Once you're high-level, Frank's special abilities make mince meat out of them. Body Slam, Suplex, Disembowel and Face Crusher all effectively one-shot the special forces. It's hysterical.
Funny you should mention that; I started playing through Off the Record (since I've only picked up vanilla DR2 for the longest time) after completing a Saint run and felt it didn't age as well as the original game.
Some very welcome convenience tweaks sure, but even at a good framerate 2 / OTR just feel very sluggish by comparison. Player abilities like the Knee Drop or the Wall Kick having questionable input changes on top of generally being flatout slower, with standard weapons also being bogged down with lengthier wind-up / recovery frames compared to how they were before, despite the higher zombie count frequently surrounding you. Some are even outright made useless; the likes of the katana are still potent on their own accord, but pick-ups like the gems or plates lack any kind of crowd control with their now non-existent knockdown potential. They're now demoted to craft items as their primary and only purpose, which hurts the previous flexibility of the series' otherwise rudimentary combat if you have no interest in wielding combo weapons. Skateboard, a crucial item, is now also finickier for the same (plus other) reasons and having to press an additional button for the camera is a tad annoying, albeit nothing major. Hit- and hurtboxes are more inconsistent than before. World design also took a step back since it regularly obstructs a clear line of sight from one entry point to another thanks to slot machines et al haphazardly scattered about, made worse by the inferior overall picture quality and narrower FoV. The map screen itself is also clunkier in between the way it positions your initial view upon opening it and how cluttered it is when zooming out thanks to the craft room icons; the latter making it more difficult to pinpoint the exact shop you're looking for since you cannot filter these away. No more in-game watch to swap quests on the fly is a sin too, never mind the arrow indicator being more indecisive than before as well. There's more, but that's just off the top of my head.
Ultimately 2 / OTR are still good games in my eyes - except for those abominable poker missions - but it's just nowhere near as tight-knit as the original in areas it matters most.
The Summersault Kick tears him apart, with no pushback stagger if it gets blocked.
The game does feel a little slower, but it took me five minutes to adjust and now it's just as satisfying and weighty. Actually, the jump kick move feels better to me since the recovery time after you land is smaller (I might be wrong on that, but that's how I feel).
Pacing just feels much, much better to me. Granted, Dead Rising 2 benefits from the added experience of the first game, but the first hours of the original can be miserable. I almost dropped the game as it can be very frustrating to clueless new players. It takes a few hours to become fun. I felt Dead Rising 2 OTR managed this better, especially with jump kick and dodge moves unlocked from the start. However, the main thing that improved the pacing was the survivors AI: they are absolutely atrocious in the first game, and this greatly impacts the experience as rescuing survivors is your main source of PP. In OTR they feel just right: they can handle themselves, but you still need to help occasionally.
Now, I'm only 6-7 hours in, but so far psycos are also better. In the first game most of them were incredibly cheap and the best way to beat them was by exploiting their stupid AI. Actually, after beating the game I feel there was no fair way to beat most of them if not by completely overpowering (which made the fights no fun) or exploiting the AI or geometry. In DR2, I feel I do the appropriate damage to bosses and there's a way to beat them by design. Now, I only fought 4 or 5 so far, will see about the rest.
I will admit the mall in Willamette was a more readable, easier to navigate place but on the other hand I feel zombies are better distributed in the sequel as they feel more manageable even on very crowded areas. And while the map is indeed busier, at least now you can set waypoints, which is very very useful.
And the QOL improvements can't be dismissed. They are huge. The biggest one is brought by OTR, where not only you can hear the radio without losing any move, but they are voiced as well, which means your attention can remain on the action. More places to save is also very helpful.
Sandbox is a nice addition too, even if somewhat pointless by the fact you can just restart earlier games anyway.
