We chat about videogames and videogame accessories.

I've just finished with Dead Rising 2: Off The Record. Also known as Dead Rising 2: We Like It When You Buy Our Shoddy Games. The game itself is fun enough. As a series I like Dead Rising, and while I'd love to say I was hopeful when Dead Rising 2: Off The Record was announced, I was not. If you aren't familiar with the blatant cash-in then here's a quick summary: DR2:OTR is DR2 with the protagonist of DR1. Perhaps the most shaky part of the entire concept is that while it claims to be 'what would have happened in Dead Rising 2 had Frank West been there instead' (and the amount of stuff that goes into DR2:OTR would support this) it later becomes clear that this is essentially Frank West writing fanfic about himself. Around about the point where you fight a giant robot in a funfair. This is a real thing that happens.

I was never going to think Dead Rising 2: Off The Record was an amazing game, simply because the concept is not one that needed to be given a game. But there was a chance that by mixing things up a hell of a lot more than they did (all new survivors, all new psychopaths) and by ramping up the difficulty to resemble that found in the first Dead Rising, there was a chance they could have made a game that was pretty good. Instead it is full of callbacks (hey he's covered wars, you know? x 50) and references which are like 'oh yeah i played the first game too, i kind of wish i was playing it instead of this'.

That said it did add co-op mode (which I didn't use because i am an antisocial loner) and sandbox mode (which I did play and found to be fun if repetitive) so it is not all awful. At best I would describe it as fair, at worst self-indulgent rehash of a game that didn't need it.