Dead Rising Video Game Review
You are a trapped in a mall with a number of other survivors of a pandemic that has struck a mid-size city. You are determined to stay alive at all costs against hordes and hordes of flesh-eating zombies. Does this sound like a familiar scene from one of your favorite movies?
It, in fact, isn’t. It is a scene from the unique and almost comical video game from Capcom entitled Dead Rising. From the makers of the most renowned zombie-survivor series Resident Evil, Dead Rising has created a new and unique twist to the classical zombie game. The game is unique from the get go, offering the player many decisions to make with no correct answer answer.
In Dead Rising, you assume the role of Frank West, a freelance photographer and journalist who, in the pursuit of the breaking story, becomes trapped in a mall laden with flesh-craving zombies. For everything Frank is bound to go through to get the best story, he hopes to win a Pulitzer Prize for his efforts. In your role as Frank, you must decide whether to fend off zombies to put your life in a safer situation, or if you should instead take photos in your never ending quest for the story of a lifetime. This is one of the unique twists Dead Rising offers, compared to the survive-only objective of most zombie games.
Electing to take pictures may allow you to ultimately win the Pulitzer, but can make surviving more difficult. On the other hand, electing to defend yourself may lead to a greater chance of survival but no chance at Frank’s ultimate goal of winning the top prize for writers. You may also elect to help fellow survivors or take photos of the zombies attacking them. This allows for Dead Rising to be one-hundred percent open ended allowing for you, the player, to control nearly all aspects of this video game.
One of the most original and enticing features of Dead Rising, in addition the open ended decision making, is the ability of the main character Frank to use hundreds of everyday objects to combat zombies in addition to the typical weapons such as machine guns and pistols. Trailers for Dead Rising have shown the use of items such as lawn mowers, CDs, hockey sticks, plates, TVs and various other items all used to kill zombies.
Dead Rising utilizes the next generation game engine of the Xbox 360 to display up to 800 zombies on the screen at any given time. The zombies’ actions also vary greatly depending on the time of day in the game. If it is day time the zombies are slower and more sluggish while at night the zombies speed up and become more vicious. The mall is a very expansive game environment and has a lot of areas to explore.
The main difference between Dead Rising and other zombie games such as the Resident Evil Series is the fact that in Dead Rising you are and average Joe with a regular job, not a specially trained agent who hunts zombies for a living. Dead rising is also quite humorous as compared to its other zombie genre counterparts. This is mainly due to the over 250 items available for you to use, some of which are funny or awkward to use as weapons as well as Frank’s persona. The game is rated M for mature audiences over 17 years of age due to its extreme amount of blood, gore, and violence.
Dead Rising has done something unique with the zombie genre. It has transformed a repeat scenario into a different kind of game which utilizes all that it can from the next generation Xbox 360. Combining next generation graphics, a simple movement style, complete player control of all aspects of the game and a fun storyline, Dead Rising has everything going for it that is possible for a new video game series.
***Dead Rising was released on August 8th, 2006 and is available at most retail stores near you.***
