Game Details
- Publisher: Capcom
- Developer: Capcom Vancouver, Mercenary Techonology
- ESRB Rating: “M” for Mature
- Genre: Third-Person-Action
- Pros: Sandbox mode; Frank West; improved difficulty balance
- Cons: Same base game as Dead Rising 2
- MSRP: $20
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record was released for PS3 and Xbox
360 on October 11, 2011, only a little over a year after Dead Rising 2. This was controversial and contributed to
the poor reviews of Off the Record because it was essentially the same exact
game as Dead Rising 2 but with Frank West (from Dead Rising 1) as the playable
character instead of Chuck Greene. The
core story was the same. The casino / mall
map was the same, though it did have a new amusement park area. And the core gameplay was the same. It was just a character swap, and no one
wanted to pay $40 to play through all of the same stuff again just a year
later. At the time this was very frustrating
for fans of the series and, thus, earned it the poor reviews (including from me
for About.com).
Now that the dust has settled a bit and we don’t have to be
mad that the same game got released two years in a row, I can look back on Dead
Rising 2: Off the Record quite a bit more fondly. Yeah, it was 90% the same game, but it made some enhancements,
too. The psychopath boss fights that
were so awful in the original Dead Rising 2 were re-balanced here and not
nearly as frustrating. There were some
new weapon combos that were cool. And,
darn it, Frank West is just better than Chuck.
Off the Record also added a very important new mode to the
series in the form of a sandbox mode that was open right from the start. Now you didn’t have to play through the
story at all if you didn’t want to and could freely run around and explore and
kill zombies and have fun with no time limit and no progression-killing boss
fights getting in your way. Even
better, your XP and upgrades carried over between the sandbox mode and story
mode, so you could power up by playing in the sandbox and then go into the
story mode fully upgraded and ready to kick zombie butt.
These enhancements and additions on top of the already
stellar Dead Rising 2 gameplay make Dead Rising 2: Off the Record easily the
superior game. It deserved the poor
reviews back in 2011, but it is 2016 now and I’m telling you that Off the
Record shouldn’t be remembered as a bad idea and the worst Dead Rising game. It’s actually awesome. I still think Dead Rising 1 is a little
better – better map and much better psychopaths – but Dead Rising 2: Off the
Record easily slots into the #2 position behind it (at least as far as last-gen
Dead Rising games go).
As for the remastered version of Dead Rising 2: Off the
Record, nothing was changed or added though it does include the DLC costumes /
weapons unlocked from the start. It is
just a cleaner looking and better performing re-release of the same experience
as you had on last gen. It does look
great in 1080p and 60FPS, though, and the outdoor areas full of hundreds upon
hundreds of zombies are pretty impressive.
It also features the same Xbox Live co-op functionality as the original
release.
Forget about what you might have heard or what last gen
reviews of Dead Rising 2: Off the Record say, I’m telling you right now that
might actually be the secret best Dead Rising game of them all. It takes the solid gameplay base of Dead
Rising 2 and adds to it while also featuring much better difficulty balance overall. It also was the first Dead Rising with a
real sandbox mode, which makes it worth a play all by itself because goofing
off in these games is a ton of fun. It
isn’t the canon “real” Dead Rising 2 as far as the series storline goes, but as
a game you just want to have fun with I’d recommend Off the Record over vanilla
DR2 every time. If you’re looking to
buy the remasters, do yourself a favor and buy the original Dead Rising and Off
the Record, but skip vanilla DR2.
Disclosure: A review code was provided by the publisher.
