Dead Rising 2: Off the Record Revisited

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record might be my favorite release in the series as it took a solid entry, threw the heroic Frank West in and brought us the legendary Sandbox mode. I actually did an overly long series on this Sandbox mode for Youtube back in the day which helps make this game extra special for me. In this story Frank West comes in and deals with the situation of Fortune City after he's faded from the spotlight. This carries a similar story to Dead Rising 2, but completely changes certain motives and aspects while introducing a brand new zone to explore. This area was a futuristic amusement park type spot which was great. There are new cutscenes, various tweaks and just a lot of improvements.

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record released in late 2011 for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. The game was published by Capcom and developed by Capcom Vancouver. The game was a what if? scenario to Dead Rising 2 swapping in Frank West and changing many aspects of the narrative. With that change, the game isn't considered official canon in the series though a solid spin-off for sure. Dead Rising 2: Off the Record was also later made available as a remaster for Xbox One and Playstation 4 with improved resolution and frame rate.


Having Frank West in this take on second game in the series really did improve things. There's just something about the character that's awesome and he fit well within this new story. It had many of the characters one would remember, but things were definitely different and the various improvements were welcomed. It was just different enough of a story that I enjoyed running through this world all over again. It was nice to see the camera feature return from the first game and that it took so many classic aspects of investigate journalism that made the first game so interesting. There was something for those that liked the sequel and many aspects that those from the first had really loved which helped make a perfect combination.

The Sandbox mode was yet again just awesome in this as it brought something that was well needed in the series and I'm surprised each sequel hasn't continued to have this by default. It's an open world style way to play the game where there are no time limits or story to move through. You just get to go around to kill zombies, make money and really just explore the world. Like the regular game this can all be done in coop and there are challenges as well within the Sandbox. New content also included a fresh selection of weapons, enemies and various improvements to greatly improve loading which was a nightmare in the vanilla Dead Rising 2. I really enjoyed this special twist in the series and it worked just fine as a spin-off while adding extra value to the existing world of Fortune City.

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