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Capcom’s latest title ups the ante for number of zombies onscreen. You might expect a Capcom title involving zombies to give a nod or two to the Resident Evil series but that is not the case here. The action is fast, visceral, and quite enjoyable.
In the game, you play as Frank, a journalist who gives himself 72 hours to figure out exactly why a mall in Willamette Park has been overran with zombies. Like any good journalist, Frank goes looking for leads. After meeting the initial survivors, the game lays itself out in a series of cases that act like chapters. On his search for the truth, Frank is presented with a number of optional escort-missions that give you some additional points although they’re not necessary to complete the game. Sometimes, completing one of the side-missions makes it impossible to advance to the next chapter. Since the game is linear, that means you can’t go on with the game at all.
In a typical game, this wouldn’t be a problem. All you would need to do is select a previous save point and continue. However, the game only gives you one save slot, meaning that if you saved in a spot that you can’t possibly progress from, you need to start over. Thankfully, if you start over you get to keep all of your current abilities meaning that it’s a lot easier to get through the earlier parts of the game. Dead Rising luckily lends itself to being fun over multiple play-throughs so it isn’t a chore to replay the parts you’ve already beaten. You’ll appreciate these because you’ll have another chance at unlocking some of the hidden modes or achievement points, which aren’t very easy to get.
Part of the reason you won’t mind replaying certain bits is because the game is quite fun. Nearly every object in the mall—ranging from cash registers, pans, mannequins, soda cans, bats, etc—can be used as a weapon against the zombies. These weapons can often be used in unique ways. You can, for instance, throw a glass jar to have it scare off some zombies or cover a zombie’s sight a mask to watch it move around aimlessly. Considering that there are often over a hundred onscreen at any given time, you’ll be forced to use unconventional weapons to get rid of them. Much like the weapons, the health items in the game are typical items that you would find in the mall. Frank can get energy back by eating and drinking. You will find plenty to eat and drink, and you can even eat cold foods as they are but you’ll get more energy if you find a microwave and warm it up.
Aside from fighting and eating, the game lets you take control of vehicles. You’ll find cars, bikes and skateboards in the mall that you can use in your battle. You can get better at driving and fighting by reading books found in the mall. You can also improve Frank by getting prestige points. You get these points by taking pictures, killing zombies, completing missions and getting friends to join you. The picture-taking in particular is very interesting since the game affords you the opportunity to take pictures of truly strange things and circumstances. It would be a shame to spoil what these are though.
The game’s visuals are impressive although not amazing. The character models for the key characters look quite good with plenty of detail and solid animation. However, most of the zombies in the game don’t look quite as good—not even close. You do see a hundred or so of these zombies at any given time so it’s easy to forgive the developers for not putting as much detail into them as one would have liked. The environments are much better since the game accurately portrays an American mall. Everything from the kid’s area to the themed food court is included. Each part of the mall is littered with interactive objects and it all looks great. Technically, the framerate remains solid even with everything going on.
The audio in the game is just as impressive, if not more so. It doesn’t seem like it would be since the background music is nothing spectacular, certainly nothing of note. But the voice acting is top-notch with the voice actors providing a sense of believability to this world they’re tossed in despite the absurd situations you’ll find yourself in. The sound effects, though, are amazing. Every single object in the game has a unique sound and every single one sounds exactly like you would expect it to.
Dead Rising is a very fun game. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, gives you more weapons and zombies than you know what to do with, and it’s funny in that B-movie kind of a way. The gameplay is fast and exciting, too. The one save-slot is a questionable design choice but one that manages to work with the game. Or does the game work despite the design choice? Either way, it works. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Aug 16, 2006
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