Played on:
Xbox 360
We finally got one. Finally. Yes, there is now a video game in stores that lives up to the classic zombie horror flicks. Hell, the developers at Capcom insist via a disclaimer on the front of Dead Rising's box that no, legendary horror filmmaker George A. Romero was not a part of this project, nor does this title have anything official to do with his seminal zombie movie Dawn of the Dead. Why even bother? Well, there are some very conspicuous similarities here: zombies in a mall, people getting eaten, that sort of thing. But if this game needs a disclaimer, then don't World of Warcraft developers Blizzard Entertainment need one disclaiming any perceived similarity to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings? Or what about the hundreds of books, shows, movies, and games that borrow from popular culture?
Either way, you only need to spend a few minutes playing the game to notice the resemblance between Dead Rising and Romero's holiest of horror flicks. Dead Rising is set in Willamette, Colorado, a small town which happens to have a very, very nice shopping mall as its biggest attraction. You play as Frank West, a freelance photojournalist who has heard about something fishy going on in Willamette, and who is currently being taken in by a helicopter to investigate and get some shots. But what he sees is much more than just weird - it's horrific. The first playable scene of the game has the helicopter swooping along the city's main street as zombies tear into humans who can't fend off the massive numbers of the undead. It's not long before Frank notices that most of the activity seems to be happening at the Willamette Parkview Mall, and decides to make a deal with the pilot - come back in exactly three days to pick him up on that roof. In the meantime, Frank has plenty of choices as to how he'll spend those three days.
This begins your adventure into zombie-smushing, people-saving, and all around goofiness that the developers at Capcom have really gone overboard with (in a good way!). Dead Rising kind of feels like Dawn of the Dead meets Chopping Mall meets Grand Theft Auto, as you can just run around killing zombies all day without ever saving anyone if you like. During your stay you'll figure out who the key players in the story are, how this happened in the first place, and just what will be done about it (aside from the military quarantine that's being set up). You might have to do some of the work yourself, as you'll quickly find out that it's not just the undead that have it in for you and the friends you make at Willamette Parkview.
Now, you can just go smashing zombie faces all day, and everyone can enjoy that for a while. Eventually, you'll want to actually make Frank a little tougher, and that's when you need to start getting serious about gaining Prestige Points - otherwise known as PP, but it works just like experience points from RPGs. Sure, you can level up just by killing zombies, but it's slow. What works better is going through the game's Cases and Scoops, rescuing people and escorting them back to the Security Room (a safe spot for those who still have a heartbeat), and even take pictures. Yes, Frank is still here to make it big in the photojournalism world, and you can put away your and whip out your camera at almost any time. Getting shots of great moments of drama, violence or horror will net you big points, and even just getting together large numbers of zombies for a photo will gain you plenty of PP as well.
Now, you can just go smashing zombie faces all day, and everyone can enjoy that for at least a while. Eventually, though, you'll want to actually make Frank tougher, and that's when you need to start getting serious about gaining Prestige Points, which work just like experience points from RPGs. Sure, you can level up just by killing zombies, but it's slow going and weapons break too often early on for it to be really effective. What works better is to spend a while working through the game's Cases and Scoops, rescuing people and escorting them back to the Security Room (a safe spot for those who still have a heartbeat), and even take pictures. Yes, Frank is still here to make it big in the photojournalism world, and you can put away your and whip out your camera at almost any time. Getting shots of great moments of drama, violence or horror will net you big points, and even just getting together large numbers of zombies for a photo will gain you plenty of Prestige Points as well. Once you've leveled up some, go back to destroying the hordes of zombies with your newfound powers.
The one odd, and sometimes truly annoying, thing about this game is its three-day structure. You'll be completing Cases (essentially, quests to save or to work with other humans in the mall), but anyone in this game can die, and so you might fail certain cases and the game will just keep on going until you specifically end it. Yes, this can happen early and might screw up the rest of the cases in the game - it's up to you whether you want to just purposely get your face eaten by a zombie and start over with only your level intact.
While you can save in any bathroom in the mall or in the Security Room, these are the only places where you can do so. If you get pretty far into the game, get killed, and realize that you haven't saved for hours, then you have only two options: load from that old save or restart the game entirely with only your total PP and level intact. Items and weapons will go poof when you restart the game, and while your level makes a huge difference in your ability to avoid or kill zombies or just plain survive, you'll still find that an accidental death can set you back or just make you go ahead and restart. This is made a little worse by the fact that you may walk past many save points on the way through a Case, but it doesn't force you or even remind you to save after the first time it tells you at the beginning. If you forget, Dead Rising won't be reminding you.
