Dead Rising

"Despite all the potential fun of this game, one massive flaw brings everything down"

As most everyone who plays video games knows, Capcom is the undisputed master of the zombie game. Resident Evil has sold hundreds of thousands of copies across the globe and its recent reinvention was one of the best games of the year. So, when Capcom announced their newest zombie masterpiece most assumed (myself included) it was going to be the best thing on the 360. Unfortunately, it contains one single flaw so huge that it brings all the fun toppling down like a house of cards in a tornado. There is a time limit.

STORY
Beginning with a journalist who hears about a town being quarantined, he immediately sets off to get the scoop. On arrival, he finds the town to be overrun by zombies (gasp!) and takes refuge in the local mall. As anyone with a love for horror movies can tell you, this setup is remarkable similar to Romero's “Dawn of the Dead”, and Capcom must have realized this, because the front of the game has a warning saying the game is not connected to Romero in any way. But, like Romero's movies, there are many similarities, the main one being that the zombie outbreak has no immediate explanation. However, it isn't long before you get your first big, and admittedly strange, clue. From there things really take off.

GRAPHICS
Not uber realistic by any means, but more cartoonish. That's not to say it's unrealistic, but the colors are bright and everything is well-defined. At first, it can be easy to think Capcom skimped on the graphics, but as soon as the zombies start piling up, you'll realize sacrifices had to be made to enable the sheer number of on-screen items. Again, that's not to say the graphics are bad. Far from it, but since Capcom was able to fit a claimed one thousand zombies on-screen at any given time, the graphics remain scaled back.

One major concern (at least for those who don't own a HDTV) is the tiny size of the text in the game. While this doesn't pose any sort of problem when there's speech, it becomes a major hindrance when there is no voice accompaniment. Many times, I was left completely in the dark as to what was happening because of this.

SOUND
As is typical for any zombie game, there is plenty of moaning and groaning to go around. While playing this you'll probably be doing a little yourself since your every move will be accompanying by that crap elevator music often played in malls. At times, the jazz-lite is thrown out the window in favor of a few more upbeat songs, typically when you're being attacked by a Psycho. These songs tend to be pretty good (the escaped convict theme is particularly catchy) and help to get your adrenaline pumping when dealing with these dangerous lunatics.

The sounds of body parts being sliced off and bodies being mangled is also one you'll quickly become accustomed to. When beheading or decapitating in any other gruesome manner, you'll hear a variety of grisly sounds befitting the gore on-screen.

GAMEPLAY
The biggest problem with the game, and the single biggest factor for everything you do is the time limit. I tell you this upfront because if I had known how big a part this was going to play, I would have never bought the game. It seriously affects everything you do. I'll get more into it later on, but for now, know that your every action is timed and the time you take will affect the time you have later.

The main objective of the game it to find out what caused the infection by following a series of cases. These cases occur at specific times and each individual case must be completed before the next begins or else the trail will grow cold. Should this occur (and it happened to me on numerous occasions) you'll have to reload your game or start an entirely new one.

While the cases do have set start and end times, should you finish one early, you can attempt the many side missions. These typically involve rescuing survivors from various locations. Every now and then you'll come across a Psycho, who can be defeated for lots of experience. In addition, you'll not only receive experience for rescuing survivors, but also for getting them to join your party, which means you'll typically level up often.

This RPG aspect of obtaining experience is a little out of place, but it manages to work out. Typically, on level up you'll learn a new move that will allow you to fight the zombie hordes more effectively. You'll also get more health, more inventory space as well as quicker speed and longer throwing distance. Although it may sound like you'll become a weapon of destruction, all this comes with a price. The higher your level, the more zombies that you'll have to face, but this creates a nice equilibrium.

Unfortunately, this equilibrium is completely thrown off when escorting survivors. The survivors all have different personalities, some will fight if you give them weapons, some are scared and just scream, and some are injured which requires you to carry them, thus causing yourself to become vulnerable. What they all have in common is magnificent stupidity. You can give a man a gun but what does he do? He waits until he's surrounded until he starts firing! You can give a man a chainsaw but what does he do? He cuts his best friend's head off! All in all, most of them cause so much trouble you'd wonder how they survived at all, and on the chance that they die, you'll probably watch their death video with maniacal glee.

For a game that rarely changes its formula, Dead Rising rarely becomes boring. This is mostly due to the sheer variety of weapons that you have at your disposal. Cleavers, chainsaws, lead pipes, and garden shears just to name a few. While these may seem rather boring, the true genius comes when you pick something completely mundane and it has a fantastic use. Take a parasol (basically a giant umbrella) for instance. When used, Frank charges forward holding it in front of him, and the zombies harmlessly bounce off. When a mannequin is used, Frank will bludgeon zombies until it falls apart. Then you can pick up an arm or a leg and continue the assault. Things become even funnier when you find something with very little use at all. I once found a guitar and every time I hit something it played a note. Obviously, the logical next step was to attack everything and try to play a song. Unfortunately, it didn't actually hurt my enemies but it was fun as hell. Buckets can also be used by putting them over the heads of zombies and thus rendering them harmless. What keeps everything fresh is the fact that most weapons don't last very long so you'll continually be looking for something else to use.

For those who are wondering, guns are in the game, but they are a bit disappointing. While it sounds pretty cool to pick up a shotgun and blast your way to your objective, the aiming is really off. If you want to get a bead on your target, you'll have to stop and enter a “over-the-shoulder” mode which means zombies can sneak up behind you. And none of the guns really feel like they've got any stopping power. Overall, it's more fun to use a chainsaw than a gun. Plus, the trouble you have to go through to even use the gun shop is barely worth it.

THE VERDICT
This should have been one of the most fun games on the 360 and at times it is. Unfortunately, the overbearing time limit screws everything up and makes the game nearly unplayable. Since I am someone who likes to take his time and mess around, this game had me infuriated within the first few minutes. If you're the kind of person who likes to be told when to do everything, I'd say go for it. Otherwise, stay away. Stay far away.

HIGHS
- Mall design is cool
- Tons of weapons
- Tons of zombies on-screen

LOWS
- TIME LIMIT!
- Tiny on-screen text

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/12/07, Updated 10/03/08

Game Release: Dead Rising (US, 08/08/06)