I hated the way they handled and basically retconned Dr. Barnaby’s legacy in this story. In the first game, he was much more of a pawn who felt morally ambiguous, being tasked to lead the research that occurred in Santa Cabeza, rather than some evil mastermind who intentionally created the zombie virus. This game frequently referring to him as “the man who invented zombism” feels kind of misleading, and how it portrays Obscuris as people who are “continuing his work” feels stupid. I could excuse this as Obscuris merely misinterpreting Barnaby’s work if Frank West didn’t also subscribe to this misinterpretation in his ramblings. I don’t really HATE the insinuation that he became obsessed with the idea of zombism and conducted personal research into it being a possible conduit to immortality, but the Dr. Barnaby who found himself in Willamette Parkview Mall in 2006 really didn’t seem like this person. He seemed much more old and confused, even if he was undoubtedly haunted and anxious, and still cognizant of the Santa Cabeza disaster. It’s a hard contrast from what we hear in DR4 from the final voice log he made before leaving for the Parkview Mall.

Calder was a huge missed opportunity. The way he was characterized leading up to the end was insane, and they barely captured any of that with both of his encounters! This dude could flip entire train carts over on their side, and the first encounter you have with him, he just goes Donkey Kong mode and throws barrels at you. Please! Even in the second encounter/boss battle, where he rejuvenates his health by literally absorbing the current out of giant electronic signs, the most he can do is pounce on you and shoot some explosives at you. The matter of him being a sapient and half-reasonable zombie with philosophical ramblings about some “chain” who is still a homicidal freak is a super interesting idea, and the game completely fumbles it.

I did like this boss battle though, unlike the others. Fontana’s and Caballero’s battles sucked ass.

The game’s other characters are…uh, what other characters? Even though there are some somewhat major people like Blackburn and Hammond, the latter only exists to provide a quid pro quo so Frank can progress, and the former almost completely disappears from the story.

Frank West’s death was…kind of stupid. I know any conclusion this game came to was rectified with the Frank Rising DLC (alongside all the other spinning plates this game ended with), but it was a hamfisted way to illustrate the arc of Frank becoming more concerned with the propagation of truth rather than his own illustrious public image upon that truth. This was a fine matter for the game to look into, but it definitely got a lot better as this exact issue was implanted into Vick. Overall, I did appreciate Vick as a Frank West protégé, as she is essentially having her own Dead Rising 1 out of Frank’s/the player’s sight during the game. She’s snotty, invasive, seedy, and all in for getting her own story. I even appreciate how her main outfit mirrors Frank’s, and both of them come to an epiphany on their wrongs as they reunite. I was crossing my fingers that nothing romantic was gonna happen between them considering the titanic age gap, and thankfully it didn’t.

Yes, “Hank East” was stupid. No, I don’t know how he got away with that.