The original Dead Rising was a fun but flawed game. The game just had one too many issues that at times made it frustrating to play, but never unbearable. Thankfully, many of these problems have been fixed or improved in Dead Rising 2, making the experience of playing the game a great deal more fun.
The first thing you will notice that has been improved in Dead Rising 2 over the original is the AI for human characters. One of the major aspects of both games is saving human characters, in the original this was sometimes a real pain. I honestly can not give you an accurate number on how many times a human character got stuck in a doorway, in front of a random item, or walked into zombies while I was playing Dead Rising 1. However, in Dead Rising 2 things are incredibly different. The human characters are much smarter, very rarely running into zombies and never really getting stuck within the environment. Guiding up to 8 characters at a time to your safe house within the game is a lot more plausible and nowhere near the headache it was in the first game.
Another nice improvement over the original is the addition of multiple save slots. In the original Dead Rising you only had one save slot for your game. If you ever saved your game after making a major mistake or taking too long to finish a case file then you usually suffered for it. Since Dead Rising 2 now has 3 save slots you can use while playing through the game this no longer really becomes an issue. By using all three slots while playing you can revert to an old save if you make a mistake or take too long during a specific case file.
The case files in Dead Rising 2 are also less frustrating than they were in the original. Best of all if you manage your time correctly you can actually save most survivors within the game and do the case files at the same time. This was something that was fairly difficult to do in the original game (your first time through anyway), but it can be done in Dead Rising 2 with the proper time management.
Despite all these improvements in gameplay, one negative aspect of the original still remains. Dead Rising 2 contains some truly annoying and frustrating boss battles. This is partly due to how cheap and strong their attacks can be. Many of the bosses can knock you down to the ground and continue attacking you, not to mention how resistant they seem to be to certain weapons. The best strategy when confronting these bosses is to have at least two large health items and some powerful combo weapon (liked the spiked baseball bat for example). The bosses can still be somewhat annoying but with the combo weapons, things are a bit easier.
Dead Rising 2 really is a great deal more fun to play than the original. It may not be nearly as creative as the first one was, but a least an effort was made to improve the issues the first game had. My only real issue continues to be the bosses within the game, but otherwise this is a fun game to play.
Now as far as the Zombrex Edition is concerned, well it is neither terrible nor great. There are quite a few items contained within the set but most are somewhat forgettable or maybe even cheap looking. Below I will break them all down for you:
1. Zombrex Steelbook The game and bonus disk are contained within this case that looks like a big pill box/case. A nice looking steel-book and a cool idea.
2. Dead Rising 2 Bonus Disk The disk, which is designed for the Xbox 360 and plays in HD, contains a "making of" for the game and the Zombrex Dead Rising Sun movie. You also get an extended ending for the film as an extra. Not a bad bonus disk, although the film can be downloaded off Xbox Live it is nice to have it on a disk.
3. Zombrex Prospectus Brochure This is a nice idea and quite funny. Basically this is one of those medical brochures that is trying to sell you the latest prescription drug, in this case Zombrex. Unfortunately the booklet is so big the only way it would fit in the Collector's Edition box was to fold it up two times. This more or less leaves fold marks on every single page of the booklet. This probably could have been avoided by making the brochure smaller in size, but unfortunately that was not done.
4. Zombrex Safety Card Again, a nice and funny little card on how to deal with zombies and stay safe. Nothing really special in all fairness. This could have come with every single copy of the game and not just the Zombrex Editions.
5. Zombrex Syringe Pen and Bandage One of the nicer items in the set. The pen comes in a box that resembles those used for the Zombrex drug found in the game. The pen although small looks really cool and comes with a small bandage, a nice little touch.
6. The Art of Dead Rising 2 Hardcover Book For most people art books are their favorite parts of Collector's Editions, and I admit I am one of those people. This particular art book is actually not bad, just small. It gives you a brief look at everything from character designs, weapons, vehicles, and environments. This really ends up being the issue with the book, it is brief and nowhere near as detailed as the Fallout 3 or BioShock 2 art books. It is not as bad as the Resistance 2 art book but I just wish it was longer.
7. Zombrex Prescription Pad Not much to say here, it is just a Zombrex themed Prescription Pad. Nothing really special here in all fairness.
This all seems like a lot of stuff but the best items are the steel-book case, the syringe pen, and to a certain extent the art book. The other stuff is hit or miss depending on who you are. The best thing I can tell anyone interested in this set is to try and find it for a good price and not the full MSRP. Having said that, Dead Rising 2 is a very good and fun sequel. The Zombrex Edition itself is not terrible either. Definitely worth checking out if your a fan, just look for a good price.
