Dead Rising 2 - Boxed - PS3

Dead Rising 2 is set a few years after the end of the original Dead Rising: the experimental virus that turns living beings into the undead has spread beyond Willamette and infected most of the United States. As the crisis escalated, pharmaceutical company Phenotrans launched a synthetic drug called "Zombrex" that delays zombification and quickly sold out.

The player takes control of Chuck Greene, a former national motocross champion who, together with his daughter Katey, flees to Fortune City, which was rebuilt from the remains of old Las Vegas and has not yet been affected by the zombie disease. Katey was bitten by her zombified mother and therefore needs a shot of Zombrex every 24 hours to avoid turning into a zombie. In order to get more Zombrex - or at least the money to buy some - Chuck is desperate enough to take part in a game show called "Terror Is Reality", in which he must slaughter the undead for entertainment. Right after the show, some of his "victims" break out into the city and cause a widespread infection. Chuck learns from a news report that he is being blamed for causing the outbreak and that the military is coming to capture him and clear the city within three days.

As in the first Dead Rising, most of the game takes place within 72 hours, but once the player has completed all the "cases" (small sections of the story that comprise the game's objectives), Overtime Mode is unlocked, offering extra time and additional objectives. During the first 72 hours, Chuck must get Katey more Zombrex, find a way to escape Fortune City and clear his name, all while making sure he and Katey survive.

The game takes place in a sandbox-style environment. The player can move freely through zombie-infested Fortune City and choose how to progress through the game, either by taking on missions (story-related and side missions, the latter mostly involving rescuing survivors from zombies) or by ignoring them. The player can completely ignore the main story, let all the survivors die and just fight the undead roaming the streets, or go exploring. This doesn't lead to a "Game Over" screen, but to a different ending. If the player fails to give Katey a shot of Zombrex every 24 hours, the game likewise doesn't end (unlike in Dead Rising 2: Case Zero). If Story Mode is completed with the correct ending (which requires completing all story-related missions, the so-called "case files"), Overtime Mode is unlocked, extending the main story.

Zombrex can be found at various points around the city or bought from traders looking to make a fortune out of the zombie outbreak. For rescuing survivors, defeating psychopaths (survivors hostile towards Chuck) and hacking up zombies, Chuck earns experience points (called "Prestige Points" in the first game), which he can use to level up, gaining more strength, a larger inventory or new abilities (such as faster movement or additional combat techniques).

The first game was particularly known for its extravagant methods of killing zombies. Most of the environment could be used for defence, from ordinary pistols and shotguns to all kinds of garden tools, groceries (throwing cans of soda at zombies) or glow-in-the-dark plastic lightsabers from the children's toy shop - nothing seemed too outlandish for the developers at Capcom. Dead Rising 2's new developer, Blue Castle Games, kept up this tradition and introduced a new combat element: the workbench. Chuck is now able to build his own weapons using items he finds in various locations around the city. The player can simply experiment to work out how to build a particular weapon, or collect special blueprints for building them, known as combo cards. These can be unlocked by levelling up, completing side missions or progressing through the main story. Custom weapons deal far more damage than normal ones, and Chuck earns more experience for every enemy killed.

If Xbox 360 owners have a save file from Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, they can import their level, abilities and unlocked combo cards into the Xbox 360 version of Dead Rising 2.