Additional game modes
One of the most impressive things about Dead Rising 2 is the amount of zombies on screen at any one time. There are thousands of moaning undead wandering around the shopping mall of Fortune City yet there's still a lot of different death animations to enjoy and plenty of amusement to be had in the process. However, gameplay can get repetitive. After all you spend most of your time just mowing down zombies so the core gameplay offers little in terms of variety. Variety only really comes in the way you decide to kill the zombies.Due to the sheer number of A.I. roaming around, Dead Rising 2 also suffers from stuttering frame-rates during the more intense scenes. It's not enough to ruin the enjoyment of the game, but it's a minor irritation nevertheless. Also, like the first game, this isn’t the best looking Xbox 360 title by a long shot with some poor resolution textures and some dreadful looking character models and awful lip-synching during the cut-scenes.
Away from the single player campaign, Dead Rising 2 offers replay value with some of the new game modes. It’s a disappointment that there’s no local co-op mode, but online co-op is a welcome inclusion and works seamlessly. You can drop into a game at any time and help out a friend during the single player campaign story, which gives you the enjoyable option of being able to tactically slaughter zombies rather than just plough through them, perhaps luring a huge pack into a store and then letting rip together with some horrible looking combos.
There’s also an online multiplayer mode that is based on the "Terror is Reality" game show that Chuck plays at the beginning of the campaign.At the beginning of Dead Rising 2 you ride a motorbike equipped with a chainsaw around an arena full of zombies. There are three other A.I. opponents all hoping to score the most points by killing the most zombies. In the online mode, the A.I. is replaced by humans giving a little bit of extra replay value after you’ve completed the campaign.
Dead Rising 2 isn't that much different than the first game, but the new storyline, additional game modes and inclusion of combo cards makes it feel more than just an upgrade. If you weren't a fan of the gameplay first time around they'll be little to excite you here, but if you're up for some brainless, zombie-bashing fun involving wheelchairs, sledgehammers and aerosol cans then Dead Rising 2 will be right up your street.
