. Mod it out, enchant it, and try to make it through 4 biomes of cultists, gun wizards, and goblins. Not much in the way of meta progression, when you die you lose it all. Also has a surprisingly robust and involved cooking system with some absurd number of recipes you can cook up to make better healing items from raw ingredients often found as loot.

 

 

I have no nostalgia for PS2 Silent Hill 2, I only played it a few years ago, but I thought it was really something special.

Yes the combat and bosses are bad, but the atmosphere is unmatched.

PS2 Silent Hill 2 is a game of quiet foreboding as you pilot James through a series of fixed-camera dutch-angles while dodging psychological horrors.

Then you shotgun a bunch of nurses, but mostly the quiet foreboding.

Nobody ever mentions the middle of the game where you're flush with ammo and can just awkwardly shotgun everything.

 

Silent Hill 2 Remake takes another go at James's plight and solves the issue of bad combat while mostly telling the same story.

The levels are all redesigned to accommodate modern third person RE2make style controls.

The combat has been updated so that melee isn't garbo and they copied RE2make's homework again when it comes to survival horror gunplay.

The Remake's atmosphere is really top notch though, they did their homework.

 

These changes make the whole thing more action packed than the original though, and it takes away that quiet solitude that the original had.

If the original is a quiet journey into madness, the Remake is a battle to survive the madness.

 

I think the new VAs did a good job and the bosses were more fun to fight.

Overall it was a great time, but it really felt like I was playing Resident Evil 2 Remake: Silent Hill 2.

Because the combat is so garbo in the Original, you end up dodging most enemies.

Because the combat is improved in the Remake, you can reliably fight most enemies.

 

The story and characters were all there, but the increased focus on combat took away most of the quiet sinister atmosphere the original had.

The PS2 game assaults you with scary music and sound effects too, but also has moments where the music and monster sounds disappear.

Then it's just James running down a hall in the dark at an angle where you can't quite see where you're going and you aren't quite sure where to go.

 

 

I think the new version sanded off most of the rough edges of the original, but in doing so eschewed some of the original design intent.

On the other hand, the original is deliberately balanced for you fail multiple times before being able to finish the story, which a lot of people don't like.

 

The new version is easier in general, leveling is faster, you run faster, and some bosses have been made less frustrating.

These changes allowed me to beat the game rescuing all survivors starting from level 0, which is something that you'd never do in the original.

 

Autosaving is really convenient, but the game wasn't designed for it, so it makes a lot of sections way easier. Autosaving was deliberately left out of the original by the director, because he wanted to remove that safety net from players and make the zombies more threatening if you've gone a while without saving. The addition of Autosave is a good change, but it does remove some of the game's teeth. Like the dilemma of running to a save point before fighting a boss or running straight there to save time. With autosaving, you really only need to save in the Security room and all the bathrooms around the game become redundant.

 

Survivor AI is dramatically improved, which is awesome actually, they're much more self sufficient, but you still need to keep an eye on them.

They're actually pretty close to DR2's survivors where they'll follow you pretty well, but sometimes get mobbed if you're not paying attention.

 

The voice actors in the remake are okay, but I think the VA's sound better when they're doing original takes instead of trying to mimic the old performance.

All of the old text popups are voiced now, which is great, and bosses have new combat barks too. Otis sounds great (he never had a voice in the original) and I think new Franks new lines are all good, but I think he's worse in cutscenes since he's trying to mimic TJ Rotolo instead of doing his own thing.

 

They did add a few new things to find in the remake, which is cool. There's new books available which give use to some previously worthless items which is a good change.

 

Ultimately, I think the new version is better in the places it counts. It's a more accessible, less frustrating, less time wasting, version of Dead Rising 1.

I still prefer the voice acting cast of the original, and the original still has merit as the "Original Vision" for better or worse.

Better because the original feels very deliberately designed, worse because that design put brick walls in the way and expected you to fail a few times before getting to the end.

 

Yeah, I hope we get new operations set post-campaign that bring us Necron units. I marked out when the Tombs started appearing only for nothing to wake up.

