Welcome to Test Tube. Not to be confused with our full reviews, these ‘two hour test’ articles allow us to cover remakes, party games and other titles of interest.
After grinding my way through the ‘first’ Dead Rising 2, I was keen to see what this new take had to offer. Two questions in particular presented themselves. Would it address my many concerns with last year’s release? Further, could it possibly contain enough new tricks to hold my attention? After a couple of hours with the game, I felt like both questions had been answered.
Naturally, the first thing I noticed was that motorcycle champ Chuck Green had been ditched in favour of original series protagonist Frank West, a once celebrated photojournalist recently reduced to spruiking baldness cures. Gameplay kicked off with West sweating it out in new wrestling mini game in which he forced hoards of the undead into meat grinders. Shortly thereafter, he found himself trapped in a zombie infested Fortune City.
I soon discovered that West’s return to the lead role also meant the revival of the photography challenges featured in the original Dead Rising. Without doubt, the ability to snap dynamic images while fending off hungry ghouls was my favourite Off The Record improvement. I also encountered the single new environment in the game, a carnival zone filled with rides, restaurants and sideshow attractions such as whack-a-mole mini game Molemen From Uranus.
The only other significant addition was the Sandbox Mode, which allowed me to complete zombie themed challenges without concerning myself with the story.
After only two hours, I’d sampled the majority of the additional content. For the most part, I’d encountered the same locations, the same enemies and the same survivors. The combat remained clumsy and repetitive, the dialogue desperately unfunny and the loading screens endless. The timed nature of the campaign still required me to repeatedly restart the game if I wanted to level up enough to reach the conclusion. Trust me, I didn’t.
While it improved on its predecessor in a couple of small ways, Off the Record didn’t, at least during my time with the game, come close to justifying its existence.
