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I cannot emphasize enough how much of a welcomed feature Sandbox Mode is. On one hand, it features everything that a Dead Rising title should. Dead Rising 2: Off the Record won’t do much to alleviate player concerns of the game lacking creativity.ĭead Rising 2: Off the Record feels like such a mixed bag. And, stop me if you’ve heard this one before, the game starts off with Frank West inside a shopping mall. The plot, while reimagined, treads familiar territory. The setting is nearly recycled entirely from Dead Rising 2, save for a couple of new areas. From my experience, however, there weren’t enough of these opportunities.Įven with the return of Frank West and his camera, there's going to be an undeniable sense of déjà vu in Dead Rising 2: Off the Record. There are areas in Fortune City that will award bonus PP when captured on film, which affords a nice alternative way to level up. Taking pictures was one of my favorite aspects of that game, and the same held true here. The only real sense of variety I had when playing this game was through the return of the photography feature from the original Dead Rising. But done over and over, for challenges that involve killing as many zombies as possible in a given amount of time and grinding to level up, the fun gets worn out. And I admit to getting some big laughs out of taking down zombies with an amusement park ride. Dead Rising 2: Off the Record tries to mix things up with ample Combo Cards for turning all sorts of everyday items into fun weapons, like a propane tank and a lawn dart. Slaughtering zombies mercilessly is fun for a while, but the thrill quickly fades. This solution, though, creates a new problem. So, anytime I felt outmatched in one of the missions, I simply switched over to sandbox and grinded until I was ready to go. The best part about sandbox is that all the cash I made and levels I gained here can be transferred right over to story mode. There are also dozens of challenges available throughout the city, many of which open up after a certain number of zombies have been slaughtered. It freed me up to go nuts and whack zombies to my heart’s content.
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The new Sandbox Mode can be played through any save file and basically puts Frank West in Fortune City without the confines of the 72-hour time limit. This has often been the case for Dead Rising titles, but Off the Record offers a solution. In many cases, I'd force myself to jump right into the story missions and end up woefully outmatched. There simply isn’t enough time to complete side quests, raise cash, and level up. This structure presents the game's core dilemma. Time also has to be made to find Frank his daily dose of Zombrex, without which he will die…well, turn undead. Time must be managed effectively in order to complete the main cases, while also setting some aside to rescue survivors and gain valuable Prestige Points (PP) used to improve Frank's abilities. Players are given 72 hours to complete the main story before the military arrives and effectively ends the game. The structure of the Story Mode remains intact. It picks up the story chronicling Frank West's rise to fame following the events of Dead Rising and an epic fall from grace that leads him to Fortune City.
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In fact, Off the Record feels like the proper follow-up to Frank's story that players originally expected in a sequel. Dead Rising 2: Off the Record may be the best game in the series.ĭead Rising 2: Off the Record is a reimagining of Dead Rising 2, with the primary difference being that Frank West from the original game steps into the lead role. After all, it arrives only a year after the release of the original Dead Rising 2, and appears to essentially be the same game with a new hero. On the surface, it looks like a cash grab from a publisher taking advantage of a series’ fanbase. Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is one of those cases of good things coming in unexpected packages.