The original Dead Rising zombie game starred photojournalist Frank West, but the sequel featured a new main character. But if you missed good ol’ Frank from the first game, well, you’re in luck. Just in time for the month of Halloween it’s Dead Rising 2: Off the Record. It’s the same game as before, but now you can play as Frank West and take pictures. My brother and Dead Rising fan, Jeff Orth, will be guest reviewing this one today (360 version reviewed here).

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record shows the story of the original Dead Rising 2 as if Frank West (the main character of the original Dead Rising) was in the shoes of the new main character, Chuck Greene. This game shows many improvements over its predecessor with its additional combination weapons, sandbox mode, and a new zone.

There are a lot of new weapon combinations and there are a few that use two already-combined weapons to form a bigger and better one. One of my favorites is the combination of an alien mask and gems which results in a mask Frank can wear to shoot lasers at zombies.

Sandbox mode was always something I wanted with Dead Rising. No time limits and a plethora of appearances by bosses in the main game make this mode challenging while not stressing you over a time limit to do whatever you want.

The new area in Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is a sci-fi theme park called The Uranus Zone. The only problem I have with this theme park is that you cannot ride the rides. You can activate certain ones to kill zombies but you cannot physically get in them.

Although Frank may be a little more aged since his last adventure, it is a nice bit of nostalgia seeing him tear through zombies. –Jeff Orth

Kid Factor:

Dead Rising 2 is rated M for Mature with ESRB descriptors of Sexual Themes, Partial Nudity, Blood and Gore, Use of Alcohol, Intense Violence, and Language. You do mow down zombies (literally) with a variety of crazy weapons, and there is lots of blood splattered. Frank can eat and drink food to regain health, and some of it is alcoholic. The setting is in a Las Vegas style town so that’s where the sexual themes and partial nudity come in. Even though the game is rated M for Mature, I did let brother Jeff play it before he turned 18 because despite all this, Dead Rising is really campy, like watching a cheesy horror movie. So it MIGHT be OK to let older teens play this, with some adult supervision. And of course, your mileage may vary. (Kid Factor by Cary Woodham)

Tags: Reader Reviews!