Necrocracy 2
Necrocracy 2 is a shooter/RPG/horror title developed by Bioware, and the direct sequel to 2007's Necrocracy. Combining elements of hit OTL WRPGs such as Fallout, Deus Ex, and Mass Effect, Necrocracy 2 is a post-apocalyptic title in which you play as either Latham or Cass, human freedom fighters in a world literally governed by the dead, which includes zombies, ghouls, ghosts, skeletons, vampires, and other undead horrors. Necrocracy 2 sees many features returning from its predecessor, including a branching skill tree where players can level up both their combat and non-combat skills. In addition to character leveling, weapons and armor now have individual skill trees and can be leveled up as well, bringing an unprecedented amount of customization to combat and loadouts. Equipment can gain special bonuses when used together at a certain level, or can be combined or broken down to enhance a piece of equipment or bestow its bonuses on another. This game sees the return of companions, but with two separate playable main characters, each one has their own set of companions, with six shared between the two and two unique companions for each character. This time around, with Latham and Cass largely on separate missions, the two can't be each other's companion, so you'll never see them fighting together over the course of the game. Both Latham and Cass share a lot of skills with one another, but each one also has unique skills and equipment and specializations, so neither of them plays alike, making Necrocracy 2 somewhat like two games in one. Recruiting plays a heavy role in the game's main and side stories, and not just companions, but allies who can help in various ways, from staffing the various facilities you'll have access to during the game, to going out on unique missions and retrieving items, to fighting in large squad battles, there are literally hundreds of different allies who can be recruited over the course of the game to the cause of freedom. While some can be recruited just by asking them, you'll have to prove your worth to others, either by doing a side quest, gathering loot, upgrading a certain skill or piece of equipment, or some other unique task. Typically, the more useful a recruit is, the tougher they are to recruit, and some can't be recruited if certain ones are already on your side (though it is possible to dismiss a recruit if that does happen). There's tons of side activities to do, far more than were present in the original game, including the ability to race across the wasteland in custom vehicles, create your own genetic monstrosities in a lab, go sight seeing in post-apocalyptic America, collect all sorts of different kinds of items, fight in a battle arena... Necrocracy 2 has a huge amount of diversions from the main quest, so whenever the player needs a break from adventuring, they'll be able to find something to do. Necrocracy 2 vastly expands the amount of available territory. Chicago, which had to be gradually opened up and retaken over the original game, is almost completely open right from the start as the game's main hub area, with most of the suburbs also available soon after the game begins (Joliet is closed off for the most part, however). The available territory expands into neighboring Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan, with a variety of places opened up there, and once other transportation becomes available, cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, New Orleans, and Miami are also made available, with vast stretches of Americana wasteland also open to the player to explore. Washington DC, where the game's final story missions take place, isn't immediately available, but does open up toward the latter chapters of the main story. The sheer scope of Necrocracy 2 is hard to overstate: it's probably the biggest fully-realized WRPG to appear on a console up to this time, and the PC version looks absolutely incredible. The graphics of Necrocracy 2 are better than the original, but not too much bigger, whereas the original was one of the best looking games ever at the time of its release, Necrocracy 2 looks merely "good", trading in some graphical "wow" factor for sheer scale. However, this doesn't apply to the PC version of the game, which looks amazing even despite the game's scale (with many previews featuring the PC version's graphics, this does lead to some controversy amongst console owners). The game has an excellent original score of both epic and terrifying music, with some melancholy tunes appearing as well during certain sad scenes or in large, open areas. Like the original Necrocracy, the game boasts an excellent voice cast with a mix of name recognition and sheer talent. Fred Tatasciore and Kari Wahlgren reprise their roles as Latham and Cass respectively, while Miguel Ferrer returns as the primary antagonist, zombie President Fleshtear. A few of the companions from the original game return, and those that do are reprised by their original voice actors, including Mole (James Arnold Taylor), Elizabeth (Grey Delisle), Lucia (Maria Canals), Indira (Anjali Bhimani), and fan favorite Hardass (Verne Troyer). Other actors who have roles in the game include Michael C. Hall, who plays vampire powerbroker Saint Cryst, Zachary Levi, who plays mechanic/racer Hotwire, Kelly Hu, who plays the zombie mercenary Jitte, Keston John, who plays Fleshtear's head of security Braincrush, and Michaela Dietz, who plays the young human soldier Sienna. There are over 100 NPCs who play a significant role in the game, and can be either a major character or won't appear at all depending on the path the player chooses to take.
