Dead Rising 2: Case Zero

The brilliance of Dead Rising 2: Case Zero - aside from being a way to charge people for a pre-release demo - is that it itself has a demo, per Xbox Live Arcade rules and regs. Unfortunately, I spent more time watching cutscenes and loading screens than I did actually playing the game -- so the small glimpse of Dead Rising 2 it afforded me wasn't very substantial.

The weapon combo mechanic is an awesome idea, marred somewhat by the challenge of getting a useful weapon back to a work bench without consuming it. Fragile weaponry still seems more like a balance patch than a real gameplay mechanic. That said, the few weapons I did get to pick up lasted a little longer than I expected them to. But, the zombies weren't all that dense; and many weapons were still borderline useless. (I guess the drill could be pretty neat in some combos, but by itself it's just a great way to get attacked from behind.)

That the zombie attack mechanism still takes away health before giving me a chance to escape, is my biggest concern. This, to me, was a very clear error in Dead Rising's game design. That the sequel preserves it suggests that it may not do much to allay my many other concerns about the first game.

Then again, the aiming controls work much better. Not just better-than-awful, but about as good as you could possibly expect from a game that isn't primarily a shooter. There's a targeting reticle and everything!

So, after playing the demo of the demo, I'm still on the fence about Dead Rising 2. Great.

Progress: Gave Up -- Played the demo (the free demo of the paid demo)