Dead Rising

Dead Rising, from Capcom, the masters of survival horror, is the first true Next Gen game for the xbox 360. Any other game out there, its questionable that they could've been done on a lesser console. This one however, is the first 'must buy' if you want to show off your consoles prowess.

The first time you run into the mall and see two hundred to three hundred zombies shambling around in front of you, your jaw will literally hit the ground... simply because the game does this with ease whilst keeping a truly solid frame rate and an excellent level of graphics.

The concept is shockingly simple. You're a journalist, dropped into a town overrun with zombies, specifically at the mall, you have to survive 3 days. Sounds easy right? Hell no.

Dead Rising is unfortunately going to draw comparisons between two properties. The first is George Romeros zombie movies, and fair enough, it does borrow the concept of the Dawn of the dead movie. The second, the Resident Evil games for some reason.

Let me assure you, the only thing Resident Evil 1 2 3 and 4 have in common with Dead Rising is that there's zombies. But in Dead Rising however, the zombies are much more threatening.

We're not talking modern day running zombies though, we've got the old style swarming zombies. Ever see a zombie movie and wonder 'How the hell did they get eaten? They could've just walked around them!' or something? Get your ass into the maintenance tunnels of Dead Rising, where literally hundreds of zombies pack the halls and you have to wade your way through.

The game play is third person above and behind, the controls are fluid and intuitive, response time from Frank, the journalist, is superb. Capcom have really outdone themselves. The controls are simple, not complicated and every time you get a new skill, it's something to add to your arsenal to turn Camera from Camera toting wimp into Zombie masher extraordinaire.

The weaponry in this game, is incredible. Every sound seems spot on for whatever you're using. You can use things from knives to katanas, pistols to 50. cal machine guns, from chainsaws to fence post hole diggers called Excavators. Each weapon affects the zombies in an individual way for the most part. The Katana will slice zombies in half with whatever angle it hits. It may be from the shoulder to the groin or the head to the leg, it doesn't matter, no hit seems to be exactly the same. The Excavator is just pure gold but I won't spoil that one, it's got to be seen to be fully believed.

Dead Risings only missteps, are minor ones. Well, maybe one major one and the rest are minor. So what are they? 1. People complain about the one save slot. However, Capcom ensure you'll never have to truly start again as any progress in a previous game, if you're killed, can be taken over into a new game. Personally I found a way around only one save slot. I use a memory card and a hard drive in conjunction with each other. This allows me essentially two.

2. No true Free roaming mode. There's a survival mode you can unlock and thats nice, but there doesn't seem to be a true 'free roam' mode as such. Not that that's such a bad thing. The game might get a tiny bit tedious if that was all you'd do...

3. Unforgiving plot. In this game, you have main cases and side cases. Side cases are optional, they're usually rescuing people or defeating psychopaths. Main missions are the ones you must do to progress. Miss one of these and you're done.

4. Time goes by way too fast. An hour goes past in 4 minutes roughly. The game lasts 72 hours, you're looking at between 5 - 6 hours game play. But thats a truly MINOR quibble. The game has that much re-playability it's not funny. If you can get through this, or even half way, in your first few days, I'll buy you a beer :D So to conclude. Dead Rising isn't without its faults. Pobodys Nerfect as they say. It's my cup of tea and then some, but it's not someone elses, but they're not writing this review. My recommendation is this... if you want a showpiece for your 360, a game that you can either stuff around in for hours or play seriously, if you want something that's surprisingly deep for such a shallow concept, check out Dead Rising, you won't be disappointed.

Dead rising is by far the best Xbox 360 game to be released yet. Dead Rising is a fresh and creative game that finally brings a zombie game to life in a entirely interactive mall. I highly suggest buying this game if you own a 360. You are Frank West, Photojournalist, the place? Willmete Colorado, the mall. Your mall, your actions, you decide the way the story goes, each action has a consequence.

As Frank West your goal is to stay alive three days until the chopper gets back and get a story. Use virtually anything to kill zombies, including but not limited to: televisions, two by fours, guns, chainsaws, propane tanks, saw blades, baseball bats, soccer balls, cardboard boxes, Shower heads and many many more.

Wear anything from suits, to children's clothes, dresses, Teddy bear masks, Horse heads, and sports clothes. Use other weapons for pure fun, such as: Light up swords, make up displays such as lipstick, and anything that you can find that you know wouldn't kill anyone.

Drive vehicles such as a red car and a motorcycle resembling a Harley Davidson Fat Boy.

Overall this game is fresh, creative, and excels expectations.

This is definitely a great game. It leaves you with anything as a weapon, and swarms of zombies waiting to have the faces bashed in or sliced in two. The graphics definitely are amazing, and so are the blood effects, and when you kill an enemy, their blood goes all over you and if you walk through blood there are bloody footprints. The game has a ton of twists, lots of places to go, and a lot of bosses and weapon choices. The voice acting is absolutely incredible, yet the AI needs a little work. The game has a surprisingly amazing plot, an amazing soundtrack, and also has very interesting cut scenes, like the one at the end of the game... which i don't want to reveal and spoil the game.

scale of 1-10... 100!

When I picked up Dead Rising at the local video game retailer I expected a pure and simple zombie bashing game. As a fan of the zombie genre, that was what I had wanted as well. While the game delivered the buckets of blood and pointless killing that I had craved at the time it also supplied a little more.

There is an actual plot line that involves multiple endings for the player to unlock. Of course the player can ignore the story which constricts them to a strict time track to stay on top of in order to complete each of the missions arrayed. Ignoring the plot line does not detract from the game as it lets the player simply run through the mall killing at will, or having a more noble streak and rescuing survivors.

The mall itself holds plenty of weapons to use, food to regenerate health, and clothes to change into. The graphics are well done, featuring great sound effects (especially the blood splatters), and some great killing moves.

The game also features some small RPG elements which allow your character to upgrade and gain more health, stronger attacks, and some new hand-to-hand attack moves to use against the zombie horde.

The only true gripe I have with the game is with the difficulty one can have with non-zombie enemies, and with the saving system, which requires you to run out of your way in order to find a save point which are scarce and scattered.

The game also only lets one keep one profile, which I believe makes it easier as you really only have one game to worry about, and lets you keep a single character which transfers from game to game so you don't have to start with a wimpy character like you do when you first pick up the game.

Overall I believe Dead Rising was an enjoyable zombie romp for those who enjoy the zombie genre. However if you are completely impatient, loath difficulty, and feel the developers must make a game comfortably around your own little mold that you have in your head, don't pick it up because you will merely get frustrated and annoyed.

Overall this game was rather fun and had a lot of great and memorable moments. Each time you play through it you are very likely to come across a cut scene or new character you haven't seen before. The graphics, music, and voice acting were all top notch and added to the feeling of actually being in a real living environment with real characters, rather than just a couple of areas and people thrown together. Killing the same zombies over and over again, however, does tend to get alittle old after a few times, which leads to the one main gripe of this game...the game saving. Saving can only be done in certain specific areas of the mall with only one slot for saving, which guarantees you will have to start from the beginning at least a few times. On the plus side, you are able to keep the skills and experience you accumulated during the way making it that much easier the next time around. Definitely worth the money.