Take that, Land of the Dead!
Graphics: The character models aren't quite CG movie quality, but they are nice and detailed enough to get the job done. The huge mall is very nice and well put together. The amount of zombies on screen at once is mind blowing. Sound: The voice acting in the game has that good old B movie cheese kind of vibe. Considering the subject matter of the game, that makes perfect sense. Everything else, from the sound effects to the mall music and such fits in to place like it should.
Control: Serviceable. Switching back and forth between the radio and weapons can be a pain at times. Fighting can be really fun once you get to higher levels and open up more attack moves. Gameplay: This is where Dead Rising separates itself from the land of mediocre games. This is not just a game about killing zombies (although if that's your cup of tea, then you can do that). There are lots of things to do in the overrun mall, and there is no way that you will do it all in one play through. There are many side missions throughout the game, but time contstraints between main mission objectives means that you won't be able to do everything at once. Although this makes sense, this is also one of Dead Rising's main faults. If you don't really know where you are going or are strong enough to take on some of the tougher bosses, you could find yourself losing a lot of time and may not make it to your next main objective before time runs out. If you miss a main objective time, then its game over and you have to start from your last save point. Depending on when you saved, you may find yourself stuck in a rut, and having to start over from the beginning. However, this isn't totally bad as you start over at whatever skill level you left off with. Plus, you could always do some missions you missed before. The game is fun enough to cover up these few misteps.
Final Thoughts: Dead Rising seems to add some of the best qualities of an action game, an RPG, and a B movie. All in all, its a pretty nice package that is definitely deserving of your playtime. If its undead.....make it dead.