 

Also, genestealers are conspicuously absent. They've mentioned new enemies as a part of the roadmap, I'd wager they're top of the list if it's not the Necron who woke up after the campaign.

 

Kinda lame how some of the set pieces were relegated to the operations mode. The Heldrake and Hive Tyrant fights are operations only.

 

But I thought it was really really funny about the Chaplain reveal. He stayed salty for over 100 years, even after Chapter Master Calgar awarded Titus the highest honors and basically said "Use your common sense, not just the Space Book". (Although I admit, calling in Calgar to say Titus is the coolest is really fanservicey)

 

I think I'll probably stick around for the operations mode because the gameplay is really fun, but if we get Space Marine 3 or a big expansion I want more armies and chapters besides the Ultras. Where my Blood Angels at?

 

They both ran fine, although OTR forces you to start a new game before allowing you to change video options.

 

Controller support is very picky due to a scuffed implementation and windows updates.

Basically the controller support is great, it implements the 360 controls/icons, except it only detects 360 controllers.

If you have a 360 controller, modern windows recognizes it as an "Xbox Controller" instead of "Xbox 360 Controller" which prevents the game from detecting it.

There's a method I was able to find which fixed the controller implementation for me by telling the game I have a 360 controller plugged in.

 

But truth be told, I originally played Dead Rising 2 completely on mouse and keyboard, it worked well enough.

My coop partner is playing OTR on M+KB while I'm on controller and it's been good so far.

 

Not sure if this will work for others, but here's a Zipfile which should theoretically be pre-configured for DR2/OTR controller support if anyone wants it. (Google Drive Link)

Drop it in the exe folder and it should launch x360ce when booting the game and autodetect a wired controller (my wireless adapter didn't seem to work with it though).

 

As for the DLCs, they're costumes that give you extra powers while wearing them.

I think they were broken by gfwl being removed, delisted, later fixed, but the DLC for DR2 was put back on sale while the DLC for OTR is still delisted.

 

I actually have the DLC for both, OTR because I got it back in the day and DR2 when they relisted it a while ago.

They're fun to mess around with, but most of them break the game balance in some capacity. I can confirm that they worked for me as recently as last Tuesday.

I ran around as Frank Kicking doors with a fireman mustache.

 

As for Coop. There's no matchmaking, you have to open up your lobby and invite your friend from the steam overlay.

Once we figured out the process, it's been working well for us. Only had a disconnect once so far.

This is for OTR though, we didn't end up playing DR2 so I can't speak to the coop of that version.

 

Off the Record is a non-canon spinoff of Dead Rising 2 where we play as Frank instead of Chuck.

This is an alternate timeline where Chuck was not successful in saving Katie and instead Frank investigates what's going on in Fortune city.

 

The plot is mostly the same just featuring Frank instead, but they throw a few curveballs to people who played the original. Also a lot of main story missions are routed slightly differently. In the first case where you escort Rebecca she takes a longer less direct route in OTR. The psychopaths all have new cutscenes, but I prefer the originals. All the psychos in DR2 have a reason to snap at Chuck, he was framed for a crime he didn't commit. The psychos just get mad at Frank for kinda no reason now (except the new one who was added just for Frank). In general, the plot still works, it's just been remixed a bit.

 

Mechanically, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is the Director's Cut of Dead Rising 2. They brought back photography, added a bunch of XP photo ops, and incorporated all the combo weapons from Case West into DR2. Also your online coop partner is now Chuck instead of Chuck-2 and they ported all the coop banter from Case West into OTR. I've been having a fun time listening to these two chuckleheads argue with each other. Besides that, there's other new combo weapons to find and most importantly, a whole new zone.

 

Dead Rising 2 didn't have a theme park zone in the original cut like Willamette did, so in OTR they added Uranus Zone as a space themed amusement park zone. They stuck it in a previously "under construction" part of the map, although I think they were going to build a hotel there originally. The zone works well enough, it's a new place to explore which is organically connected to the other areas. It includes several rides, a bar, and a bunch of storage lockers. In OTR, instead of finding all the good stuff in the usual secret spots, often you'll find a locker key instead. These locker keys have to grabbed each playthrough and usually hold all the really good stuff like Zombrex.

