Dead Rising 2: Case Zero delivers a small taste

“Dead Rising 2: Case Zero” is a unique experiment by Capcom – not quite a standalone game and not exactly a demo either, it will be interesting to see if companies copy this effort in the future. Set three years before the events of Dead Rising 2 in the small town of Still Creek, Case Zero gives gamers an idea of what they’re in for when Dead Rising 2 is released at the end of September.

Though it isn’t part of the game proper, Case Zero is really more demo than Arcade title. It is still found under the Arcade section of the Xbox 360 Marketplace and will cost you 400 MS points ($5) but offers a look into how the zombie apocalypse has changed since the Willamette Mall incident – which is to say, it hasn’t changed much.

Case Zero begins with Chuck Greene pulling into the tiny town of Still Creek, looking to gas up his truck and continue on with his daughter, Katey, who, we find out, has been infected with the zombie virus and needs shots of the drug Zombrex every 12 hours lest she joins the undead masses. Once Chuck gets to Still Creek, however, his truck is stolen along with his last dose of Zombrex.

Aside from the new weapon combination system (more on that in a bit), not much has really changed since with the series’ formula from the original game. The controls are the same (unfortunately), you still need to rescue hapless survivors, and you still need to struggle against a time constraint. Though it’s a fun little game that offers a couple hours of play, I’m not coming away from Case Zero very impressed.

First off, if you read my last article you’ll know I couldn’t stand the way Dead Rising forced you to play against the clock and, more than anything, Case Zero made me remember how much I hated the aspect of the series. It works for this game, since its 12-hour day amounts to only a couple hours of actual gameplay. A 72-hour game with these same constraints in place, however, is beyond frustrating. I don’t want to be made to complete objectives when the game tells me I should – I’d much rather explore and discover my own path through a game. Not only that, but the structure of these games forces you to play it over and over again if you want to experience everything and max out your character’s level. A game’s replayability should come from me wanting to play it multiple times, not needing to play it multiple times.

Thankfully, the weapon creation system and methods of earning PP (read: experience points) is actually really fun and it would be a blast to see just how many items are going to be available for use in Dead Rising 2. Case Zero offers just enough combos to wet your appetite. The spiked bat (nails + baseball bat) is a great all purpose weapon and others like the paddlesaw (kayak paddle + chainsaw) and the electric rake (rake + car battery) offer a glimpse into the crazy couplings that are found in the full game. The scratch card/combo card aspect of the creation system is still pretty ambiguous to me, though. When you make a new weapon, you earn its scratch card. How it turns into a combo card (and subsequently unlocks that weapons alternate attack) is sort of a mystery – do I just need to level up to unlock them or is it dependant on how much I use them or something else completely? It should also be noted that Case Zero will carry over your stats to Dead Rising 2 up to Level 5.

There are plenty of tasks on Chuck’s plate that need tending to during the 12 hours he is stuck there. Not only does he need to find Zombrex, but he must also build a dirt bike to escape town as well as lead numerous stranded folks to the safe house. Luckily, the survivor AI is greatly improved over the first game. I rarely had to stop and rescue someone from the clutches of a zombie and they generally kept pace with me as I took a leisurely stroll (seriously, Chuck is pretty slow) back to the safe house.

Speaking of the safe house reminds me of my second biggest complaint – the loading times. Oh my god, the loading times. I hope you don’t mind sitting through one every time you enter and exit the safe house and every time a cinematic starts and stops (and there are A LOT of them), because you’re going to be spending a lot of time staring at loading screens.

Though Capcom improved Dead Rising 2 in many areas (such as adding more save slots), numerous others needed work as well that went untouched. The controls are still clunky, as are Chuck’s actions in general. There’s still no good way of interacting with items that are too close together (i.e. there’s no good way of indicating which specific item you want to pick up/use). Even though Case Zero isn’t definitely indicative of what will be in Dead Rising 2, there is still no voice-overs for survivors or anyone, really, outside of cutscenes – all the info you get from side characters is still in text form, text form you’re expected to read and click through in real time (read: with zombies breathing down your neck). Survivors do talk, but only in that they repeat the same couple one-liners over and over and over again in the safe house (“I am so sad,” “I just want to cry” – I could only imagine that Katey was hoping to turn into a zombie so she could finally shut up these jabbering, useless morons).

All told, I’m actually still on the fence about buying Dead Rising 2. Case Zero was fun enough but I honestly hate the time limit. The weapon combos are fun but who has the time to experiment if you’re constantly worrying about an impending deadline when the game just ends and you have to start over? Being able to play story cooperatively with someone else adds a lot to the equation and will probably be the deciding factor in a purchase because knowing that the controls haven’t been updated puts a severe damper on any hopes I had for the multiplayer. Overall, Case Zero is a great little appetizer until Dead Rising 2 comes out and anyone thinking they might buy the full game or just wants to bust a few zombie skulls does not want to overlook this unique Arcade title.

Honestly though, the biggest factor in whether I buy Dead Rising 2 will be how much I’m still playing Halo: Reach at the end of September.