A week ago we didn't know much about Dead Rising 2. Now... we still don't know much about Dead Rising 2. In the spirit of gleaning tiny scraps of info from the ambiguous teaser, though, we've been watching the trailer until our eyes bleed like gaping zombie sores. There's actually a surprising amount of clues held within the viral-style video and everything from the game's setting, plot mechanics and weapons are hinted at in freeze frame moments.

Below are all the concrete facts, coupled with a few things we really hope make the cut in the sequel to our favourite undead-decapitating, plastic lightsaber-swinging, floral dress-wearing zombie game.

FACT: It’s set several years after the first game
And in the timeframe between the Willamette mall incident and the sequel, a possible cure to the curse of zombification, in the form of Zombrex medication, has been developed - as revealed 54 seconds into the trailer.

If you watch closely at 00:35, you’ll see a message along the lines of ‘take once every 24 hours’. Could players have to find and take the Zombrex medication once a day to avoid turning into a zombie and prevent the game from ending – a bit like the malaria mechanic in Far Cry 2?

FACT: It takes place in Fortune City
This is obviously Capcom’s take on the millionaire-making, dream-breaking city of Las Vegas (at 00:37 a female news reporter can be heard saying "live from Las Vegas"). The screenshots are obviously casinos and there’s a message at 00:42 saying ‘a variety of lavish casinos’ - could the backdrop image (below) of the large building and steam boat extension be all or part of the game's environment?

We might even get to explore an approximation of the famous Strip – its appearance is too brief to get a good look, but there's certainly what looks like a wide street a minute into the trailer. Let us waste the undead with miniature Caesar Palace-style Sphinx statues and mow down the life-challenged masses along the zombie-strewn Strip and we’re in.

FACT: There’s a new, as yet unnamed, blonde lead
And he wears a leather racing jacket. That's pretty much all we know. Frank West does appear in the trailer very briefly, dressed in his Mega Man costume, although there's nothing to suggest that everyone’s favourite suspiciously burly freelance photographer will be putting in an appearance in the sequel as a playable character. Or at all for that matter.

FACT: There will be plenty of wacky weapons
See the trailer and screens for the Gladiators-style ball of zombie-squashing fun, a giant ‘comedy’ phone, roulette table, guitar, motorbike and axe. We'll also wager that there will be undead-choking betting chips, slot machines, pots of money and huge dice.

FACT: It's developed by Blue Castle Games
The Vancouver-based makers of baseball titles The Bigs (average Metacritic 79) and MLB Front Office Manager (average Metacritic 53) are combining with some members of the original Dead Rising to make the sequel. And it’s being produced by Keiji Inafune - the man behind Onimusha. We’ve no idea if Blue Castle is up to the task of making a sequel to one of the generation's best loved cult games.

FACT: There will be tens of thousands of zombies
Which means we’ll get at least one more zombie type: Show Girl zombie, who can be seen in the trailer and Woot! We also expect the return of Dead Rising’s psychotic boss characters - who were traumatised into madness thanks to all the zombie-based peril. Vegas is ripe with colourful characters just waiting to take a trip off the sanity map. How about (more) unstable versions of Siegfried and Roy backed up by a feral white tiger, a surly boxing champ or some crazed cabaret dancers?

Feb 10, 2009