Game Review: Dead Rising 2 - Off the Record

Game Review: Dead Rising 2 - Off the Record

Dead Rising 2 - Off The Record
Released by THQ/ Capcom
Platform: PS3
Zombies are everywhere at the moment - with the success of the Walking Dead TV series, it's almost as if the undead have been given another shot at life.
The latest Dead Rising sees you taking control of Frank West, a once TV star whose star is most definitely in the descent and who finds himself in Fortune City, armed with only a camera and whatever he can get his hands on to take on the hordes of the undead. With the clock ticking down to a kind of apocalypse to cleanse the dead and the chance of Frank becoming zombified himself if he doesn't get the wonder drug Zombrex, it's clearly a race against time and a quest to survive.
I've not played any of the Dead Rising series before but this latest is a reinterpretation of the last one with a different main character; that's a clever move but some may feel there's little new to see this time around.
However, it's relatively good fun if you like just pointlessly killing things using an array of weapons; from freezing them with fire extinguishers and then bashing them to using microphone stands to spear them, there's a certain amount of joy to be had just slaughtering.
It does get a little frustrating when the game loads up every few minutes but I guess given the multitudes of undead and options on the screen for weapons, as well as stores to explore, something's gotta give. A neat touch is giving Frank a camera and using that to take pics around Fortune City to gather points; plus giving the game a sandbox option where the time threat is stripped away, is also a chance to invest a little deeper into the game.
Overall, Dead Rising 2 - Off The Record will come down to whether you like to just put your brain in neutral and engage the game - and while that's not a bad thing, it certainly means this latest is playable enough and disposable fun.

Rating: 7/10