Well ladies and gents, the time has come. By the time most of you read this post, Dead Rising 2 will be out and available to the general public. I grabbed my own copy about two hours ago and I can already tell it’ll be hogging my 360 for quite some time.

Given the short amount of time I’ve had with the game, this post is obviously not going to be a full review. For right now, I just wanted to share some of my first impressions of Dead Rising 2. We’ve been hyping this release date pretty heavily for the last few months, so I figured it was only fair to put those expectations to the test immediately.

I’d love to go into the cross compatibility between Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, the LIVE Arcade prequel, and the full length Dead Rising 2, but I’m afraid I haven’t tested that to it’s full capacity. For 360 owners, you will be prompted to export your Case Zero character into Dead Rising 2 which amounts to transferring all the cash and PP you acquired in Case Zero. Beyond that, I’m not sure how much what you’ve done in Case Zero affects the retail game. This is because, like a newbie Capcom gamer, I only kept one save file from Case Zero and let’s just say I wasn’t the most caring father in my last run through. My belief, however, is that you will have to “restart the story,” regardless of how you ended Case Zero, which really only means that you’re starting Dead Rising 2. I will definitely try and test this out before my final write-up, but, in any case, the money and experience you’re taking with you are very helpful, the latter much more immediately than the former.

Don’t worry PS3 owners, you’re not missing out on much. While it’s nice to have a headstart, the game experience itself isn’t drastically altered by the presence or absence of Case Zero.

Like the original Dead Rising and Case Zero, it doesn’t take long before you’re knee deep in the undead. I noticed a few things about Dead Rising 2 that separates it, however. The first is how well the game processes the amount of zombies crammed into the screen. This won’t be necessarily obvious as you are dropped into the gameplay at the beginning, for reasons I’ll discuss momentarily, but a few minutes in and it’s pretty impressive how many zombies and other characters fit on the screen without much noticeable slowdown. Even Case Zero dragged when there was far too much hot zombie action and suffice it to say that the retail game has much more going on at any given moment.

The other thing I noticed about Dead Rising 2 is how very different Capcom approached this game. In Dead Rising and even in Case Zero, the player is thrust into a horde of zombies, but the goal is survival first, retaliation later. Dead Rising 2 starts with an introduction to the world’s most dangerous reality game show, Terror Is Reality, wherein contestants kill zombies with the chance to win prize money. Chuck Greene is one such contestant and the player begins with a quick round of the game, shifting the focus from being overwhelmed, overmatched and in need of a mix of strategy and ingenuity to having a great deal of advantage over the zombies. It’s a short segment, and I’m pretty sure you’re destined to place 2nd, but it’s still a fun and slightly different way to start the game.

This game show format actually makes up a section of Dead Rising 2‘s multiplayer functionality, one of the huge additions to the series. I’d love to tell you how a game of Terror is Reality works, but for some reason, there aren’t too many people online an hour (or four, depending on where you live) after the game hits the streets. Go figure. It looks pretty cool, still, and I approve of a competitive game mode that can net me money that I believe can be used in the game.

The other multiplayer feature that I’m pretty stoked about, but, again, haven’t been able to see in action is the co-op mode. While I say “mode,” the impression that I’m getting from the game is that co-op and single player are going to be as seamlessly integrated as possible. As in, your friends can pop in to your single player game at any time and drop out just as easily. I find that seamless features are rarely as seamless as promised, but if it works even remotely as advertised, I’ll be happy.

Now, the downsides. Yes, even with only a short time logged, there are some warning flags coming up. Fortunately, these are things I’d augured from Case Zero and I’m sure anybody who played that title will expect these things. First, the time limit. I’ve just gotten my first mission and I already feel the time limit hindering me. Letting the player out into the open game world for the first time and restricting them with a pretty short deadline seems a little unfair. It’s like taking your kids to Disneyland for the first time, only to tell them they only have five minutes to see the entire park. I know I’ll be able to spend an ample amount of time in these areas as the game progresses, but I’d like maybe a little time right now to explore the game environment. This is especially because, as I mentioned in the Case Zero review, the environment begs to be explored. You may start off in the familiar backdrop of a mall, but this mall seems much more like a mall than the one in Willamette. The layout seems much less clustered than in the original game, but still evokes the claustrophobia of actually being a mall. Compound that with a much higher capacity of zombies roaming about and you can’t help but want to go head hunting and exploring. This time limit thing, however, forces the player to reign in that instinct, which I think is a step in the wrong direction.

