Format: Xbox 360
Developer: Blue Castle Games
Publisher: Capcom
Release Date: August 31, 2010 (Xbox Live Arcade)
Price: 400 Microsoft Points (or Free Trial)
Four years ago, the original Dead Rising polarised opinions amongst Xbox 360 owners, with many critical of its save system and time limited game-play against other complaints. Those who forgave these issues, or simply didn’t see them as issues in the first place, were able to have a lot of fun smashing in zombies with a variety of different and makeshift weapons.
With a sequel set to launch in the coming weeks, Capcom are giving us a sneak peak of what we can expect to see in the game. However, instead of merely launching a time limited demo as they did with the first game, what we have here is a “premium demo”, which shows off the game’s engine, but in the form of a prequel quest in an entirely new location.
Case Zero introduces us to Chuck Greene, motocross superstar and hero of the game, and his daughter Katey. The young Ms. Greene has succumbed to a zombie bite, and is only able to be kept from turning by a vaccine known as Zombrex, first introduced in the live action (and quite frankly awful) prequel to the game from Keiji Inafune. The vaccine prevents the taker from turning, but can only be taken once every twelve hours. Chuck’s problems go from bad to worse, when a gas stop in the town of Still Creek leaves him stranded, after his truck, and entire supply of Zombrex, are stolen.
Thus begins just over 12 hours of in-game time, in which your main aims are to find more Zombrex for your daughter, as well as cobbling together the various pieces of a motorcycle on which to make your getaway. With the armed forces set to descend upon Still Creek in the evening, the pair need to be away to prevent Daddy and daughter from being separated permanently, so you’ll once again have to keep one eye on your watch.
All the regular Dead Rising staples are present to help you while away the hours, including various different shops to explore, survivors to rescue, and various different weapons, costumes and items to put on the head of the un-dead, plus a customary boss battle with a less-than-friendly human to help wrap things up. Those familiar with the first game will feel instantly at home when first taking charge of Greene, and from a basic standpoint, not much has changed as a result of how you walk, talk and attack.
However, as you progress deeper, you will start to notice some clear differences. Perhaps most importantly for some, there is a change to the save system. While recording your progress does still require you to visit bathrooms (although you can also save as you reach checkpoints in Cases), there are now three different save slots for you to choose from. Only having one save slot in the first game left players in something of a quandary when it came to recording progress. While opting to save would ensure not having to retrace steps made up to that point, it could also have landed you in hot water if you ended up in a situation that could then affect your ability to finish the cases.
By giving players multiple slots to choose from, there is now a spot more freedom to experiment, knowing that should things start to get horribly pear-shaped, you can keep various different save states available that you can revert back to and learn from your mistakes on. Some might argue that it lessens the survival and risk based atmosphere from the previous game, but for the moaners willing to give the franchise the benefit of the doubt, it should prove a welcome option.
Another new feature is the ability to combine weapons to create new monstrosities. Items with the potential to be merged are marked by a spanner-symbol when picked up, and can be combined at a work bench. This leads to a somewhat humorous cut-scene, in which Greene feverishly busies himself at the bench, without the player actually seeing what he’s working on.
The process of rescuing survivors remains the same, with many of them requiring you to do something for them in order to gain their trust, but this time around the humans aren’t as dumb as they were in Willamette. You can feel a little more confident running ahead of them and knowing that they’ll be able to follow, as opposed to being quickly overwhelmed by the horde. Sometimes they will get surrounded though, at which point you’ll have to run back and help. What’s more, you then have to be particularly careful not to accidentally hit them with your weapon as too many strikes will result in the survivor “defecting” and losing your trust.
As before, saving survivors, killing zombies and completing missions results in the earning of Prestige Points, which help you to level up. The cap for Case Zero is Level 5, with the ability to carry this over to the full game once released. In addition, any items and cash you pick up will also be crossed over too. The new money system allows you to buy food (for health) from vending machines, as well as items from the local Pawn Shop – including all important, if highly expensive, Zombrex shots. Some survivors will offer you cash rewards for completing missions for them, while other dough can be earned by smashing up cash points and fruit machines, of which there will no doubt be plenty when you eventually make it to Fortune City.
Case Zero is not without its concerns, many of which have not been addressed from last time around. Combat can be frustrating, with players often left vulnerable to enemy attack for too long after attacking, a particular problem during those moments when you’re surrounded by zombies. Even worse, the fact that you can’t strike a grounded enemy with certain weapons is nothing short of amateurish. It’s perfectly understandable that you’d want to swing wildly if there are enemies around, but equally the option to finish off those that are downed should be there too.
Those not playing with HD will likely again having trouble with the small text, while the process of speaking to survivors is often an overly long-winded process, with conversations often split up into several user-initiated parts. All the while these take place, there’s a risk of being attacked mid-sentence by a zombie. While survivors have a voice with which to attract your attention, these convos are entirely text-based.
The lasting feeling you get from Case Zero is that if you didn’t like the first game, then the sequel is unlikely to change your mind. On the other side of the coin, however, those that enjoyed their time in the mall are unlikely to find too much fault with what’s on offer here, unless they too were hoping for a vastly different experience.
Some might be aggrieved by the idea of premium demos, although the trial version does allow you to get a fair feel for the game. Those who do opt to upgrade could feasibly see the game as a form of pre-release DLC, with additional achievements to be earned and a little bit of further insight into the story that Dead Rising 2 will present. What’s more, unlike regular DLC, there’s no obligation to buy the full game to go with it!
It’s probably fair to say that anyone who does shell out the very reasonable 400 points for the 2-3 hours of play (or more if you aim to go for all six endings) on offer here will likely be inclined to do so eventually. Despite this, there’s not quite enough new, or enough done to the old problems or to win over those on the fence for this to reach the higher score echelons. One has to think that come the full release, very little will change other than the location.
