Dead Rising
Posted August 30, 2006
Who says that releasing a demo on the Xbox Live Marketplace can be detrimental to a titles success? Not Capcom, no way. Thanks to the bloody-fun that the demo promised thousands were convinced to head out to the store and pick up a copy of Dead Rising, and I'm willing to bet that more often than not they ended up happy customers.
You're Frank West a photojournalist who gets the scoop of a lifetime: something is awry in the small city of Willamette, Colorado and it is bad enough to require military action. A lesser man would tuck tail and wait to read the news, but Frank is the kind of guy who heads into the danger zone to report the news. He is airlifted to the hub of activity in any American city, the mall, where he decides that 72 hours in the zombie infested monument to consumerism will get him all the news he needs. The helicopter drops Frank off, and the journey of investigation starts.
Typically I despise so called sandbox games. The go anywhere, do anything rambling does nothing for my logical mind. I enjoy being led in the right direction, but not forced there. I tried to like the GTA and True Crime series, but both left me a little empty with not much to keep me coming back. Compounding the fact that on the surface Dead Rising is about utterly destroying zombies in numerous entertaining methods and including an interesting storyline really solidified my desire to play this title.
Gameplay:
Even though Dead Rising is billed as a do anything, kill everything sandbox title there actually is a somewhat interesting story involving Americans and their penchant for consuming mass quantities of beef; making me scour the credits for PETA involvement. While definitely not one of the best storylines in a videogame, it more than covers the reason for the zombie outbreak, and the side stories dealing with the still living human psychopaths add a nice diversion to the bloodbath that ensues as you slice and dice your way through the mall in Willamette.
Armed only with a digital camera to document (and consequentially level up), Frank must utilize whatever he can find in the mall to keep his life, and take the lives of countless undead. Make your way to the sporting goods store and you'll have options such as a bowling ball, hockey stick or skateboard, while in one of the many clothing stores options are a little more limited to things like benches (for the men to sit on while the ladies are shopping no doubt) or potted plants.
Almost anything that isn't nailed down can be used as a weapon in Dead Rising, and some have more than one method of attack. For example, the sickle which also appeared in the demo, can be swung to knock back zombies with a press of the X button, but in certain situations pressing X will prop the zombie against Franks foot and pop the head off the poor thing, and a third method slices off zombie legs near Frank when the X button is charged. Some other weapons also have ranged attacks, meaning you can throw items or roll the bowling ball. All weapons have unique attacks, so things as similar as a 2x4 and a lead pipe will attack in slightly different manners.
As the game progresses and Frank earns new levels thanks to his zombie thrashing and skilled photography, he earns the right to carry more items in his limited inventory, additional life bars and other necessary skills like a faster running speed and new attack methods. The new attacks and moves range from the ability to walk on zombie shoulders to a personal favorite; a disembowel move which not only looks very cool but increases your experience much quicker than a normal attack.
Controlling the game is remarkably easy, even when trying to juggle a weapon and your camera. As mentioned all basic attacks are mapped to a single button with some skill moves requiring another button press. While pressing a single button to attack sounds boring, the thrill of lopping a zombies head off with a hedge trimmer more than makes up for an over simplified fighting mechanism.
While I had no glaring issues with the camera work in Dead Rising, I did find it's transitions sometimes a little jarring when lifting a zombie or preparing to use a secondary attack on a ranged weapon. But quite honestly, I can easily see making it through the game without the need to use a secondary attack, unless you were trying to get the Strike! achievement.
The achievements are divided into 50 equally ranked tasks, some of which are easy to obtain just by playing the game (beat 1000 zombies and fall over 16 feet) while others will take dedication and time and are worth more than the 20 points they are allocated (kill the entire population of Willamette or survive for seven days without saving).
Graphics:
This game was very ambitious when they described literally hundreds of zombies onscreen at any time, and you know what? They actually pulled it off. I took some photos with well over 150 zombies in the screen, and that didn't include some that couldn't make it into the viewfinder of Frank's brand new digital SLR camera, with nary a hint of slowdown.
I did however encounter some slowdown that I think was somewhat related. When downloading some content from the Xbox Marketplace the game stuttered and chugged along for a few seconds immediately after a load screen. Perhaps the disk access that the download required combined with the disk access the Dead Rising required caused it?