Next, the bathrooms. I mentioned in the Case Zero review that the commode is once again the safest place to save a file, but I had also said that they seemed much easier to access than in Dead Rising. Well, that didn’t quite transfer over to Dead Rising 2. So far, I haven’t had much issue with saving, but this is because I didn’t need to look for a save point yet. I can see, however, that the larger mall area is going to mean larger gaps between bathrooms, which means once again fighting through waves of zombies in search of a bathroom because I don’t have the time to complete an objective.

The handset also returns, but seems so much less intrusive than in Dead Rising. For one thing, I have yet to get a random call while in the middle of fighting zombies because the person on the other line is bored. The handset is used primarily to alert you of deadlines and objective details with the auxiliary function of accessing co-op options.

So far so good, however, and I’m looking forward to battling through Fortune City as soon as I get at least a couple hours of sleep in me. Expect a full (or fuller) review within the next week or so.

One more thing: when you have a moment, take some time on the start screen. The tourist bureau of Fortune City has a few words for you.

Dr. Zombie’s Review:
I haven’t found a decent Wii gun yet, and Capcom’s attempt fails like all the others. Not any worse, mind you. It did just as poorly. Considering how much money gamers will slap down on their beloved game systems, I do not understand why a decent gun can’t be made. If Capcom had gone the extra mile they could have succeeded.

The Snap Grip Reload is an awesome idea in theory and perhaps if it was designed properly could still be a good idea. Perhaps if there were actual hinges it would work well enough. It seems like I had to put just a little more force than expected to make it work and even then the game didn’t always pick up on the reload. I eventually found it easier just to aim off screen.

The shotgun butt slides off to form a pistol, which I found much more comfortable using. Even if I have the nunchuck attached. shotgun mode was just to cumbersome for sensitivity of the Wii’s IR. Once using the pistol I was racking up the headshots like crazy.

Overall, if you don’t already own a gun for the Wii, go ahead and get this one. It’s just as lousy as any other. If you already own a gun, skip it, it’s not going to be any better.

Voracious D’s Review:
Ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you, the Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles Shot Blaster. When you absolutely, positively have to kill every last zombie motherfucker in the room…you should probably accept a substitute.

In the tradition of the Zapper peripheral from the NES, the Wii has this pimped out mod for the Wiimote, licensed by Capcom for use with the two on-the-rails Resident Evil games: Umbrella Chronicles and Darkside Chronicles. Don’t get me wrong, this thing looks pretty cool. It conceals the Wiimote nicely and the shotgun butt is a nice touch, visually. With the full complement of stickers, the Shot Blaster is easily one of the better looking peripherals on the Wii. It looks less lame than the Wii Zapper, at any rate.

When it comes to functionality, however, the Shot Blaster falls short. Everything that should have worked in theory doesn’t quite cut it. For instance, the shotgun butt I mentioned earlier. This is an optional component that slides onto the back of the gun and has a hinge to allow for quick reloads. The action resembles the reloading mechanism of a sawed off or double barreled shotgun and is pretty fun to play around with while waiting through the many boring cutscenes in Darkside Chronicles. During the game, though, it extends the remote so that you need to use two hands: one to pull the trigger, one to press the D-pad and A button, both of which need a lot of use in a game like Darkside Chronicles. Unless you have freakishly large hands, playing this way is clumsy and awkward. The other drawback is that even when you reload using the shotgun butt, the game isn’t always responsive to that quick of a movement. It can take three or four tries to get the reload to work, which is far too much downtime in a fast paced shooter. In addition, this reload function only works with the Resident Evil titles.

