Dead Rising Preview
Zombies are probably one of the most popular “monsters” from horror films. Ranging from the scary flicks that try to be really serious to those that are complete jokes (Shaun of the Dead), zombies are undeniably popular. Each of the popular movies deals with them in a unique way. Some of them just plain won’t die, some die pretty easily to shotguns and others need to be burned to be destroyed. Heck, you can even go to your local bookstore and pick up the Zombie Survival Guide and learn how to cope with zombies when they attack us here in the real world.
Dead Rising, an upcoming Xbox 360 game, takes the zombie movie genre and makes a video game centered around it. You play as a photojournalist named Frank West. Your goal is pretty simple overall – survive for 72 hours inside a zombie-infested mall. You’ll get missions called “cases” that you are required to complete. There are also some side quests available, but the overall goal is to just survive while making a total mess of all the undead roaming about the mall.
Well, a demo has just hit Xbox Live and, while it isn’t anywhere near what the full game will be, it gives you a good taste of the upcoming zombie-fighting you’ll get to do. In the demo, you get to see a couple of cutscenes, fight a ton of zombies, see a lot of weapons and, overall, get a general experience for the fighting part of the game.
The demo starts off normal enough, giving you an intro to the part of the story you’re on. You see, you’re seeking out a guy named Brad. As with all cases, you have to get to him within a certain time frame or it is game over for you. After this, you’ll see the controls then will see a couple of pop up screens that give you some tips. When you first pick up a weapon of any kind, the game will tell you how to drop it, throw it or just beat a zombie’s face in. The game’s way of introducing you to these things is really nice – no big deal if you miss out on the instruction book or anything.
The vast array of weaponry to demolish zombies with is awesome. In the demo alone, I was able to find a lightsaber, a handgun, a shopping cart, a bowling ball and more. There were also some strange weapons – you could walk into a jewelry store, pick up a handful of gems and hurl them at incoming zombies. The CD store had a stack of discs to toss at the undead stalking you. The strangest of all, though, is the condiment bottle inside a restaurant. Yes, you can run in there, grab a bottle of ketchup and then proceed to beat the walking dead with it. Also, it can be tossed at a zombie, making a red splotch on them.
Another fun part of the game that you can take part in during the demo involves photography. See, Frank is still a photojournalist while he goes about mauling zombies and you can even see the camera he carries. Press the left trigger to bring up the viewfinder for the camera and you can snap a picture. While a regular picture of some zombies walking around would be newsworthy, readers would rather see zombies closer to you or zombies eating arms or some such. You’ll gain PP (experience points) for taking good pictures – this makes for another fun activity if you get tired of destroying zombies.
The demo is quite fun, overall. And it truly is just a small taste of the full game. You’ll only get a small fraction of the weapons, see very little of the available space to roam in the mall and not get to actually complete a case. While you will still gain PP, you won’t actually level up or anything, either. However, if you were on the fence, be sure to download this demo and give it a try – you may very well find something that you like.
And killing zombies never really gets old.