I'll admit that I was a little skeptical of the graphics after screenshots made their way across the net, and fully expected that the gory detail I saw was pre-rendered only. But I was proven wrong. As zombie heads fly (and explode) blood gushes like geysers, and Frank temporarily becomes covered in the gore he's help create. Cut scenes are even sharper with the detail in the human faces standing out above the crowd of other titles, with even the insides of mouths rendered in 3D. One sad thing that would have been amazingly cool to see in the game is Franks 5 o'clock shadow actually turn into longer stubble as the 72 hours wore on. Perhaps in the inevitable sequel this will happen.
Audio:
It's tough to accurately describe the audio portion of this title, because it comes in fits and spurts not unlike to ungodly amount of bloodshed in the title. For the majority of the game the music is either non-existent) thanks to being devoid of human life for the most part, but when the music kicks in it really works well. In fact, I found myself tempting fate out in the park area just to hear the thumping of the convict's theme music, something about its simplicity and temp just added to the pressure of wandering out in the open where they could run you down at a moments notice.
Voice work on the other hand is far from grade A Hollywood stuff, more along the lines of a B movie, but that works extremely well for the game as it's presented here. Voices are sometimes spot on in a real conversation, but other times the delay between characters speaking is almost laughable. Normally, something like this would be a bad thing, but thanks to the game actually feeling like a B grade movie it works here.
Conclusion:
While I played and thoroughly enjoyed this game in a linear fashion with limited random walking around, there definitely exists the possibility to ignore the story from the start of the game and strictly play it as you want. That's partly where the beauty in the title comes from, if you feel like sticking it to the zombies and slicing them for hours on end you have that ability. Even the limited save mechanism that exists and has been the bane of countless people on message boards can be used to your advantage here. Spend the first few hours you play getting used to controls and sit back and enjoy the ride, then save your game and opt for a restart allowing you to carry over all skills and level advancements.
After making my way through the full 72+ in game hours of Dead Rising, I've already found myself hopping back into the story mode to mow down zombies and take out some additional psychopaths that I missed on my first run through. The game just begs to be played multiple times and with the achievements spread out the way they are gamer score addicts will be sure to be playing the game a few times to get all they need. If this is a mere sample of what Capcom has in store for next generation consoles, then I cannot wait to see what is up their sleeves in years to come. Highly Recommended.
You're Frank West a photojournalist who gets the scoop of a lifetime: something is awry in the small city of Willamette, Colorado and it is bad enough to require military action. A lesser man would tuck tail and wait to read the news, but Frank is the kind of guy who heads into the danger zone to report the news. He is airlifted to the hub of activity in any American city, the mall, where he decides that 72 hours in the zombie infested monument to consumerism will get him all the news he needs. The helicopter drops Frank off, and the journey of investigation starts.
Typically I despise so called sandbox games. The go anywhere, do anything rambling does nothing for my logical mind. I enjoy being led in the right direction, but not forced there. I tried to like the GTA and True Crime series, but both left me a little empty with not much to keep me coming back. Compounding the fact that on the surface Dead Rising is about utterly destroying zombies in numerous entertaining methods and including an interesting storyline really solidified my desire to play this title.
Gameplay:
Even though Dead Rising is billed as a do anything, kill everything sandbox title there actually is a somewhat interesting story involving Americans and their penchant for consuming mass quantities of beef; making me scour the credits for PETA involvement. While definitely not one of the best storylines in a videogame, it more than covers the reason for the zombie outbreak, and the side stories dealing with the still living human psychopaths add a nice diversion to the bloodbath that ensues as you slice and dice your way through the mall in Willamette.
Armed only with a digital camera to document (and consequentially level up), Frank must utilize whatever he can find in the mall to keep his life, and take the lives of countless undead. Make your way to the sporting goods store and you'll have options such as a bowling ball, hockey stick or skateboard, while in one of the many clothing stores options are a little more limited to things like benches (for the men to sit on while the ladies are shopping no doubt) or potted plants.
Almost anything that isn't nailed down can be used as a weapon in Dead Rising, and some have more than one method of attack. For example, the sickle which also appeared in the demo, can be swung to knock back zombies with a press of the X button, but in certain situations pressing X will prop the zombie against Franks foot and pop the head off the poor thing, and a third method slices off zombie legs near Frank when the X button is charged. Some other weapons also have ranged attacks, meaning you can throw items or roll the bowling ball. All weapons have unique attacks, so things as similar as a 2x4 and a lead pipe will attack in slightly different manners.
