As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- Good luck having a restful night's sleep to parents who might play. It has you scrambling to recover enough medicine to keep your daughter from turning into a zombie.
- The opening of the game (where the zombies break out and start eating all the humans) is a lot scarier than the first one. In the first one, at least there was a dark chuckle or two about how the mall was overrun because the Crazy Dog Lady opened the door to try saving her (most likely infected) poodle. Not only is the outbreak larger in scale here, but it's a deliberate terrorist action. Yeah, somebody planned for the zombies to run loose in a crowded stadium (and the surrounding town), and chow down on panicking civilians, clearly not giving a damn about how many people would be infected or outright ripped limb from limb! And when you discover The Reveal (that this was caused by one of the country's largest pharmaceutical companies, just to ensure a fresh supply of queens for their MacGuffin drug) - well, it's Paranoia Fuel at its finest...
- Not to mention that (chainsaw bike segment notwithstanding) the game begins in a dark corridor with flickering lights, masses of zombies (who will very soon notice you), screams from people you can't save (and as an added kick in the teeth, their deaths are notified by a big banner in the middle of the screen, making it seem like you could rescue them if you were only a little faster) and the race against time to save your trapped daughter, who's in the middle of this carnage. For all the fun that gruesomely slaughtering zombies with the various combo weapons is, desperately hacking your way through this ruck with basic weapons such as a fire axe, flashlight, 2-by-4, or if all else fails, your own fists, is not a happy, cathartic beginning for this tale.
- One particularly horrifying death throughout the segment is one where a person isn’t even mulled by the zombies; Trapped by a barricade and trying to shot back against the undead, a man realises his fate is pretty much sealed and after a pause, decides to shoot himself to avoid a more gruesome death.
- The zombies eventually get mutated by a gas. These Gas Zombies will literally chase after you, sometimes in groups. Their frightening battle cries don't make things better, either. Good luck dealing with them!
- They're also pretty big Demonic Spiders. If a normal zombie gets a hold of you its easy to shake it off with a button command or a couple twists of the analog stick, but being grabbed by a Gas Zombie means you have to do a whole quick-time event to get the bastard off. As if that wasn't bad enough, they can also stun Chuck by making him cough and chase after him at a pretty fast pace. Oh, and they attack in GROUPS. Still, all of that is nothing compared to their introduction scene, where they kill a group of soldiers in really gruesome ways. The first gas zombie vomits acid blood on a nearby trooper, who falls to the ground begging for help while his buddy is snuck up on by another Gas Zombie. After that, they all get picked off one by one as the monsters surround them. By the end of the "fight", the only survivor is their commander, who escapes by getting into a nearby vehicle and driving off.
- In Off the Record, there's Sandbox Mode, where the player is free to do whatever their hearts desire, and challenges in case the player gets bored of killing 100000 zombies for an achievement or Protoman's suit. One challenge that the player can unlock is "Rooftop Massacre Pt. 2", which is on top of the safehouse in Fortune City. And if you didn't guess from where this is going, or why there's only one gas zombie on the roof, get ready for when you attempt the challenge. You have to kill masses of Gas Zombies. And guess what? They don't despawn once the challenge's over!
- While the zombies that appear in New Game Plus are the same, and the nighttime activation cutscene is just a creepy little scene, it's much more tense to watch when you realize how much it seems like watching the Gas Zombies reborn.
- Brandon Whittaker. Let's count the ways this guy is the scariest hippy since Manson: He's covered in blood, the bathroom he's holed up in is bathed in a green light which turns that blood black, he fauns over the "beauty" of Chuck and CURE's "plan," and just before the boss fight where he uses toilet stalls to teleport and repeatedly licks a shard of broken glass as a taunt? Oh yeah, THAT SMILE.
- What happens when you beat him: he stumbles around in a daze, and heads into a bathroom stall. .... The same Bathroom Stall he was keeping a zombie in to "spread the goodwill", he looks at the area he was bitten on in shock, and then slits his throat rather than become a zombie. It's unclear if he came to his senses, or something else. Either way it's creepy.
- If you think he's bad in the main game, you might not want to pick up Off the Record any time soon. He is directly behind the outbreak this time and unlike Chuck's version you can't do ANYTHING to save the survivor he's captured. He actually begins the fight by slitting her throat with a shard of broken glass... and then he comes after you with it! Oh, and don't worry, he has been officially promoted to storyline boss, you HAVE to fight him sooner or later. Oh? What's that? Oh yes. He's even earlier in the game so... sweet dreams.
- What happens when you beat him: he stumbles around in a daze, and heads into a bathroom stall. .... The same Bathroom Stall he was keeping a zombie in to "spread the goodwill", he looks at the area he was bitten on in shock, and then slits his throat rather than become a zombie. It's unclear if he came to his senses, or something else. Either way it's creepy.
- If seeing what could've happened if Chuck had failed to find Zombrex for Katey in Off the Record doesn't cause you to break down in tears, it might just make it hard for you to sleep.
- If you don't bring Katey any Zombrex in the main game they actually turn her into a zombie, complete with a brief cutscene of a horrified Stacy watching her turn. Then, to really twist the knife after stabbing the player right in the heart you get another cutscene as soon as Chuck gets back to the saferoom. This is one of the few times he shows any emotion in his voice and makes it clear just how bad you screwed up. THEN, just in case you didn't feel bad enough, Chuck basically commits suicide over his despair at losing Katey.
- Worse still... you can actually hear Katey beg for help as she turns, indicating that this is anything but quick and painless for Katey.
- Some Foreshadowing in play during the initial outbreak: Frank can enter Chuck's room (where Katey would have to be rescued in the original Dead Rising 2), where he can see a shitload of blood, with Katey's personal effects scattered around it. This kinda plays into effect when Frank encounters Psycho Chuck. To quote Mr. West:"WHO would bring a here?"