 

Speaking of Zombrex, Frank still has to take it. Instead of returning to the safe room to administer it to Katie, you just inject yourself instead. This gives you a little more free time between missions since you aren't returning to the safe house quite as often. I would say that OTR is slightly more lenient than Dead Rising 2, but the time management is about the same for the main plot.

 

Another area which is remixed is survivor placement and timings. In Dead Rising 2 there was a natural flow to where survivors would pop up, allowing you to make circuits around the mall and back to the saferoom. In OTR, there are a few new survivors and many of them are moved around in both location and time of day. The remixed survivor layout is trickier, because most of the survivors that they move around are a bit less convenient to get to.

 

Besides this, they incorporated looters into more areas of the game and moved a lot of items around. Looters were pretty rare in the original, now they're all over the place. If you duck into a store for supplies, you might find that they filled it with looters in OTR. As for weapons, they moved and removed a couple of the cheesier spots for good items. LMGs have been moved around and the sledgehammer by the saferoom has been removed, meaning you can't make one of the best combo items every time you head out.

Oh, also all the radio calls are voice acted now, which is something they're bringing into DRDR which is nice.

 

So is it better than Dead Rising 2? Sorta?

It's Dead Rising 2, with more stuff, which is why I liked Dead Rising 2 in the first place. So based on that metric, yes it's better.

The plot is weaker though since they have to invent reasons for Frank to be there, and it's noncanon, so on that metric I'd say no.

But as a Coop game, it's much better than the vanilla cut because of the funny photography and Frank/Chuck banter, so it's better in that way.

 

I think Dead Rising 2 is more polished, and being the original cut, a bit more intentionally designed with regards to side missions and plot timing.

Off the Record adds a lot, but the remixed items and locations almost feel like a "Chuck A, Frank B" scenario, where things have been made harder for veterans of the base game.

Survivors are squishier, leveling is slower, and items and enemies have been moved around to trip you up.

 

If you had to pick one, and only one, I'd say Off the Record. There's more stuff in it, and the coop is better.

Oh, and there's a straight up sandbox mode where you can explore the map without a timer and do challenges.

 

If you have the patience to play both though,

I think Dead Rising 2 is more deliberately designed and polished over all.

OTR is a great way to replay the game with more stuff in a slightly messier way.

 

So if you play one, play OTR, but if you play both, play Dead Rising 2 for the original cut, then play OTR for the new scenario and sandbox mode.

The original entry into the series, I've played it on the 360 back when it was new, but revisited it with the PC port from a few years ago.

We take the role of Frank West, Photojournalist, looking for his latest scoop at the Willamette mall. Somehow there's been a zombie outbreak and it's Frank's job to figure out what's going on.

 

I didn't spend a lot of time stopping to admire the environment, but everything was about as I remember. I want to say the port is a lot less dark than the 360 version. I could be making it up, but I remember the nights in Dead Rising 360 could get oppressive while in the port it was barely dark.

 

I did mess around for a bit to gain a few levels and then restart the story, but the second run was a breeze.

In general, I think the game feels a lot easier than back in the day, I'm not sure if it's because I already know all the tricks, or if the industry has progressed where Dead Rising's difficulty is quaint now. If you know how to make quickstep and untouchable, you've already beaten the game. There's still a few "gotchas" that require a reload if you don't know about them, and the guide arrow is still drunk, but I didn't have too many issues with the playthrough. These games really reward player knowledge a lot by knowing where good items and shortcuts are.

 

In general, I think the game holds up. The novelty of using anything as a weapon doesn't strike me the same way it did back then. I came to realize that there's only a few "regular" items that are worthwhile to carry around and the ability to chuck a park bench is funny, but not that handy. There's a lot of random items you can use as weapons, but mostly you're going to use bats, axes, and actual weapons as weapons. I think the plot mostly holds up, but most of it is Frank trying to figure out the big mystery of Willamette. The characters are all fun though, the psychopaths in particular are still as deranged as I remember.