As the game progresses and Frank earns new levels thanks to his zombie thrashing and skilled photography, he earns the right to carry more items in his limited inventory, additional life bars and other necessary skills like a faster running speed and new attack methods. The new attacks and moves range from the ability to walk on zombie shoulders to a personal favorite; a disembowel move which not only looks very cool but increases your experience much quicker than a normal attack.
Controlling the game is remarkably easy, even when trying to juggle a weapon and your camera. As mentioned all basic attacks are mapped to a single button with some skill moves requiring another button press. While pressing a single button to attack sounds boring, the thrill of lopping a zombies head off with a hedge trimmer more than makes up for an over simplified fighting mechanism.
While I had no glaring issues with the camera work in Dead Rising, I did find it's transitions sometimes a little jarring when lifting a zombie or preparing to use a secondary attack on a ranged weapon. But quite honestly, I can easily see making it through the game without the need to use a secondary attack, unless you were trying to get the Strike! achievement.
The achievements are divided into 50 equally ranked tasks, some of which are easy to obtain just by playing the game (beat 1000 zombies and fall over 16 feet) while others will take dedication and time and are worth more than the 20 points they are allocated (kill the entire population of Willamette or survive for seven days without saving).
Graphics:
This game was very ambitious when they described literally hundreds of zombies onscreen at any time, and you know what? They actually pulled it off. I took some photos with well over 150 zombies in the screen, and that didn't include some that couldn't make it into the viewfinder of Frank's brand new digital SLR camera, with nary a hint of slowdown.
I did however encounter some slowdown that I think was somewhat related. When downloading some content from the Xbox Marketplace the game stuttered and chugged along for a few seconds immediately after a load screen. Perhaps the disk access that the download required combined with the disk access the Dead Rising required caused it?
I'll admit that I was a little skeptical of the graphics after screenshots made their way across the net, and fully expected that the gory detail I saw was pre-rendered only. But I was proven wrong. As zombie heads fly (and explode) blood gushes like geysers, and Frank temporarily becomes covered in the gore he's help create. Cut scenes are even sharper with the detail in the human faces standing out above the crowd of other titles, with even the insides of mouths rendered in 3D. One sad thing that would have been amazingly cool to see in the game is Franks 5 o'clock shadow actually turn into longer stubble as the 72 hours wore on. Perhaps in the inevitable sequel this will happen.
Audio:
It's tough to accurately describe the audio portion of this title, because it comes in fits and spurts not unlike to ungodly amount of bloodshed in the title. For the majority of the game the music is either non-existent) thanks to being devoid of human life for the most part, but when the music kicks in it really works well. In fact, I found myself tempting fate out in the park area just to hear the thumping of the convict's theme music, something about its simplicity and temp just added to the pressure of wandering out in the open where they could run you down at a moments notice.
Voice work on the other hand is far from grade A Hollywood stuff, more along the lines of a B movie, but that works extremely well for the game as it's presented here. Voices are sometimes spot on in a real conversation, but other times the delay between characters speaking is almost laughable. Normally, something like this would be a bad thing, but thanks to the game actually feeling like a B grade movie it works here.
Conclusion:
While I played and thoroughly enjoyed this game in a linear fashion with limited random walking around, there definitely exists the possibility to ignore the story from the start of the game and strictly play it as you want. That's partly where the beauty in the title comes from, if you feel like sticking it to the zombies and slicing them for hours on end you have that ability. Even the limited save mechanism that exists and has been the bane of countless people on message boards can be used to your advantage here. Spend the first few hours you play getting used to controls and sit back and enjoy the ride, then save your game and opt for a restart allowing you to carry over all skills and level advancements.
After making my way through the full 72+ in game hours of Dead Rising, I've already found myself hopping back into the story mode to mow down zombies and take out some additional psychopaths that I missed on my first run through. The game just begs to be played multiple times and with the achievements spread out the way they are gamer score addicts will be sure to be playing the game a few times to get all they need. If this is a mere sample of what Capcom has in store for next generation consoles, then I cannot wait to see what is up their sleeves in years to come. Highly Recommended.