Released On: Xbox LIVE Arcade Developer: Capcom/Blue Castle Games
Zombie apocalypses are very much in fashion right now, but few have done it better than the team behind the phenomenal Dead Rising; with quite literally hundreds of those infected clamouring on screen at once, a shopping mall where almost anything could be turned into a weapon and moral quandaries aplenty, this hack n’ adventure was positively bursting at the seams with awesome. Now Capcom seems set to do it again with Dead Rising 2, and - to fill the gap until a certain September 24th release date - the modestly priced Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is here to give us a taste of what’s yet to come.
To cut a long story short, Case Zero essentially boils down to being a massive, hilarious demo for the full game, aptly showcasing all of the best features from the upcoming sequel in bite-size form while leaving you suitably hungry for more. If you’ve played the original then you’ll probably know what’s coming at this stage; hordes of angry shamblers are crawling all over an open-world full of side quests, survivors and items that you’ll need to save or collect if you want to get the hell out of dodge, but you’ll be able to use more or less anything you see as a weapon to tear a path through the horde and get one up on those flesh-eaters. Like the previous instalment you’ll also have to work to a time-limit (twelve hours in fact, which adds up to about two in real-time), leading to some fantastically tense and frantic gameplay later on while you’re desperately racing the proverbial hourglass. Needless to say, one hell of a lot of limbs and body parts will fly before you’re done.
Squeamish
Of course, if you’re of a squeamish disposition then you really should look away now - there’s a lot of killing to be done in any Dead Rising, but Case Zero rises to the occasion magnificently. It’s visceral, it’s satisfying and it’s funny (expect something along the lines of Shaun of the Dead if you’re unfamiliar with the franchise), and as an icing to this cake the experience points - or ‘PP’ - that you earn for every kill or completed objective can be carried over to Dead Rising 2 for a head start on release day, meaning that you’ll have a true incentive to experiment and go crazy with the rotting citizens of this backwater town.
Still, it’d be incredibly difficult not to get distracted regardless; if you give it the chance then this little download will hand you tons of amusement in return with plenty of side missions a
nd the likes of your typical sledgehammers, handguns or 2X4s being balanced by sweeping brushes, bowling balls, dinner plates, throwing darts, electric rakes and more with which to molest the undead, leaving you with some very amusing results. Next, the newly added ability to combine certain items with which to create even more powerful and satisfying hitters allows the imagination to run truly wild. Feeling a bit miffed after work? Throw a pitchfork and shotgun together to create a hugely capable (as well as messy) death machine. Suffering from a bad day at school? Try combining that bucket with a power drill. You won’t regret it.
Nevertheless, don’t expect a cake-walk - with a ludicrous number of foes on screen at once and a viciously powerful foe, it’s all too easy to become surrounded and overwhelmed if you’re not careful. As later missions will cruelly throw you right into the beating heart of these hordes you’ll need quick reactions and a faster trigger finger if you want to have a hope of surviving, and because your weapons only have limited life, you’ll also have to be able to think on your feet if you fancy staying out of a zombies’ stomach (even if this means braving the utter humiliation of having to beat your way out of the throng with nothing but a handbag).
Surprisingly enough though, there’s more to Case Zero than simple combat, and Capcom’s newest gem plays host to a great little story and masterful clutch of cutscenes as well. Following the rather touching exploits of likeable motocross star Chuck Greene and his daughter as they try to escape the over-run Still Creek, it’s remarkably well written for a balls-out action game and could, in all honesty, outdo almost any other horror game for skin-crawling atmosphere and fantastic acting right from the off. Even if these cutscenes do appear with a bit too much frequency, the
whole affair lends the experience an added, unexpected poignancy that is very distinctly missing from over, similar titles.The missions that you’ll have to complete follow a similar pattern, as what starts as a simple fetch-quest will eventually transform into desperate escort duties and fraught escapes full of swearing and hair-pulling. It is a shame that there isn’t more variety on hand and there is a disappointing lack of voice acting during the playthrough (replaced by text-boxes during the adventure - lame), true, but for a meagre 400 Microsoft Points this is still a pretty sweet deal. Additionally, the moral dilemmas you’ll have to face during the two or so hour run-time are gorgeously agonising. Do you leave a couple to die or waste even more of your precious twelve hours fighting to save them? Could you abandon a trapped little girl to her fate if it meant putting your own at risk? This can bring up some very memorable moments throughout the game because it’s nigh on impossible to save everyone, and the matter of having to choose your battles wisely leads to a shed-load of replayability.
To be fair, Case Zero is ruined only by a couple of inexplicable - if rare - technical glitches resulting in item drop-in and the odd freeze, brutally unnecessary load-times and a climactic boss-battle that really is far too hard, but the freedom you’ll experience during your time at Still Creek will more or less make
up for any of the problems that you’ll come across anywhere else. Indeed, after spending some time smashing heads you’re unlikely to care that the textures are a tad shabby here and there or that the zombies aren’t very varied; you’ll care about being able to do whatever you want whenever you want, trying out each and every weapon, exploring every inch of the small (if packed) map or dressing up in the most ridiculous costume that you can find, be it as a Vegas pimp or Brokeback mountain cowboy. If I had to come up with three words to describe this download then I would almost certainly choose ‘hilarity’, ‘freedom’ and ‘atmosphere’, and if this is what we can expect from the full game then roll on September 24th and Dead Rising 2.The Bottom Line
If you fancy a title that will tide you over until the holiday deluge begins with Halo Reach and the Playstation Move then you could do a lot worse than Case Zero, despite it’s obvious flaws. In fact, this is actually among the better Xbox LIVE Arcade games to come from the big M in quite some time and the sheer breadth of options available to you (not to mention the amusing results therein) should keep you very, very busy until the real game rolls around at the end of the month.
Rating: 70%
(Good)
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