Necrocracy 2 begins where the canon ending of Necrocracy left off (unlike Mass Effect 2, which allowed the player to carry over some of the choices they made in the original game, Necrocracy had too much of a spread of possible endings to allow for that mechanic, and so Necrocracy 2 assumes the "good" ending from the last game). Chicago has been liberated for the living, thanks to an antidote spread through the city that allowed the dead to finally rest. Now, Chicago is inhabited mostly by living humans, with a few undead allies scattered throughout, but no hostile dead (a theme of the game is the prejudice faced by some of the undead in the Chicago area). Dr. Harden Stone, who created the antidote to the Great Plague, has moved on, but the remaining members of the Peaceful Rest carry out his work and attempt to device a way to spread Stone Serum (the name for the antidote) worldwide to end the plague of the undead once and for all. Joliet, former home of the Peaceful Rest, has been completely overrun by zombie hordes and is now a fortified military base from which Fleshtear's armies monitor the Chicago area and occasionally send raids to keep the living expansion in check. The living authority in Chicago has come to the conclusion that as long as Fleshtear (and any other zombie/undead leaders) remain alive, it will be impossible to disperse Stone Serum globally, so the living's top priority is continuing the rebellion to overthrow Fleshtear's government and retake control of the United States. Latham and Cass (both still among the living, despite options that they could be killed off or zombified in the original game), decide to take point on two important missions: Latham's goal is to find and destroy a superweapon being developed by Fleshtear that could cause another Great Plague and finish off the living once and for all, while Cass' goal is to recruit new allies, both living and dead, to the cause of overthrowing Fleshtear's Necrocracy. After a brief early tutorial segment in which the player controls Latham and then Cass, the player is given the choice of whose mission to follow and which character they'll play as for the rest of the game. Latham and Cass share about 40% of their main story missions and 90% of their side quest missions, but many players will have a unique experience with both of them, with Latham's main storyline being a bit more structured and Cass' being more open ended. Much of the early main story involves questing around the Chicago area and its suburbs, with Latham hunting down leads on the superweapon, and Cass recruiting certain individuals and beating back incursions from the Joliet military base. These early quests will lead the player to take their first steps out of Illinois, with Latham heading to a lab in the cold tundra of Wisconsin, and Cass journeying to an island on Lake Michigan to find a recluse who has been fighting off zombies for decades. Both of these quests lead to a tip about a flying machine that can take the protagonist far across the country, to seek out places that might have allies to fight Fleshtear's armies. This opens up most of the rest of the game (about a third of the way in), giving the player the option to roam across vast stretches of open territory (it's not possible to walk across the whole country, since gates and roadblocks prevent that, but it is possible to explore a vast, open area implied to be either Kansas or Oklahoma), or to venture to one of several cities and their own surrounding environs. This will inevitably (if following the main story) take Latham or Cass to Los Angeles, where the next phase of the story begins.
