Kaonashi Ga Suki

Title: Dead Rising
Year: 2006
Developer: Capcom
Platform: XBox 360
Rated: M for Mature

The popularity of video games such as the Resident Evil and House of the Dead series have shown that people sure love to kill zombies. Imagine unleashing your arsenal at hundreds of zombies coming towards you. It’s enough to excite any zombie fan. But what if you let your imagination go wild, and use a bench, a lawn mower, or even a shopping cart as your weapon of choice? Dead Rising fulfills that fantasy.

You play as Frank West, freelance photojournalist. Frank gets a tip that the small (fictional) town of Willaimette, Colorado has been blocked off by the National Guard. Intent on breaking the story, Frank flies in Willimette via helicopter. During his flight he catches a glimpse of what appears to be rioting in the streets. The chopper drops him off the rooftop of the local mall, and Frank asks the pilot to return in 3 (in-game) days. Once inside the mall, Frank quickly finds out that the people outside aren’t an angry mob. They’re the undead, and they’re hungry for tasty, live fresh- like the survivors barricaded inside the mall. Naturally they break in, and all hell breaks loose. Hmm, survivors stuck in a mall being chased by zombies…I don’t care what Capcom says, this game has Dawn of the Dead written all over it.

Frank has three basic objectives in the game. His primary objective is that he must return to the helipad in three days, or he’ll be left behind. The second is that, by meeting certain characters and uncovering clues, Frank has to get his story. The third objective is optional, but extremely beneficial. Frank has to save various survivors trapped in the mall. Each person that Frank rescues is worth a huge number of points that go toward leveling him up. Speaking of earning points, another way of doing so is to take photos. Frank gets points for taking photos of certain genres, such as Horror or Drama. Frank can take up to 30 photos; older ones get deleted when he takes new ones. Don’t forget to replace the camera battery often.

The best part of Dead Rising is that it’s lots of fun to play. There are zombies everywhere, plenty for Frank to kill. The outdoor areas are especially cool, with hundreds of zombies milling about. And as I mentioned earlier, just about anything Frank can get his hands on is a potential weapon. Trash cans, patio umbrellas, skateboards, coat hangers, mannequin legs, TVs, shelves, and oh, so many more. I personally like going at them with a katana to the face. Some can be improved, like heating up a frying pan. I love the sizzling sound you hear when you smack a zombie with it. Of course you have handguns and semiautomatics available as well, but where’s the fun in that? That being said, Dead Rising is incredibly challenging. As mentioned earlier, Frank only has 3 days until the chopper arrives. He has 3 days to get his story, save some people, and kill a whole bunch of zombies. Each in-game hour is equal to 5 minutes of real time. Therefore, the player can’t dick around too much by exploring every store in the mall, or taking a long time in dispatching a boss (survivors who have gone insane). Speed is the name of the game.

There is a lot of humor found in Dead Rising, found first in the many ways you can kill zombies. It’s pretty funny to bash zombies with a wooden mannequin leg. Another funny element is that Frank can change his clothes if he enters various clothing stores. If he enters a men’s suit store, Frank can score himself a swanky white suit, which gets covered in blood rather quickly. I took Frank to a children’s clothing store and had him decked out in an adorable child’s tank top and shorts set, his hairy gut hanging out. Also, Frank can play pranks on the zombies, like throwing pies at them. A popular pasttime is to go to the toy store and put giant yellow foam heads on the zombies, then taking a picture of them.

The graphics in Dead Rising are terrific. The characters move realistically and look rather 3-dimensional, a true next-gen title for the XBox 360. The AI people Frank has to rescue can be pretty annoying at times though. Although they’re capable of depending themselves, they get overwhelmed easily. You’ll hear their pitiful screams of “Frank! Frank!” over and over. Another thing is that they sometimes get in Frank’s way as he’s killing zombies, thus getting injured in the process. Furthermore, they are horrible at following Frank. They’re just too slow.

The user interface is very straightforward, and it doesn’t take too long to learn to memorize the button commands. However, I have noticed that some functions don’t seem to work properly. For example, Frank uses a transceiver to remain in contact with one of his allies. To activate the transceiver, you press on the right arrow on the D-pad. However, most of the time when I do it, Frank drops his weapon, which is supposed to be activated when you press on the down arrow. I know I’m not pressing the down button by mistake, and I’ve never had this problem with my other games, so I can’t explain this phenomenon. I suppose it’s possible my controller is low on batteries, or that I should aim it more directly at the Xbox 360. I’m curious to know if others have experienced this as well.

As fun as Dead Rising is however, it has one major weakness: its save system, and from the other reviews I’ve read, it’s a shared grievance. Unlike most video games, Dead Rising has only ONE save slot.* Adding to this is that the save points throughout the game are few and far between. Therefore, if you screw up and Frank dies before making it to a save point, you’ll have to start over from the last time you saved, which often was a long time ago. Furthermore, the game is set up such that there are certain critical tasks or destinations Frank must complete to further the plot, all of which are timed. If Frank doesn’t get to a certain place or complete a task in time, the game is lost. On the upside, if a player is completely screwed, he or she can restart the game from the very beginning, but keep the character’s current level. Therefore, the player has a stronger Frank and hopefully can complete the already visited levels with greater ease. Currently, my Frank is at level 11, but he still has a ways to go before reaching the highest level, which is 50.

If you love killing zombies and want to do so in many creative, fun, and awesome ways, get Dead Rising. Just keep in mind the frustrating save system and few save points.

*I’ve heard that using a memory card allows a second save slot, but I haven’t tested this idea and don’t know if it works.

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