 

The time management gameplay was fun and herding survivors for a big XP pop always felt rewarding. On the other hand, because survivors are so difficult in this entry, I didn't worry if one died, that's just how it goes. I think that was probably intentional design? I struggle to find anything these days, but allegedly making Frank a hero by rescuing people was supposed to be a moral choice. Which feels like why some of the "bad endings" for survivors have big xp photo opportunities.

 

 

I found Frank's voice acting actually a lot better than I remembered it. He has a lot of subtle mannerisms and intonation in his voice that I wasn't expecting. It's still a B-Movie, but the main stars put on a great performance. I think most of the characters are voice acted well, that might be nostalgia talking though, since period reviews cite the acting as just being "okay".

 

Compared to later entries, Dead Rising 1 has a lot less to mess around with in the environment. There's not much to do besides save survivors or go after the main plot. I guess it just feels smaller in scope being the first game in the series.

 

Overall, Dead Rising 1 is still a great game, but I'd still give it like a 7/10.

Only available on 360 or through backwards compatibility, Case Zero is a prequel to Dead Rising 2.

We take the role of Chuck a few years prior to the events of Dead Rising 2 as he escapes from Las Vegas on his way to Fortune City.

Case Zero takes place in a little town outside of Vegas just outside the quarantine zone, giving us a small interconnected area to explore.

Having just escaped the outbreak, Chuck gets his truck stolen and needs to build a motorbike to escape before the military finishes cordoning off the area while making sure Katie gets her medicine and rescuing survivors.

 

Mechanically, you're restricted to level 5, but otherwise it's a mini-Dead Rising 2. It only takes an hour or so to beat if you know where to go, so the game intentionally obfuscates a lot of information from you to force a restart. You can gather money to pay for hints, but it's clearly set up in a way for either info sharing online or deliberately ignoring the plot to explore.

 

The time limit is fairly restrictive in Case Zero. While there is enough time to do everything, you really must be on the ball at all times. There's no room to stop and shop if you want to go for a completionist run of Case Zero. I would say Case Zero executes the Dead Rising 1 formula well while incorporating the new stuff that Dead Rising 2 was about to introduce us to. If you want to do everything, you need a plan, and if you want to goof off, you're going to miss stuff.

 

Case Zero was still fun to play through. There's a lot of random items hidden around that are one-of-a-kind that are only there to hype you up for the full game. I think the overall experience still works though, it's like a weird elevated demo where it's actually a mini campaign and cost $5, but they're still trying to hype you up for the full release.

 

Case Zero is good, you aren't missing much by not playing it, but I think it enhances Dead Rising 2 if you do.

Although all the relevant content is available in cutscenes, none of the gameplay really ties into the main game.

 

Worth Playing, but not essential.

The Big sequel to the original and probably my overall favorite

We take the role of Chuck Greene (again possibly), Motocross rider and handyman, as he tries to clear his name from a crime he didn't commit.

Meanwhile we have to take care of his daughter Katie with regular doses of Zombrex, the lifesaving drug that prevents zombification for 24 hours.

 

Dead Rising 2 takes place in Fortune City, which is heavily inspired by Las Vegas and serves as the new adult playground after the Las Vegas in universe was devastated by a zombie outbreak. It's a fun location, slot machines, tourist stuff, games, and interactibles are everywhere. It's a neon playground filled with zombies. I think it still fits the motif of the first game where it was being a little on-the-nose with a mall full of zombie shoppers, now we have a casino resort full of zombie tourists. Its a bigger location than the first game filled with more stuff to find.

 

For new mechanics, Dead Rising 2's big gimmick was combo weapons and being able to MacGuyver big killy weapons together.

Some of those weapons are really really good, others are mostly for funnies or farming XP. There are also a limited number of combo motorbikes you can make, that are mostly for xp farming/fun since its usually out of the way.

