Dead Rising 2 for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

Pros:

1. Combo Weapons are fun, hilarious and addicting. Can't get enough.
2. Zombie killing is fun. (Why not encourage more of this? see below)
3. Overall story is engaging.
4. Side missions are creepy, funny, and interesting.
5. Online TIR games earn money to use in single player game, neat.

Cons:

1. No auto-save is just lame. Can only save by visiting a restroom. I guess it adds realism but that's not the kind of realism I want. Sometimes after I finish a mission, I just feel like busting some zombies but with no auto-save, the game effectively discourages you from killing zombies. So even if you finish a mission, if you die goofing around afterwards, you can only reload from previous save. Seriously reduces flow and exploring activities.

2. Time restriction sucks. Time restriction not regulated to starting the mission either. Time continues to run during missions and makes it hard to hit all side missions plus the main missions. Again, reduces exploring time.

3. Multi-part missions are annoying. Racing against the clock to do the mission and finish it only to find out it's a multi-part mission that has you running around the entire town and the clock is still ticking. Cram it with walnuts Capcom!

4. Must give daughter Zombrex every 24 hours. Boring. Reduces flow of the game especially when I used my cash to buy multiple Zombrex and realized that I couldn't just leave it with my daughter in the safehouse so she could use it herself. Where's your realism now? What if I died out there? No one in the safehouse would have had Zombrex for Katey.

5. Weapons wearing out. OK, I can understand the combo weapons, guns, and similar items wearing out but what about crowbar, sledge hammer, axe? Is it really possible to wear out a crowbar?

6. Side missions can kill you pretty quick if you don't figure out the secrets. This wouldn't be an issue if there was auto-save .

So this was pretty good. Not fantastic, and not deep by any stretch, but still pretty good. Never having played the original I can't speak for any improvements, but taken as a standalone product Dead Rising 2 was easily the most fun I've ever had with a giant foam finger, a sack of gems, and thousands of zombies.

Combat is exceedingly simple but satisfyingly visceral, and if you don't see something appealing about hurling a zombie and a wheelchair into a crowd and tossing an explosive in after, well, there's something wrong with you. While there are only a handful of weapons that are both effective and efficient, the sheer amount of junk laying around means you will always, always have something on hand if you need it.

The visuals are beautiful, with massive, detailed environments that are great to explore. The only real complaint I might have is that character expressions still look stiff and robotic. The biggest offender is actually Chuck himself, whose features are nailed in a barely moveable mask that looks like Clint Eastwood perpetually smelling something unpleasant.

For me, unfortunately, the rescue aspect of the game was the nail in the coffin. (Or the sledgehammer to the head, if you prefer.) While restarting the game when you die isn't actually that big of a deal since you keep all your experience and the actual game is fairly short, completionists like myself will quickly tire of having to rescue every single survivor all. Over. AGAIN. The friendly fire means keeping them around is detrimental to your health, since they don't even make a token effort to avoid hitting you, and while they can soak a fair bit of damage their constant piteous wails for help every other second failed to endear.

Dead Rising 2 is definitely worth a rent if you're a fan of simple action gameplay. It's not something that would hold my interest for hours at a time, and it's not perfect, but for the sheer spectacle of the thing it's brisk, splattery fun while it lasts.