Dead Rising 2 Preview

Bring out your undead

The reaction of both the public and critics to Capcom’s 2006 crowded zombie-romper Dead Rising was certainly rather positive, the former lapped it up in droves while the latter wrote kind words aplenty. There was an (almost) sandbox style to the gameplay that appealed to Western gamers whilst the quirky kink for photography-based point scoring (think Pokémon Snap with blood and without the rails) and the colorful cartoon villains brought an appetizing aroma of Japanese influence to the table.

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It seems however, that this noticeable mix of styles was purely accidental; While we eagerly await a glimpse of the second installment at Capcom’s Captivate expo, the company’s R&D head, and producer of DR1, Keiji Inafune fills us in.

“I was actually shocked to hear that a lot of the Western press, as well as Western gamers, were saying that it looks like a Western game on the outside, but on the inside it still feels very Japanese, With Dead Rising 2, one of the internal goals that we had for ourselves was to truly make a Western game, to make it down to the core what a Western game is.”

Lucky then, that Capcom realized that the cultural mashup was an integral part of what so many loved about DR1. Indeed, after hooking up with Canadian development team Blue Castle, it became apparent to Inafune that the more Japanese elements certainly shouldn’t be stripped away when creating the sequel. Quite the contrary in fact. When Inafune first began talking with Dan Brady, Blue Castle’s head honcho, he quickly learned a lot more about how DR1 was received in the West.

“Dan was talking to us and brought about a very good point: one of the best things about Dead Rising 1 wasn’t the fact that it’s Western, it’s the fact that it seems Western but also has that certain Japanese spice. We realized this was the kind of company that would be able to make the compromises and work with us to make the perfect blend between East and West that would be necessary for Dead Rising 2.”

DR2’s setting, whilst a distinct departure from the mall seen in the first game, certainly remains unmistakably Western; we’re in a Las Vegas-inspired location by the name of Fortune City. Expect bright lights, blackjack tables, slot machines and all the usual glamour associated with the infamous strip.

As well as working on level design, Blue Castle have been hard at work improving the game’s engine, increasing in huge increments just how many zombies can fit onscreen at once. The original was capable of displaying a maximum of 500 a time, the sequel however, was first reported to be able to cope with up to 1000, shortly after, we were told 2000. While this seemed impressive already, Blue Castle didn’t stop there. Dead Rising 2’s engine can currently handle up to 7000 zombies at the same time (cue Rahzel [link]).

This isn’t the only improvement Blue Castle have been working on though, the developers have, in fact, been beavering away at a multitude of new features. Certainly worthy of note is the improvement of the protagonist’s combat skills, though that’s a pretty vague umbrella considering the extent of options DR2 promises to offer.

Coupled with Dead Rising’s usual miscellaneous item-based brawling, expect the option of exercising more traditional methods of combat. We’re shown a familiar gamer-friendly over-the-shoulder viewpoint (think Gears of War etc) and a useful strafing function when Dan Brady demos the game’s new assault rifle. Despite the newly improved aim he insists its use isn’t meant to be a major focus of the game as such. Instead, the inclusion of the weapon and the associated new mechanics are meant to help bring about some of the more interesting approaches to zombie extermination achievable in DR2.

To prove his point, we watch Brady take a modified propane tank boasting a rather unhealthy-looking range of protruding nails and slam it straight into one of the walking dead. Satisfyingly, it sticks to him. He then backs up enough to allow ample time and space to pull out his rifle and fires at the tank, wiping out the target and a plethora of slouching byslumpers with a satisfying boom.

It’s a familiar function to toy around with the enemy like a sadistic kitten and it’s one I’m sure fans will be pleased to hear is even more of a core mechanic this time round. It’s clear Blue Castle have looked carefully at the most loved functions and features from the first title with a view to improve and innovate on them wherever possible.

While in DR1 we’d just shove a bucket on a zombie’s head, DR2 sees us throwing a bucket atop an undead complete with a collection of drills stuck through its sides. Obviously, they’re turned on and the zombie’s face is turned to a bloody soup before he flops to the ground.

Once again, almost everything can be picked up and used to bludgeon the dead into deader dead. The triple-tap button-bash combo melee attack is back with brutal vengeance. Our protagonist, in this incarnation a former motocross champion named Chuck Greene, is able to use flower pots, beach balls, barricades, massagers, ketchup, cooking oil, leaf blowers, bicycles and many, many more items to batter and maim his undead enemies.

A little further into the demo and we’re able to get a glimpse at a costume change as Chuck dons a Moose head, indicating that we won’t necessarily always be swapping getups for purely cosmetic purposes. The antlers present a fantastic opportunity to see Brady take on densely grouped zombies, though it has to be said that it doesn’t beat the sight of him paddling through a crowd with an oar with roaring chainsaws strapped to its ends. Equally as impressive is the sight of the brilliantly-conceived motorbike with chainsaws on its handlebars, soaring through a mass of undead.

It’s evident as Brady tears through crowds of staggerers (and indeed we’re informed of the fact) that Blue Castle have developed a method for slicing zombies exactly where your blades have passed through rather than simply repeating a “sliced up” animation. This makes it all the more pleasurable and somehow almost creative, helping prevent gameplay from becoming contrived or repetitive. Plus, as you’d hope, the mechanic works with all the game’s slice-ready instruments of doom.

Much like DR1, the array of objects with which to commit zombie genocide is vast and presents the possibility of a multitude of comedy deaths. But while there are an abundance of these everyday objects dotted around, the adapted objects of evil, destructive and macabre intent we’ve seen seem a little too convenient for zombie slaughter. Have innovations in casino security reached epic and ungodly proportions? Is Dead Rising 2 set in an alternate universe where chainsaws grow from everything?

Inafune shies away from our questions and won’t confirm any kind of weapon modification system, but both the gameplay and his reaction certainly hint at something of this ilk. A mechanic of this variety would fit in perfectly with the experimental approach the game and its predecessor encourages. We’ll just have to wait.

As far as structure and storyline is concerned, we’re given very little other than subtle hints from the HUD. What’s being shown off today is a tech demo rather than an early build of the game proper so we’d be lucky to derive much beyond gameplay elements. The kill-count and money total are back and so are the player prestige points for leveling up.

A health bar is displayed atop the screen (remember them?) much like the first’s and, while we can’t confirm, can most likely be extended with progression seems as PP are back. Whether we’ll be able to get snap happy again we don’t’ know but Inafune states that Blue Castle intend to “keep 100 per cent of what made the first game good, and lose 100 per cent of what got in the way”. The 72-hour time limit seen in the first game is currently being thought about, as is the save system.

Multiplayer will be included says Inafune, something many were wondering about after the company sent out mixed messages in the past. “We’re at a point in game history that you need to have some form of multiplayer component in a game,” he explains. “Single-player alone is not going to cut it. So rest assured we are going to put multiplayer in the game, but I can’t go into specifics about what type of multiplayer as that directly relates to some of the game systems that we don’t want to talk about at this event. It will be online multiplayer, so keep that in mind.”

When quizzed on what exactly the multiplayer content will be made up of Inafune keeps quiet but tells us it is being considered.

While it may be a long way off, the build so far shows promise of a vast array of improvements on what was already a game packed with innovation and fun. Keep your ears to the ground.


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Prima Games Staff
The staff at Prima Games.