I have no issue with people liking different things. But given we're on a discussion forum, at least come up with a better reason for why the timer should stay outside "difficulty and tension".
Because you know, apparently those things can't exist in games without a timer now?
This is basically the only post I've seen make a compelling argument for keeping the timer.
At its core, Dead Rising isn't a series about fighting zombies. The zombies are a core part of the experience, but killing them isn't the games goal. The zombies respawn infinitely, so you can never wipe them out. At the same time, you can just walk past them without too much difficulty. The zombies are a stage hazard, not an antagonist.
The main challenge, the primary goal of the gameplay in the first and second games, was two-fold: rescuing survivors and reaching objectives on time. As an aggressive stage hazard, the zombies functioned perfectly as a foil to those two goals. While the zombies pose little threat to the player, they do pose a threat to survivors and impede the player's progress. So, the threat posed by the zombies changes dramatically by introducing survivor escort missions and having to worry about the clock.
At their core, Dead Rising 1 and 2 are similar to Demon/Dark Souls in that the most important skill the player has to learn is "knowing where everything is". What are the safe routes, where you can find healing items, which are the best weapons for various scenarios, and who you can save at which time. Dead Rising is a game you are not meant to clear on your first try, but on your second try you are armed with more knowledge.
Without timers, without survivors to rescue, without the chance of messing up, what is the gameplay about? Killing zombies for its own sake gets stale after the first thousand, and zombie stories are not the most riveting or deep. What is added to replace the timer?