Los Angeles is crawling with zombies, but unlike the zombies of Chicago, who answered to the zombie US government, the zombies of Los Angeles answer to a mysterious presence eventually revealed to be the vampire Saint Cryst, who rules the Los Angeles area as a sort of decadent paradise for the dead, using humans as slaves and using his influence to sway even Fleshtear's activities in the region. If on Latham's journey, the player will have to deal with both Cryst and Braincrush, the latter of whom is attempting to negotiate a deal for part of the city to use as a testing ground for Fleshtear's superweapon. If on Cass' journey, the player will need to work their way into Cryst's inner circle by completing various tasks in the region. Latham and Cass will actually cross paths during this part of the game, and if the player is controlling Latham, they'll need to rescue Cass at one point, while if they're controlling Cass, they'll need to rescue Latham. This rescue sequence teases the much hyped "death" of a main character promised during previews for the game, but ultimately, the main characters will come out of this sequence unscathed (though it is possible for other NPCs to be killed during the Los Angeles sequence of missions, and it's also possible for Latham or Cass to get on Cryst's good side and join up with him, though the main canon path through this part of the game eventually leads to Cryst's death). Once the Los Angeles sequence of the game is wrapped up, the player will get some more freedom to explore, with only the Washington DC area remaining closed off. This is mostly a time to complete side quests and level up before another stretch of story missions taking place back in Chicago. Whether the player controls Latham or Cass, triggering a certain main story mission will cause a massive invasion from the Joliet army base, with Fleshtear himself appearing in the flesh (and not in flashback or cutscene sequences) for the first time. Fleshtear is invading the city to gather parts for his superweapon, and in Latham's storyline, the player will be tasked with retrieving a part that's been hidden in the city's sewer system, while in Cass' storyline, the player will be directly participating in the battle while protecting various important NPCs (which ones Cass is tasked with protecting depends on how her story has progressed so far, Cass can even end up forced to protect Saint Cryst if the two of them became allies). The Chicago invasion reaches a climax when Latham and Cass end up fighting together to protect the last superweapon part from being taken. During this sequence, the two decide to protect a young scientist who is integral to the proliferation of Stone Serum, and during this part of the game, whether on Latham or Cass' storyline, that Cass makes the ultimate sacrifice, taking multiple weapon strikes through her body as she saves the life of the scientist and in doing so also sacrifices herself to prevent a crucial push into the city. Because of Cass' sacrifice, Fleshtear's army is forced out, and the superweapon component is saved from capture. Cass' death, in which it's made clear that she won't come back as a zombie, is treated incredibly heavily, and leads to a sequence of Latham revenge missions, while if the player is playing as Cass, they'll end up taking control of one of Cass' companions (if Cass didn't have a companion, the game will give you one during the mission) and assuming her stat growth. Latham vows revenge on Fleshtear for Cass' death and promises to prevent anyone else from dying like she did, kicking off the final sequence of main story missions.
On Cass' storyline path, after a couple of missions with the companion character, a new mission automatically begins, and the player is somewhere under the city of Chicago. This is a strange sequence unlike anything in the game thus far, with the player, unable to see who they are, roaming the undercity in search of various strange items. Finally, after being attacked by a large monster, there's a cutscene in which the player is revealed to be Cass, now fully a zombie, but with all her mental faculties and morals intact. Via some kind of interaction with the Stone Serum, Cass became a unique undead being (her situation is sort of comparable to that of Liv from the show iZombie, though Cass is more undead-like in appearance. She can even gain abilities from eating certain brains). Cass makes her way back to the surface, but learns that Latham has gone on a suicide mission out of a lust for revenge, and she has to try and stop him. Stopping and saving Latham leads directly up to the last sequence of Washington DC missions, opening up that part of the map for exploration. Meanwhile, on Latham's questline, it's a bit longer until Latham finds out that Cass is alive, and when she does, it's in a late-game battle mission, making a badass entrance by killing a huge undead creature and a squad of zombies. Despite being undead, Cass still wants to take down Fleshtear, and this holds true in both storylines, as Fleshtear has found another way to perfect his superweapon and is getting ready to deploy it. The game's final missions take the form of either a covert infiltration of Washington DC (in Latham's storyline) or a massive open-ground invasion and battle between the living and the dead (in Cass' storyline). Depending on various story circumstances, these missions can take a variety of forms, with some branches involving Braincrush killing Fleshtear and assuming power himself, or other storylines even involving Latham or Cass working with Fleshtear as an antagonist. However, the main, "canon" storyline plays it fairly straight, with the protagonist entering Washington DC either covertly or otherwise and heading for the White House to take down Fleshtear. The city's iconic landmarks have all been replaced with "zombie" versions, with the Smithsonian displaying undead artifacts and the entire city basically being a twisted perversion of what it would normally be under human control. The main final boss of the game is either Fleshtear, Braincrush, or Latham/Cass, depending on storyline events and side quest completion, though in most versions of the final battle, Braincrush is the final boss, serving as the "muscle" for Fleshtear as he attempts to deploy his superweapon. In the game's main canon ending, the Stone Serum is replaced as the catalyst of the superweapon, and when it's deployed, it causes a surge of energy that causes every undead in the city to permanently die (Fleshtear and Braincrush have already been killed by this point). In some versions of this ending, that includes Cass (if she's still a "good" character and hasn't been killed), but in other versions, including the "canon" version, Cass has a modification that protects her from this interaction, and stays "alive", though still as an undead zombie. The ending implies that even though Washington is now under the control of the living, and several cities have been retaken, the United States is still crawling with undead, and the rest of the world is also a necrocracy (which is shown when the new living American president goes to the United Nations, and is confronted by over 100 zombie presidents, prime ministers, and kings). The living may have scored another victory, but necrocracy still reigns on Earth, and the struggle between the living and dead continues...
