Module 10: Spooky, Creepy Games

Module 10:  Horror Games

Dead Rising 2

One of my favorite games to play around Halloween is Dead Rising 2.  This game is an action game with horror elements, not really much of a horror game.

Chuck Greene, a former motocross champion enters in a game show, "Terror is Reality" at Fortune City,  Nevada to earn prize money to pay for his daughter's anti-zombie medication, Zombrex.  Chuck's wife died in a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, but before she died, she bit Chuck's daughter, Katie. The show's zombies get released into the city and Chuck gets blamed for it.  Chuck and Katie go to the Fortune City emergency shelter, located near the Fortune City Mall.  Chuck opens the air vent and goes into the mall in search of Zombrex and survivors.

This game is actually pretty difficult.  The entire game runs on a time system with the following tasks:

• Main story missions that must be completed before time runs out for Chuck to clear his name.
• Every morning, you have to give Katie a daily supply of Zombrex.  Zombrex is rare and hard to come by.  Looters have shops that sell Zombrex, but it is extremely expensive.
• Side missions where you can save survivors.  These usually have the shortest amount of time to complete them.
• Psycho bosses, some of these are encountered, others may start as side missions.  Some of these are extremely hard.  Probably the hardest optional boss in the game is the psycho chef.

 Chef Antoine, the most difficult psycho boss in the game.  Triggered by the side mission "Tastes Like Chicken".

At the beginning of the game, the game is more of a horror game because you have the smallest inventory space, health bar, and little access to guns.  You also don't have any abilities such as special close combat moves or dodge roll.  The game uses a leveling system for getting stronger.  You are awarded prestige points (PP) for every zombie you kill and survivor you save.  The largest bonuses to PP are awarded for defeating psycho bosses and escorting survivors back to the safe house.  Unlike most other games, level grinding in this game does not get boring.  Certain items in the environment have a wrench icon and can be combined to make strong combo weapons.  These offer large amounts of PP for killing zombies with them.  There are also a few vehicles in the game that you can also run over zombies with.  It's pretty satisfying combining a Bowie knife with boxing gloves to make Wolverine claws or combining gems with a flash light to make a lightsaber "laser sword".  There are a bunch of different combo weapons.  If you have the combo card for a weapon, which can be obtained by looking at certain posters in the environment or level up bonuses, the weapon awards double PP of the scratch card version and you can use the alternate attack of the weapon if there is one.  By experimenting, you can discover new combo weapons and you will get a scratch card for the weapon.  Scratch card versions of combo weapons will still offer large PP amounts, but you will be unable to use the weapon's alternate attack if there is one.

As a result of the leveling system, the game is more of an action game than a horror game.  If you fail to complete a mandatory task on time, whether that would be a story mission or failure to administer Katie's daily dose of  Zombrex, you will be given the option to continue playing.  You can still kill zombies, save survivors and defeat psychos.  However, the game will end earlier.  If it is too hard to proceed, you can choose to restart the story, which will reset the story and reset your inventory, but you retain your current level.  Restarting the story makes the game much easier.  However, there is a difficulty spike in the game.  If you make it far enough to survive until the military arrive, some zombies will power up with a strange gas.  These zombies are more difficult to take out.  Also, snipers will be on the roof, shooting at you when you go outside.  This creates more horror and creates fear in the player.  Some will try to take different paths to avoid going outside.  Others will just run for their life and try to take out the snipers.

This game has a lot of humor.  Fortune City Mall is huge and has a wide variety of stores with different objects and outfits.  Almost everything in the environment can be used as a weapon.  However, not all of these are useful.  You can throw a giant teddy bear at a group of zombies if you want to.  You can drive a kid's tricycle through a crowd of zombies (which is actually effective).  You can run over zombies with a lawn mower.  You save your game by going to the bathroom.  There are also various different outfits and accessories you can pick up and wear.

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeRozFdekt8

Overall, Dead Rising 2 is an action game with some horror themes but is a fun experience.  The original Dead Rising probably fits the horror genre more because there are no combo weapons and the controls weren't as polished.  I have not played much of Dead Rising because I played Dead Rising 2 first, which made me dislike Dead Rising's controls and lack of combo weapons.  Dead Rising 2 also runs much smoother than Dead Rising 3 on PC.

I felt that the story of this game was much better than either Dead Rising 2:  Off the Record or Dead Rising 3.  Everything made more sense.  Chuck is only able to make combo weapons at maintenance rooms.  This made sense because he is a father and would likely be the handyman of the house.  He would need the materials at the work bench to make the weapons.

In Dead Rising 3, the main character Nick is a mechanic and can make combo weapons anywhere.  This makes the game too easy, but it also sort of made sense because Nick has more experience as a mechanic.

Frank West making combo weapons in Dead Rising 2:  Off the Record made no sense because he is a reporter and wouldn't have much experience with that kind of hands-on work.  This probably adds to the reasons why Dead Rising 2 is officially non-canon in the Dead Rising universe.

I'm looking forward to the release of Dead Rising 4 this Christmas.  It will be released on the Windows 10 store and Xbox One as a timed exclusive, with a release on Steam to come later.