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I like to write useful reviews on things no other reviews have touched on yet. First of all I loved Dead Rising and was practically playing it trying to beat it up until the launch of part 2 (on and off). I love Dead Rising 2, the game takes everything from the first one and improves on it. You are basically still in a mall in Vegas with casinos, clubs, ect. It is very over the top and very cool. My concerns about the Zombrex edition is first of all you can go to capcoms website and get a High Stakes edition that comes in a case with poker set, dead rising playing cards, brochure of the city and Psycho pack add on with a chance to win a life size zombie statue. Cool right? OMG, the DVD Dead Rising Sun on this edition is bad. I mean I love movies that are so bad they're good and same with music but, this DVD of Dead Rising Sun is awful. It's something you can download for free on xbox live. It is about some immature 18 year old boy in a wheelchair who is stuck in a warehouse trying to slay goons. One goon has a capcom shirt and there are a few zombies( boom there is your dead rising homage and similarity). The entire piece has this boy thinking out like stuff like, "I can't be a coward, I must fight, I must not give up" Repeatedly. He acts like a brat and the dialogue in this movie makes the Superfriends cartoon seem poetic. I am a dead rising completist and chose this over the PS3 just for the film. I am just warning people it is a bad movie, I'm not going into scene detail of the movie due to spoilers but, trust me I lost a little respect for dead rising when I found out it was one of the producers that directed it. Just a little. I was also a bit wishing I knew about the High Stakes edition off capcoms website because it seems a bit cooler and I'm not even a card player. There are very few reviews of Dead Rising Sun online or on amazon so I just wanted to warn people because I wish someone would have warned me:) I could go on forever talking about how bad the film is but, it is not worth my time or your time and I don't wanna be a spoier kinda guy either.Best Deals for Dead Rising 2 Zombrex Edition
As a frequent buyer of collector's edition games, and someone who doesn't set a high bar for the perceived quality/value of what's inside, this is the first time I've felt truly disappointed by something I've taken out of the box. The Zombrex "Prospectus", which is right next to the SteelBook case in the product image, is actually larger than the game case. So in order to fit it was folded in half twice and stuffed into the box, resulting in permanent and unsightly folds and creases. It probably would have been better if they hadn't included this beat up brochure at all. For those that can overlook this the rest of the package (including the game) is great. The way everything is themed to tie in with the game is refreshing, and is something I would like to see in more collector's editions.Honest reviews on Dead Rising 2 Zombrex Edition
This is a review on the Zombrex edition, not the game itself.I bought this collector's edition for my boyfriend and was really disappointed with the quality of the "special" items that came with it. First, most of the collector's edition games I've seen come in a nice, well made box, this however came in a flimsy, thin cardboard one (like you'd find crackers in). When you open the box up there are these contents: a Zombrex syringe pen and one bandage in a small box, a Zombrex percription pad, Zombrex pamphlet, an art book and the game.
I've owned pens like this Zombrex one before, they are made to look like a syringe filled with a liquid (to look like blood or zombrex, etc). The liquid dries out in about 4 or 5 months. Sure, it can still be used as a pen but the neat aspect of having a filled syringe is gone. I do however like that the little box it comes in is made to look like you just got the prescription; I appreciate the time it took to design the box.
The prescription pad is not very interesting and it's not something that's every going to be used and doesn't display well.
The pamphlet comes folded up in the box. This really bothered me. An artist took the time the design this pamphlet as if Zombrex was a real drug, it has all sorts of information about the drug and it's very well done for a fictional drug but it comes FOLDED. The solution should have been simple, make the box bigger or the pamphlet smaller. This is also not an item that is easy to display not only because it is a pamphlet but it's all creased. We even put it under a pile of college textbooks and it's still pretty creased.
The art book is very small for a collector's art book and doesn't have any information at all in it. The text isn't a big issue even though I'd like to know why artists made the decisions they did but a small art book is pretty pointless to me, I might as well be looking at the pictures online. Art books should be a decent size so you can really see the detail of the artwork, it is art after all.
The only thing I really liked about this set was that the game came in a nice tin case that looks like one of those sheets of pills where you have to push the pill through the foil on the back to get it out. While (to my knowledge) Zombrex is a drug that is injected, I think this is a neat idea and added something to the tin case.
I'm used to collector's editions having items you can display and everything being well made and encased in a sturdy well made box, this was not the case with the Zombrex edition of Dead Rising 2, I was expecting much more. Given, this was not something for myself but if it were I would have not spent the extra money for these items, it's not at all worth it.
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For starters the game follows the same exact time set up as in the first; 3 days to survive and discover the facts while trying to save survivors except this time they added a time sensitive objective of giving Katey, Chuck's daughter, Zombrex once a day while playing or else she dies. The game in essence is the same as the original, with a new component which is the combo cards giving the player unique weapons that allow more zombie killing fun such as a spiked bat, pitchfork and shotgun, or my favorite a sentry robot bear with a machine gun turret!The story this time around is much darker in perspective to the first and does a good job in captivating the gamer in the narrative, BUT the game is MUCH harder than the first so those new to the series need to be careful as this game will make you repeat a play through or two. Coop runs great in the game and is a great addition allowing players to experience the game with a friend and if very enjoyable even if it is your first time through. The only downfall is that both players are Chuck and it would have been great if they added Frank instead; good news is that at the time of writing this Capcom has already announce Dead Rising 2: Case West a continuation of Dead Rising 2 and seems very likely Frank WEST(clue!) is in it.
Ok as for the collectors edition I was very disappointed for something at 80 dollars(luckily mine was 40). The game comes in a large box that is nothing special except the back looks like a pamphlet; inside you have your steel game case that says Zombrex and looks like a pill casing, a pen that looks like a syringe that says Zombrex as well and has a blue liquid(ink) and a band aid!; some random ad that the packagers just bent in half and threw it inside, and an art book that is not too detailed.
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