The setting of Dead Rising is eerily similar to that of Dawn of the Dead, to the point where Capcom has had to include a disclaimer in the game and on the box citing that the game has nothing to do with George A. Romero’s cult hit (and its subsequent remake). The small town of Willamette, Colorado has been infested with zombies, with the remaining citizens barricading themselves in the mall. Photojournalist Frank West flies into town after getting a tip-off on a big story in the area. When he lands in the mall, he finds that the remaining citizens are tired, battered and desperately clinging to life. Unfortunately, one of the citizens decides that the life of her pet poodle is more important than the lives of her fellow survivors, allowing the zombies into the mall when attempting to save the pooch. The zombies storm the entrance and take over the mall, though they tend to prefer to devour flesh rather than bargains, and thus start attacking the survivors. It’s Frank’s job to save as many survivors as he can, find out the truth behind the zombie outbreak and survive for 72 hours in a mall infested by flesh eating zombies.
Attention K-Mart shoppers...
While there is a couple of different ways you can play Dead Rising, the 72-hour mode forms the base of the experience. Simply put, Frank has to find out the story behind the infestation and be back at the helicopter pad by midday on the fourth day. Story events in the game occur at a set time, and failure to arrive at the scheduled destination by that time will result in the truth being lost (i.e. you’ll have to start again if you want to continue the plot). Story missions can be a bit simplistic in nature – fetch this, kill this person, rescue this person, but they do get a bit more interesting later in the game, especially when the clock is ticking.
The other missions in Dead Rising are the scoops, which will be phoned into you by Otis the janitor (you can stumble across them yourself though). Scoops tend to deal with either saving a survivor or dealing with a psychopath; that is a survivor who’s a bit twisted. Psychopaths vary in their level of madness; jealous photographers, insane clowns, Vietnam veterans, a family of snipers and a large cult are amongst the adversaries you’ll encounter. Remember how Frank is meant to be a journalist? Well, players can take photos using his digital camera to gain Prestige Points (or PP), with bonus points issued for genre specific pictures. Dealing with scoops and taking photos are the best way to earn PP, which will upgrade your current level and give Frank new abilities. The benefits of levelling up are random however, which can be a bit of a pain, but you get everything you need by level 50.
Frank's got wood.
However, the story isn’t really the reason Dead Rising has us excited. The game’s greatest aspect is the way in which it deals with the zombie infestation. There are zombies everywhere – hundreds can be on screen at one time without slowdown. All bets are off: almost every object in the game is a weapon. You’d think that slashing down countless numbers of daft enemies would get boring pretty quickly, but the sheer scope and level of novelty involved in Dead Rising’s base combat prevents this from happening. The game boasts somewhere in the region of 250 weapons. Hack a zombie with a pick axe, slice him in half with a katana, grab a hockey mask and a chainsaw and slay the crowds like a bad 80s horror movie villain, knock the zombies over with a bowling ball, mow the zombies with a lawnmower, steal a car from the parking lot and run them over, show your national pride by throwing a boomerang at a zombie – there’s just so many ways to take them out.
Of course, not all zombie disposal has to be weapon-based – as Frank levels up he gains some pretty cool abilities, such as being able to tear a zombies intestines out, or executing some moves that would put WWE wrestlers to shame. Being trapped in a mall means free access to all facilities, so Frank can take any clothes he wants from stores, take an extended loan on a book (which will boost certain abilities), or use the cooking facilities to make special drinks (which vary in effect, from making Frank’s spit lethal, to making zombies more attracted to you). The game has a real campy undertone to it – joyous background music fills the mall along with announcements to celebrate the mall’s birthday and to remind shoppers how the mall appreciates them and such, not to mention the rather crazy personalities you’ll encounter inside the centre.
Clean-up on aisle 3.
Two other play modes are available after the 72 hour mode is beaten; Overtime mode and Infinite mode. Overtime mode is unlocked after a specific ending, and is meant to be beaten to unlock the game’s true ending. Infinite mode on the other hand is an almost purely sandbox take on the Dead Rising formula. The game has no set time limit, but Frank will lose one block of health every 100 seconds, but on top of that, everyone in the mall is hostile towards him, which makes it very difficult to survive. The game does seem to be built around repeat plays – you wont see everything the first time around. It takes somewhere in the region of 8-10 hours for the 72 Hour Mode to play out, which feels just about right. Dead Rising can be surprisingly difficult at times; you will die and have to reload your game often, due to either being swarmed by zombies, or the fact that the psychopaths are so much stronger than you. The game has a set of 50 achievements which range in difficulty and time to earn which should hold achievement junkies at bay for several more days.
There’s not a whole lot to complain about in Dead Rising; the game’s scope has a real next generation feel to it, it looks really good in motion, it doesn’t feature the typical bad dub from Capcom and the game is a total blast to play. The game’s save system can be a little unforgiving (only one slot is available), but if you get caught in a situation you can’t get out of, the game will allow you to restart with all of Frank’s new abilities intact. If you’re a fan of zombie movies or just in the mood to slay thousands of ghouls with unconventional weaponry, then Dead Rising is well and truly worth a look.
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