Top-Ten Improvements For Dead Rising 2
Dead Rising is a great game, it’s already sold over half a million copies and is on its way to selling a lot more in Europe when it’s released. The game wasn’t perfect but it was close. That’s why I’ve compiled this list of 10 things I’d like to see improved if there’s ever a part two, and I sure hope there is. There were a couple of major issues with the game that I despised and I thought people didn’t take a liking to either, so I’ve included them in the list. Don’t get me wrong, I think Dead Rising was one of the best games I’ve played in a while. It was addicting, and that’s a good quality to have in a game. I myself have played though at least 5-times and I am just about a level 50, so I thought it was only time that I let you know what I feel should be altered or improved upon for the sequel if there is one:
#10: Destructable And More Interactive Environments
Problem:
The upcoming next-gen game Stranglehold has gotten me all giddy because of the detail in the destructable environments. You can shoot at anything and it’ll fall apart or interact with objects and they will react accordingly. Dead Rising does have a bit of physics and interactivity, but not much. The only objects you can kick around are the ones you can pick up. To me the game doesn’t feel authentic enough when destructable environments are absent and objects that you think should be animate are inanimate. I’m not saying every game needs this, but it sure does add a lot of value when the shoe fits.
Solution:
Bring it on. Imagine having the ability to blast a shotgun at a hanging sign and having it fall on the Zombie. This opens up a whole new can of Zombie worms. Think Half Life 2 Dead Rising.
#9: Combat Controls
Problem:
I don’t know about you, but I had a hard time learning the combat moves that you earned as the game progressed. There was one that I couldn’t do for the life of me and that was the lariat-spin.
Solution:
There isn’t much to say on this one other than make it easier to pull off all the combat fighting moves.
#8: Bosses
Problem:
The bosses you didn’t defeat the first time around were too easy when your power level was higher, later on in the game and it only took a minute or so to figure out their pattern. Hence their AI was just plain dumb.
Solution:
Smarter AI of course, which depended on your skills level because that’s what this game was all about; building up your skills and coming back for more of the things you missed.
#7: AI
Problem:
Oh dear, the AI for the NPC’s were atrocious. I actually gave up saving the survivors because they were too daft. Even when you equipped them with a weapon they’d still run around like a headless chicken. This goes for the bosses too – not much effort put into their intelligence. Where’s the fun in that?
Solution:
Umm…better AI. Hire a programmer who worked on FEAR or Half Life 2, that’ll do it.
#6: No Multiplayer Support
Problem:
Multiplayer in a game can save it from resting on your IKEA shelf to collect dust. Not that Dead Rising needed multiplayer to save it – it certainly had enough attributes to keep you coming back for more skills, unlockables and achievements. But if this game had Multiplayer I tell you I’d buy 10 copies.
Solution:
Introduce multiplayer into Dead Rising 2. Allow players to utilize all those survivors you save as characters we can play against. You could have a mode where you just play as Zombies and instead of Deathmatch, call it “Dead-Head-To-Head”!
#5: Bigger Environments
Problem:
The cliche mall theme was great and offered a lot of variety for players to explore. However, after playing the game the 2nd-3rd time to rack up the skills I got tired of seeing the same scenery. I actually tried, without success, to jump off the building from the roof into the parking lot just so I could take a look around. No such luck. I’m not saying a GTA sandbox-style Dead Rising is the answer, but an extensive land mass would be appreciated to keep our short attention-spanned brains stimulated.
Solution:
Ok ok, I would love Dead Rising to go full blown sandbox-like. Sure it would probably cut down on the graphics quality but hey, that’s ok. I’ll take fun gameplay over movie-like graphics any day, depending on the game of course. If this is out of the question, then go with a small town that has one of everything. That would work too.
#4: Load Times
Problem:
Load times, in my opinion, take away from the player’s experience and remind you that you’re playing a video game. Dead Rising had a lot of load times and I felt ruined the experience just a little. With next-gen, it is possible to eliminate load times and still have a great looking game with great audio. This issue has to do with a number of things including bigger environments, draw-in vs. texture and polygon quality. There was some noticeable draw distance in Dead Rising, but it’s not as bad as, say, Saints Row. Dead Rising’s graphics we’re better, hence less crappy draw distances needed to compensate for how much polys and textures were needed on the player’s screen at once. If Dead Rising went GTA-like, then the graphics might not necessarily be as good (although it is the next-gen era) but there would be little to no load-times. My point is I just don’t see the need for load-times on next-gen consoles anymore.
Solution:
Eliminate load times, it can be done! We’re starting to see some next-gen games that have no load times other then to load a saved game.
#3: Resident Evil-like FPS shooting system
Problem:
Why Capcom decided to borrow their shooting-style from Resident Evil and implement it into Dead Rising is anybody’s guess. It takes away from the experience when you have to switch views and find the time to swing Frank around until he’s facing the right way to shoot. Most times I would have to rotate the character to shoot a Zombie even though I was facing in their direction in the first place. Very cumbersome.
