Let's not mince words. Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is a demo that costs five bucks. It's still worth it.
The idea of paying real money for a hands-on preview of a game might be a bitter pill for frugal gamers. But Case Zero, an exclusive prequel chapter to Capcom's forthcoming zombie sandbox Dead Rising 2, is deep enough to merit a token payment.
Coming out nearly a month ahead of the full game, which ships for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on September 28, Case Zero gives players content that won't be in the final product and rewards those who beat the episode when they finally get their hands on Dead Rising 2.
The Xbox 360 exclusive download, available Tuesday, takes place in the days before Dead Rising 2, setting up the predicament of protagonist Chuck Greene and his infected daughter Katey.
The pair are stuck in a desert town called Still Creek, just a skip and a jump away from Las Vegas, where Dead Rising 2 takes place. The sleepy burg was the site of a military quarantine, but all Hell broke loose and the zombies won the day. Greene's not just trying to survive: He's got his daughter to think of. In the tumult of the infection, she got bit. But Greene has been able prevent Katey from turning green and brain-hungry by giving her daily doses of Zombrex, an expensive pharmaceutical that can stave off infection.
That's where players find themselves when they download Case Zero: stranded, weaponless and staring down a ticking clock. Greene has to find some Zombrex before Katey goes bad.
But all these problems have solutions. If an object isn't bolted down, Chuck can pick it up and use it to dispatch flesh-eaters. He can also ply other survivors for favors by saving their hides from the slavering masses. Like the original Dead Rising, there's a right way and a wrong way to juggle all the stuff Chuck has to tackle. Many paths lead to failure, and trial and error are all part of the fun.
Even though it's only a few hours long, Dead Rising: Case Zero has a fair amount of replay value.
Case Zero works like a tutorial for Dead Rising 2, introducing players to the way the game works. And the first, best new feature is the ability to save your game in one of three slots. That's a fundamental change from the original game, which frustrated many with its solitary save slot.
Case Zero also introduces players to weapon crafting, in which certain specially marked items can be combined into bigger, badder implements of death. Lesson one is to always keep a spiked bat handy, which you make from nails and a baseball bat. The rest is up to you.
The simple act of picking up a chainsaw and hacking a crowd of zombies to pieces is extremely gratifying. Case Zero gives players hundreds of ways to kill the already-dead, so much so that it's tempting to shrug off time-sensitive quests just to make mulch of Still Creek's unfortunate residents.
But even in this truncated taste, Case Zero does a fine job of illustrating the tension between the pure fun of offing the undead and the time-sensitive tasks that Chuck must accomplish to get his daughter her medicine.
It took me four or five start-to-finish runs to save every survivor, give Katey her dose of Zombrex (an early injection would result in an overdose) and get out of Dodge. My save file, with its A-rating and five levels of progress for Chuck, will transfer over to Dead Rising 2 later this month.
But despite finishing Case Zero, I found myself drawn back to Still Creek. A couple dangling achievements compelled me to try again: I'd failed to discover one last weapon combination, and I was missing the point for killing a thousand zombies in one run. Those two goals were enough to keep me playing Case Zero another day.
WIRED Lots of content, zombies are still fun to kill, multiple save slots.
TIRED Only available for Xbox 360.
$5, Capcom
Rating: 
Read Game|Life’s game ratings guide.
Images courtesy Capcom
See Also:
