DRW Dead Rising 2: Off the Record


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Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is a re-interpretation of the Fortune City outbreak in Dead Rising 2 in which Frank West is the lead character.

The story is non-canon to the overall storyline in the series, a "what-if" alternate reality had Frank been in Fortune City to cover the outbreak. Frank even states in the trailer: "What would I have done?"

The game will be released for the Xbox 360, Play Station 3, and PC as a full retail disc for $39.99. In a quickly retracted June 30 posting, Capcom originally stated Off the Record will be released in North America on the 11th October 2011, and in Europe on the 14th. On July 20, 2011 these dates were officially confirmed.

Introduction
The entire game is a "What If?" scenario where Frank West covered the Fortune City outbreak, instead of Chuck Greene.

After surviving the Dead Rising zombie outbreak, Frank West quickly became a bit of a celebrity. After authoring a successful book, he is given his own talk show. But like many "flash in the pan" celebrities, he squanders his opportunities and soon finds that his fifteen minutes are up.

Desperate to get back on top, or at least earn some money, West is offered an opportunity that he hopes will things around. The producers of Terror is Reality, the American Gladiators-style zombie-killing television show, invite him to appear as a special guest. Down on his luck and thinking things couldn't get any worse, he heads to Fortune City to get back in the spotlight.

The opening moments of Off the Record parallel that of Dead Rising 2 in one way and one way only -- it starts off with the hero participating in a Terror is Reality event. At the beginning of the event, West, wearing a wrestling outfit, is lifted via platform to the center of a ring surrounded by a chain-link fence. Joining him in the ring is a group of zombies in which he must defeat as many as possible within a certain time limit. There is a grinder on each corner of the ring, and West can jump on top of these to activate them. They chew up zombies factory machines mulching meat. The twins from Dead Rising 2 attack West. "This must be so embarrassing for you," one says. "Doesn't look like those baldness remedies worked too well," says the other. Even though he won the event, West feels that he has lost his dignity and decides to take his prize money and get out of Fortune City. As he is leaving, Frank observes from a series of catwalks above a large, warehouse-like room as TK speaks with Brandon Whittaker. TK hands Brandon a suitcase full of cash, for a package that looks like a time bomb and a keycard. Frank takes a picture of this gaining prestige points.

Frank is caught eavesdropping, and Frank must kill three mercenaries with melee attacks. The outbreak occurs shortly after which is similar to Dead Rising 2. Frank must fight his way through the back corridors of the arena, eventually making his way out to the main entrance and, eventually, the strip. As Frank makes his way out, a few references to Dead Rising 2 can be seen. A TIR poster of Frank in his wrestling outfit is left only half-covering a similar poster of Chuck Greene. Frank also comes across a discarded child's backpack and portable video game device in an empty green room.

Story
Frank, infected by the zombie virus as part of the Dead Rising canon, will need to find and use Zombrex at regular intervals. Frank does not need to return to the safe house, and can give himself Zombrex where ever he finds it.

Modes, missions and Uranus Zone

 * Sandbox Mode. "Something the fans have been asking for since the first game... [it is] as big, if not bigger, than the story mode."
 * Co-op multiplayer is included, this time with Frank West and Chuck Greene as the second player.
 * New unique story, "the story’s been changed quite heavily".
 * New missions, including the mission: Quarter Circle to Forward, and the case: Case 5-1: The Source.
 * A new area, "Uranus Zone" Amusement Park

Photography

 * Frank's camera returns, allowing outtake photographs.
 * New photo opportunities in a “Buddy Shot”, Frank can grab a zombie from behind and essentially "photo bombs" his own image, snapping a photo of him grinning next to a zombie before he throws him/her aside.
 * Digital camera rather than a film camera.
 * Sandbox Mode also has fully integrated cameras. "In Case West it was in there but it was kind of ‘camera lite.’ This time around we’ve made sure to integrate all the categories - Horror and Brutality and Outtake. Plus of course we had to put in the Erotica category too."

Clothing, weapons and food

 * Cosplay Warrior Skills Pack pre-order bonus
 * Off the Record detects a Dead Rising 2 save and unlocks Chuck Greene's Motorcyle Jacket as a bonus.
 * New combo weapons, including Cryo Pod, Electric Crusher, Laser Eyes, Molten Cannon, Pegasus and Saw Launcher
 * New weapons, including Alien Probe, Escape Pod, Giant Spaceship Toy, Ray Gun, Remote Mine, Space Bench, Tennis Ball Launcher,  Toy Rocket Ship. Over 350 weapons.
 * New vehicles, including the Clown Car.
 * New food including Cotton Candy, Popcorn and Pretzels.
 * New clothing Alien Boots, Space Girl Outfit, Space Suit.
 * Barbecue Chef, Cyborg, Fire Fighter downloadable content for extra money.