- You can even take a pic of the bloodstains, You Bastard!. Granted, it disappears after the outbreak, but still...
- When Frank finally meets Chuck face to face, it's heartbreaking to see how far Chuck fell into his depression and it's unnerving to see Chuck casually kill a zombie with his bare hands. He breaks its neck and then rips its head off without any effort, then telling Frank that the doll on his back needs Zombrex every 24 hours. Even the wise-cracking journalist, who survived the first outbreak and has seen it all at this point, is unnerved by Chuck's presence and clearly trying to find a way to avoid fighting him.
- Randy Tugman. A morbidly obese man with a chainsaw that kidnapped and murdered women when they didn't pass his criteria as a potential bride. Oh, and he only wanted to get married so that he could finally lose his virginity, since he waited for the zombie apocalypse to try this. When Chuck or Frank confronts him, Randy turns away from the altar and obliviously chainsaws his preacher dad's guts out, too. The fact he doesn't notice he accidentally murdered his own dad, nor how horrified his dad was that Randy tied him to the church cross crucifixion style and forced his father to watch his son murder innocent women, nor the terror of his soon-to-be-wife speaks a lot for Randy's character. Oh, and did we mention that his chainsaw and animal suit bring to mind PIGGSY?! Then there's his death scene, where his (now zombiefied) bride eats him alive.Chuck Greene/Frank West: "You may now kiss/feed the bride."
- Slappy, the demented children's mascot. He thinks Chuck is responsible for killing his girlfriend and attacks him with freaking dual flamethrowers!
- The audio is just... unnerving, you can hear Slappy's hallucinations during the boss theme and when Slappy is dying to his wounds. He moves Suzy's head, and you hear the cracking of Louise's neck as he moves her face so he can look at her. When you think it's all over:
- Slappy's comments about Louise also seem to be unnerving when you consider that the two may not have actually been dating. Slappy was obsessed with her and put her on a pedestal when she was killed during the outbreak. Since it only took him less than a day to assume the role of the avenging lover, it's unsettling to think how he would have reacted if she rejected his advances before the outbreak.
- "Left Hand" Lance in one of the Tape It Or Die blogs even calls Slappy this, word-for-word. Maybe he's One of Us?
- Depending on your luck in Off The Record's Sandbox Mode, you could fight Slappy near his store. The problem here is that he likes to skate around the zone that store is located in, and may just give you a good jump when he sneaks up on you.
- Slappy's Sanity Slippage is much more disturbing in Off the Record. In the original game, he recognizes that there is a real dead human being underneath the Suzy costume, and he blames Chuck for her death. In Off the Record, he never refers to the person underneath the costume, calls Suzy his "toy" and says she belongs to him. Brrr.
- And as if this wasn't enough, did we forget to mention that this psycho was voiced by none other than Light Yagami himself?
- On the subject of jumpscares, in Off the Record you can have three survivors following you and you're escorting them to the safehouse. There is a zombie lying on the ground outside. You go by the saying "better safe than sorry" and shoot it. You go past the maintenance room and proceed to go down the stairs, when all of a sudden some zombie you didn't see playing dead grabs onto your leg while a SCARE NOTE BLASTS FROM YOUR SPEAKERS! The scary part about this is that it can happen at any time! Even those who play it safe will fall for it sooner or later...
- Antoine the chef. He lures survivors of the outbreak into his restaurant so he can cut them up and eat them, and during the fight will actually try to shove some of his food down your throat.
- In the original game, his restaurant's lightning wasn't the best, but you could manage. In Off the Record, however, it's even poorer, and its color seems to make things even worse somehow.
- How about his death? Just imagine how it would feel to drown in a boiling-hot fryer.
- Not only do you realize what he has made the meat out of, sometimes he will call you bacon. And it does not help one bit that there is some spoiled "bacon" in a box near where the kidnapped survivor is held captive. This is scary for several reasons because a) You can eat it... b) And realize it's human meat c) Who knows what kind of human it was made out of? It could be zombie meat. (Antoine doesn't follow Larry's way of choosing meat in the first game). Zombie meat probably would work the same for Antoine. d) Antoine said it tasted like chicken!
- Late in the game, if you completed the case files, the safehouse gets breached, zombies flooding what was up until that moment a safe space. Not helping matters at all is the fact that it was an act of sabotage.
- Ending S. It starts off pretty nice with Chuck, Katey, and Stacey leaving Fortune City after Chuck has killed TK. Then, for no apparent reason, a zombie jumps into the frame and roars like a maniac. To quote a popular YouTube comment:"FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!!"
- Ending B is simple, yet effective. It has a shot of bombs falling into the city, with zombies watching all the while. Text on a black background then informs us that there is no record of the shelter dwellers making it out alive and whether they succumbed to a zombie attack or were incinerated in the subsequent firebombing is unknown.
- Ending C starts off rather tame, with Chuck and his friends getting ready to go home when all of a sudden Chuck hears gunshots and screaming from outside the safe house. He decides to go investigate, only for him to get shot by an unseen attacker.
- The Militiamen. Their intro cutscene has them snipe perfectly unharmed and still-living survivors, then go on a Motive Rant about using the zombie outbreak as an opportunity to eradicate anyone they don't like. Unlike other psychopaths, they aren't really fought so directly, being all perched up in elevated positions that you have to navigate to. While they're on the field, anytime you go outside carries the risk of being killed in as little as 2 shots from their .50 cal rifles. From the first time you DO get shot, you will spend the rest of their spawn time in abject paranoia of the outdoor areas, and their slow-droning battle theme will haunt your outdoor trekking.
