Product Features
- Genre
- Action and Shooter
- Publisher
- Capcom
- Release Date
- February 27, 2009
- Available Platforms
- Nintendo Wii, XBox 360, XBox 360
Related Items
Dead Rising
In a nutshell:Freelance photographer Frank West is stuck in a shopping centre full of zombies and he''s only got 72 hours to escape. How he manages that feat is entirely up to you, with his fate, that of dozens of other survivors and a legion of the walking dead entirely in your hands.The lowdown:Since this is basically an unofficial video game remake of Dawn of the Dead it tries to recreate all the major elements from the movie, including scenes with hundreds of zombies on screen at once. Given free reign in the shopping centre there are 250 different objects you can use to dispatch them but in the end escape is your own really option. The question is how you manage it and whether you properly investigate what''s going, try and help other survivors or photograph their demise in an attempt...
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Philip August 26, 2010 360
They shopped...they dropped...and they got back up again! (I should have worked in advertising...)
Storyline
Glance and you'll miss it, but look closely enough at the bottom of the game case and you will see a small sticker. This sticker reads, 'This game was not developed, approved, or licensed by the owners or creators of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead'. This text simultaneously aims to deny any breaches of copyright whilst confirming by association that the game and the film are similar enough to warrant such a qualifying message in the first place. So is this just marketing genius to get the zombie fans salivating or a genuine instruction from Capcom's legal department? I guess we'll never know... The film (sorry I mean game...) plays out in a mall packed full to bursting point with zombies. Our protagonist, photojournalist Frank West, has 72 hours (until his helicopter returns to collect him) to investigate the infestation and find out what turned the fictional town of Willamette, Colorado into hell on Earth.
The Gameplay
Camera in hand, Frank follows leads and scoops all over the mall as part of his 72 hour investigation. He also meets and interacts with a multitude of characters presented as fellow survivors. Not all survivors are friendly with many proving bigger enemies to Frank than the zombie hordes. You can choose to rescue many fellow survivors as part of your various optional side missions, which will boost your experience points and help you level up. However, there are other side missions which will see you face evil survivors in combat, such as the chainsaw wielding clown, Adam. The interesting thing about this game is that you can choose to spend your 72 hours doing anything you wish. You don't have to investigate or rescue survivors. If you were so inclined you could just run around the mall killing zombies for 72 hours until your helicopter returns, although if you do you'll never unravel the mystery...
The Experience
Two factors make this game into an incredible experience:
1. The zombies are packed into the mall like sardines in a can. Their numbers are infinite and they are all fodder for you to destroy how you see fit.
2. Every item in the mall is a weapon. Go into a sports shop, pick out a football, a hockey stick, or a baseball bat - they can all be used as weapons. Lawnmowers, CDs, chainsaws, garden shears, benches, planks, flower pots - you name it, the mall has it and they're all at Frank's disposal! The possibilities are endless.
Everyone who plays Dead Rising can have a unique, individual experience because you choose how you want to play the game. However, the common factor is the sheer level of fun gamers can derive from this experience. Endless zombies + a mall full of weapons to kill them with! What's not to like?!
Pacing
Frank has 72 hours to complete his investigation by following a sequence of leads which occur in chronological order and are spread at a naturally developed pace over the three in-game days. Each lead has a time limit by which it has to be investigated. If you fail to investigate a lead before the end of its time limit, the thread of the sequence is lost and all subsequent leads will vanish, signalling the end of your investigation. Side missions can be completed in between leads, but these are of course optional and you may choose to focus on your main investigation so as not to run out of time. Put simply, if you want to discover the answers to the Willamette mystery, you must complete your investigation one lead at a time. The game's pacing adds a sense of realism through a palpable urgency and really helps to immerse the player in the experience of the game.
Depth, balance, and emergence
The individual elements of Dead Rising combine well to create an immersive and absorbing overall gaming experience with great depth and balance. Following the leads and unravelling the mystery is genuinely interesting and at times thrilling. Killing zombies in new and inventive ways is just plain fun, whilst the plethora of characters puts meat on the bones of the game's universe. Only two negatives upset the game's balance and prevent Dead Rising from being a five star experience:
1. When helping a survivor as part of a side mission, the games A.I. takes control of the character you are trying to rescue. It almost seems as if the game is working against you in this instance as the characters are slow to respond and put themselves in life threatening situations. This can get a little annoying to say the least, especially when you take my second point into consideration...
2. In order to save your progress or rescue a survivor you have to reach the game's safe room. This is a safe area of the mall, sealed off with welded doors at the beginning of the game where survivors congregate after you have rescued them. This method of saving is in the vein of the Resident Evil typewriter method which I was never a fan of. I do however recognise that many people enjoyed that method as an integral part of the gaming experience and so you may not find it as annoying as me. I just find it frustrating that having completed a gruelling mission, you then have to make it through the length of the mall past hordes of zombies/evil survivors hell bent on eating/murdering you to the safe room in order to save your game. It is especially frustrating when you die on your way to the safe room and then have to restart your game from your last save point.
However, these are just a few minor niggles in an otherwise seamless experience and I would hate for them to put you off playing the game.
The controls
The controls are simple yet effective, so much so that they are hardly worth mentioning. This is surely a good thing as I always think that with a game's controls no news is good news. If I had a lot to write about them it would probably be because I hated them! Thankfully that is not the case with Dead Rising. Move with the analogue stick, attack with X and jump with A - these two buttons and a stick are your main controls and everything else is secondary when it comes to surviving the game. Plenty of control related pointers are provided at the start and ten minutes in I guarantee the controls will be mastered.
Sound and Graphics
The graphics of the story telling video sequences leave a little to be desired but the gameplay graphics and the mechanics of the game's universe are spot on. Dead Rising's "swarm" technology fills your screen with hundreds of zombies and the game's engine is more than up to the task of animating them all simultaneously. The interior of the mall is beautifully realised and filled with sumptuous and stunning detail. I really loved the mall's cinema - it looked almost life like. The sound is perfect. Enter a new area of the mall and you are instantly greeted with a chorus of undead groans. The quality of the sound makes for a chilling, tense atmosphere to say the least.
Verdict
A few minor niggles regarding character A.I. and save game methods prevent me from awarding this game the five stars it should have achieved. However these should not put you off what is in my opinion the best survival horror game of this current console generation. It's not shocks that will scare you but the overwhelming number of zombies you are up against. The malls items (or weapons as necessity will cause you to view them) and the unique experience that can be achieved with them will keep you coming back for more. The investigation/story is immersive and compelling enough to really make you feel like the star of your own version of 'Dawn of the Dead'...just don't tell George A. Romero. With the release date of Dead Rising's sequel approaching faster than the spread of a zombie plague, now is an ideal time to slash and bash your way through the original.