Dead Rising 2

Dead Rising 2, released in 2010, moved the zombie apocalypse from a shopping mall to the fictional gambling city of Fortune City, with former motorcycle stuntman Chuck Greene taking the lead role. On the TV reality show Terror is Reality, he tries to earn money for the expensive drug Zombrex for his infected daughter Katey. The game was developed by the Canadian studio Blue Castle Games in collaboration with Capcom and preserved the series' key mechanic — combining random items found nearby into absurd but lethal weapons, from a chainsaw attached to a wheel through electrified gloves to a cart decked out with cutting blades, with combinations created at special combining tables scattered around the city.

The open environment of casinos, shops, a gambling hall, and entertainment attractions was literally flooded with thousands of zombies at once, which was a technical rarity at the time of release and the series' main draw. The player had to juggle the main storyline, time-limited side quests to rescue survivors who needed an escort to safety, and gathering money and experience, while game time passed in real terms even outside of combat, forcing the player to plan their progress by the clock. On PC the game ran stably and offered the same content as the console versions, including the multiplayer mode Terror is Reality, where players competed in arena challenges full of the undead in front of TV cameras.

Reviews at the time praised the entertainment value of the combined-weapon system, the dark humor, and the satirical take on the reality-show business, though according to many players the game didn't match the quality of its predecessor in terms of narrative and mission structure. Even so, Dead Rising 2 carved out a solid place among the cult zombie titles of its generation and is still played today as a lighthearted, humorous alternative to more seriously toned survival horrors, one that bet on absurd fun rather than tension.

Why play: For fans of a lighthearted, humorous take on the zombie apocalypse, it offers a fun combined-weapon system and satire on reality TV, though it doesn't match its predecessor's quality in narrative terms.