Fortunately, as mentioned, the shotgun butt can be taken off so you can go straight up gangster on those zombie beyotches. This worked much better, but still had some flaws. Pulling an actual trigger trumps jamming down on the B button on the remote, but I found that the positioning of the trigger is pretty hard on the wrist, so I’d recommend taking frequent breaks when using the Shot Blaster. The other issue is the aiming. Most of the time, I could get my reticle where I wanted it, but it was a little glitchier than using the remote alone, because the plastic cover sometimes gets in the way. Like I said, it is not a constant issue, but it is noticeable.

The Resident Evil Shot Blaster is a pretty decent peripheral for your Wii. It looks cool and it’s at least useable. The price tag is a little off putting, however, considering that it is slightly less functional than the Wiimote by itself. Collectors could do worse in picking it up.

The year is 2002. US Government Agents Leon S. Kennedy and Jack Krauser have been sent to South America to investigate the mysterious disappearance of young girls as well as rumors of a new viral outbreak. The events that unfold will recall a dark journey into the past where the betrayals and horrors of Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica come full circle. Can memories of the past help stop the biological terror that has resurfaced to threaten the future of humankind again?

Publisher: Capcom
Console: Wii
Release Date: November 17, 2009

Trailer:

Voracious D’s Review:

In honor (I guess) of Resident Evil: Afterlife, the good Doctor and I fired up the old Wii and popped in Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. Where does this game fall in the Resident Evil timeline? No idea. Somewhere after Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica but probably either before or simultaneous to Resident Evil 5. Leon’s working for the government, though, so maybe it’s in the ballpark of Resident Evil 4. I don’t know and except for the fact that I moonlight as a nerd, I don’t care. The only reason this matters is because the game has an original story that bookends a return to Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica. When a game has to resort to rehashing previous games in the series to be a retail release, the standard for excellence has to be small or non-existent. Nevertheless, Capcom managed to make decent remakes of the series for a Nintendo console before and they’ve gotten me to buy remakes of the same fighting series for some twenty years, so why doubt them now? That was my thought prior to really getting into the game.

Because Dr. Z and I are the most legit zombie shooting OGs this side of a Redfield, we used official Umbrella Corp gats to take down the infected, but more on those later.

What’s my verdict on the game? Did it surpass my initial misgivings and did I end up liking it? In the words of Mr. Horse, “No, sir, I didn’t like it.” It wasn’t Onechanbara bad, but it wasn’t good, either. The first thing is, the game is an on-the-rails shooter, like House of the Dead or Time Crisis and, actually, like a lot of shooters on the Wii. I don’t know why, but it seems like House of the Dead: Overkill did it so much better. Hell, Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters at Disneyland does on-the-rails shooting better and it has the handicap of being literally on rails. The big problem with this particular on-the-rails shooter: you’re never where you want to be. If there is an item, like ammo or gold, you can bet it’ll show up on the right as the game moves your view to the left. You need that gold and ammo, but unless the game somehow brings you back to that spot, it’s gone. Nevermind that you’ll probably end up in the same exact spot at some point during the level, those items are gone because the game moved you away from it. That’s a real dick move, Darkside Chronicles. It’s pretty hard to explain what this is like, but it’s so frustrating that even people watching us play the game were getting frustrated.

That’s just item collecting, which is important, but not as vital as shooting the zombies that are constantly attacking you. The camera shifts so often, as if your characters are constantly disoriented, which is fitting, because you sure as Hell will be if you spend any prolonged time fighting through the blurry camera shifts just to shoot a damn zombie. You get probably a couple of seconds to aim and shoot at anything before the camera goes apeshit again. There’s a button (the A button) that locks onto an enemy, but it locks onto the body. In a game in which you’re shooting primarily zombies, why would you ever want to lock onto the body? It’s challenging, to say the least, which is usually a good thing except in cases where the design of the game is the cause of the challenge. The other games in the series let me stop, aim and shoot. It was a bad idea, generally speaking, to get into a pitched battle like that, but you could do it. So why, in a game where the whole point is to blast zombies away, do I have to go through an epileptic seizure everytime I want to shoot something?

