Review: Dead Rising!

[Ichbin]

Finally. I beat this game. With all the crap thats been going on in my life...I finally beat it.



http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/03/deadrisingsoundtrack.jpgDEAD RISING
Xbox 360 (Single Player)

This game was Developed by CAPCOM and debuted in August 2006.

This is the first zombie game to appear on the 360 console, and I beleive it was a good start.

You are Frank West, Freelance Photojournalist that has OBVIOUSLY covered Wars (Play the game, get the joke :P). Theres something big happening in the Town of Willamette. Something big enough to have the National Guard quarantine the entire city. How about we take a closer look on whats really going on. Frank with his camera at the ready and his faithful helicopter friend swoop in for some journalistic action. Seeing the entire town under total carnage of a zombie outbreak, Frank West is surprised but not shaking. Again, he's covered wars....what's a ZOMBIE OUTBREAK to him. After about 10 minutes of freelance photographin' the national guard finally notice the ONLY helicopter flying in the area and decide to give a cease and desist warning to the pilot and it's cohort. However Frank West has something more on his mind. He wants to know whats going down! So he jumps out of the helicopter and lands on top of the local mall completely unharmed. Frank watches his friend fly away and this is where the game drops you off :).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/Frank_West.jpg
Good ol Frank West. Photojournalist of WARS!

Dead Rising is a great concept with poor presentation in some aspects. It features many positive elements that I beleive more games need to implement but have MANY negative elements that cripple the ability to have a truly satisfying experience.

To kill zombies...you need weapons..but you just don't want to kill them with a gun sometimes...sometimes you want to love them to death with a teddy bear! This game allows that. Featuring a STELLAR sandbox weapon system, this game allows you to pick up damn near everything to use as a tool against zombies. Wether it is a baseball bat or a sign outside of a coffee shop, it allows it all. Of course you have to be realistic, a plastic chair will not be as effective as lets say...a two by four.

Animation is bad. Very bad. Frank West looks like he has a hump or a severe spine disorder when running. (Note the video). Everything is kinda clunky. The movement feels like a cinder block when playing. Nothing is as responsive as you want it to be. It gets frustrating when you having to defeat bosses.

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This video shows a brief overview of gameplay.

This game features 3 kinds of enemies. 1st is of course zombies, 2nd is Psychopaths, and 3rd is the National guard. Each progressively debuting and getting harder as time goes on. Another frustrating part about this game, is the boss battles. You go from killing easy prey to something damn near impossible to kill and figure out HOW to kill. It's a bit difficult to kill 3 guys on a hummer with one of them on the mounted 50! cal. MACHINE GUN, when you only have a lead pipe.

Level design was very nice. Everything was far enough to pose a challenge to time and survival but it wasn't TOO far to be impossible. Items were realistically placed within their environments. You wouldn't see a nail gun in a beauty parlor. Access to certain parts of the Mall open up as the game progresses because it acknowledges the fact that you needed to be rewarded for all that hard work you've been doing instead of having you walk around everything because there is a gate down.

Dead rising incorperates a very nice leveling system. It also ties in with your camera (YAY IT HAS USES!). Exp is called PP. Or power points. When the bar reaches full you get a random award for your efforts. Those include More health, the ability to carry more stuff, a new fighting skill, more power, or running faster. Leveling up is essential to the game, so take pictures. I'm not going to talk about the photography part of the game because I feel its only purpose is to gain EXP. No real storyline value except that camera has seen wars.

Lets talk about story. I really don't want to, but it's a part of every game. Wether it's good....or very bad in this case. Poor scriptwriting allows for gaps in the games progression. The voice actors did a very nice job, but the dialogues that came with it was ATROCIOUS. You wanted to facepalm a lot during the cutscenes in the game.

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http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/img/facepalm.jpeg
/sigh....

I would give this game a 7. ONLY because it's zombies and it allows me to smash them with anything I can pick up. Storyline is crap, Camera is slow, Animations are clunky, and it tries to mix serious with campy feels. Doesn't work too well.

Rent this game. DO NOT BUY IT. Unless you really like zombies :). Then buy it.

Thanks for sitting through this sub-par review. I'm pressed for time, so I really hope you enjoyed it.

[NightrainSrt4]

Nice review! Your gameplay video isn't showing up for me. Not sure if it is happening to anyone else.

I have Dead Rising as well. I agree with you on the fact that it has its plusses and minuses. (I started just writing a post explaining what I liked and didn't and then it was a jarbled long mess, so I tried to neaten it, so that it would add to your post/review and not detract from it).

Leveling:

Leveling up is completely critical to doing well as boss fights are near impossible and many bosses only can be defeated by a few certain strategies/tactics. Leveling did add a nice rpg type feel to a game/genre that usually consists of hacking and shooting, with the only upgrades a new weapon every once in a while. The *issue* with leveling is that the rewards are completely random so you will find yourself needing to level multiple times if you are looking for a particular reward.