Solution:
Use a targeting system like one of the many 3rd-person games out there. For example, Saints Row or GTA. You can always rely on a permanent target on the screen so there’s no FPS needed.
#2: Small text
Problem:
The 1pt, aliased micro text that you were supposed to read in order to follow the story was only possible by those who had HDTV’s, or if you sat close enough and didn’t care to ruin you eye sight. I couldn’t read it on my 27″ so I did without it. There was a consumer outlash regarding this, but Capcom basically said “deal with it”.
Solution:
No brainer here, bigger text! That or some audio dialogue would have been nice too. I realize this takes up way more space but the game didn’t seem so big that it couldn’t handle more audio.
#1: Save system
Problem:
I’m sure most of you will agree that this was the biggest most concerning issue in Dead Rising. The only good thing that came out of this issue was that it kept you coming back for more, whether you liked it or not. The bottom line was that if you got to a point in the game where you had to go back because you missed a case-file, you had to revert to the last save. Nobody enjoys this, at least I didn’t.
Solution:
Allow us to save whenever we want or at least structure the game to have unlimited save slots. The saving only in the bathroom idea is fine, but I want it to be less hygienic in there, if you know what I’m saying.
So there you have it. I didn’t include the issue where some people experienced the game crashing or hanging up frequently as it wasn’t a confirmed bug. If you feel there’s something missing from the list, feel free to add as you wish. Maybe the folks at Capcom will see this and take some of them into consideration for the sequel if it happens.
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I hope In dead rising 2 Frank West will still be with us, that charecter is soooo cool, I like frank
Edit- and in multiplayer, be him with some other main randon survivor like…..Paul? maybe Isabell or brad or otis etc but frank 4 sure
This game needs multiplayer i for one would love the idea of he slaying the dead with your co op buddies, a VIP mode in which all the human players have to protect / escourt a dumb a*se NPC from north plaza to the security room but the park is out of bounds. or even a last man standing game type.
Heres hoping ther ewill be a dead rising 2
if they make a 2nd dead rising i think it would be cool to start in a city and fight and drive through the streets and go to a airport!
Dead rising would be even cooler if you could play with multiple characters who all have different story lines and different skills, etc. Kinda like Resident Evil, where you could chooose either Chris (who has more life) or Jill (who has more item slots) and have different scenarios. More characters, more story, etc. would be cool
dead rising is amazing. it’s basically all i could as for in a game, but now that i’ve been playing it i want more. naturally i imagine a sequel and here are some ideas. dogs that are hostile, not zombie animals or anything. other creepy things that would be of natural occurance, misc things to build atmosphere. ie- lights flickering out to total dark for split seconds in certain areas or something. add drugs, this guy is up for 72 hours running around, is he on speed? it would be really cool to find “magic mushrooms” or something to that extent, or be able to drug a zombie even. make the character hallucinate or something. put the skateboard in again somehow, only make it a bit more durable and maybe the ability to ollie. multiplayer co op would be really cool, you could do it without a split screen and it would be tons of fun. thats all i’ve got for now, i have yet to beat the game but have noticed a few things that seem to be lacking. overall this is easily one of the best games i’ve played recently, it’s definately nice to see a game with gore and options. i have been wondering WHY on earth people would leave out the option of tons of weapons in games. it only makes sense to give options
Ya you made some very good points here….but even when i could see the text, i really couldnt read it fast enough, then it went on and sometimes i didnt really even know what i was supposed to be doing?? And another thing that i think would be cool is if the game could either go online or have co-op with a friend, and maybe even up to 4 players at once!! One more thing is that there should be a bigger map. Maybe even a town or city, imagine being able to drive cars, trucks, semis, bikes, motorcycles, and even mopeds!!!
this is a little off but i have a great idea for the story and place of dead rising 2. ok it starts where dr1 left off with frank and isabella on that tank and frank gets in he saves isabella and he drives the tank out of the mall and theres
where it starts u try to get out of willamett with the millatary shooting at u and u can destroy buildings and that will solve the #10 problem. once u get out the story takes u to a nearby city and it goes on from there, big city solving problem #5 and for the people that r saying they want a theme park they could make that part of the city and as for an unlockable costume hmm… a capcom liscense… mabey dante from DMC
sry about the off topic post but mabey if this is a good idea capcom will get this in the game
ya it would kill if it had multiplayer 1-16 team survival create your own charicter survive in the mall with freinds.
I think that if they do co-op at all the shooting should be like the game war of the monsters. Where if the 2 characters get close it switches to one screen and when they separate it switches to split.
I think that it would be nice for the game to have a layout like GTA in the way that you can go inside alot of places besides the mall. Like you would be able to go outside of the mall and you could go into the warehouse that the lady falls off of in the begining of the game or something like that. I also agree with Mebabyme1234 that you should have a mode in which you can create your own charater in multiplayer AND in career mode.
I have a few suggestions too. First and Formost
NO MORE OTIS!!!!!
