2 parts chainsaw and 1 part paddle...

Roughly 4 years ago we were exposed to one of the 360s most original ( and unoriginal, due to legal litigation) titles. Dead Rising came out of nowhere to surprise us all with a sandbox game that brought something new, different and very Japanese to the western market. With expiring timers and an arsenal of weapons that fills up the very mall you're trapped in. Fast forward to present day, we find a new protagonist in a very familiar setting. A mall/casino full of the walking dead ready to devour the brains of any and all. However, I'm not here to discuss Dead Rising 2 in complete detail, I'm here to speak about the combo system that has been introduced.

One of the new and, arguably, more interesting aspects of DR2 is combining your large arsenal to create a larger, more devastating arsenal. For those that haven't had the chance to play DR2 ( Case Zero also features this mechanic so check out the demo to see what it's all about) it's essentially the idea of taking two items from your inventory, going to a work bench and putting them together to create an exponentially more powerful weapon. Although, it may seem that you have limitless possibilities, you're actually limited by the fact that only certain items can be used to combine together AND only a certain items fit other items. For example, you can only combine the drill with two other items (bucket and spear) even though all three items are combinable, the drill only functions with those two items. There is a lack of flexibility in how these items interact. You are basically giving me a shopping mall full of items and telling me only some can do certain things and limiting me even further by saying there are only a select items that do that interaction.

So let's put ourselves in the minds of the designers for a moment. The premiss of DR2 is to feel that you have to use your environment's 'limited' resources to their maximum. They wouldn't want you to be able to do limit less with limited resources. The issue comes up with scratch card system that they have implemented. When you combine two weapons, you get a scratch card telling you how to make the item for future reference ( leveling up also unlocks cards that reveal combos you may have not known) but since your inventory is limited and combinations are limited to themselves you are stuck trying to guess what item combos with what other item. A very frustrating and time consuming excercise. As you arrive in a workbench room, there are usually items nearby that will combine to form items. There are even movie posters scattered about the city that clue you into what you can combine. So from a design point of view, they were thinking ahead but it's not quite enough. With so much to see and do, it would have been nice to have a road map of possible combinations. Since you're never really certain as to what could combine with another, it would have been interesting to see a map ( or matrix) of how certain items interact with one another and have it keep you updated with how many possible combinations remain for any given item. That would allow you to better allocate your inventory space to save items that you haven't completed exploring or know that you couldn't do anything further with them.

Now, let's lace up the game designer boots but from a more organic point of view. I appreciate that if every item in the mall could combine with every other item, the game could very well have exploded. I can accept that only certain items have the characteristic of being combinable. Instead of limiting the items that you can combine with, why not just have all those item interact with all the other items? That would allow the player to try various combinations, find more interesting uses for certain items and feel that their inventory space is not wasted.

Is DR2 fun? It is. Are the new features including the combinations worth the play? It really depends. If you've never played Dead Rising before, I would say to check out Case Zero on the XBLA first. That gives you a good cross section of what to expect. If you enjoyed that, then the good news is that your levels transfer over to DR2.

Remember, if you think a chainsaw and an oar doesn't work, think again! Happy choppin' and Happy Halloween!