Dead Rising: Patient Zero

In anticipation for Dead Rising 2, a long awaited sequel to one of the best games I've ever played, I downloaded and gave Dead Rising: Patient Zero a play through this weekend.. Conclusion? Not too shabby!

In what would be a great move for future games Capcom releases a small teaser that was more than just a demo, Patient Zero is instead a small game of it's own, meant to tie the events of Dead Rising 1 and Dead Rising 2 together. Costing about 5 bucks (400 MS Points on Xbox Live) you get what amounts to a couple hours of game time that allows you to bring your character up to level 5, these levels then being brought into the full Dead Rising 2 gameplay when it's released. In nutshell, your character, Chuck, is stuck in a small desert town with his daughter, who is need of Zombrex, (probably the same drug Isabella whipped up for Frank at the end of Dead Rising, but now mass produced for the epidemic) to stay alive, and fighting zombies while looking for the means to escape the imminent military incursion.

You get a map of a small town in the desert, the chance to interact with survivors, get a taste of building combo weapons, and just get a feel for the game itself. While the combo mechanics will likely get old after a while, you do get some impressive weapons; I personally liked the kayak paddle with a chainsaw strapped to each end, nice mob control.

I can't say this won't suffer from the same problem as Bioshock 2, a stripped down campaign that makes room for multiplayer, amounting to little more than an expansion pack, but I can at least say the mechanics feel good and they made a few changes that naysayers of Dead Rising will appreciate:

1. Otis and his Radio of Death: Gone was the incessant beeping of the radio and Otis lecturing you on being rude, instead there is a semi-psychotic man with a rifle on a rooftop, yelling at you when he has a mission for you. Don't want to deal with survivors? Ignore him! Personally, I think it might be tough to get all the missions, but I did hate that radio.

2. The single save slot: Now there are three, is everyone happy? Now me, I liked the single save, gave the game more urgency to make the right decision, but whatever. You can now back up and start from another point in the game.

3. Survivor AI: Even I hated dealing with bonehead survivors who were busy running in corners yelling "Frank! Frank!". Patient Zero only has you rescue 10 survivors, but I was very impressed with their ability to follow and defend themselves. That'll probably mean tighter time crunches between scoops (the final rescue in Patient 0 is a real nutbuster for time), but should be less frustrating to deal with as a mission on their own.

Synopsis of Patient Zero: Based on this short gameplay, if you liked Dead Rising you're going to like Dead Rising 2. It amazed me how quickly I fell into the old game patterns and I'm very excited to start butchering the undead.