With the highly anticipated sequel to the zombie killing fest just around the corner. Capcom has made an interesting move to add to the hype by releasing Dead Rising 2: Case Zero. A prequel that leads to the events that starts Chuck Greene’s adventure in Fortune City. What Case Zero offers is a short taster of what we should expect. But is worth buying? Or is it nothing more than a glorified demo.
Dead Rising 2: Case Zero
Developer: Blue Castle, Capcom
Price: 400 MSP
Platform: Xbox 360 (reviewed)
Case Zero takes place 3 years before Dead Rising 2 in the town on Still Creek. Chuck and his daughter stop off to get gas when their car gets stolen leaving them stranded. To make things worse the town is infested. The troubles don’t end there. Your daughter Katey also needs medicine called Zombrax, which temporarily stops the effects of the virus for 12 hours. This will act as one of the main time constraints in the game, along with the time limit before the military arrive. Boy, life sure does hate Chuck.
If you have played the first instalment you will feel right at home with this one, very little has changed. The idea is to balance killings hordes of zombies and fulfilling your objectives within the time constraint. Your main objective is to find Zombrax for Katey and find 5 bike parts so you can escape the town. You may also rescue survivors who can reward you with money, parts or access to a shop, along with a nice PP bonus. Speaking of PP, you earn PP for killing certain amounts of zombies, rescuing survivors or using combination weapons. PP is used to level up which increases inventory, health or damage, and in Case Zero the max level is 5 which can be carried over into other playthroughs.
Being only 2 hours in length having to restart isn’t that much of a big deal if shit hits the fan. This was one of the reasons why I never got into the first game. A few hours in I got myself in a situation I couldn’t get out of giving me no choice but to restart the entire game. Thankfully in this short format I was able to avoid this issue allowing me to enjoy the game much more. Though this time restraint also doesn’t work in it’s favour. If you want to get all the parts and save everyone you will need to do everything in a certain way. You need to know where everything is, something not possible to do during your first run through. The game almost requires you to play it more than once, especially if you want to get all the achievements. This falls under ‘You’re mileage may vary’, not everyone is going to enjoy the idea you may have to play it more than once in order to get the full experience.
One of the new additions is the ability to combine weapons which are marked with a wrench symbol. You can discover combinations yourself or you can find them out by unlocking combo cards. With combo cards you gain a bigger PP bonus and the ability to deal strong power moves. This comes at a little odd to me, you would think you would be rewarded for working out combinations yourself instead of watered down versions of them. You can make roughly a dozen combinations giving you a nice taster of what you expect in the main game. You make them at designated maintenance stops, the weapons vary from the chainsaws attached to paddle and nailed baseball bats. They are satisfying to use and easily worth the effort they take to make. Usable shops are also new to the series, you can buy combined weapons if you are too lazy to make it yourself or the vital Zombrax. They make nice alternatives for those with more money than time, I hope they are expanded upon more in Dead Rising 2.
Still Creek is a great little town to explore perfect for this short title. It’s great finding hidden entrances to buildings by going through the rooftops. It’s a shame the controls don’t blend itself well to the light platforming, they are surprisingly picky to which point you need to press the button in order to make the jump. It’s just disappointing to see how little has changed from the original, barely any of the issues from the first game have been resolved and any of the new additions don’t do anything to improve them.
This new and separate setting from Dead Rising 2 can only be a good thing and helps stop itself from seeming like nothing more than a demo you have to pay for. For only 400 MS Points it’s hard to recommend this title for people to at least try out and get a feel for whenever or not Dead Rising 2 will be for you. As an experiment it has done the job perfectly, it helps give you a good idea of what to expect in the full game without making you feel cheated for having to pay for it. I for one hope to see more developers do more like this.
The Final Word
Case Zero is a great taster of what to expect in Dead Rising 2, and with such a low price it’s worth at least checking out.– MonsterVine Rating: Good – 4/5
