No one throws a zombie killing fest like Capcom does.
In Dead Rising, you play the role of Frank West, a wartime photojournalist who has gotten a tip that something is happening in the small town of Willamette, Colorado. After chartering a helicopter ride to the local mall, it becomes apparent that the town has been overrun with zombies. The rest of the game is spent trying to survive in the mall for 72 hours until the helicopter returns.
The plot will sound immediately familiar to anyone that’s seen John Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. However, the plot is much different than the classic horror movie. Instead of trying to hide from zombies, you will frequently adventure into areas infested with them to find other survivors, take pictures, or just to kill the undead.
GAMEPLAY
A lot of hype for DR has focused on the ability to use almost anything as a weapon. Everything from the usual guns and swords to potted plants and bowling balls can be used to slay the undead. This makes for some very fun and rewarding experiences.
It might sound like this gets old fast, but it doesn’t. This is mainly because the game doesn’t force you to kill thousands of zombies (some areas literally hold thousands of undead). Instead, your main tasks are to find out what is behind the zombie outbreak, and to rescue survivors. Killing zombies just happens along the way.
The controls are smooth, and allow you to perform many different moves and attacks, as Frank gets stronger. Combat with guns can be a little awkward, though. And even melee attacks can be hard to perform sometimes. The zombies are kind of passive, even at night when they become stronger. Some will pursue you more actively, but in large you will find that the zombies wont come after you unless you’re within 15 feet or so. It would have been nicer to see them gradually sniff you out, and try to corner you in a store. Now that’s horror.
The biggest problem with the game play is that you can only have one save file at a time. Combine this with the fact that some story missions need to be completed at a certain time, or the game ends means that it’s possible to save yourself into a corner. Thus you might need to start the whole game over again if you don’t plan ahead.
GRAPHICS
The environments look great. The setting of the colorful mall is a stark graphical contrast to the undead horrors that stalk its halls. DR is a very gory game, and it shows in the nearly limitless ways you can kill zombies. All the characters are well animated, but the texture quality varies. Frank and the NPCs look great, especially in cut scenes. But the zombies look a little on the low rez side.
There’s also a problem with the GUI where in-coming calls from your walkie-talkie are displayed in text on the screen with no voice-overs. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the text is so small that it’s hard to read from a distance, especially on a normal TV screen. This will undoubtedly lead to some confusion about how to perform certain tasks. But overall the graphics look great, and help pull you in.
SOUND
The sound in DR is something to behold. You wont find much in the way of music, but it’s not missed. The real treat is in the ambient sounds. Cheesy mall music plays throughout, and in a hall full of zombies you can hear each of them moaning and shuffling around. Each weapon sounds unique when used on the dead, and further adds to the fun of it.
The voice acting is well done too. Each of the main characters provides a convincing performance, and you grow attached to them. Unfortunately, some of the other NPCs just sound bad. There’s also a minor problem with the lip-synching during cut scenes, but overall this is treat for the ears.
VALUE
This is where Dead Rising really shines. Because of the in-game time limit, and the huge size of the Willamette mall, you really need to play through this game at least twice to see everything. The scoops, or side missions, offer a wide variety of optional content. Plus you can unlock different game modes that allow you to stay in the mall as long as you want.
There are many achievements to unlock. Some of which are so easy you’ll literally fall upon them (fall 16 feet for 20 points). Others require you to kill over 53,000 zombies (the entire population of Willamette), and are a bit harder. The only downside to this is that all the achievements only give you 20 points. This means there is less incentive to do the harder ones.
The one thing that Dead Rising lacks is some kind of co-op mode. In a game like this, it would have been so easy to create an online mode were you can perform zombie genocide with a bunch of your friends. Frank also levels up as you take pictures, kill zombies, and perform side quests. But it would have been nice to allow the player the ability to determine how they want to level him up. Like putting fewer points into inventory, and more into power.
Despite an ugly save system that can get you into trouble if you’re not careful, Dead Rising is a fantastic and original game. Capcom has reworked the genre they started, and created a fresh take on zombie horror. If you love horror games, or just like original adventure games, Dead Rising is the game for you.