Controls/Camera:

He does run awkward and the controls are a little clunky. This might not be an issue if he wasn't so darn concerned with holding that camera every where he goes. Sometimes i wished he would just put it away and turn on badass lifesaving mode, but what can you do. Gun control and movement is quite slow and unresponsive compared to any shooter game, but not much unlike games like Manhunt, or GTA. Gun control can take quite a while to perfect though. Also, the time it takes to get into a first person gun mode does not suit a fast paced play. You have to get set up to shoot the gun in aimed mode a bit before you actually are going to use it as it simply takes too long to get aimed and ready.



Saving:

The constant need to level in order to take out bosses can be frustrating in that there is not a quick save. You must get to a bathroom/other save point every time you choose to save. The redeeming factor is that if you die, you can save your characters progress experience/attribute/technique wise and start over with what you have already learned. On the other hand, constantly replaying the beginning stages can be quite frustrating.



Weapons:

Weapons can literally be almost anything. Grab a cash register, cans of soda, clothes hanger, toy sword, plant, chainsaw, pipe, 2x4, lawnmower, scythe, toolbox (which when broken can scatter tools), hockey stick and pucks, baseball bats, gemstones, etc. The list goes on. Grab a kids mask and throw it on a zombie and watch them wander aimlessly.

Weapons do have a limited *number* of uses. These aren't explicitly stated, the weapon simply blinks/ fades in/out on the display icon before it is about to break. I am slightly torn on the weapon system. How a pipe breaks after 10-12 uses is beyond me. It does make it so you are forced to get new weapons often, which can be a good thing I suppose as running through the whole game with the same knife could be boring. But, running out of a weapon you *need* at the wrong time can be frustrating.



Level Design:

The design of the mall is quite fantastic. You can find just about anything you would find in a normal mall in the game mall. Jewelry stores, clothes stores, toy stores, hardware stores, camera stores, etc.

The courtyard is a nice touch to the game as well. The mall can begin to have a monotonous feel after a while, so being able to wander outside is a nice touch. I would have liked to see more outdoor areas, but with the time limit, and the unfolding story in the mall, it is understandable that that is where you are limited too.

Night time. If played with the correct gamma/contrast settings, night is extremely dark. Both in the mall and outdoors. It is extremely hard to see most anything except what is right in front of you, or random sources of light. This can bring a very nice sense of immersion to the game. Running directly into a mob of zombies can be quite a surprise, and one that could be quite deadly to your character. Caution is recommended while wandering at night.



Zombies:

If you want to bash zombies this IS the game for you. Skip through the first few scenes, grab a weapon and start bashing to your hearts content. Although the game probably does not have a counter built in, there should be around 55,000 zombies to kill if I remember correctly. At the beginning of the game there is a town sign with the population number. This does not count people out of town, tourists, military, etc though. So expect to have more zombies than you likely could kill. That is if they did impliment a limit, which I doubt.

There are quite a few different zombie models although many are repeated constantly. This is quite understandable, as the memory and processing power required to have thousands of unique models would be rediculous. Overall there are a large amount of models you will see. More than many other games would include.

Zombies aren't all that tough to defeat, although when night falls they are twice as powerful. Psycopaths are a type of boss that is a human that has gone mad. This causes them to be extremely powerful in many cases, and quite difficult to defeat without the correct tactic/strategy.



Overall:

I completely agree with renting or even borrowing from a friend before buying. Although many renting places you will pay $5-6 for a week, whereas the game can likely be found at used game stores for 10-20$. Brand new the platinum edition can be found for $20-30 depending. Again, all where you can find the best deal.
If you enjoy zombie bashing this IS the game for you. If you truly love bashing zombies the faults of this game can completely be overlooked simply for the love of the next skull to be crushed.
If zombie bashing isn't really your thing, its best to test the game first by methods mentioned above, as the actual gameplay and controls do not bring anything revolutionary to the table, and in some standards can be considered slightly sub-standard.

(As stated above, you just made me think about the game again. I can remove all this if you would like. Do not mean to detract from your review, you just got me thinking and typing and my thoughts on the game poured out. +rep for a very nice review! You made me want to play this once again woot!).

Now, when I get home I have to go bash some zombie brains. Bits of brains will splatter when I get back! Muahahahaha

[Ichbin]

Woo post review! love it :)

Yea, I had limited time so i wrote what stood out in my head the most.

The weapons breaking is a bit awkward when a katana shatters in 10 swings :/

Thanks for the kudos :P

Another thing about the saves is the locations. To spread out. If you have to leave your house for some reason NOW, there'd be no way you could save fast.

[NightrainSrt4]

Woo post review! love it :)

Yea, I had limited time so i wrote what stood out in my head the most.
[...]
Thanks for the kudos :P



No problem. I was just on my break between classes and you got me thinking about the game and it just started to come out. :D

[Quakken]

I've covered wars, you know.

[Ichbin]

Obviously with his Zombie Bashing shennigans you learn!

[jdbnsn]

I've covered wars, you know.

what are you talking about?

[Ichbin]

Watch the second video.

Its a Meem that got created from this game due to poor scriptwriting.

[CorsePerVita]

Great game, always fun to bash zombies! I get a kick out of grabbing an inventory full of katanas and big swords and going at it!