 

I think the plot is fine, it's similar to the first game where most of the plot is Chuck trying to figure out what the hell is going on. The time limits are a bit less strict than Dead Rising 1 however, you're usually given a good bit of free time between plot beats. This is good because during that free time you'll need to figure out where to get some Zombrex, usually as a reward from optional survivors, but you can also buy it or find it. I think the characters are well acted and fun to see, once again the psychos steal the show. In general this game is more corny though. I'd say Dead Rising 1 was a little more serious, while Dead Rising 2's psychos are on the goofier side. A good example are the snipers in DR1 and DR2. In DR1 they're a family that's killing everyone out of survival/fear/bad-dad. In DR2 they're rednecks hunting survivors for being commies who let zombies in, and for fun.

 

Like the first game, Dead Rising 2 rewards meta knowledge of the game. There are enough hidden zombrex boxes around the map that an experienced player will never run short. Additionally, having all the crafting recipes in the back of your mind allows you to grab items that might be out of the way in preparation for a combo weapon. Whenever I ran around the map, I'd always make stops to pick up all the good items in my area. There are a few that are really quick and easy to make on your way to just about any story event.

 

In general, Dead Rising 2 goes for a goofier tone, while keeping the core of what worked in Dead Rising 1. The time limit is still tight, but not as unforgiving. Survivors are smarter and more self-sufficient which makes guiding larger groups a lot more manageable. There's plenty of hidden items to find just like the first game, but some of them are ingredients for combo weapons.

 

I think it's a worthy successor to the first game that irons out some of the wrinkles of the first game, but I don't think it's wholly superior.

Dead Rising 2 is an improvement in most ways, but I'd still rate it at like a 7/10.

Once again exclusive to the Xbox360, Case West is the epilogue to Dead Rising 2.

Frank West returns to help our hero Chuck Greene explore a new science lab and find evidence of wrongdoing. This time in a coop adventure!

While exploring Case West, Frank joins you both offline as a cpu and online as a coop buddy. There's new mysteries to solve, new survivors to rescue, and new combo weapons to find. The time limit is still here and it's even more lenient than before. You're given gobs of free time to explore while the plot has you on hold.

 

Mechanically, you start off at level 40 with a good bit of inventory slots and health already available. The main gimmick here is Frank's involvement, you have a constant coop buddy whether you're online or not. Also photography is back, but only used for collectibles and plot points. It's pretty much more Dead Rising 2 in a new map with new secrets to find.

 

Moving on, Case West demonstrates a few things which bleed over into later entries, it's not quite jumping the shark here, but you can see them building the ramp.

 

First is the introduction of more free time to mess around. Case Zero was tight, DR2 was fair, and Case West has moments where the game says "wander around until something happens". Second is the removal of survivor escorts. In Case West it's internally justified by the fact that they work in the science lab and don't need an escort, they just need help out of their predicament. The way this works mechanically, is that you have to find the survivor, and usually give them an item so they can escape. The main thing is the removal of escorts though, even Case Zero had survivor escorts. Thirdly, since we're post Dead Rising 2, the stakes have already been raised, so in order to raise the stakes some more they introduce a bunch of non-zombie enemies. Dead Rising 1 and 2 have non-zombie enemies, but Case West makes them far far more common and a constant threat.

 

These elements in Case West don't ruin it for me, but I can see the seeds of where we're going in Dead Rising 3 and 4.

 

Overall though, Case West is more Dead Rising 2 and still a good time. It's actually plot significant, so if you've never played it, but finished Dead Rising 2, check out the cutscenes on youtube.

 

Worth playing if you can get it.

Here we go, the beginning of the end here. Dead Rising 3, formerly a Xbone exclusive, later came to PC complete with a season pass.

Let me preface this by saying I think Dead Rising 3 is a Good Game, it just has different goals than Dead Rising 1/2.

 

This time we play as Nick Ramos, Mechanic and like 22, which makes him a lot younger than Frank or Chuck in their respective games. We start the game mid outbreak in Los Perditos as Nick is doing a supply run for his friends holed up in a 50s diner. The overall vibe this game goes for is Zombie Apocalypse, as opposed to zombie playground. Nick as a protagonist is having a really rough time of it and is constantly panicking.

