An indepth review of Dead Rising 2 and why I, as a casual gamer, cannot in good faith recommend it, covering the good, the bad, and the ugly.

THE GOOD
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This game has some really cool environments and the whole mall really feels like it meshes together, and even though the load zones are really clunky and awkwardly placed, the transitions between the areas still feel smooth. The different areas of the casino have different themes, and most of the areas of the mall have special things in them that reward you for going there. A good example is the Americana Casino hosting an infinite spawner for Wine, allowing for easy creation of Quicksteps.

Powerful weapons are plentiful, and the introduction of Combo Weapons makes clearing hordes in innovative ways much more fun compared to Dead Rising 1.

The story is a blast, easily the peak of the series. No spoilers, though.

The music is a full playlist of straight fire, especially a couple of the Psychopath themes.

The psychopaths give players a break from the usual "kill x number of y enemy" and gives them the opportunity to face a boss that will reward them with PP, as well as either a special item, a combo card, or a survivor depending on the psychopath (sometimes all of the above) upon their defeat.
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THE BAD
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Time. Time time time. If you don't optimize the holy hell out of the time you spend doing side content, you may as well just not even bother with the story. The timers on the story missions are brutally unforgiving, and WILL fail you even if you're in the middle of completing their objectives.

The lack of a sprint key makes Chuck feel clunky and creates an unnecessary dependence on vehicles like Skateboards as well as Quicksteps to make progress in any meaningful timespan. This was an issue in the first game that was only magnified in the second, as the map was expanded twofold with very little to compensate for it. Add the fact that most quests will have you running across the entire mall and back to escort survivors back to the Safehouse, and you'll eventually just be begrudgingly dragging them along to do main story content cause you dont have enough time to get them back to the safehouse.

The lack of an autosave feature really, really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hurts this game. In a game where time is everything and optimization is key, you'd think a multi-billion dollar studio such as Capcom would add a feature as basic as autosaving after things like sidequests but nah. If you run out of time doing a main story or if you die, better hope you saved within the last 20 minutes.

Grabbing. Grabbing all the time, everywhere, always. Memorize as many of the Untouchable combinations as you can, because you'll need them trying to go anywhere in this game. You'll lose a ton of time being grabbed while doing quests, so either abuse the garbage AI by spam jumping (which slows you down, because why not) or just down an Untouchable.

The AI is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ horrid. For a game that came out in late 2010 and was developed by Capcom, you'd think the AI in this game would do more than flip-flop between mindlessly walking into zombies and attacking a zombie standing right next to you (thus hitting you as well), but nope. Don't give the AI anything stronger than a baseball bat, for your own safety.

The weapon balancing in this game is truly some of the most awkward ♥♥♥♥ i've ever firsthand witnessed in a videogame, ever, period. Damage dealt by guns or bladed weapons like the Longsword seems to be RNG. Sometimes they'll kill in one hit, sometimes they won't, but for some reason random ass weapons like the golf club's golf balls or the metal baseball bat's baseballs deal more damage to human enemies than a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 50 cal bullet from the Sniper Rifle. You'll waste quite a lot of time making sure the zombies you just killed are actually dead and won't just get back up and grab you as soon as you go to open the watch menu.

The looters spawn seemingly completely at random, which is no problem for Chuck considering the previously stated issue of the AI in this game being absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ useless at everything, but it becomes a true battle of the wits if you're unfortunate enough to encounter a group of looters while escorting NPCs to the safe house. Always keep atleast one fully loaded shotgun with you in case of looters.

SNOWFLAKE. This ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Psychopath deserves its own paragraph entirely. Snowflake and Ted are an always-active Psychopath in the Yucatan that will trigger any time the player gets close enough to the lion exhibit inside the casino. Issue is, if you're doing certain quests and you try to take a shortcut through the Yucatan to save some time, the game puts you close enough to the tiger exhibit to automatically trigger the fight to start, more or less guaranteeing the NPCs you're escorting die trying to pathetically whack the tiger to death.

There are a myriad of issues with how the leveling works in this game. The PP system is perfectly fine, but the levels which you gain certain combo cards and skills is randomized. Issue is, you more or less need the dodge roll skill to deal with 90% of the Psychopaths in the game, so if you don't have it, you'll be going into the Psychopath fights and spamming heals.

Certain side quests require you to escort injured, sick, or otherwise crippled survivors back to the safehouse. These quests are usually to save survivors within or near the Royal Flush Plaza, making escorting them back much easier, but certain quests call for you to go across the map to save said survivors. Do not try, you will waste valuable time.

EDITED TO ADD: I forgot about the Gas Zombies in my initial review. These guys are the most annoying enemy type in probably any videogame ever made. They spam vomit attacks that basically force Chuck to take damage, they’re significantly tankier than normal zombies, and their alert roars are eardrum-violatingly loud. After Case 7-1, turn your game volume down for your own safety.

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THE UGLY
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The models in this game are some of the ugliest, most eye-gouging ♥♥♥♥ I've personally ever witnessed in a videogame. I get it, the game came out in 2010, but there's no reason for some models to have countable polygons on them. There really isn't.

This game is optimized like utter ass. Serious Sam 2 runs better than this even with 100+ enemies on the screen. The performance is made even worse if you try to use the more effective ice/lightning/fire based weapons like the Flamethrower or Electric Rake, as the extra particles just make the game ♥♥♥♥ itself.
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FINAL JUDGEMENT:
Story: 8/10
Music: 7/10
Environments: 8/10
Gameplay: 3/10

SUMMARY:
4/10
JUST GO PLAY HUNT DOWN THE FREEMAN ITS UNIRONICALLY A BETTER EXPERIENCE LOL
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