Box Art
Game: Dead Rising
First Released: August 8, 2006, Xbox 360
Developers: Capcom
Platforms: Xbox 360, Wii
Rated: M, for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Partial Nudity,
and Use of Alcohol
First Released: August 8, 2006, Xbox 360
Developers: Capcom
Platforms: Xbox 360, Wii
Rated: M, for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Partial Nudity,
and Use of Alcohol
How I Came To Play This Game
Camera Shot
Dead Rising is hailed as one of the classic exclusive titles for the Xbox 360. So it's no surprise that as soon as I got my Xbox 360, that my friends would recommend this game too me. I bought the platinum hits version and tried it out. At first I hated it, but it grew on me as I worked to get all of the achievements. Now I've gotten used to it's difficulty, and I think it deserves it's title as a classic game for the Xbox 360.
Story
Adam, a psychopath
Frank West is a photojournalist, who is snuck into the town of Willamette, Colorado in a chopper. He is investigating why the town has been sealed off by the National Guard. The helicopter lands on the roof of the city mall; Frank informs his pilot to return to the roof in exactly 72 hours. Inside, he finds survivors of a zombie outbreak barricading the mall entrance, which fails after a woman attempts to save her dog. Only four people escape to the mall security room, Frank, Department of Homeland Security agent Brad Garrison, his rookie partner Jessie McCarney, and janitor Otis Washington, who welds the door shut. Brad leaves via the air duct to continue investigating. Frank heads out to investigate himself. Before reentering the mall itself, Frank turns to attack something sneaking up behind him, which turns out to be Jessie, who falls and injures her ankle. She asks Frank to go help Brad, who is pinned down in a gunfight. Frank helps drive off the gunman, Carlito Keyes, and convinces Brad to tell him what is going on. The agent agrees, if Frank helps him track down Dr. Russell Barnaby, the man in a photo Frank took in the mall. Brad and Frank find Dr. Barnaby barricaded in a bookstore, but the Doctor refuses to leave without a secure escape route from the mall. The next morning, Carlito is spotted on the monitors; he has captured Dr. Barnaby and has suspended him over a group of zombies. Brad and Frank drive Carlito away and rescue the doctor, although Brad is wounded in the fight. Frank goes to collect medicine from the supermarket pharmacy and rescues a woman he recognizes from the mall entrance, but she runs off. Frank returns to the security room and tracks her down via the monitors. After a fight, the woman identifies herself as Isabela Keyes, Carlito's sister. She agrees to set up a rendezvous between the two men so Frank can learn the reason behind the Willamette outbreak, but at the time of the meeting shows up alone and with a shoulder wound; her brother shot her in anger. Frank takes Isabela back to the security room, where she identifies Dr. Barnaby as the head of a United States research laboratory located in her hometown, Santa Cabeza in Central America. Dr. Barnaby, who is starting to succumb to the infection, explains that he was attempting to mass-produce cattle, but instead caused a local wasp species to mutate; the wasps inject eggs into victims by stinging them, the eggs hatch into parasitic larvae, and the host is killed and "zombiefied" when one of these matures in the brainstem. One of the wasp queens escaped into Santa Cabeza, and the U.S. government sent the Special Forces in to stop the outbreak and kill any witnesses. Outraged over the massacre, Carlito released the mutant wasps in Willamette for revenge, and blackmailed Dr. Barnaby into coming to the mall, to kill him via the zombies he had helped create. After the true nature of the infection is revealed, Dr. Barnaby becomes a zombie himself and bites Jessie, but is shot in the head by Brad before he can harm Frank. Isabela reveals that the zombie outbreak in Willamette is only the start. Carlito hid several explosive charges in the maintenance tunnels beneath the mall, the detonation of which would propel immature queen larvae into the stratosphere, potentially triggering a nationwide zombie pandemic. Frank is able to gather the bombs and carry them outside, where they explode harmlessly. Brad pursues Carlito, but while both are injured in the following fight, Carlito escapes, while Brad becomes a zombie. Isabela and Frank go to Carlito's hideout to find his laptop, which is controlling a jamming device and preventing contact with the outside world. Carlito is spotted on the security monitors, captured by the butcher for meat. Frank goes to rescue him, and defeats the butcher, but Carlito is close to death. He gives Frank his locket to pass onto Isabela, and Frank promises to break the story of the Santa Cabeza massacre. Frank returns to Isabela with the locket and news of her brother's death; the locket prompts Isabela to the laptop's password, and she is able to shut down the jammer. Jessie calls for help, but is told that Special Forces are being sent in to cleanse Willamette instead. She is captured, but becomes a zombie from Dr. Barnaby's bite shortly after and kills her two guards, then is killed by Frank. A note from Otis reveals that he hijacked a military helicopter and flew to safety. Frank and Isabela hide from the soldiers in Carlito's hideout, but when Frank goes to meet his helicopter, Isabela opts to stay behind. The helicopter arrives on time, but a stowaway zombie attacks Ed, causing him to crash into the mall's central park. Frank slumps to his knees in defeat, unaware that a group of zombies are approaching him from behind. Frank is saved by Isabela, who shoots a zombie just as it is about to bite him. Frank passes out; he comes to in Carlito's hideout, where Isabela tells him that he may be infected, giving Frank 24 hours before he becomes a zombie. Isabela believes she may be able to manufacture a cure, and sends Frank to scavenge items from the mall. Isabela can only assemble a symptomatic treatment from the available resources, which temporarily halts the development of the parasites. While accessing Carlito's laptop they discover documents indicating that he has placed 50 similarly treated, larvae-infected children with foster parents across the country. While developing the treatment, the generator powering the hideout fails, and Frank goes to the clock tower in the mall's park to retrieve another one. On arrival, Frank finds an underground tunnel filled with zombies. He reports back to Isabela, who synthesizes an anti-zombie pheromone from the treatment's leftover ingredients. The two escape, but find the other end of the tunnel guarded by the military. Frank and Isabela overpower the guards and steal their jeep, but are pursued by a tank, which Frank manages to disable using the jeep's mounted machine gun. The Special Forces leader, Brock Mason, emerges from the tank and points its cannon at Frank, revealing that he was the one who led the original cleanup operation in Santa Cabeza. However, the tank's auto-targeting mechanics activate and point the cannon to an incoming horde of zombies from behind, distracting Brock and allowing Frank to close for hand-to-hand combat. Brock is defeated, but Frank and Isabela remain trapped as the zombies close in on them and the game ends with a shot of Frank screaming at the sky. The epilogue states that Frank managed to escape Willamette and reported on the incident, forcing the government to admit partial responsibility for the livestock research program and the Santa Cabeza incident. However, the Willamette outbreak is blamed on terrorists, which is technically true, and Carlito's infected orphan plan is neither confirmed nor proven false.
