DEAD AGAIN: Case West DLC DR2

 Case:Zero was a wonderful re-introduction to the world of Dead Rising. Set well into the zombie apocalypse unleashed in Dead Rising, the lead character, star BMX rider Chuck Greene is stranded in a small town. Faced with an in-game 24 hour ticking clock, a daughter that needs a regular dose of Zombrex to keep her from chomping on people, a bike that needs repairing and several hundred walking dead to fight through, Case:Zero was self-contained and satisfying. It retained all of the extraordinarily annoying traits of the original Dead Rising (Bathroom save points) but reduced the pain by adding a wonderful weapon creation system. Rescuing survivors ensured a need for replay in order to get all of the achievements, an impossible task in one play-through, and there is a single insane boss battle.

 

Finished in a few hours, it was a deceptively enjoyable piece of DLC and entirely misrepresentative of the actual game Dead Rising 2. Everything that was charming and fun in a limited setting becomes aggravating in the larger game as the world is very large, the difficult bosses plentiful, and the zombies overwhelming.

 

Case:West has the  difficult challenge of washing away the negative connotation left from the main game, while retaining the bite-sized charm of Case:Zero.

 

Showcasing the return of Frank West, the hero of Dead Rising, and pairing him in co-op with Chuck Greene, Case:West picks up right at the end of DR 2. It quickly moves the pair out of the city and into a remote research facility, where West has a contact with information about the source of the anti-Zombie drug Zombrex. Self-contained but in a much larger environment, West and Greene follow the formula of Case:Zero, killing zombies, combining weapons and rescuing survivors. Unlike the more intimate personal macguffin of Case:Zero where the main driving plot is getting Chuck's daughter zombrex, Case:West is essentially a game of chase the clock as the plot points click by. Neither character is particularily charming or memorable and the prize is the generic "get evidence to clear my name" kind.

 

New and creative weapons lead to spectacularly gory zombie deaths, but the emotional impetus is missing with the entire absence of Chuck's daughter. Some old characters make surprise returns and new villains laugh manically from the shadows but Case:West is essentially an empty exercise in busywork.

Game-A-Day Post-A-year

Fall 2010 is about to drop like a 10-ton weight,lead by the juggernaut Halo: Reach. Unfortunatley the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and I have grossly neglected the simple act of writing to this blog about the games I play on a daily basis. While this tardiness may well never change, neither will my recreational habits so here's hoping I can knock some stuff out.

Upcoming is a snapshot of my PC setup, with the hopes of making this blog part of a living record of the hardware changes that happen and its impact on games, as I often have games installed for years, unfinished.

For now, this is a quick breakdown of what I have been tearing up over since the spring.

Red Dead Redemption: From Rockstar, the makers of the Grand Theft Auto series, this open world Western set just in the early 1900's scratches every itch a Western fan can have. Beautiful and sprawling, RDR follows John Marsten, a bad man who has done bad things but is trying to find a new life with his wife and son on the frontier. Unapologetically violent, RDR manages authenticity without straining credibility and is a deep 40 hour story. The ending, while unpopular, is poetic and appropriate.

Alpha Protocol: A spy story wrapped in RPG dressing, AP is a brutal mess of unfinished code and relentless ambition.Simply one of the ugliest Unreal Engine games ever made and burdened with a sluggish control scheme, the game stands only on its voice-acting and story. Filled to brimming with half-baked concepts and poorly executed ideas, AP is a frustrating kind of fun, the "time before you do the crime" and saved only by its story.

Blur: Advertised as a "grown-up's Mario Kart" Blur liberally lifts power-ups and tactics from the Nintendo playbook to create a fast paced racing game where victory can be stolen at the last second with a properly applied power-up. Varied tracks and unlock-able vehicles in both single-player and multi-player extend play time, making for a exciting variation on racing games.

Split/Second: Set as a high-concept reality TV show where contestants race against each, outside attacks and destructive changes in the track itself, Split/Second is thrilling in the short term but grows repetitive quickly. The destructible tracks are re-purposed but never really changed and the "rubber-band" effect of the AI never getting too far ahead nor letting the player dominate grows tiresome quickly.

Alan Wake: A long in the making followup to Remedy's Max Payne, Alan Wake follows a writer and his wife who attempt to vacation in a sleepy town in the Pacific Northwest. Once they arrive they are attacked by a dark force that appears to stem directly from the Wake's own words. Literary minded and often surreal, Alan Wake suffers from extraordinarily repetitive gameplay. The ambiguous story is ambitious but under-served, making for a game long on ideas and short on entertainment.

Prince Of Perisa Forgotten Sands: One of the slowest starting games mentioned, POP:FS opens exactly like every other POP game and takes its time getting started. The combat mechanics are extensively simplified following the example of last year's Prince Of Persia "reboot" rather than following the example of POP:The Two Thrones. Released to coincide but not replicate the POP film, Forgotten Sands has a compelling story and after quickly ramps up a few hours in to become a challenging platformer with light RPG elements.

Just Cause 2: A sequel to the Robert Rodriguez inspired original again find our hero with an inexhaustible supply of parachutes and grappling hooks. Hampered by atrocious voice-acting and writing the campaign story is pointless and best ignored in favor of exploring the massive game map, wreaking havoc. Just Cause 2 is a silly time killer that like any good popcorn, is forgotten as soon as you are finished with it.

Bayonetta: Sexy and insane, Bayonetta is a love letter to classic Sega games wrapped in Devil May Cry style combat mechanics. An incompressible story litters the gameplay, but double entendre's and one-liners make the experience entertaining outside of the spasmodic fighting. Lightening fast reflexes are a must to play the game to its fullest.

Aliens vs Predator: Essentially a remake of the original PC AVP by developer's Rebellion, AVP is a dark repetitive game suffering from loose controls. Brutal graphic violence is unable to compensate for cliche scenarios leaving me wishing I had simply replayed either of the original PC AVP games.

Left 4 Dead 2: Shipped only a year after the original L4D, Valve stunned the world by releasing a sequel within that timespan that was also good. L4D2 is tight, multi-player team based shooter set in a zombie apocalypse.Fast-paced, violent and scary, L4D2 follows the template set by Portal and L4D by allowing the story to be told by the environment, rather than clunky exposition and cut-scenes.

Metro 2033: Inspired by Half-Life 2 and made by some of the developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Metro 2033 is a gorgeous,dark, moody but linear FPS. Set in the Moscow underground after a catastrophic event, humanity struggles to survive while scrabbling for food and supplies under the near constant attack of mutant creatures. While I have only started the game, I am already struck by the mood and hungry to keep going.

Crackdown 2: A direct sequel apparently using the original engine and art assets from Crackdown, CD 2 is a empty exercise in open world destruction, similar in tone to Just Cause 2 but without the goofy mass destruction. All of the unique and exciting parts of Crackdown have been amplified and expanded to become the entirety of the game, robbing them of that excitement.

Dead Rising 2 Case Zero: A prequel to DR 2 and an XBLA release, Case Zero retains the central gameplay of DR, along with some annoying contrivances tagging along. Providing a strong backstory for what will be the retail release of DR 2, Case Zero is tightly controlled, gory, funny adventure in small town America. Loaded with re-playability and more direct method of combining items to create super weapons, Case Zero is fantastic value for $5.