Necrocracy 2 is released on December 7, 2010, for the Sapphire, iTwin, Xbox 2, PC, and Macintosh. It's released to outstanding reviews, on par with those of the first game and ultimately becoming the best critically reviewed game of the year. Reviews praise the massive scope of the game's world, the exciting storyline, and the new enhancements to the game's various combat and leveling systems, giving the player more options than ever before. They also praise the story arcs of both Latham and Cass, with the death "tease" being especially lauded, as Cass is now a unique and exciting character with her own distinct storyline and motivations from Latham (interestingly, she's compared to another Kari Wahlgren voiced character, Spider-Gwen from Spider-Man Evolved, who also "rose from the dead" to become more powerful). However, Necrocracy 2 isn't seen as being as "groundbreaking" or impactful as the original, and even though its review scores are similar, the original game would continue to rank higher in many "best games of all time" lists in the future. There's also some controversy over the difference between the game's graphics on console and PC. While the game looks good on console, the difference between the console and PC versions is striking, with the PC version of the game looking like a true graphical evolution and the console version looking much like the original. Combined with the fact that most review sources didn't mention this, and a lot of anger is stoked amongst the gaming community, becoming one of the biggest gaming controversies of 2010. It arguably even damages the game's chances at winning some of the major "game of the year" awards voted on by fans, with Modern Warfare 3 taking many awards over Necrocracy 2 and this being one of the major reasons. Despite the controversy, sales are outstanding, making Necrocracy 2 one of the 20 best selling games of 2010 in North America despite its late-year release. Its success brings even more praise to Bioware, which has staved off acquisition efforts and has largely remained its own company. Necrocracy 3, expected to be an eighth generation game, is already shaping up to be one of the most hyped games of all time, and during the interim period between the two games, Necrocracy 2 would see numerous releases of high-quality DLC to keep fans satisfied.
Necrocracy 2 is a shooter/RPG/horror title developed by Bioware, and the direct sequel to 2007's Necrocracy. Combining elements of hit OTL WRPGs such as Fallout, Deus Ex, and Mass Effect, Necrocracy 2 is a post-apocalyptic title in which you play as either Latham or Cass, human freedom fighters in a world literally governed by the dead, which includes zombies, ghouls, ghosts, skeletons, vampires, and other undead horrors. Necrocracy 2 sees many features returning from its predecessor, including a branching skill tree where players can level up both their combat and non-combat skills. In addition to character leveling, weapons and armor now have individual skill trees and can be leveled up as well, bringing an unprecedented amount of customization to combat and loadouts. Equipment can gain special bonuses when used together at a certain level, or can be combined or broken down to enhance a piece of equipment or bestow its bonuses on another. This game sees the return of companions, but with two separate playable main characters, each one has their own set of companions, with six shared between the two and two unique companions for each character. This time around, with Latham and Cass largely on separate missions, the two can't be each other's companion, so you'll never see them fighting together over the course of the game. Both Latham and Cass share a lot of skills with one another, but each one also has unique skills and equipment and specializations, so neither of them plays alike, making Necrocracy 2 somewhat like two games in one. Recruiting plays a heavy role in the game's main and side stories, and not just companions, but allies who can help in various ways, from staffing the various facilities you'll have access to during the game, to going out on unique missions and retrieving items, to fighting in large squad battles, there are literally hundreds of different allies who can be recruited over the course of the game to the cause of freedom. While some can be recruited just by asking them, you'll have to prove your worth to others, either by doing a side quest, gathering loot, upgrading a certain skill or piece of equipment, or some other unique task. Typically, the more useful a recruit is, the tougher they are to recruit, and some can't be recruited if certain ones are already on your side (though it is possible to dismiss a recruit if that does happen). There's tons of side activities to do, far more than were present in the original game, including the ability to race across the wasteland in custom vehicles, create your own genetic monstrosities in a lab, go sight seeing in post-apocalyptic America, collect all sorts of different kinds of items, fight in a battle arena... Necrocracy 2 has a huge amount of diversions from the main quest, so whenever the player needs a break from adventuring, they'll be able to find something to do. Necrocracy 2 vastly expands the amount of available territory. Chicago, which had to be gradually opened up and retaken over the original game, is almost completely open right from the start as the game's main hub area, with most of the suburbs also available soon after the game begins (Joliet is closed off for the most part, however). The available territory expands into neighboring Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan, with a variety of places opened up there, and once other transportation becomes available, cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, New Orleans, and