Firstly, the section I played in the demo was really, really, similar to the original. I was placed in a mall section, where the lobby was filled with fountains, benches and clothing shops (see where it gets familiar?). Disappointed with the lack of casino-ness, I decided to take out my angst on the hundreds of zombies which slowly shuttled around the space with me. A lot of the classic items are still hanging around: cash registers, baseball bats, benches, skateboards - they’re all commonly available. However, upon entering a workshop, a new feature emerged: the ability to combine weapons.

I placed my trusty baseball bat on the table, and then went and grabbed a box of nails. Walking back to the table, I clicked a button and our hero worked for a few seconds, ingeniously crafting a baseball bat with nails on the end. “Mr. Spikey” and I went back outside and I immediately put him to use against the faces of several zombies, with satisfying, bloody results. Ah, my work had paid off.

There wasn’t much to do in the area I was in, once again because it was mostly clothing stores (though I did find a magazine that gave me 1 Health Point. Knowledge is power, I guess). The control scheme remains virtually unchanged, and it appears Capcom had created more of the same, with new additions - this will appease the fans who loved wreaking havoc in the original Dead Rising. Mr. Spikey eventually broke against the hard skull off a yokel, and I had to use a rake to horde off some zombies on the stairs. Running around the mall area, the only new items I could find were novelty sized Cell-Phones from a fake booth. Ah well, there will be another day.

As for those wondering about co-op, it was disabled on the E3 floor. It looks like we’ll have to wait for a later date to see what it’ll be like tearing the place up with a buddy, and it’ll be nice to have a human with you who doesn’t stupidly get stuck in a corner. With only 2 months left till release, it’s curious to see such a key feature disabled.

What do you think about Dead Rising 2?  Will you be getting it, or you still on the fence?

Dead Rising 2 releases August 31, 2010, for the PS3 and Xbox 360.