Dead Rising 2 Wishlist
With the announcement from Capcom about a sequel to the amazing zombie slasher, Dead Rising, it got me thinking of a few things that I’d like to see improved in the new version. If the details released about the sequel are any indication, Dead Rising 2 will give Left 4 Dead a serious run for its money for best zombie game available. Without further ado, here’s my list of improvements I’d like to see in Dead Rising 2.
#5 – No Camera!
No I don't want to take a picture!
I know that the original Dead Rising had you playing as a photojournalist attempting to get visual evidence of the zombie outbreak, but lets be honest here, if you’re stuck in a mall full of zombies, are you going to A) take time and risk your life by trying to take photos of the living dead that are trying to eat you alive, or B) annihilate everything in sight to save your life. I don’t know about you, but I’m going with B. The entire point of a zombie game is that you are fighting for your life and will do anything you can to get out in one piece. Don’t make us do something as filler just to add an arbitrary feature to the game. What they need to do is concentrate on the core gameplay and frightful essence which we’ve grown to love and expect in a zombie game. The excessive hacking and slashing of the living dead in any fashion we see fit is this mind numbing activity that created such a cult following for the genre. If this is any indication, our prayers may be answered.
#4 – No Time Limit
Tick, tick, tick...
This bit used to irritate the hell out of me. You’re taking your time enjoying the game, getting things done, and all the sudden, Game Over flashes on the screen. Doh! Forgot about that time limit, didn’t ya? I understand if they want the normal story to have a time limit, but give us a GTA-style unrestricted mode where we can run around an open world and do whatever we want, for as long we want. A game like Dead Rising is screaming for a mode like this! Imagine the possibilities. You could go on a zombie murdering spree for a few hours to kill time while you’re bored, and go back to the storyline when you feel like it. A “Faux Vegas” would be perfect for this as it’s huge with plenty of casinos and venues to distract yourself in.
#3 – Intelligent Survivor AI
Get moving fatty!
This one pretty much explains itself. The survivors in the original Dead Rising were about as braindead as the zombies themselves. This only made saving them that much more frustrating. If I have to save somebody, they better be smart enough to help fight back against the horde, or at least not walk right into the middle of the fray. Come on Capcom, we have much more powerful systems than we used to, use some of that to give the NPCs a semblance of a brain. What I’m imagining is essentially a Dawn of the Dead where you can find a few NPCs to help you fight off the masses. Either do this or at least let us team up with a couple of buddies online, which leads me to my next wish.
#2 – Multiplayer/Co-Op
Help me! Help me! Help me!!
When you’re staring down the teeming masses of the living dead like above, sometimes you just need some help from your friends. The original Dead Rising was practically begging for a multiplayer or co-op mode. It’d be awesome to spend a few hours hacking away at zombies with your best buds in tow. This could go hand in hand with the free world mode I mentioned earlier, or it could also let you work through the story mode. Just give us the option to enjoy the game with our friends. Nobody wants to fight off all those brain-dead flesh-eaters alone, so don’t force us to!
#1 – Improved Save System
Could really use a save right about now...
This was one of the biggest and widely complained about parts of the original game. If you never played the first Dead Rising, you lucked out in not having to deal with the asinine save engine. You were given only one save slot; that’s right, ONE. So, lets say you were playing the game for a while and finally get to an awesome boss fight. You save your game to be able to come back to this part and play it again in the future. But wait, you can’t do that unless you feel like trying to complete the entire game again from that point. I really liked the ability to start the game over with the abilities and skills you’d accrued up to that point, but give us more than one save point! When you’re trying to beat insane bosse or other difficult parts of the game you just need those extra saves. How about when there happen to be multiple people playing the game and they accidentally save over your slot? All that hard work is gone! It’s enough to make you want to throw your controller through your TV. With the hard drives that most consoles come with now, having only one save slot is completely unnecessary.
So what do you wish you could see improved in the new Dead Rising? Anything you agree or disagree with me on? Let me know in the comments below.
No related articles.
Author: Justin "Trip" Drew (39 Articles)
Justin is a full time Network Security Admin for Rackspace and technology geek. When he's not securing people's networks he can be found playing video games, watching movies, and occasionally playing fetch with his dog Mac.
20 Feb 2009, 9:18 pm
You can’t tell me that putting a cone on the zombies head and snapping a photo wasn’t hilarious..
21 Feb 2009, 12:16 pm
Never said it wasn’t funny… just didn’t like there being so much emphasis on the camera aspect of the game. If they want to leave it as a side game or something to do to get an achievement, fine, just don’t make the whole game be about it.
06 Mar 2009, 3:40 am
I couldn’t agree with you more…
All your points are perfect, and with the online function on the X-box, they could add it to the already existing game. That would properbly get more ppl to buy it / not get ppl to sell it again after only a few hours play (like my mate did).
08 Mar 2009, 3:26 pm
Thanks for the comment. I’m really hoping that they are listening to the fans and implement these. It’d make for one kickass game. I’d be playing it all the time on my 360, even for shits and giggles to just run around and kill zombies in random ways.