Dead Rising 2: Off The Record comes just over one year after the first Dead Rising 2. I didn’t play the original Dead Rising 2 myself. So what’s this new game all about? Well folks, character favorite Frank West from the original Dead Rising game returns. Off The Record is essentially a retelling of Dead Rising 2 with Frank West as the main character this time around. So, is this reason enough to pick this one up?
Just to re-iterate. I didn’t play Dead Rising 2. While I understand that Off The Record (OTR) plays virtually identically to its predecessor, my opinions come from that of someone that played and enjoyed the original Dead Rising game, but didn’t come to terms with the game’s strict adherence to a timeline.
OTR brings back Frank West as the main character; however, it is a slightly different West this time out. He’s made the most of his fame stemming from the first game and it shows. The Frank West in OTR is a slightly older, more dishevelled, and an out-of-shape character this time around. I really enjoyed this fact. Capcom has done an interesting thing here and made Mr. West a little more human and more mortal so to speak.
The same gameplay formula from the original game exists here as your actions throughout the game determine which one of the multiple game endings you experience. Events that determine the outcome happen in the game’s real time, whether you are there to take action or not. In my case, it was less about action and more about in-action that determined things for me. Much like the original Dead Rising, I managed to miss several events. I also discovered that I’m not very good at killing zombies even with the game’s simple controls which I will go into more detail about shortly.
Prestige Points return and act as Frank West’s version of experience points. While you can earn Prestige Points with creative zombie kills and the big draw for Prestige Points is accomplished through the use of Frank’s camera. By photographing different types of situations, including such classifiers as drama, horror and erotica, yup, I said erotica, Prestige Points are earned. With what looks to be hundreds of enemies on screen at any one given time, the potential for Prestige Points is all over the place. You don’t have to wait for opportunities marked by yellow Prestige Point indicators over the subject, but you can capture those on film for even more bonus Prestige Points points.
OTR’s incredibly simplistic controls are both a good thing and a bad thing. Combat is essentially performed with a single button. With certain weapons you can power up your attacks by holding the button down for a bit longer. There isn’t much of a learning curve here, which is nice for the casual player or someone new to the series. On the other hand, after the novelty of the weaponry wears off you are simply repeating the same mechanic over and over and over again. The mechanic of aiming down a gun site is simple enough, on the other hand, using the camera is a little more complicated as it takes not just a pull on the L trigger, but also tapping the R bumper before you can use the face buttons to work the actual camera. It’s overly complex and led to me missing several good opportunities to use it.
Repetition becomes even more obvious in OTR’s new Sandbox mode. As I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t really the biggest fan of the original game’s punishing adherence to a fixed timeline. So the Sandbox mode was something I thought was going to be really cool and at first it was. It’s neat to be able to go anywhere and not worry about missing tings, but the novelty wore off too quickly. While there are various challenges to keep the action as fresh as possible, I found myself drawn back to the main Story mode of the game (I think the fact that OTR’s new checkpoint system that makes dying less punishing helped too). The fun thing about the Sandbox mode is the ability to play co-operatively with a friend.
The question of whether or not to pick this game up will rest in the hands of the buyer. If you’re a big fan of the Dead Rising series, playing as Frank West again might be worth the price of admission. Those that missed Dead Rising 2 might just want to skip that game all together and come right to this one instead. Those, like myself, that never really came to grips with the game’s timeline might be disappointed in the new Sandbox mode though so be forewarned here.
Two things jumped instantly into my mind when first playing OTR. I immediately thought, “wow, that’s a lot of bad guys on screen” and “this game doesn’t move as smoothly as I thought it would”. I’ll give the later impression a pass because I started playing OTR immediately after playing the silky smooth 60fps Forza 4. I guess the number of baddies on screen isn’t anything new to fans of the series but it impressed me.
I remember being so impressed with the models, textures, and animations of the characters in the original game. It was really something we hadn’t seen before on the new consoles. This time around, while everything looks pretty good here, it isn’t anything special. Games like LA Noire have taken things to a new level. This is overshadowed by the sheer amount of people on screen at any one given time too. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen in a game before.
Something Capcom has done pretty well is using the textures effectively to make Frank West look less than perfect. You see a great example of this right off the get go with Frank in his wrestling outfit. You can see the muscularity but you can tell he’s in a state of decline. Age and fame have caught up to him. He’s a little “loose in the cage” so to speak with a blemish here and there and some excess body hair. The timing of this, while maybe not purposeful, really enhanced the character development of Frank for me.
Since it is a zombie game, and it is Dead Rising, you can naturally expect a high amount of gore. Blood is plentiful as it sprays violently upon attacks and stains your surroundings. Body parts easily dismember from their zombie hosts who keep on coming if you’ve only taken off an arm or something. It is all very satisfying in a fun, non-realistic way. There’s a reason this one’s rated M17+ folks!
Good voice acting in any game is a positive and OTR doesn’t disappoint. Not only does the good voice acting make keep the game and characters believable, it helps in their development throughout. Yes, actual gameplay is king, but the voice acting does help too.
In a game about killing zombies, most people also want to hear the gore as much as they see it. OTR isn’t bad in this department. There are plenty of squirts, gurgles and slices to be had. It’s all a little understated though. In stark contrast to Left 4 Dead’s zombie population, Dead Rising’s zombies are more of the passive variety. They just sort of mill around and moan and don’t really intrude on your space unless you intrude on theirs. Count me as one of those people that wants to hear more gore.