Miami are also made available, with vast stretches of Americana wasteland also open to the player to explore. Washington DC, where the game's final story missions take place, isn't immediately available, but does open up toward the latter chapters of the main story. The sheer scope of Necrocracy 2 is hard to overstate: it's probably the biggest fully-realized WRPG to appear on a console up to this time, and the PC version looks absolutely incredible. The graphics of Necrocracy 2 are better than the original, but not too much bigger, whereas the original was one of the best looking games ever at the time of its release, Necrocracy 2 looks merely "good", trading in some graphical "wow" factor for sheer scale. However, this doesn't apply to the PC version of the game, which looks amazing even despite the game's scale (with many previews featuring the PC version's graphics, this does lead to some controversy amongst console owners). The game has an excellent original score of both epic and terrifying music, with some melancholy tunes appearing as well during certain sad scenes or in large, open areas. Like the original Necrocracy, the game boasts an excellent voice cast with a mix of name recognition and sheer talent. Fred Tatasciore and Kari Wahlgren reprise their roles as Latham and Cass respectively, while Miguel Ferrer returns as the primary antagonist, zombie President Fleshtear. A few of the companions from the original game return, and those that do are reprised by their original voice actors, including Mole (James Arnold Taylor), Elizabeth (Grey Delisle), Lucia (Maria Canals), Indira (Anjali Bhimani), and fan favorite Hardass (Verne Troyer). Other actors who have roles in the game include Michael C. Hall, who plays vampire powerbroker Saint Cryst, Zachary Levi, who plays mechanic/racer Hotwire, Kelly Hu, who plays the zombie mercenary Jitte, Keston John, who plays Fleshtear's head of security Braincrush, and Michaela Dietz, who plays the young human soldier Sienna. There are over 100 NPCs who play a significant role in the game, and can be either a major character or won't appear at all depending on the path the player chooses to take.
Necrocracy 2 begins where the canon ending of Necrocracy left off (unlike Mass Effect 2, which allowed the player to carry over some of the choices they made in the original game, Necrocracy had too much of a spread of possible endings to allow for that mechanic, and so Necrocracy 2 assumes the "good" ending from the last game). Chicago has been liberated for the living, thanks to an antidote spread through the city that allowed the dead to finally rest. Now, Chicago is inhabited mostly by living humans, with a few undead allies scattered throughout, but no hostile dead (a theme of the game is the prejudice faced by some of the undead in the Chicago area). Dr. Harden Stone, who created the antidote to the Great Plague, has moved on, but the remaining members of the Peaceful Rest carry out his work and attempt to device a way to spread Stone Serum (the name for the antidote) worldwide to end the plague of the undead once and for all. Joliet, former home of the Peaceful Rest, has been completely overrun by zombie hordes and is now a fortified military base from which Fleshtear's armies monitor the Chicago area and occasionally send raids to keep the living expansion in check. The living authority in Chicago has come to the conclusion that as long as Fleshtear (and any other zombie/undead leaders) remain alive, it will be impossible to disperse Stone Serum globally, so the living's top priority is continuing the rebellion to overthrow Fleshtear's government and retake control of the United States. Latham and Cass (both still among the living, despite options that they could be killed off or zombified in the original game), decide to take point on two important missions: Latham's goal is to find and destroy a superweapon being developed by Fleshtear that could cause another Great Plague and finish off the living once and for all, while Cass' goal is to recruit new allies, both living and dead, to the cause of overthrowing Fleshtear's Necrocracy. After a brief early tutorial segment in which the player controls Latham and then Cass, the player is given the choice of whose mission to follow and which character they'll play as for the rest of the game. Latham and Cass share about 40% of their main story missions and 90% of their side quest missions, but many players will have a unique experience with both of them, with Latham's main storyline being a bit more structured and Cass' being more open ended. Much of the early main story involves questing around the Chicago area and its suburbs, with Latham hunting down leads on the superweapon, and Cass recruiting certain individuals and beating back incursions from the Joliet military base. These early quests will lead the player to take their first steps out of Illinois, with Latham heading to a lab in the cold tundra of Wisconsin, and Cass journeying to an island on Lake Michigan to find a recluse who has been fighting off zombies for decades. Both of these quests lead to a tip about a flying machine that can take the protagonist far across the country, to seek out places that might have allies to fight Fleshtear's armies. This opens up most of the rest of the game (about a third of the way in), giving the player the option to roam across vast stretches of open territory (it's not possible to walk across the whole country, since gates and roadblocks prevent that, but it is possible to explore a vast, open area implied to be either Kansas or Oklahoma), or to venture to one of several cities and their own surrounding environs. This will inevitably (if following the main story) take Latham or Cass to Los Angeles, where the next phase of the story begins.