Seriously, His constant calling makes me want to take a shotgun to his forhead. Even when he is living in a state populated by zombies, he needs some friends.
I would LOVE the idea of Dead Rising 2 Multiplayer. Such as: Co-op Story line, or co-op zombie smashing sesion. Vs. Player vs Player in a map filled with zombies who try to kill you both, or vs. Zombie vs. Survivor. That would be sweet.
More Clothing selection. The clothes arent that important but it would be nice to chose between a plain white shirt with a black tie, or perhaps change the color of the shirt, tie, or even add some jewlerry to make your character… YOURS! Maybe even customizable faces for your character aswell.
Hope you liked my suggestions.
Another thing that I want to see in Dead Rising 2 is MORE CRAZY WEAPONS!!! By Crazy Weapons, I mean weapons such as the Real MegaBuster. Weapons that can burn zombies to a crisp, Explode their limbs, Obliterate Hordes of Zombies in one strike, and things like that. Capcom… If you wont do it for me… do it for Frank.
Another thing that I want to see in Dead Rising 2 is MORE CRAZY WEAPONS!!! By Crazy Weapons, I mean weapons such as the Real MegaBuster. Weapons that can burn zombies to a crisp, Explode their limbs, Obliterate Hordes of Zombies in one strike, and things like that. Capcom… If you wont do it for me… do it for Frank.
one of the biggest problems I had with dead Rising was the Achievements… This really hacked me off. because for one Achievement worth 20 points all I had to do was take a photograph, which literally took 2 seconds giving the right location. Yet for another Achievement worth 20 points I had to spend 5-hours repeatingly knocking down zombies in a car. If they are going to make Dead Rising 2 please give the gamers who are good at the game the credit they deserve. For example the photograph achievemnet should have been worth 5-10 points and the zombie genocide 35 – 50 points and dont have stupid tasks like the pp stickers that had nothing to do with the game itself. instead of that I would have somthing like take photos of certain things like a zombie with a blue coat, or take a photo of a clock at 10 o clock at least these can be done while your waiting for next mission and they are not that impossible to find. PP stickers where impossible to find unless u had a walkthrough or had a lot of time on your hands.
I think we shood make it like 1-10 players. and make it so wene you leave a part of the mall it shood stay the same ok!! and wene you leave some dud in a make shift base they shod be safe ok. and but all the guns is the gun shop like the 5 smgs. and wene you beat a boss you can help him or kill him. and help them you can get ther weapen in the safe rome ok.and if you play on line make it so you can nern off parts of the mall be for you start and a time limit to save the duds and the boss ok. and if you get bite by a zombie you can make a thing that stop you from a bing a zombie. and if the zombie dose not see you he will not look for you. and you cood need 1 food of a water of some sort ever 24 hores so you dont starve to death. If you die you can came back if you saved some one. and if the game as no time limed you can but or dud in a safe rome. ok. and more magzin’s and more big blanks in noth plasu. and shod be a chike or a kid ok.
ok who ever pu that last comment up may want to pass the 3rd grade before they try to type again because i couldnt understand a single word of what ever he was talkin about. any ways i really like the stop and pop shooting style of dead rising, if it did have a saints row style of shooting i think it would take away from dead risings survival horror genre and turn it into any other run and gun game.
i reeeaaallllyyy hope in dr2, that there is a BIG setting, in a town, amusement park, or something like that, the graphics won’t be as good, butits worth all the extra time of gameplay and other ways to kill zombies. Also Multiplayer would bwe the best!
Saves, AI, those aren’t problems in my books. It’s a survival HORROR game, and if you die, you get punished by taking you back to your last save location, and if you can’t take that, you must be retarded. And the AI? Have you seen people in an emergency? They act retarded. And also, the AI gun usage, you people are weird, give a random person a Windchester Mod- 94 and tell him to shoot a zombie 50 feet away between the eyes. Pffft, some people don’t get it.
You know i like all these points they really need to be corrected. However i really wish they made a multiplayer mode where if your friend is bitten or you are then you could possibly turn into a zombie evntually, and have fun against tonnes of people. Also it would be good if everyne was a living being first and as you progress daily activity the zombies start spreading. And as time goes by you have to change your daily routines to suit the incoming zombie invasion. It would rock, maybe you could also build a base or climb trees and stuff. I have tonnes of ideas, too many to add here.
I think there should be more hand to hand combat moves than there normally was.
I also agree with the saving, you should be able to save wherever you desire by just hitting pause.
controls took a while to get down, but soon it gets easier.
i agree with you on the small text i think its micro scopic lolz and they should make a mini town to go wear ever you want im getting an xbox360 for christmas the only reason i really want it is becasue of dead rising i hope the make a new one for xbox360
split screen is a great idea wat if someone just ants to just play with a friend/sister/brother
With the game roughly a year away from release (sometime 2010), I wonder how many of these will be addressed. Currently, we do know that there will be some sort of multiplayer, and that the font problem hopefully will be addresses. I mean, how many times can you screw that up? But I wonder what's being done about the controls and the AI.