Never have I been so scared that my motocycle crashed in a parking lot. Why I was scared? 'Cause I was surrounded in a parking lot filled with over 3,000 zombies (or more) coming towards me.
And that's what Dead Rising does so perfectly. DR is Capcom's "what if you just wanted to kill zombies" game where you play as a freelance photo-journalist named Frank. Frank hears a rumor that a town is closed by the publich for unknown reason. Frank wants to do a story of it and the only way to go to the town is by stopping at the roof of Willamente Mall (a la Dawn of the Dead). The story isn't as original and it's pretty sad they really copied the DotD plot but Frank's involvement is interesting as you can take pictures of anyone around you. Even take a picture of a female zombie wearing under garments. But the mall story aside, it's really interesting to see how the story will play out. If anyone who played this game, you'd know what I mean (hopefully).
The gameplay is great. It's really fun and just so addictive of how you can kill a zombie or more. You get the usual guns which does the over-the-shoulder aim like Resident Evil 4. Then you have blunt objects like baseball bats and bowling balls. What's really weird is that you can even kill a zombie with 50 CDs or throw a pack of sodas. The zombie killing is really fun and I would have liked to have a mode in DR where all you do is trying to kill zombies in one specific part of the mall. Now, the missions? Oh gawd. Well, they're okay. Some missions are so easy, some are both easy and hard (which is a good thing), and some borderline will make you so angry and aggravted. One mission in particular is *spoiler*, when you have to put out all the 5 bombs in the parking lot that Carlito made. Trust me, that mission took me 30 tries and you can't do it with just one try. There is side missions which is manly saving people from areas. What's the problem with that? The human A.I. is SO MUCH dumber than the zombie A.I. It's kind of sad that the undead is smarter than the living. I'm sure you heard about this a lot so I won't explain why the human A.I. is DEE-DEE-DEE when you try to rescue them. Some side missions where you either carry them or you hold their hand is really easy and you should be thankfull of doing just that. The zombies won't even try to kill you.
The side missions will either involve rescues or other "pyschopaths" which are basically bosses of the game. The bosses either in the main or side part of the game is really interesting to verse however sometimes they're just to annoying to kill or just to repetive.
Now, while the graphics in DR isn't as breathtaking as Gears of War, it's definately impressive. It's impressive because how can the game not lag at all when there's 2,000 or more zombies around you and that you can go to any store with no loading screen and can pick up almost everything without a loading screen. It's insane and I love how Capcom accomplished it.
Dead Rising's impressive techinal highlight besides graphics is the sound. The sound is just so awesome. Whoever made the sound effects is genius. I'm surprised they didn't have to kill, bludegon, or hurt any human being just to get these beautiful and delicious (what is that approriate?) sound effects. Just listining of Frank hitting a zombie with a baseball hat is amazing. The tilt is probably one of the weakest points of the game. While it is very easy to pick up things, ride vehicles (sometimes), and killing zombies, the most disapointing part is when you try to shoot the gun. I don't know if I should argue but whenever Frank is moving when he's in gun aim, it's all sluggish. Also driving vehicles is very hard to do cause you can't drift, stop fast, and you drive so fast, but overall driving is okay. There's also a problem with the save system where you get to save one, and if you mess up saving at the wrong time and place, you have to start all over again. Which I really was mad, but I read that Capcom did it purpose so that, "The player would know that he made a bad choice along the way". Good enough for me. By the way, why does this game and Lost Planet's written text suck? It's so small and I had to go really close to my TV to read what Otis or Brad is saying on the text box. Ugh.
When you complete the 72 Hour Mode (the right way), you go to Overtime Mode which I did not beat. You know why? Well I'm not a noob and I really tried hard to beat it but I just couldn't. Plus I felt ripped off that *spoiler* "Ohh all the zombies are now gone, now I can go the helicopter. Oh wait, now I have to stay in this mall again but with a time limit and a load of missions that I actually have to do. Oh and they're are zombies again. How did this happen?" So I couldn't bother. Then after you beat Overtime Mode, there's a mode where you basically have to kill zombies while still trying to stay alive which my friend told me is annoying. I can't really rate the 3rd mode, so blah.
Overall, Dead Rising has some major flaws but those flaws can be shadowed because of how fun and addictive the gameplay is.
