The zombie cat’s out of the box: The sequel to Dead Rising is in development for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, Capcom announced today.
Set several years after the events of the first game, Dead Rising 2 shifts the setting for its zombie uprising from a mall to another mecca for material lust and non-stop consumption: a casino in the fictional “gambling paradise of Fortune City.” The virus that broke out in the first game unfortunately wasn’t contained, and has migrated all over the U.S., including to Fortune City where it’s infected thousands upon thousands of cocktail waitresses and showgirls, turning them into scantily clad, brain-hungry trailer park residents. Caught up in it all isn’t Frank West, the hero of the first Dead Rising, but a young blond chap who presumably races motorcycles or at least really likes motorcycles, based on his yellow racing jacket and “rebel without a cause” facial expressions.
Gameplay details are scarce (no word on whether the controversial save and restart systems will return), but the gist of it seems to be more of the same zombie killing, except with more weapons and more zombies, who will come in the “tens of thousands” Capcom claims. In the screenshots alone we see the main character armed with a guitar, an axe, a gigantic fake cell phone, a roulette table and riding a dirt bike through a crowd of zombies in the middle of what looks like the Bellagio. The first Dead Rising had a plausible excuse for housing every weapon from samurai swords to lawnmowers: it took place in a mall that sold everything. Now that it’s in a casino, I’m guessing things are going to are going to get even crazier. You can buy a lot of weird stuff in Vegas.
Dead Rising 2 isn’t being developed internally at Capcom, but rather in partnership with Canadian developer Blue Castle Games, who have previously worked on a couple of 2K Sports MLB games, The Bigs and MLB Front Office Manager. Seems a bit odd, but at least we can rest assured that they’ll get the feel of the inevitable baseball bat weapon right. And it won’t be an entirely outsourced effort, either: A group from the original Dead Rising team will partner up with Blue Castle, including Capcom research and development head and Mega Man mastermind Keiji Inafune, who will oversee the game as a producer.
