User blog:CathalOHara/My Review of Dead Rising 2: Off The Record

Frank West, he's a cool guy you know. He's one of the more loved Capcom characters and has shown us that even a fat photojournalist can be quite the badass.

He is what made the original Dead Rising, his cocky attitude towards all his friends and his enemies made me feel like this guy was one of those guys you would love to invite to a Birthday party... Or a wedding. He makes everything cool.

Well I had built up excitement when I heard of his return in Off The Record, I was willing to fork out my kachings a second time just to play Dead Rising 2 as the photojournalist.

But it isn't just Frank that has been added with Off The Record, here we got possibly the finest Dead Rising game yet.

Since I'm writing this on a wiki I won't bother going into too much details via the plot but it's quite the simple one following Frank trying to get back in the limelight after his downfall on popularity. It's a rather simple plot to get Frank "Back in the game" but it works rather well.

Gameplay wise, it's more or less exactly the same as the original DR2 but has more of Frank's trademark moves like the disembowel, roundhouse kick, zombie walk etc.

His camera is back with full force and is just as addictive to use now than it was in the original Dead Rising. More so even thanks to the fact you've got infinite battery life this time around!

Visually the game is decent, it's not amazing either though. It's good enough to keep you entertained and Fortune City really stands out at night, especially around the Fortune Park.

Voice acting is excellent most noticeably Mr. Rotolo's reprising of Sir West. Frank has got many more one-liners he says during gameplay whether he beats a psychopath or rescues a survivor he will oftentimes make an epic one-liner. He even comments on Anim White's name at the start! Frank's voice is not the only good one, but all the voice cast from the original DR2 return to reprise their roles and they all do a brilliant job especially Stacey, Chuck and the new Evan MacIntyre.

And that brings me onto a new subject, the new psychopaths. While they're very few they stand out rather well. I was dissappointed on how easy they all were however.

Some of the original psychopaths are slightly more difficult however. Such as Brandon (not being able to do that sink trick anymore) but it's not too much to be a game changer. Found DR2 easy? This won't be much diffierent.

And then we have the best new feature, Sandbox mode. I won't go into much details but it was the main thing I wanted from a Dead Rising game and I'm glad I finally got it at long last. it's what Infinity Mode should of been. There's challenges but the real fun is just running around killing zombies with no time limit, it's fun and even more fun in co-op.

And finally we have the co-op. If you're familiar with Case West you'll get the same thing, Frank + Chuck = Best gaming duo since Jak and Daxter or Ratchet and Clank. Chuck keeps all his DR2 abilities and (strangely) has some of Frank's. Which I thought was slightly a dumb move though, as I always thought that Frank would have the dominance of more skill moves, something Chuck lacked in DR 2, but he had the combo weapons.

So is Off The Record worth a buy? Well if you're a fan of any Dead Rising game yes, if you're a fan of 1, heck yes. If you're a fan of 2 I guess you could but you would get more of a profit knowing more of Frank's epic adventure in Willamette. And if you weren't pleased with 1 or 2 at all I don't think this will change your mind. They fixed many of DR 2's main problems like the lack of a waypoint system and long loading screens and added a checkpoint system but if you didn't like 2, these improvements might not make such a drastic change on you.

Pros:
 * Frank West is "back in the game".
 * New psychopaths are awesome.
 * Sandbox mode is epic. Fullstop.
 * Camera, just as addicting to use as in the first Dead Rising.
 * New combo weapons are a blast.
 * New fixes like the checkpoint system and shorter loading screens makes this a much funner experience.

Cons
 * Some of the glitches from DR2 are still present, but minor.
 * New psychopaths don't provide much a challenge.
 * New area Uranus Zone while fun, is very small.

I give Dead Rising 2: Off the Record 9.4 out of 10.

Comments are always welcome, feel free to give your opinions on the game.