Dead Rising 2: Off the Record

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is an action-adventure video game. It was developed by Capcom Vancouver and published by Capcom. The game is a reimagining of Dead Rising 2, with that game's protagonist, Chuck Greene, replaced by Frank West of the first Dead Rising.

Plot
The entire game is a "What If?" scenario where Frank West covered the Fortune City outbreak, instead of Chuck Greene. As such, the game isn't considered canon within the Dead Rising continuity. It also changes the plot of Dead Rising 2 significantly in regards to the different characters and their motives.

After surviving the zombie outbreak that occurred in Willamette (though now infected), freelance photojournalist Frank West quickly became a celebrity for exposing the truth behind the outbreak. However, his heroic fame soon vanished due to frequent scandals and controversies. In hopes to regain a place in the spotlight, he accepts an offer from Tyrone "TK" King to appear as a special guest on the controversial pay-per-view zombie-killing show Terror is Reality, taking place in Fortune City, Nevada.

At the beginning of the event, Frank wears a wrestling outfit and is lifted via platform into a wrestling ring and made to kill zombies. After the event is finished, a humiliated Frank takes his winnings and leaves. As he is leaving, he overhears TK talking with someone and goes to investigate. With his camera, Frank manages to take some pictures of TK handing money and a strange item to a young man, though a few of TK's thugs attack him when he tries to escape. Frank then calls the elevator to leave, but a loud tremor knocks him out. When Frank wakes up, he finds that the zombies have gotten loose and are now infesting Fortune City, where he fights through the undead hordes to the emergency shelter. Security chief Raymond Sullivan initially refuses Frank due to his infection, but Frank bluffs his way in with an empty box of the anti-zombification drug Zombrex. He then meets Stacey Forsythe, who leads her branch of the protest group CURE (Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality) and had been in Fortune City to protest Terror is Reality's zombie-exploitation when the outbreak began. After helping Frank find a dose of Zombrex, Stacey monitors Fortune City from the Safe House and informs him of any new developments or signs of survivors. In three days, the military will arrive to rescue them all.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) A cool retelling of the 2nd game but from Frank West's point of view.
 * 2) Frank West is just as likable as in the first game.
 * 3) Combo weapons and combo cards return. The combo weapons from Dead Rising 2 return as long with 10 new added in.
 * 4) The PP stickers and Photo Ops return from the original Dead Rising.
 * 5) A new area is added into the world, the Uranus Zone, which has rides Frank can ride to get PP and can play games.
 * 6) There are six different endings.
 * 7) Currency carries over from Dead Rising 2.
 * 8) The survivor list carries over with 5 new survivors.
 * 9) The 3 new psychopaths have been added to the world.
 * 10) Overtime mode returns with a brand new Sandbox mode.
 * 11) *Sandbox mode allows the player to complete different challenges placed throughout Fortune City, so players wishing to have a little structure can earn extra cash and PP in the process. The challenges range from collection style challenges to vehicle-based challenges to zombie massacre challenges; the higher the rank of the player, the more cash or PP they win.
 * 12) Co-op carries over from Dead Rising 2 with the partner being able to play as Chuck Greene.
 * 13) 20 security keys can be found throughout the world that can used at the bank in the Uranus Zone that mostly gives the player with money, but sometimes has some other stuff.
 * 14) New outfits have been added.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The existence of the Uranus Zone doesn't fit in with world considering most of the buildings are casinos and shopping malls.
 * 2) Just like in the original Dead Rising 2, the magazines don't have copies so you can't give your co-op partner.
 * 3) You can only play as Chuck Greene in co-op.
 * 4) Some will feel that the game should have been a mode in Dead Rising 2 instead of its own game.
 * 5) Most of the game's cutscenes reuse the same animations used in the original Dead Rising 2.
 * 6) There are a good number of glitches.

Reception
Off the Record received average reviews, with scores of 73 and 72 on Metacritic for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 respectively. Gametrailers gave the game an overall rating of 8.2 out of 10. Game Informer, by contrast, gave the game a 9.5/10 (the same score as the original) saying that "Frank's photography adds another layer to the already deep gameplay," and that "by itself, the sandbox mode is an incentive to buy Dead Rising 2."

As of 2 February, 2012 the game had sold 500,000 units outside of Japan.