Los Angeles is crawling with zombies, but unlike the zombies of Chicago, who answered to the zombie US government, the zombies of Los Angeles answer to a mysterious presence eventually revealed to be the vampire Saint Cryst, who rules the Los Angeles area as a sort of decadent paradise for the dead, using humans as slaves and using his influence to sway even Fleshtear's activities in the region. If on Latham's journey, the player will have to deal with both Cryst and Braincrush, the latter of whom is attempting to negotiate a deal for part of the city to use as a testing ground for Fleshtear's superweapon. If on Cass' journey, the player will need to work their way into Cryst's inner circle by completing various tasks in the region. Latham and Cass will actually cross paths during this part of the game, and if the player is controlling Latham, they'll need to rescue Cass at one point, while if they're controlling Cass, they'll need to rescue Latham. This rescue sequence teases the much hyped "death" of a main character promised during previews for the game, but ultimately, the main characters will come out of this sequence unscathed (though it is possible for other NPCs to be killed during the Los Angeles sequence of missions, and it's also possible for Latham or Cass to get on Cryst's good side and join up with him, though the main canon path through this part of the game eventually leads to Cryst's death). Once the Los Angeles sequence of the game is wrapped up, the player will get some more freedom to explore, with only the Washington DC area remaining closed off. This is mostly a time to complete side quests and level up before another stretch of story missions taking place back in Chicago. Whether the player controls Latham or Cass, triggering a certain main story mission will cause a massive invasion from the Joliet army base, with Fleshtear himself appearing in the flesh (and not in flashback or cutscene sequences) for the first time. Fleshtear is invading the city to gather parts for his superweapon, and in Latham's storyline, the player will be tasked with retrieving a part that's been hidden in the city's sewer system, while in Cass' storyline, the player will be directly participating in the battle while protecting various important NPCs (which ones Cass is tasked with protecting depends on how her story has progressed so far, Cass can even end up forced to protect Saint Cryst if the two of them became allies). The Chicago invasion reaches a climax when Latham and Cass end up fighting together to protect the last superweapon part from being taken. During this sequence, the two decide to protect a young scientist who is integral to the proliferation of Stone Serum, and during this part of the game, whether on Latham or Cass' storyline, that Cass makes the ultimate sacrifice, taking multiple weapon strikes through her body as she saves the life of the scientist and in doing so also sacrifices herself to prevent a crucial push into the city. Because of Cass' sacrifice, Fleshtear's army is forced out, and the superweapon component is saved from capture. Cass' death, in which it's made clear that she won't come back as a zombie, is treated incredibly heavily, and leads to a sequence of Latham revenge missions, while if the player is playing as Cass, they'll end up taking control of one of Cass' companions (if Cass didn't have a companion, the game will give you one during the mission) and assuming her stat growth. Latham vows revenge on Fleshtear for Cass' death and promises to prevent anyone else from dying like she did, kicking off the final sequence of main story missions.
