Dead Rising

Ah, Zombies. Our Favorite Enemy in the beginnings of Horror Games, so slow and dumb, but still a little dangerous when one becomes swarmed with them. Dead Rising seems like a contract that offers us the ability to kill the undead any way we want, when we want to, and however we want. But in the fine print, we would have to deal with Long Load times, A Frustrating Save Feature, and intense Missions that if we fail, we May never get the truth to and have to restart the game.

So why would I give this game a 4/5? Well at least for me despite it's flaws, I still find myself having a lot of fun playing the game, and feel to this day that I got my money's worth.  As Frank West, you and your camera travel to the local mall in order to get the scoop on what is happening in town. The Camera is a big element of the game, and encourages you to take pictures with different things in mind. You have to the ability to take photos that are humorous, drama filled, or even full of horrified gore. The Camera really helps Frank differentiate himself from other main protagonists when it comes to fighting the zombie infection.

The Story is pretty unique as well. Without giving anything away, it involves finding and talking to key figures in the mall, who may hold the key to the infection with their knowledge of the breakout. The missions that you will be doing are all story related, while saving other people or fighting the bosses of the game will just help add to the main cases in terms of having a better understanding of the plot.

If you've never played this game before, be prepared to restart your game if you miss any of the main cases. This part of the game is pretty annoying, as I once got towards the end of the game, only to fail a mission and have to restart the entire 72 hour mode. This mode is roughly about 6 hours, so It can be really frustrating, but hey, at least you can keep your level and experience. That's a plus, Right?

50 levels of experience are in the game, and most experience can be obtained by taking pictures, defeating the psychopaths of the mall, and rescuing the A.I survivors. Man, you will hate these survivors, as they do annoying things such as run in circles, attempt to take on the zombies when you tell them to go to a specific area, or just not listen to you at all. I really hope the sequel improves on the Survivors' intelligence, as it kind of sucks as is.

But with these problems, the game for me is very challenging, yet very fun to play and has loads of replayability.

+ Fun ways to take out the enemies you will face
+ Hundreds of Zombies everywhere make you feel excited and overwhelmed
+ Great Re-Playability and Challenging Achievements to obtain
- Save Structure is maddening and may make you restart the game
- No Difficulty options and Dumb A.I
- No Multiplayer Features for this one
4/5