When the first Dead Rising came out in 2006, the zombie-killing action game was met with much critical praise; for whatever reason, it has taken developer Capcom roughly four years to come out with its sequel. That time has not been spent in vein, however, as Capcom is promising a “bigger and better experience” with the sequel. 

Having played Dead Rising 2 at Wonder Con, I can tell you that the sequel does not reinvent the wheel. You still kill hordes of zombies using a similar third-person camera angle; however, from what I’ve played of the game, it is indeed much bigger in scope. Whereas the first game threw hundreds of zombies at you, Dead Rising 2 promises to throw thousands. This is especially impressive considering the graphics have been significantly improved over the original.

While the original offered a stylized and almost comical sheen to its character models, Dead Rising 2 definitely aims to be a little more realistic in its aesthetics. The game’s new scenario takes place in the fictitious land of “Fortune City.” Fortune City is definitely based on Vegas as the illuminating yellow lights and myriad casinos scream of the Vegas strip. The new main character “Chuck Greene” is sort of a tough scruffy-looking man with facial stubble and blonde hair. As a former national motocross champion, Greene begins the game with a yellow motorcycle jacket, although the developers have assured me that customizable costumes will continue to be a trademark for the franchise. One notch I did have with the graphics, however, was with the frame rate. While there are more characters on the screen, the game doesn’t run as smooth as we would have liked it to; however, it is important to note that this is subject to change in the coming months. 

Once you get past the slightly choppy frame rate, you can begin to enjoy one of the game’s main appeals: its outrageous selection of zany weapons. Like Dead Rising 1, you can pretty much pick up any item in the game and use it as a weapon. Park benches, guitars, and trash cans? The skies the limit. New this time around is the ability to combine weapons to make even better weapons. In the demo we played, we were able to tie a pair of chainsaws to either end of a rowing paddle to create a weapon of mass destruction known as the “paddle saw.” Like a martial arts master, Greene was able to swing the paddle saw around like a champ to create a bloodbath whenever he walked into a crowd of zombies. We were also able to purchase boxing gloves with Wolverine-like claws attached to them. While these weapons sound great, and trust me, they are, most of them will degrade or run out of ammo. The flamethrower, while great for burning mass markets of zombies, didn’t last long. In addition to that, you have access to your standard array of fire arms: pistols, shotguns and the like; however, I always preferred melee weapons to the guns as the splash damage from melee weapons seemed to be much more effective; however, from the demo we played, the game wasn’t ever really that hard, although Capcom assured us the full retail version would be much harder. From the trailer that the developer showed us, you’ll be able to pick up and wear a Moose head from which you can use to run and mow down your enemies. Another tease from the trailer had Greene attaching a chainsaw to the front end of his motorcycle. We just can’t wait to see what other zany weapons are in store in Dead Rising 2. 

Perhaps taking a page from Valve’s first-person shooter Left 4 Dead, another new feature that Dead Rising 2 will feature this time around is multiplayer. While we weren’t able to play around with this new “Teror is Reality” mode, Capcom is allowing up to four players to play cooperatively with each other.

You’ll be able to get your hands on the multiplayer and full release of the game when it releases on August 31.