Capcom is showing off Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, the not-quite-a-director’s-cut version of last year’s action game that will launch later this year as a reduced-price retail disc. Executive Producer Jason Leigh says that despite the similarity of content to the original Dead Rising 2, Off the Record is a significantly larger game that’s seen sweeping changes in all areas, making it far too bulky to exist as a DLC add-on.
The big hook for Off the Record is that it essentially retells Dead Rising 2 as if its main character had been the first game’s protagonist, war-covering photojournalist Frank West. That should be welcome news for West’s fans. Off the Record incorporates plenty of other changes as well, thanks in large part to the full integration of the first game’s camera system. But perhaps the most significant change, at least in terms of series standards, is the addition of a checkpoint system to help mitigate the brutality of Dead Rising’s notoriously unforgiving save mechanics. But Leigh is quick to clarify that he doesn’t see this as a compromise to what both the game and Capcom stand for.
