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.

It's really refreshing sometimes to play a game that doesn't take itself too seriously nor does it provide any philosophical, deep, moral messages or even thought-provoking. What it does is entertains and sometimes that's all you want.

Inspired by the likes of the George Romero zombie flicks of yore, Dead Rising tells the tale of Frank West, a no-nonsense photographer who has landed, quite literally, into a living hell of a story. And that hell comes from the mindless hordes of zombies that seek to devour nothing but human flesh as well as generally moaning and groaning. He gets more than what he bargained for as he uncovers a conspiracy that goes far deeper than he has expected.

With that premise in mind, it's easy to see the parallels to past zombie flicks and here it works really well. The Resident Evil games without a doubt are MUCH more intense than this game, but Dead Rising spices things up by game-play variety. Not only do you get to take pictures, but you also must time them right to get the perfect shot which earns you points that level up your character. You can also take on side missions ranging from rescuing civilians and killing bosses. And man, some of the boss fights are really good and inventive with a wide assortment of lunatics to defeat and once you defeat them, you get rewards like key cards and even new weapons. Some of the weapons are really cool; especially the ones that impales zombies and have them spinning around and around are darkly humorous and you can even use a lawn mower!!! Add to the fact that you can drive vehicles to mow down zombies and you have yourself one entertaining game.

The controls are tight and sound effects are top-notch, crisp and clear. Nothing is more pleasing than bashing the living daylights out of zombies with the sound of gushing blood and it helps to have a rocking sound system that adds to the experience. And it looks really good too; with detailed graphics that are so real looking, you'll be left agape with mouth in tow. As for the story, I thought it was pretty good although it doesn't really offer anything new in terms of plot, but the character development got me invested in the proceedings as things went along. There are some hilarious moments, though not in a lighthearted sense. All in all, stellar production values make this one a treat.

However, the biggest flaw in this game is the save system. Simply put, it is not well-developed or though out in any way shape or form. You can't save anywhere nor are there any multiple save slots for saved games; I found myself very frustrated by not being able to save anywhere. There are some moments where the game saves automatically and it lessens the frustration somewhat, but the save system really sucks the life out of this otherwise stellar game. I also found it rather short. I beat it in a couple of hours which is a little disappointing but the amount of variety in zombie disposal makes up for this in some ways than one.

So is Dead Rising the best zombie game? it's quite close but Resident Evil is much better. However, If all you want is a nice, entertaining zombie game that doesn't take itself too seriously, isn't very deep and offers a variety of killing zombies, then get this game. Just don't expect Resident Evil-like quality and you're all good.

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.

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!

Capcom is one of the best, if not most popular 3rd party developers of all time. They've developed a lot of popular series and have created some interesting game characters, including the ones from street fighter, and resident evil.

But then comes Dead rising, which puts you in the shoes of a young freelance photographer looking for his big scoop to put his name into history. What he doesn't know is that for 3 days, from September 19th, to the 22nd in the year 2006, He's in for a blood-soaked, fear-inducing, adventure filled with excitement.

Frank West is tipped off about something big happening in Williamette, Colorado, a fictional town of about 50,000 people. He hires a low budget chopper pilot to fly him in so he can snap some pictures of the town. it's not long before the national guard come and chase the chopper away, but not before Frank is able to land on the mall's roof, and get in. He soon discovers that it's not a civil disturbance, but a zombie apocalypse. And for the next 72 hours, it's him, a few survivors, and nearly 50,000 blood-thirsty, flesh-starved zombies.

I got this one very late in the Xbox 360's lifespan, and i'm still not sure why I waited so long to pick this one up. It's a lot of fun and worth whatever you pay for it.

The main idea of Dead rising is to collect as many Prestige points (PP) as you can, while helping 2 particular people discover why the zombies have risen up in the first place. You collect prestige points by using your camera to take photographs of people, zombies, anything that's happening in the disaster zone of Williamette. You also collect points by killing zombies with whatever is at your disposal, including knives, sporting goods, tools, Electronics, and my personal favorite so far, the Chainsaw. You get the biggest PP boost by rescuing survivors and guiding them to the only sanctuary left - The security room.

The best part of the game, is the fact that you have a lot of freedom. for 72 hours, you can do whatever you please. Want to be a zombie-killing machine with whatever is at your disposal? You can. Do you want to rescue survivors? you can. Do you want to take pictures for your big story? do it. And are you sure you want to know why the zombie apocalypse is happening in the first place? stay close to 2 particular people, stay alive, and you might just learn exactly why there is a zombie apocalypse in the first place.

For anyone who hasn't picked up a copy of Dead rising yet, I strongly suggest you do so. The replay value is great.

9/10