Dead Rising

Remember Dawn of the Dead? Nothing like the American past-time of the mall being filled with flesh-eating zombies. It is clear that the base of Dead Rising is inspired by this great film. However, the folks at Capcom do put their own little twist to it.

You are Frank West, a photo journalist trying to get a scoop. I would go on, I don't want to give anything away, and you've probably already seen the basis story.

Now on to the 'meat', pun intended. There are zombies everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE. Thousands of them. The thing is, you can use almost anything is the very large Willamette Mall as a weapon. Knifes, guns, TVs. CDs? Various Toys? A bag of Flour? Yes to all of these things. All of the weapons have there own feel and sound. Plus the feelinf of impact is amazing. You can almost feel the sledgehammer bust in the skull of a brainless zombie. The sound is incredible as well. All of the weapons and their impact sound genuine.

Graphically, it is above average. Nothing too spectacular, but it does still look like a next-gen game. The real kicker is how many zombies are on screen once. Tons of them. It makes it easy to forgive the slighty blocky models. Everything else technically is run of the mill.

Now, most importantly, the gameplay. To be honest, the controls could be a little tighter. And why the hell do I aim the gun or item with the left stick and the camera with the right? Come on people, pick one or the other. Also, though it is the real selling point, the number of zombies can get very frustrating. Also, why couldn't they give me more than one save slot? That is a cheap way to extend the life of the game, as you have to be somewhere at a certain time. If you save and you can't make it to that area, tough. At least you can start the game over with your current character. That's right, this game has sort of a RPG element. You do level up with your Prestige Points, gained through photos and other tasks. However, as far as could tell, you had no control which attributes are leveled. I don't know if it is completely random or scripted, but it would have been nice to have some kind of control over your character.

Overall, this was a great game. Not particularly long, but still fun. It has a story that makes you keep playing to see what happens next, and the controls aren't so bad that it is unenjoyable, they just take some getting used to. Do not miss this game, whether it is just a rental or purchase, you will thourghly enjoy, especially if you love zombies.