Welcome to Fortune City!

Is there a Happy Ending for Chuck and Katey?

Last night, I opened up my brand-spankin’ new copy of Dead Rising 2, still redolent with that new zombie-free smell. I skipped on the first game due to the glaring tedious issues which have supposedly been fixed in the sequel. After a couple of hours play, so far how am I enjoying my stay in Fortune City?

Chuck Greene, former motocross star, single parent and all-around badass, is as square-jawed a protagonist as they’d come. He’s a simple man, wanting only to keep his little girl Katey alive and healthy- not easy when she’s infected with the zombie plague, requiring her a DAILY does of the drug Zombrex, which I gather isn’t exactly cheap. Luckily Chuck is talented- think MacGyver and Ash from Evil Dead rolled into one. You open the game with him participating in Fortune City’s equivalent to American Gladiators- Terror Is Reality- taking out zombies for fame and fortune.

Some time later, ala Jurassic Park the captive zombies are set free into Fortune City’s casinos and malls, causing chaos and wholesale slaughter. Luckily Chuck is able to get Katey to the nearby safe house, but trouble has just begun. It soon becomes clear that Chuck has been framed for the cause of the zombie outbreak. Even worse, it’s gonna be three days before the military comes in to free the place, and till then Chuck has to juggle everything from saving survivors, procuring Zombrex for Katie and clearing his name in between surviving the zombie menace. No problem!

Let me say that I was a bit taken aback starting this game. You begin with Chuck just laying about with punches, which are about as effective as sneezing. Like in the first game, you have to pick up a weapon- which is pretty much ANYTHING you can get your hands on, so you get a bit more stopping power.

Some things are laughably ineffective though, like a broom- though weirdly enough once you break the thing, the broken broom handle is actually quite more useful. Here are there you’ll probably find the odd gun, but really, the best things are hand-to-hand weapons, particularly the nightmarish instruments Chuck can fashion out in the maintenance rooms with a little ingenuity and a LOT of duct tape. The basic stuff include a Spiked Bat and an IED (nails with a propane tank), with a lot more twisted stuff waiting to be discovered.

The more zombies you kill and the more people/survivors you save, the more points or PP you get, which lets you level up and get stronger. So about a couple of hours in, Chuck is literally twice the man he was at the start, laying into zombies like the star he was. I’ve still got a long ways to go though, but thankfully I’m having fun with the campy story, hordes of zombies and the occasional hot babe (Man, that Rebecca Chang is pretty hot…). I’ll try to scramble a review soon.