Pros And Cons
Story
Anything is a weapon.
The story is actually pretty original. Many zombie fictions use the basic format of either a disease going around, or some chemical made in a lab by scientists. However, the zombies being created by the parasitic larvae from a wasp is a fresh new take on the zombie apocalypse genre. For once, the zombie outbreak was started completely by accident instead of some company trying to make weapons, or by a disease.
Characters
Frank meets Carlito
Frank is the star of the game. In most zombie games you play as a highly trained professional who is already able to defend oneself in drastic situations. However, in this game, you play as a character who has very little combat experience. He has been in dangerous situations before, but it isn't his profession. It's interesting t see him grow as a character to be able to defend himself and others around him. All the other characters are typical and aren't really worth mentioning.
Gameplay
Grabbed by a zombie
The gameplay is centered mostly on combating the zombies and psychopaths. Almost every object can be picked up and used as a weapon. Some are more efficient than others, and some are even there as a joke. The longer you play the game, the more familiar you'll be with the mall, and you'll be able to find better weapons easier. I have to give this game the credit for making a true zombie game. In my opinion, zombies should be like the ones from Night of the Living Dead. They shouldn't be able to run, and they should pose no threat to you except for when they are in groups. This game gets pretty close to that image. I have spotted some of the zombies walking fast after me during the nighttime, but they don't do that often. The game makes the zombies a threat like they are supposed to, overwhelming you with their vast numbers. That's a lot of mouths to keep track of, and it shows that you don't need superhuman zombies crud in order for them to be scary. One unrealistic thing is how the psychopaths take way too much abuse for a human being to survive, but they are essentially the game bosses. It wouldn't be much of a boss if you could kill it in one hit. This game can be very difficult to new players. especially when starting out their first game. I died quite a lot of times my first playthrough, and it really mad me mad. However, I found out later that the developers actually intended for players to die many times. You keep your character level progress even after you die, so the next try will be easier than the last. One thing that severely handicaps the player is the stiff controls. Many times I've found them to be unresponsive. They aren't very fluent. You have to wait until Frank is done with certain animations before you can do a different move, and sometimes they won't work simply because your standing in an odd spot. Overtime mode is especially difficult, as the military agents will gang up on you and gun you down without mercy. Another thing that messes up the game is the A.I. of the survivors. It's as if they want to die. They are always getting grabbed by zombies, getting stuck on fountains, and they even block you from moving to where you need to go sometimes. If you ever get a group of eight survivors and tell them to go to the safe room entrance, you'll see what I mean. Overall it's fun to play, but there are some serious flaws that needed to be fixed.
Graphics
Look at all the zombies!
The graphics of this game are not much to look at in comparison to what the Xbox 360 could do, but it was released early in the console's life span, so you can expect the graphics to not be as good They sure did a good job though. The graphics were bright and colorful to reflect the comical nature of the game. Up to 800 zombies can be seen on screen at once, something that had never been done before. I'm not a huge fan of explicit content, and luckily they didn't go overboard with it. There were subtle references to things like that, but not too much for me to handle.
Music
Dead Rising features unforgettable music that plays while inside the mall. It feels like you really are in a modern day shopping mall. During the battles with the psychopaths, music plays that sounds like the local rock group made them. I never liked music with words very much, and I can barely hear the lyrics, but somehow it works for the game.
Releases
Wii Box Art
Dead Rising was released exclusively for the Xbox 360 on August 8, 2006. Later, a remake for the Wii was released on February 24, 2009. Titled Dead Rising: Chop 'til you Drop, this version utilized many of the Wii's motion controls, and focused more on firearms as the main combat weapons. Many features form the Xbox 360 version were cut, and due to the Wii's lesser hardware, could only render 100 zombies on screen at once.
My Rating
I give this game a 7/10. This was a very fun game to play, but it was plagued by many flaws and extreme difficulty. At least the zombies were acceptable.