 

Immediately things are much different the camera is pulled waaay in, more like a third person shooter, there's a sprint button, inventory is different, there's light/heavy/stomp combos now, everything is changed. While Dead Rising 2 controls like Dead Rising 1 but better, Dead Rising 3 controls nothing like the other two. Then we have the tone, Dead Rising 3 is going for a much more serious tone, on the critical path, and treats the zombie outbreak like a much more serious threat than the other two games. The game has gone from the levity of the mall, the neon of not-vegas, to the brown streets of Los Perditos.

 

Once I gained a few levels and figured out the new gameplay, I actually enjoyed Dead Rising 3 quite a bit. The main path is full of doom and gloom, but much of the side content is goofy. Rather infamously there's the Flamethrower codpiece psychopath, whose weapon you also get to use.

 

Mechanically, all the teeth from the previous games have been filed off. The time limit to beat the whole game is one week. Missions aren't timed, only sidequests, survivors don't need to be escorted, and combo weapons are much more numerous and easy to make.

 

The big gimmick of Dead Rising 3 is twofold. Combo weapons no longer need to be made in a special room, you can make them anywhere as long as you have the ingredients. Then the addition of formal combo vehicles, which can be made with two of corresponding vehicles. The level up system has been changed and turned into a regular skill tree, which is different, but one big change is that with the relevant skills, combo weapons can be made with ingredients that are "good enough". The Flaming sword can be made with a sword and motor oil, but with the right skills you can use any blade and any chemical. This makes combo weapons much much much easier to make since you can use basically anything on hand instead of a predefined recipe. Combo vehicles are the same way, at first requiring a specific set of vehicles and later requiring much more common modes of transport. In general, combo weapons are extremely strong in this game, stronger than before.

 

Let's talk about the new map. Los Perditos is a fully realized city with highways, streets, shops, and parks. Zombies are in higher density than ever before and the game will have Nick driving all over the place, frequently traveling back and forth between the city's four districts. The four districts have names, but are essentially city, suburb, rich suburb, and industrial park. These zones are densely populated with stuff to find, but not people, survivors only exist as radiant quests or as discreet sidequests.

 

There's another new mechanic, sorta, collectibles! (ugh). So in lieu of survivors, Dead Rising 3 has a slew of collectibles to explore and find. Once you get over the ubigame-ism of it, it's not bad actually. Most of the collectibles are placed pretty deliberately to get you to explore and they all show on your map from pretty far away. If you're in one of the four zones, you can see all the collectibles in it usually. Most importantly, the majority of these new collectibles are combo weapons. Instead of being able to make a combo weapon without the recipe, you now require one, but the trade of is that they're easier to make. You're given plenty of time to explore and find everything, and everything you do carries over on your profile.

 

The timelimit in this game is such a non-issue, I collected almost everything on my first playthrough, got every survivor sidequest, and still finished with two days remaining (which equals about four hours of gametime).

 

The story is once again okay, I would rate it lower than Dead Rising 1 or 2 though. I don't care about the characters very much and everyone is kind of unlikable. I don't hate Nick, but his ambient panic voicelines got on my nerves. That's where I think I had the biggest disconnect is the story tone and game tone. You'll use some ridiculously overpowered combo weapon to kill a thousand zombies, and then Nick in the next cutscene will go "oh no there's zombies over there" like he didn't just clear the street. Frank and Chuck acknowledge the zombie threat but in a much more calm and collected way than Nick ever does.

 

I think, taken on its own merits, Dead Rising 3 is a good game. It's going more for an open world zombie apocalypse in setting, there's lot of ubi-style collectibles to find, many of which in tricky interesting places, and those collectibles often give you some ridiculously overpowered combo item to fight back the horde with. It's a gameplay loop that worked for me. They upped the enemy variety by including a bunch of special zombies, but they don't feel out of place as an escalation. Certainly not as out of place as where DR4 would go. I think getting stunlocked by human bikers (stand in for looters/raincoats) sucks, but besides that the military guys are easy enough to avoid.

