Overall amazing zombie game, with tons of originality, and fun to boot, kudos to Capcom on this one...
This game is very well made, and very, very fun to play. Some people like to say things like "doesn't killing zombies over and over get boring?", you know what i say? No it doesn't get boring in the slightest, in fact its one of the best things ever. With over 250's worth of weapons at your disposal, free roaming like gameplay, the very detailed graphics, and some of the best sound ever in a game, this game has to be one of my favorite games of all time.
So the game starts out as you, Frank West, a photojournalist, out to collect a story on the small town of Willamette because of the recent outbursts he's been hearing about. His helicoptor pilot drops him off at the local mall, and says he will be back in 72 hours exactly and once the 72 hours are up you must be on the helipad or he will leave without you. Frank soon learns that these are not mere riots but they are the living dead, or zombies. Well I don't want to give too much away, but the game starts off with a ton of people boarded up in the mall, when some crazy idiotic old woman destroys the barricade to get her precious dog and lets the zombies into the mall (pretty dumb eh). So Frank meets up with a few people and they lock themselves into a security room where you must exit through an air vent to explore the inner mall.
This game runs on a timed system, where you will need to be at certain places at certain times. This game also cycles through night and day sequences. You will have 72 hours to complete everything, and in regular time it is about roughly 10-15 hours game time.
You will need to finish different case files throughout the game, each one needs to be met at a certain time or game over. You will get a communicator from a man named Otis, the janitor; he will use this to call you throughout the game giving you information about different people trapped within the mall, thus giving you all the side missions throughout the game. He can become very annoying at times, and sometimes doesn't realize that you're being horribly mauled by zombies, when he complains that you're rude and shouldn't disconnect from him. You probably wont be able to do every side mission unless you want to mess up the story by missing a case file but you can do a few before time runs out.
There are different types of missions in the game, one of them are escort missions, ugh painful, painful escorts, anyway you will need to find the people trapped within the mall and escort them back to the security room, sounds easy huh, well not when your surrounded by 60 or so zombies. There are 3 types of people in escort missions, one is the healthy people, they will walk and act on their own while following you, you may give them weapons if you wish, in my opinion these are a pain in the rear because they always stay back to kill a zombie or two and you cant do anything about it. The second type is small defenseless people, usually teenage girls, you will need to lug these people around while holding their hands, they cant hold any weapons or fight for themselves so basically its either hold my hand or get left behind. The last and probably most annoying people are injured people, these people will most likely have a fractured, sprained, or broken bone and you will need to lug them around the mall on your back or else they will limp slowly while being eaten alive by zombies.
The second type of missions are psychopath missions, in these mission you will need to kill an incredibly hard "boss" type person, usually they have a person or two kept captive, but sometimes you need to kill them for the story, or to unlock a store, like the gun shop. Psychopaths are easily explained as psychotic humans that have gone crazy from the recent zombie outburst, most of these psychos will die in a horrible manner which is very fun to watch sometimes (clown anyone).
The mall itself is huge in size, there are 6 different indoor sections and 2 outdoor sections... well I guess 1 outdoor section but I count the underground area outdoor. Anyway each section of the mall usually has different amounts of zombies from what I've noticed, and have different styles and stores, like north plaza is mainly weapon orientated, food court is well... for food, etc. the outdoor sections consist of a park, and an underground parking area, i myself never go outside much unless needed too.
The save system in general isn't as bad as what most people say, it is only that they give you one file to save on and if you save at a wrong time then game over for you. Normally it didn't bother me much and there are plenty of opportunities to save so I wouldn't worry about this if you thought this was going to be a problem for you.
This game has leveling up system where Frank earns experience from doing various things. The experience is called "pp" you gain pp by, killing zombies, killing them in special flashy ways, killing psychopaths, rescuing people, and taking photos, when you level up you learn new moves, and gain stats like speed upgrades and power upgrades. The level limit is to level 50, once there you will no longer gain any pp and will be as strong as you can be. At first you will be wimpy and most likely scared to fight zombies, but once you get to level 30 or so zombies will seem like killing a small kitten, only more dangerous and not as cute.
Taking photos in this game isn't necessary at all but it is very helpful. There are many different types of photos. Grey photos are... well nothing, red photos are violent photos, green photos are funny photos, pink are erotic photos (we all know you love zombie erotica), and orange are drama photos generally taken when something dramatic happens between survivors. Photos give pp based on how well your photo was taken, and in some cases how many enemies are in the photo, and how creative the photo was.
