Zombie Video Games: This Just In, Dead Rising 2 is Going to be Awesome

It’s E3 time once again, which means the titans of the gaming industry are pulling out the howitzers and blowing a salivating public’s mind with what has been and promises to be one of the strongest gaming release seasons in a few years. This year’s show in particular has processor cooling systems across the country bracing for impact.

I could spend this time to talk about Microsoft’s motion-based gaming peripheral, Kinect, and how it’s bad…so bad. Or David Garibaldi’s Epic painting skills. Maybe even the sequel to that game with the holes and the cake I’ve still yet to play the original of.

However, this is Hot Zombie Action so the game that’s got us all hot and bothered is, of course, Dead Rising 2. The followup to Capcom’s 2006 zombie…well, masterpiece. Rather than rehash the formula that worked with their other zombie franchise, Resident Evil, Capcom mixed the beat-em-up combat system of a game like Devil May Cry (albeit much less stylish), a hybrid of mission-oriented and sandbox gameplay, a staggering number of on-screen enemies and…photography? to create an instant classic (and the very first game I bought for the 360). While it had its flaws, Dead Rising was a great game that had all the makings of another top-shelf zombie franchise for Capcom. And then…nothing. Aside from a lukewarm port to the Wii in 2009, Chop Till You Drop, it was beginning to look like Dead Rising would be a one and done affair.

Then the Left 4 Deads came, Capcom released another installment of the Resident Evil series, and zombie Nazis happened, creating an atmosphere ripe for another Dead Rising. Capcom announces Dead Rising 2 and all is right in the world. Early footage and stills of a motorcycle jacket wearing protagonist tearing through a digital Sin City crawling with zombies should have been enough to tease Zombie Genociders. That is, until online multiplayer gameplay was announced. Not enough? Alright, how about Playboy teaming up with Capcom to provide “reading material” for the besieged undead high roller?

That’s all well and good, but that was before E3. Capcom came with a hands-on demo of the game and that demo has produced hours worth of web-wankery over the game.

Here’s some of the more tantalizing clips from the show:

While the trailers and hands-on gameplay were enticing, it was perhaps Capcom’s promotion techniques for Dead Rising 2 at the Expo that were the story.

First were the booth girls. Or…booth zombies? Here’s a clip of a caged and undead beauty apparently “trying to get away from her captors”

Misleading caption aside, this scene sets the tenor for the tactics chosen by Capcom for promotion. A part of me thinks that this stinks of the same poor judgement that generated the Dante’s Inferno “Sin to Win” promotion. Most of me thinks this is a lot classier and a lot more thoughtful.

The promotion campaign seems to be drawing on the game’s protagonist’s involvement with an apparent zombie rights group (oh the irony!). This became even more apparent when members from C.U.R.E. (Citizens for Undead Rights & Equality) crashed the floor. The protesters even went so far as to interrupt booth goers demo-ing the game at the booth:

Honestly, the best part of this clip, for me, is the pith helmet, Bermuda shirt wearing, Hunter S. Thompson-esque character going gonzo through the zombie horde with a roulette wheel. The protest scene looks pretty mild and, overall, very contrived. I think a lot of this has to do with the footage itself. If someone has a better clip of the protesters, we’d love to have a look and repost it.

Overall, I like the approach Capcom is taking. When you have the goods, it’s ok to be a little kitschy.

Expect more posts when the game drops in late August.