I get the point that this game is trying to emulate a realistic experience, like I would have trouble focusing on all the zombies surrounding me if I were actually in that situation. My eyes would be moving a million miles an hour in every direction, just like the game tries to do. This is the only fast part of the game, though. You flat out meander in every other situation, even when the situation is trying to get out of a self-detonating facility or a blast furnace about to go critical. It takes forever to go anywhere and let’s not forget that you don’t get to control how fast you go and only very rarely (and very inconsequentially) where you go. There’s parts where your character will actually stare out into the landscape. There are not zombies out there and no rescue choppers or anything like that so my only assumption is that you’re just admiring the view. First off, the graphics in this game aren’t that great. Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t awful, but they’re just serviceable. Probably just below the quality of Resident Evil 4, which was a beautiful game. My point is that there’s nothing for me, the player, to ogle at. Second, why am I, the character in the game, dicking around staring at a distant mountainside? Aren’t I in a hurry, don’t I need to be somewhere, like maybe running away from zombies or running to save somebody from zombies? Considering how slow the game is whenever you’re not shooting zombies, throwing moments like these in just seemed pointless.

The gameplay gets repetitive. Remember when the other Resident Evil games would throw one or maybe a handful of a new type of creature at you, like a mutant frog or a licker or something just more deadly or at least more novel than a standard zombie? In Darkside Chronicles, once you are introduced to a new creature, expect to have to kill at least ten within the next few minutes of seeing the first one. The only benefit is that instead of trying to go for headshots, you can pump anything else full of bullets without really caring where they hit, thereby nullifying some of the bullshit camera movement I mentioned earlier. By the way, don’t bother shooting anything before you have to. The characters in Darkside Chronicles obviously don’t know the Double-Tap Rule, which means you’ll pass by zombies that you know aren’t fully re-deaded but you’ll still have to wait until they actually shamble back up and after you. You can shoot shoot shoot at the zombie all you want, but he ain’t dying until he gets up first. That’s annoying. It’s even more annoying when this same scenario plays over and over. What mental defect do Claire, Leon and the others have that they can repeatedly fall for the old zombie playing possum trick?

Finally, the story. It sucks. The original story doesn’t add much to the series overall narrative, especially since I can’t think of another game that references the events of The Darkside Chronicles. As for the existing storylines from Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica, they’ve done some pretty unnecessary retconning. As in, the changes made to the stories don’t so much retell those games so much as it seems like the people who made Darkside Chronicles haven’t played the other two in a while and so put some events and characters in the wrong order. It’s not a big deal and I think that if Darkside Chronicles was fully faithful to the other storylines, this would have been an overly long game.

So, in the end, I wouldn’t recommend this game and even hesitate advising someone to rent it. If you are a Resident Evil completionist and need the whole series, you probably already have it. For everyone else, you can do better. There are better shooters for the Wii (including the excellent zombie shooter House of the Dead: Overkill) and better ports of Resident Evil games for Nintendo systems, some of which may be compatible with the Wii.

Dr. Zombie’s Review:
I thought it was a pretty good game. I happened to think games shouldn’t be too complicated and I felt that Darkside Chronicles was a “Keep It Simple Stupid” version on the Resident Evil Franchise. As an On-the-rails shooter game Resident Evil was brought to it’s most basic of components which is KILL ZOMBIES. It was nice to play Resident Evil without having to decipher the mystery or find the important object need to progress. Just aim and shoot.

There was some downsides to the game. The camera was good most of the time but about 25% of the time it was off. Those bad times it was doing at least one of the following: Jerking around in an epileptic seizure, pointing away from a target to soon, keeping you from grabbing a needed item or just plan off the mark. There was nothing to be done about it, but just live with it. It was so quick at times, I found myself why bother putting a zombie in some location because even knowing it was there, there was no way you would have got a shot off in time.

Voracious D and I had the pleasure of playing with the official Capcom Resident Evil Blaster made specifically for the Wii. More on that in another post.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend you beat your grandmother to death and steal her wallet so you can get the game. But to be fair, I wouldn’t tell you to do that for any game. If you love Resident Evil and would like to try something different with the franchise, than this is your game. If you are not a fan of the series, than don’t bother with it. House of the Dead: Overkill is a much better On-The-Rails Shooter.