There are about 3 types of zombies, dumb zombies that do nothing but wander around, slightly aggressive zombies which slowly limp at you and try to hit you, mostly aren't successful though, then there's aggressive zombies which sprint at you with full speed, and usually always nail a hit on you. There are 2 things that make zombies different, one is a hard hat some zombies wear these and when you try to shoot them it'll just "ting" right off their helmet, another is the cop zombies, I'm guessing they have protection under their suit or something because I've noticed they take longer to kill than normal.
There are many ways to kill zombies, one of them is melee combat yes your fists, these trusty things will be used to fight off zombies if you ever get left without a weapon, at first it takes about 20-25 punches to kill someone. After you level up a bunch it'll go down and you will learn more melee combat moves, most of the new moves learned will be able to kill off zombies in 2-3 hits, so your fists are a good weapon in this game.
The way you heal in this game is, well... by eating food. Food can be found easily throughout the mall, different types of food heal different amounts of health. Food can sometimes be mixed in blenders or cooked to add better healing effects or in some cases cool side effects, such as 1 hit kill spit.
There are also books you are able gather in the game. Books give you a special "bonus" for being held in the inventory, and only if they are being held in your inventory. It tells you what bonus each book gives you when you pick it up and read it. Some books give your things like, *certain weapon type* lasts longer, or food heals you more, or your punches are stronger. Books are mostly optional, but sometimes you will need one for a mission such as the Japanese tourists, for them you'll need to pick up the Japanese language book to speak to them and have them join you. I myself never use books too much but they are very useful.
Now the fun part, weapons there are so many weapons in this game its not even funny... well its not supposed to be funny but you get my drift. Weapons don't last forever in this game, they made this so you basically couldn't get yourself a chainsaw and go to town on 50,000 zombies, most weapons break after a good 20-30 kills. There's 4 types of weapons firearms, melee, vehicles, and hat/helmet type things. Capcom got really creative on these, some of these weapons i thought would be pretty normal like the lead pipe for instance, i threw it and guess what it sticks into one of them and blood comes draining out of it, best thing ever. Firearms aren't the best in the game but are very handy for most bosses, unless you've got yourself a shotgun I wouldn't bother killing zombies with them as you can be more successful with a good smack to the face. Melee weapons are too wide of a category to explain all at once so I'll try and slim it down a bit. One category would be basic melee which are easily found throughout the mall, such as cash registers, these are basically just a weapon where you give a zombie a good ol smack and they will die in about 2-3 hits. Second category i like to call "weak as hell, but fun to use weapons", like a toy light sword, these weapons usually kill zombies in a good 15-20 hits don't use these unless you really want to they are fun to use, but if your trying to survive i doubt your handy dandy king salmon will fight off 50 zombies. Third category would be what i like to call "your screwed when I get this" category, pretty much weapons that kill a zombie in one hit, like a sword, or my favorite a chainsaw, basically you rip zombies to shreds with these like they were a tissue during flu season. My fourth, final, and favorite category would be "creativity" category, these weapons consist of creative ways to kill zombies, like the good ol excavator, yes you know the giant drill on the trailers you've always wanted to use, and the shower head, yes I've had some good times with the shower head you'd just have to see it to know what I mean. Next are the vehicles not many of these, but there are a good few, I can name 4 off the top of my head, a sports car, motorcycle, shopping cart, and a lawn mower, these weapons are pretty straight-forward just walk/drive into the zombies and watch them drop like bombs. Lastly is the hats, these handy little things help it so that zombies cant bite or see you they will just wander around aimlessly until you chop his head off with your trusty katana.
The graphics and sound in this game are very good. The graphics are great but not the best, it's the detail that surprises me, in some cases they have names and labels for all the food items and different items throughout the store. The sound is very well done I can't explain it very well but there is nothing better than hearing a chainsaw rip through the flesh of a moaning zombie.
Now I love what Capcom did for all the game references, like Megaman and Resident Evil. They have various Megaman items throughout the mall, and of course "Jill's Sandwiches".
Overall this is a very good game and most 360 owners should consider getting it, now on to pros and cons.
Pros:
-Very fun to kill zombies
-Big mall
-TONS of weapons
-Pretty neat level up system
-Many Capcom game references
-The sound
Cons:
-OTIS SHUT UP!!!
-Save system for some people
-MIGHT get repetitive for a few select people