Tuesday, August 22 2006 @ 12:00 AM CDT
Why watch Dawn of the Dead when you can play it? Since this past years E3 event in L.A. Capcom’s Dead Rising has been touted as a console selling title for the Xbox 360. With hype and expectations behind Dead Rising, Capcom does their best to combine a hybrid of genres into a game that makes you want to keep playing.
Combining elements from the horror genre of video games that Capcom mastered with the Resident Evil franchise, elements from the “sand box” genre from the famed Grand Theft Auto franchise and bits and pieces from any zombie related horror movie, Dead Rising has a lot to organize in one package which may be its shortcoming.
Dead Rising kicks off with a helicopter ride over Willamette, Colorado. You play Frank West, cocky photo journalist who has covered everything from wars around the world to squirrels who can water ski. After receiving a scoop you head for the story of your life and end up fighting for it instead.
The premise of the game is very simple and engaging. You have 72 hours to investigate the happenings around the Willamette Mall. Equipped with nothing beside your trusty camera it’s time to investigate and see where the zombie infestation has spawned from. During the course of the 72 hours you will complete various case files that help to advance the story, but will also have downtime to complete side missions or just go on killing sprees to help clear the mall of some of the infestation.
Combined with the previous genres is also a twist of RPG elements. Beside completing the various missions, you can also earn Prestige Points by taking pictures with your camera. Each of your pictures will be judged for certain elements (horror, brutality, erotica) and you'll be awarded a certain number of Prestige Points depending on how good of an image you have taken. You can also earn Prestige Points by killing certain enemies or saving survivors, but taking pictures is by far the easiest way to power level Frank. As he collects these points, Frank will level up, gaining skills, improved attributes, and new combat moves.
There is a variety of missions available to the player as well. As mentioned the Case Files will advance the story, but the various side missions will help you explore the mall and make some simple experience for Frank. You will be alerted to these by the malls custodian and are bound to annoy you sooner or later. When contacting you to alert you of a scoop around the mall he will contact you via radio. You can talk to him by pressing left on the directional pad. One problem is the game does not wait for a slow point in combat and will pop up during boss fights even at times. The main issue is once you begin to receive his scoop, you cannot attack until he is done with his dialog. Though most the side missions he will give are worthwhile, the way he alerts you could have used some fine tuning. Nothing like getting killed while you listen to him ramble about the happening in the mall.
The most fun of them all though are the Psychopath missions. Since the zombie invasion some of the residents have snapped under the pressure and gone crazy. These missions are essentially mini boss fights and will typically reward you with some form of a bad ass weapon. These fights normally will take a good deal of strategy, but are always worth the fight.
Unfortunately the escort missions will frustrate you, more than reward. The AI of the zombies and the escort individuals might as well be the same code. While running you will clear a path for them, yet it will not stop them from running off and into a pack of zombies. You can yell for them to follow you, or use a waypoint system for them, but either way they just left me frustrated.
Everything in Dead Rising is a weapon though. You can drive hangers from off the racks into zombies eye socket, pick up a baseball bat and start swinging or even ride a skateboard through the mall. Every type of store you would expect to find in the mall can be found in Dead Rising. Inside every store and part of the mall you will have no problem finding a weapon to beat down the zombies with. At most times through the game, I almost always have something within 5 feet available to use. Though odds are you will find one weapon you prefer to always have on you, Dead Rising provides hours of gameplay alone just using new weapons and trying to master your kills with them.
Moving through the Case Files can also be tricky due to Dead Rising’s awkward save system. Dead Rising will only allow one save to run throughout the game. The main issue though is in order to save you either need to report back to the security office or can use any public bathroom in the mall. The main issue though is since much of the game revolves around being at a certain place at a particular time, there will likely be a few occasions when your save won't allow you to complete it in time. This requires either a lot of planning ahead, or a few occasions where you will be forced to restart the games story all together. Capcom did their best to not shaft the player 100% by forcing the player to restart the game without losing your skills or upgrades.
After beating the 72 hour mode Dead Rising will allow you infinite access to the mall to complete and kill anything you need. While this mode is a relief since you won’t have to watch the game clock constantly, it would have been nice to see some form of Xbox Live play. While achievement fan boys will enjoy some of the challenging goals set, once you beat the game and play in the mall for awhile there really isn’t much left to do. Some form of Xbox Live gameplay really would have added to the games replay value.
Graphically Dead Rising is only half-gen. While the games models do support more polygons then you would find on the original Xbox, Dead Rising is far from being the best looking game to hit the system. This is due in part to the fact you can have an entire mall packed full of zombies. At times there are as many as 100+ zombies waddling towards you. With a demand on hardware like that you will be plenty happy with the way that Dead Rising looks. In exchange for the games visuals, expect frequent stops in gameplay for loading. While the load times are only about 10-15 seconds each, any time you enter a new section of the mall expect the loading screen to pop up. With sometimes four times zoning to reach an area that you are headed to.
On the downside if you plan on playing Dead Rising on a SD-TV (standard definition) be prepared for some graphical bugs. Apparently Capcom only did Q&A using HD-TV sets and overlooked an issue that causes text to be unreadable. This issue can be corrected by forcing the game to display in widescreen even if you are playing on a 4:3 set.
The audio is top notch as you would expect from Capcom. The story is not delivered as most Capcom fans would expect though. Instead of having a serious tone throughout the game, Dead Rising ‘s cut scenes tell the story with all the humor and bad acting fans of the Evil Dead franchise would love. Also the sound of zombies taking a beating never gets old.
Dead Rising does a better job at combining so many elements from various genres it should have been a mess. Instead we find a title that contains it’s fair share of flaws, but also comes out smelling like roses. Though due to the lack of multiplayer, clumsy AI and the issues with SD-TV, Dead Rising goes from a game worth buying a console for, to being one of the better games of the summer, but not of the year.
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