Completion time: 13:33:40

The second part of the Dead Rising 2 trilogy that we played, was not the continuation of the Chuck Greene Dead Rising 2: Case 0 saga, but the Off the Record “retelling” of sorts starring Frank West. I actually reviewed this ten years ago (and I didn’t even remember that I did until I was doing a search for my original Dead Rising 2 review), where I wasn’t particularly enamored by the re-release it seems. Ten years and an updated form later, I’m pretty much as enamored as I was then.

The actual game its self is a lot of fun. The story is stupid silliness and the gameplay, thanks to the addition of the combo cards, manages to never stale too much. This updated version that was released during the previous console generation has the added benefit and very much noticeable shortening of load times.

But the main issue is time management. Most of the time you’re trying to waste time to get to the next mission. Rescuing random people throughout the game nets you a lot of experience, but the actual attempt to maneuver them through a sea of undead was too much of a chore to really continually do. So instead, I found myself just going around close by areas, dressing up and killing zombies along the way, never straying too far from where I needed to be next (even if I had 12 game hours to kill)

The result was way too much monotony in killing time. Had there been a way to fast forward through these bits though, the play time would have went down from 13.5 hours to 6. Nonetheless, Off the Record was still enjoyable, although I was relieved by the end to have finally put this behind me. It has its charm, and it has plenty of entertaining and enjoyable bits, but having to waste so much time, time and time again, just kills the experience.

Rating: 7