Dead Rising

Dead Rising is an action-adventure/survival game by Capcom which would make you think that it's a wannabe Resident Evil clone, and you'd be wrong, "dead" wrong.

The only thing about Dead Rising that resembles RE is, of course, the zombies, but Dead Rising takes a much campier, more "Americana", approach and a very different gameplay approach. You play the game as Frank West, an investigative reporter looking into the mysteries behind a strange viral outbreak in the small town of Williamette, Colorado. Frank hires a helicopter pilot to drop him off in Williamette at the local mall. Frank discovers zombies and a conspiracy that he needs to expose and escape from within the pseudo-game world's 72 hours (the amount of time before the helicopter's return). The setup is simple, it's "Dawn of the Dead: The Video Game".

Where Dead Rising sets itself apart from RE though is in the overall structure of the game. The clock in Dead Rising is always ticking and the game NEVER lets you forget it. To unlock the conspiracy and continue the overall storyline the game hands out timed missions that give the player absolutely no leeway. If you can't finish a certain story quest by the time Frank's wristwatch hits a certain time limit, it's game over, mystery unsolved. Add in the facts the game throws in optional side quests (99.9% of which are of the "get the survivors to safety" escort mission type) and a camera/picture aspect to help add to your PP points (this games equivalent of EXP points), and an unprepared player could become overwhelmed pretty quickly about what to do and which order to do them in. The game should really come with a warning that says something like "stick with it, it gets better" or "don't be afraid to use the save/quit option" or maybe just a really good tutorial because once you get past those first couple of hours, there's a lot of fun to be had with Dead Rising. Once I discovered that I could grind Frank to about level 12 or 13 and then restart the game with those saved stats and levels, the game became a whole lot more fun, more approachable, and less intimidating.

With that out of the way, I can't say that Dead Rising is an absolute "Tickle Me Elmo" experience though. For a game that leans so heavily on the mechanic of escort missions, I have to say in all honesty that the AI of DR's escorted has to be some of the worst in the existence of that mechanic. To say that the AI is bone headed is to insult the intelligence of the zombies that you're so desperately trying to save them from. They tend to get hung up on objects very easily, stand around and wait to be attacked, or go out of their way to attack zombies not even within their path to freedom. Add in that you can seemingly clear the immediate area of zombies, only to have a fresh batch spawn within seconds RIGHT BEHIND YOU, and at times the game can have some real "pull your hair out/controller crushing" moments. But as a generic "kill the zombies" sim, DR really does shines.

If this game were just a multi-player hack n slash, like Gauntlet or Diablo, I would probably be completely fine with it because, as long as you're killing zombie waves, DR takes it to the hoop and shows you what it's made of. The weapons that can be used against the zombies, and the ways it which they can be used, is practically endless. From machetes and hand guns, to shower heads and cooking oil, to just plain old fisticuffs, DR just wallows in its over-the-top violence. Being able to slash through a zombie army with a katana blade or send them flying with a Molotov Cocktail is always rewarding if you're into gloriously violent gameplay. Also, for no more than I personally care about them, DR's Achievement Points are set up quite nicely. Fifty achievements at twenty points per achievement is a nice system for a sandbox game like DR. Some of the achievements are easily attainable, while others require a lot more attention, but all seem to be doable within the natural progression of the game. Only a small hand full feel forced, needless, or obstacles in the way of enjoying the core gameplay.

Overall the game looks pretty nice and sounds pretty nice, but in the end they didn't stand out to me, or really make me take notice. It's pretty impressive to see just how many zombies can get crammed on the screen at one time, the different death animations, and the physics engine at work, but ultimately there wasn't anything in this game that screamed "next-gen" to me. It's by no means a bad looking game (and I thought the voice acting was surprisingly awesome), I just found myself wanting more, or at least something to make me look back on my PS2 or original Xbox as being something more primitive. Dead Rising really didn't do that for me like, say, a Gears of War did.

Dead Rising is a game that immediately left me with a pretty bad taste in my mouth, but which ultimately grew on me to the point where it became completely enjoyable and worth my time to play through. Stick with it, do some leveling, and even save/restart the game a couple of times, and the appeal of Dead Rising will eventually show itself. If you can make it past that initial learning curve there's a great little game underneath in Dead Rising for the Xbox 360.

+Really fun as pure hack 'n slash
+Fun, over-the-top violence and weapons
+Nice use of achievements

-STEEP learning curve
-Needed a clearer set of objectives
-Escort missions have awful A.I.
-Could have used a more in depth tutorial