Psychopaths and enemies

 * New enemies and psychopaths
 * Scare Zombies, rare zombies that when a player walks around a corner or pass over a dead body, they leap out and there is an audio sting at that moment.
 * A more difficult game, with "A tougher Frank West and a Tougher Fortune City", with more aggressive zombies than those featured in the same city in Dead Rising 2. Executive producer Jason Leigh explained, "We’ve upped the zombie density this time around. When we first started showing [Dead Rising 2] at Captivate a couple of years ago, on one level we had 7,000 zombies on the screen. What we found in Dead Rising 2 that was not actually practical in an environment because it was just too dense. This time around, because we made Frank a tougher character right at the beginning and we gave him more cool weapons that do a lot more damage, we actually managed to up the zombie density and have the world be a little more dangerous for him."

Game mechanics

 * Multiple save slots.
 * Load times reduced by half from Dead Rising 2.
 * Auto saving, a checkpoint system which will have the game save progress after major story points. Including checkpoints right after the player enters a new area and right before the player fights a boss. It is still undecided whether the save system can be turned off.
 * Fully voiced radio mission descriptions.
 * The ability to set waypoints on the Fortune City map.
 * The ability to check the time and set active missions from the map screen, instead of from your wristwatch in the active game environment.
 * Flashing red "[SURVIVOR] IS TOO FAR AWAY!" message that pops up when an ally is lagging too far behind to "zone" with you into the next environment.

Other features

 * PlayStation 3 and PC owners can play Frank for the first time.
 * Victims commit suicide with a gun.
 * Frank starts at level one.
 * Trophies/Achievements are easier to earn. "There’s still going to be some tough challenges in there. There’s one or two that are relatively tough, just because we didn’t want it to be a cakewalk. Overall though, I think people are going to find it a little easier to get all the trophies."

Returning from previous games

 * All the original skills from Dead Rising are available in Off the Record, plus new unique skills which Chuck did not have before, such as "Bruiser Frank West style wrestling moves".
 * TK will return as the final boss, with a new music theme (Oleksa Lozowchuk and the Humble brothers: TK OT).
 * Overtime has returned.
 * Different endings. "It’s still the convention of a sandbox on a clock. All of the Dead Rising games so far have branch points where if you do it a certain way you get a certain ending. There is replayability where is players try things a slightly different way they may find a different ending."
 * The following Dead Rising 2 characters are confirmed to have returned:


 * The following Dead Rising 2 missions and cases have returned: Wilted Flower, Case 1-3: Insecurity.

Development
Off the Record executive producer, Jason Leigh explains: "Originally, the plan was that we were going to do a 'Director's Cut' of Dead Rising 2. Capcom has a long history of successful 'Director's Cuts," especially with the Resident Evil series, and we wanted to bring that treatment to the Dead Rising franchise...But when Dead Rising 2 was first announced, something strange happened...Fans of the franchise were excited for its return, and the development team was confident players would click with the game's strong new hero, Chuck Greene. But the feedback was clear. Many felt that something was missing. That "something" was Frank West, as fans asked, "Why did you take our hero away?...What this did for us and for this product was to create an incredibly interesting opportunity. What if, instead of doing a director's cut, what if we re-envisioned the outbreak in Fortune City with Frank West as the hero. What would that do to missions? What would that do to story? What would that do to the gameplay, bringing him back with his camera?"

Marketing
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record was first announced on on April 12, 2011 at Captive 2011, a Capcom sponsored event.

Some of the game's new components were revealed at the E3 Expo in June 2011, including the Electric Crusher, Cosplay Warrior Skills Pack, and Chuck's jacket.

A facebook page (April 22, 2011) and youtube page (July 26, 2011) were created to promote Off the Record.

In regards to criticisms that Capcom is cashing in, Leigh stated that "There might be a possibility of [cynicism about this release]...but that's certainly not how we're regarding this game. We're regarding this game as something that is actually very different and very fresh and very new. Yes it is Fortune City, it's the Fortune City outbreak, but in this re-envisioning and bringing Frank back into the game, even that first 15 minutes is quite different than it was."

"If fans have any reservations about this, hopefully the stuff we're rolling out in the next several months as we approach the release in the fall, things like E3 which is next, there will be more big announcements and more of those big features being shown off, very quickly people will realize, wow, there's a lot of added value in this game."

Trivia

 * Action movie star Clint Rockfoot is again found on Off the Record combo card posters.
 * There are no plans for an Off the Record prologue or epilogue. A demo is a "real question now".
 * In one of the trailers, Tyrone King and Chuck the Role Model's Brandon Whittaker exchange a briefcase, despite no known relationship or interaction between the two characters in Dead Rising 2.
 * Destructiod writes: "Off the Record isn't just changed in terms of adding photography to the mix. The entire world has been transformed to reflect our new story. Posters of Chuck Greene promoting his appearance on Terror is Reality are now covered with advertisements of Frank doing the same, for example."
 * Chuck Greene will play some part in the main game. Although Capcom is not ready to explain how Greene will fit in, there were obvious hints strewn about the demo. When Frank enters the backstage green room, there is Katey Greene's empty backpack and a portable gaming system lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
 * Greene will also be playable as a second character in Off the Record's co-op mode.
 * Stacey's involvement is confirmed at by the 2011 E3 Trailer below.
 * Frank is older in this game. To show this, when Frank idles too long he will stretch out his back and groan a little bit.