On Cass' storyline path, after a couple of missions with the companion character, a new mission automatically begins, and the player is somewhere under the city of Chicago. This is a strange sequence unlike anything in the game thus far, with the player, unable to see who they are, roaming the undercity in search of various strange items. Finally, after being attacked by a large monster, there's a cutscene in which the player is revealed to be Cass, now fully a zombie, but with all her mental faculties and morals intact. Via some kind of interaction with the Stone Serum, Cass became a unique undead being (her situation is sort of comparable to that of Liv from the show iZombie, though Cass is more undead-like in appearance. She can even gain abilities from eating certain brains). Cass makes her way back to the surface, but learns that Latham has gone on a suicide mission out of a lust for revenge, and she has to try and stop him. Stopping and saving Latham leads directly up to the last sequence of Washington DC missions, opening up that part of the map for exploration. Meanwhile, on Latham's questline, it's a bit longer until Latham finds out that Cass is alive, and when she does, it's in a late-game battle mission, making a badass entrance by killing a huge undead creature and a squad of zombies. Despite being undead, Cass still wants to take down Fleshtear, and this holds true in both storylines, as Fleshtear has found another way to perfect his superweapon and is getting ready to deploy it. The game's final missions take the form of either a covert infiltration of Washington DC (in Latham's storyline) or a massive open-ground invasion and battle between the living and the dead (in Cass' storyline). Depending on various story circumstances, these missions can take a variety of forms, with some branches involving Braincrush killing Fleshtear and assuming power himself, or other storylines even involving Latham or Cass working with Fleshtear as an antagonist. However, the main, "canon" storyline plays it fairly straight, with the protagonist entering Washington DC either covertly or otherwise and heading for the White House to take down Fleshtear. The city's iconic landmarks have all been replaced with "zombie" versions, with the Smithsonian displaying undead artifacts and the entire city basically being a twisted perversion of what it would normally be under human control. The main final boss of the game is either Fleshtear, Braincrush, or Latham/Cass, depending on storyline events and side quest completion, though in most versions of the final battle, Braincrush is the final boss, serving as the "muscle" for Fleshtear as he attempts to deploy his superweapon. In the game's main canon ending, the Stone Serum is replaced as the catalyst of the superweapon, and when it's deployed, it causes a surge of energy that causes every undead in the city to permanently die (Fleshtear and Braincrush have already been killed by this point). In some versions of this ending, that includes Cass (if she's still a "good" character and hasn't been killed), but in other versions, including the "canon" version, Cass has a modification that protects her from this interaction, and stays "alive", though still as an undead zombie. The ending implies that even though Washington is now under the control of the living, and several cities have been retaken, the United States is still crawling with undead, and the rest of the world is also a necrocracy (which is shown when the new living American president goes to the United Nations, and is confronted by over 100 zombie presidents, prime ministers, and kings). The living may have scored another victory, but necrocracy still reigns on Earth, and the struggle between the living and dead continues...
Necrocracy 2 is released on December 7, 2010, for the Sapphire, iTwin, Xbox 2, PC, and Macintosh. It's released to outstanding reviews, on par with those of the first game and ultimately becoming the best critically reviewed game of the year. Reviews praise the massive scope of the game's world, the exciting storyline, and the new enhancements to the game's various combat and leveling systems, giving the player more options than ever before. They also praise the story arcs of both Latham and Cass, with the death "tease" being especially lauded, as Cass is now a unique and exciting character with her own distinct storyline and motivations from Latham (interestingly, she's compared to another Kari Wahlgren voiced character, Spider-Gwen from Spider-Man Evolved, who also "rose from the dead" to become more powerful). However, Necrocracy 2 isn't seen as being as "groundbreaking" or impactful as the original, and even though its review scores are similar, the original game would continue to rank higher in many "best games of all time" lists in the future. There's also some controversy over the difference between the game's graphics on console and PC. While the game looks good on console, the difference between the console and PC versions is striking, with the PC version of the game looking like a true graphical evolution and the console version looking much like the original. Combined with the fact that most review sources didn't mention this, and a lot of anger is stoked amongst the gaming community, becoming one of the biggest gaming controversies of 2010. It arguably even damages the game's chances at winning some of the major "game of the year" awards voted on by fans, with Modern Warfare 3 taking many awards over Necrocracy 2 and this being one of the major reasons. Despite the controversy, sales are outstanding, making Necrocracy 2 one of the 20 best selling games of 2010 in North America despite its late-year release. Its success brings even more praise to Bioware, which has staved off acquisition efforts and has largely remained its own company. Necrocracy 3, expected to be an eighth generation game, is already shaping up to be one of the most hyped games of all time, and during the interim period between the two games, Necrocracy 2 would see numerous releases of high-quality DLC to keep fans satisfied.
