Reviewed: September 14, 2006
Reviewed by: Jordon Wingate
Publisher
Capcom
Developer
Capcom
Released: August 8, 2006
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Mature
8
9
9
7
8.5
Supported Features
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Capcom, having released its first Resident Evil title in 1996 has finally decided to take a well-needed rest from producing a game with flesh-eating Zombies, or some other creature that, in turn, consumes flesh. Wait a second… No they didn’t. So, once again, in Dead Rising, you are faced with the daunting task of solving out the mystery that is the zombie. Only, there is a change.
In Dead Rising, Capcom has given us a whole new light to the way in which the undead should be approached. Instead of recoil and fear, we must only grab onto whatever is closest, and commence with the brain smashing. As this is the main feature in Dead Rising, we find ourselves thinking that although the world may be overrun with evil undead zombies, there is still some good… Bloody good.
And on the 8th day, God made Frank West, a badass photojournalist who is hell-bent on getting fame and glory. Only, that fame and glory is no easy task. He must first discover the secrets that are plaguing the small city of Willemette, Colorado, while being surrounded by thousands of ex-Willemette, turned zombie, citizens. After being ushered to the Willemette Mall on a helicopter, Frank finds himself right in the thick of things with 72-hours to unravel the clues, and he soon realizes that he is unbelievably capable of ‘killing’ the undead.
In a game that plays very similarly to Grand Theft Auto, in a setting much like State of Emergency, hours of fun can be spent at the expense of discovering new and innovative ways of knocking a few bodies around. Yet, once this simple pleasure is fulfilled, any player finds that behind the blood, there is also real game to play.
While destroying corpses, players see that there is a body counter tallying up recently extinguished lives (or un-lives). This is an easy way of gaining Prestige Points for Frank. Prestige Points allow Frank to achieve new levels of deadliness, resulting in new killing moves, increased attack, strength, life capacity, speed, and item carrying capabilities.
There are many other ways to gain points outside of destruction. For instance, saving the life of a survivor, or taking a totally wicked picture of one of the freak bosses that randomly roam the mall will also score a few PP’s. These PP’s are added up at the end of the game and loaded into Xbox Live.
Dead Rising is laid out in a very easy-to-follow format. From the get-go, Frank realizes that it seems as though other survivors have ulterior motives, and from this suspicion spawns a ‘Case’, assessable from the main menu, that Frank must solve through completing game objectives. Xbox Achievements are also randomly acquired throughout the game for various tasks done in no specific order.
Game Objectives are also in an easy-to-follow format. Frank only needs to look at his watch to decide on which objective he wishes to achieve, due to the fact that some of the objectives, such as finding out why another man with a camera is barricaded in one of the shops, are time sensitive. From that point on, a directional arrow will guide him through the mall, and hundreds of bloodthirsty zombies. But have no fear; one needs only stop at the nearest store to stock up on weapons. Because Frank is the strongest man on the planet, this should not be a problem.
Outside of discovering that adrenaline works miracles, players find that killing is an easy task. With slow, lumbering foes (other than the humans faced), it’s easy to toggle between weapons, throw a few weapons, and take a few pictures, while having a bite to eat to regain a bit of health due to those pesky flesh wounds. Yet, at times you may find that Frank is a little sluggish to an attack, and this causes problems with him ultimately dying, particularly in boss fights, but all in all, control is easy with a quick learning curve. Reading and following the tutorials as the game progresses is another easy way of adapting to the style of play even more quickly.
Willemette Mall itself is a very large area to explore. It’s strikingly similar to that of a real mall, consisting of way too many shoe stores. When one looks past this colorful expanse, there is a resounding amount of detail to be seen. Since this is one of the first games of its kind for the next-gen console, it’s easy to say that this has very detailed scenery with excellent shadowing/lighting.
The minor frame glitches that do take place are very hard to point out and require a very close look on moving foes, or Franks right sideburn. Not enough can be said about the amount of frames needed to place hundreds of zombies on a screen along with our character, with each having their own individualistic, mostly funny, animated movements. It’s almost enough to ask Capcom to develop a sporting game and do away with the unicrowd.
While there are many laughs that can be gained from making pulp of a zombie head, the sound quality is nothing to laugh about. The synchronization is almost perfect, and the sound animations are extremely amusing. Many sound elements can be occurring simultaneously without any blurring of the senses, such as the whish and squish that comes from slicing into undead flesh whilst the constant groans and moans that one expects from a zombie continues without fail. Even a few grunts from the man himself add to the experience.
It’s hard to comprehend how many sounds go into this game because of how many weapons there are in relation to how many ways those weapons can be utilized. Although somewhat corny and awkward at times, the voice acting serves its purpose and doesn’t detract from the game. Also, in extreme contrast with the zombie genre, a series of upbeat tracks continue to play, giving Dead Rising a ‘lively’ feel.
The problems that rise in Dead Rising come from its value. Sure it’s fun to run around and kill zombies, and they are the main focus of the game, but after an amount of time a certain joy is lost from over-killing. Capcom does a nice job countering this by allowing Frank to learn new kill moves and by making objectives time sensitive to maintain the 72-hour scheduling, so, if a player wants the whole story, they can’t spend too much of their spare time hacking at bodies.
Still, with this rushed story-mode, players find that at the end of the game Frank isn’t to full awesomeness and still has some attributes to fill, increasing the urge of the replaying the game, but eliminating the chance of going back and doing it all in one time through.
There is also the problem with saving. Saving can only take place in the security safe room and bathrooms throughout the mall, so players must learn to stop and let Frank relieve himself, or suffer redoing of a large chunk of playtime. Also, there is only one save block at a time, meaning Frank can’t replay an area of the story if something has gone amiss.
Through and Through, the story mode can be completed in a nicely devoted day with enough time for a couple meals, but there is more after the 72-hour mode giving Dead Rising some more appeal, and there is even a zombie killing mode just for fun to see how long players can go before Frank becomes an undead himself.
There is a real enjoyment to be had from playing Dead Rising. With a nearly endless variety of items to utilize in killing a plethora of undead, there are hours of enjoyment in store for any would be zombie slayer. There is also an intriguing story lurking behind the curtain of blood that isn’t fully realized unless the game is played through a couple times to max out Frank’s stats and moves. The more stats and moves a player obtains means the more zombies that are going to be killed, thus allowing players to thrive on the Xbox Live Dead Rising Rankings.
A time may come when it’s not even about the game Dead Rising, but more in the amount Prestige Points that can be obtained. Even with Dead Rising suffering from the lack of multiplayer mode and the problems that develop with the save system, it’s still refreshing to see a game about zombies that has taken a different approach. It’s about time after about 18 games, 48 movies, and 31 books.