The original Dead Rising was a fairly lonely affair. It was pretty much you against the world… or what was left of it anyway. Fighting hordes of zombies in the Willamette Mall was admittedly great fun, but it lacked the companionship that most games seem to offer these days, and we’re not talking the unsuspecting buffoons that you have to drag to safety - although they still exist in the sequel. Dead Rising 2 looks to cure the loneliness by letting you take a friend along for the ride and at this year’s E3, that’s exactly what we did.
Starting from the beginning of the game, we went hands-on as Chuck and his friend… Chuck, and took to the new streets of Fortune City to partake in some zombie slaying madness. A few bits of general housekeeping before we move on though: Dead Rising 2’s co-op acts in the same way – from a co-op perspective – that many other games tend to follow. What that ultimately means is that the host’s story is the active one, but the guest can bring in their character and take advantage of their stats and experience that they gather along the way. In other words, there’s no reason not to do it.
As far as character freedom goes, the two characters are not tied to a tether per se and can pretty much wander off in different directions as far as the area will let them go. Should you want to move on, then you both must be in the close vicinity of the door you are trying to get through, so it does pay to work together as a unit. However, if you want to wander off to dress Chuck up in some zany gear whilst your co-op partner causes a zombie bloodbath on the other side of the area, you’re more than welcome. That’s the beauty with Dead Rising in general, the choice to do whatever you want lies firmly with you.