 

The DLC is much the same, but there's no time limit at all, just new items and missions to mess around with. The DLC stories do tie into the main game, and inform what other characters were doing at the time, but like I said earlier everyone is still kind of unlikable. I ended up speedrunning most of the DLCs once I saw there wasn't much meat. Despite being a Xbone game, the DLCs are very 360 in their "here's a bunch of padding while you wait a month for the next one". So playing them back to back was not a great idea.

 

Now how does it tie into the rest of the series? Not the worst actually. I think that I can comfortably call Dead Rising a trilogy because Dead Rising 3, different as it is, tonal whiplash that it has, does tie up the setting with a neat little bow at the end. Questions are answered and loose threads are tied. It's a bit cheesy and the plot is still really stupid in places, but I could see myself revisiting it years from now, maybe not the DLC.

 

I'd still give it like a 7 out of ten, but lower than the other two.

DR2 > DR1 > DR3

I gave Dead Rising 4 a chance, and it's not good. It's actually worse, it's boring. It's the worst thing a game can be, bland.

 

Dead Rising 4 has some neat ideas, but executes almost none of them well.

Once again we play as Frank West, or rather Hank East, because nothing about this man is Frank West. Not his personality, not his face, not his voice actor. He's Frank in name only, much like Donte iykyk.

 

Frank is traveling with his student/protege to go mini-golfing when it's revealed that she actually wanted his help on a new scoop instead, which involves infiltrating a military base. This takes us back to Willamette years after the first game.

 

So the new setting is Willamette again, set during the black friday/christmas season, during the grand opening of a rebuilt megamall at the site of the old one. Not a bad idea honestly. The mall has a rainforest cafe foodcourt, a medieval times zone, and a christmas zone, among others. I think the ideas were there, but all these areas are too small, there's very little in them, and they're a pain to navigate. Worst of all, you spend most of the game outside of the mall driving around the greater Willamette area. This greater area is composed of Old Town, West Ridge, and North Peak, which are all kinda samey except that West Ridge has a farm.

 

So lets talk new mechanics. There's two, the camera and Exo suits. The camera comes back with a bunch of new features, mostly used for story beats. The Exo Suit is tremendously powerful, but relies on batteries, except in designated recharge zones. I thought this would be the shark jump, but it's such a nonentity outside of plot points. It's basically used to suit up and kill a bunch of soldiers from time to time.

The new mechanics are mostly borrowed and modified from Dead Rising 3, but they somehow made all of them worse. Combo blueprints are placed randomly and annoyingly instead of thoughtfully. Zombies just deal damage by being near you now, unlike every other game, and they can still grab you. Combo vehicles are hard to find and none of them are really better than just getting a random pickup truck.

 

On top of that, zombies aren't even the primary obstacle any more, military dudes™ and "hostile survivors" are. So you're frequently playing a third person shooter that just happens to have zombies in it, because humans are the real monsters™. The psychopaths were pretty over the top and shark jumpy in DR3, but they fixed it in DR4 by removing them all! There's like... an evil Santa and that's kind of it.

 

As for the plot, it also stinks. Hank East is an unlikable, quippy, meathead who lost all his wrestling moves somewhere. His student is an unlikable rebel without a cause who keeps making things worse. The final antagonist is the culmination of everything that's gone wrong, but all the antagonists along the way are bland. There's military girl, frontier justice guy, military dude™, and the zombies from 28 days later.

 

A Dead Rising that takes place in a super megamall during the biggest shopping day of the year sounds like a cool idea. Getting to explore the greater Willamette area after DR3 sounds like a cool idea. More combo weapons and things to explore sounds cool. But everything that Dead Rising 4 does is either a misstep or total downgrade from DR3, which is baffling. If they had kept the same formula as Dead Rising 3, but wrapped it in a new interesting map and story that's not boring, it could have turned out okay.

 

As it stands though, Dead Rising 4 isn't worth your time, it wasn't even worth mine. There's very little memorable about it.

I give it a 4/10, there's just nothing going on here.

 

BUT There is a DLC called Frank Rising, which will contain spoilers if you care.

 

Frank Rising.