You're Frank West, and you're in a mall full of zombies. What do you do? Improvise.
First off, the graphics. The graphics are great. The zombies look very detailed, and other surviving humans in the mall all look unique. The mall is very large and very detailed. There are so many different stores and places to go. The blood from the zombies you fight is awesome looking, with gore and bodily fluids spurting out. Frank even gets soaked with blood as he bashes his way through zombies.
Second, the gameplay. The gameplay is excellent and is really easy. The combat is sort of button mashy but is definetly fun as you rip through zombies by the hundreds. Speaking of zombies, there is an infinite amount of zombies throughout the mall. They are usually in large mob groups that are stationary, but sometimes they travel in small packs around the mall. The game allows you to pick up almost anything as a weapon, from benches to baseball bats, manequins to saw blades. As you prgoress, Frank levels up and learns new combat moves. That makes the game so much better. Instead of just giving you a gun to kill zombies, you have to improvise and use your environment around you. But you do find guns in this game, but there are usually only 30 bullets which are gone very fast.
Third, the story. I'm not going to spoil anything about the story, but how these zombies came to be and why they're here is pretty dumb. Although the story doesn't affect the gameplay, I like well thought out and complex stories, but Dead Rising's story is kind of strange. At least I can say it's unique.
There is a problem with the saving system. You only have 1 save, and the real time gameplay messes this up because if you're aiming for a specific ending (I believed the are 6 different endings, and there is only one actual ending) and you accidently save when there's little time to finish a Case File, you're f**ked big time. You can either save very very carefully, or you can start the game over from the beginning. If you start over, Frank will be just as powerful as he was in your previous game, which is good.
So if you're ready for a visceral, gore filled, zombie slaughtering adventure through an enormous megamall, buy Dead Rising. You will not be disappointed.