When DeadRising 2: Off the Record was first announced earlier this year, a lot of fans were left with more questions than answers: what exactly is this product? Why reuse the locale of Dead Rising 2 but with a different main character? What was the design methodology behind all of this? And most importantly, what’s new to the game, and why should we be excited to play it again? GamesAreEvil sat down with Jason Leigh of Capcom, Executive Producer of DeadRising 2: Off The Record, and he was able to shine some light on those very questions – and many more.
GamesAreEvil: Why did your team decide to take the DeadRising franchise in this direction as opposed to, say, craft an entirely new chapter in the series?
Jason Leigh: Actually, a director’s cut of DeadRising 2 was always planned. Capcom has a long history of director’s cuts with the Resident Evil series and so on, and we knew we wanted to do one from the beginning. However, during the development process we ended up taking a cue from the fans. The fan feedback after DeadRising 2 was announced showed that a lot of fans were disappointed with the fact that Frank West wasn’t the hero this time around. So, for the director’s cut, we latched onto that and decided that instead of creating a pure director’s cut version of DeadRising 2, we would instead craft an entire re-imagining of the story, this time with Frank West as the hero.
GamesAreEvil: The title, “Off the Record” implies that this game’s storyline is entirely separate from the canon of the series. Is this true?
Jason Leigh: Yes, this is a parallel universe story.
GamesAreEvil: Aside from the Uranus Zone theme park, what else is new in Dead Rising 2: Off the Record?
Jason Leigh: Well, what isn’t new? We’ve added new combo weapons, regular weapons, food items, and clothing. We’ve added brand new psychopaths to the game, and we’ve also added a new vehicle. Of course there’s the new area, the Uranus Zone alien theme park, which you already mentioned. One very special new addition that we’re announcing here at PAX is the Sandbox Mode. Fans really enjoyed the Infinity Mode that was present in the original Dead Rising, and they’ve been asking for something similar for a long time. We decided to go one better – there’s no time limit, so you can explore the world, explore the weapons, and play with the zombies. On top of that we’ve added 60 challenges to the game: 30 for single-player and 30 for co-op. These challenges consist of a series of quests that challenge the player to kill as many zombies as possible under a time limit, collect a specific number/type of item, or rack up a specified number of PP from photographs using Frank’s camera. Once the player completes a challenge, their scores will be posted online, and we’re hoping a community will build up around that…share strategies and try to beat each other’s scores.
GamesAreEvil: What is your favorite new item, weapon, or combo weapon?
Jason Leigh: My personal favorite is the laser eyes combo weapon, which is the new alien mask combined with gems. This combo weapon works sort of like the laser sword from the original game, which was a flashlight combined with gems, but is a little bit more fun to use. This time you actually have the thing on your head, and can roam around and use the laser beam to cut zombies in half and light them on fire.
GamesAreEvil: Any new details on co-op?
Jason Leigh: This time Frank and Chuck play together in co-op. In the original DeadRising 2 it was just two versions of Chuck, and people didn’t really find that too appealing. You can play co-op in Sandbox as well and have Frank and Chuck cooperating to try and rack up those kills for the leaderboards.
GamesAreEvil: Was the response to the game more or less what you expected?
Jason Leigh: Originally when it was announced people were asking if this was DLC; something that could be added onto the original DeadRising 2. This is actually a full-fledged shelf product and is much bigger than the original. The world has gotten bigger, the number of weapons and items has expanded, it’s got a fresh story with Frank West, and we’ve announced the lower price as well ($40). Even if you have already played and beaten DeadRising 2 we feel the player will still have a fresh experience with DeadRising 2: Off the Record.
GamesAreEvil: One more question. How is your working relationship with Capcom Japan after the shake-up at the company? Is your team in Vancouver guiding the future of the franchise now?
Jason Leigh: We had a fantastic relationship working with Capcom Japan on the original DeadRising 2. They worked with us very closely in the beginning to make sure we understood the pillars of the franchise. They wanted to make sure that we “got” the fact that DeadRising isn’t just a gory zombie game. The beauty of the DeadRising franchise and how it stands out due to its own personality, dark humor. Zombies were less often enemies and more often playthings. The player was free to use anything and everything as a weapon to kill them, or put items on their heads and so on. We’ve taken over the series now and are really beginning to make it our own. But of course we still have guidance from the team at Capcom Japan.
GamesAreEvil: Thank you so much for your time! We’re very much looking forward to checking out the full version of DeadRising 2: Off The Record.
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