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Review : Dead Rising for Xbox 360
Dead Rising by Capcom is the very first game that I got the Xbox 360. It was one of the killer apps that really encouraged me to invest in the new hardware.
The story surround freelance photojournalist Frank West who is tipped off to take a helicopter ride to a huge shopping mall in a remote small town in Colorado. The entire town is over run with zombies and thanks to some stupid old lady that opened up the barricaded door to let her lost poodle through the entire shopping mall is soon over run with thousands upon thousands of zombies. The similarities between the George Romero's classic zombie movie Dawn of the Dead is so strong that Capcom actually put a disclaimer statement on the front of the game box. Frank then has to help some stranded government agents try to uncover the truth about how the zombie apocalypse came to be and survive as long as you can before your helicopter comes to pick you up in three days. This has the best interactive story on the 360.
This is a perfect example of the kind of big graphical budget gaming that can be pulled off on the Xbox 360 and PS3. The screen is sometimes filled with hundreds of zombies in massive sprawling super detailed environments and there is simply no way that this game could have been possible on the PS2 or Xbox one. The graphics are completely mind blowing and detailed on a level that we have not scene before. You can walk through the mall and see all the products on the shelves and read the text on the packages. There is a extremely high level of destructable interaction with the environments. The facial animation on all the zombies characters have that expression hungry for the flesh of the living.
This game is completely designed for high resolution TV and monitors. Capcom apparently did not sufficiently test the game on standard resolution TVs and most of the on screen text is to small to be legible on non HD TVs thus making the game unplayable on standard TVs. Capcom really should reconsider making a patch to fix this.
The environment is huge and it takes you several minute of fighting through zombie horded to get from one side of the mall to the other. Luckily there is a decent map and you can select a destination and follow the on-screen direction to get you where you need to go. There is optional side quests where you need to find barricaded survivors and escort them to the safety of the security headquarters. This helps you gain experience points and level up.
Frank West can use just about any item in the mall as a weapon in his struggle. This includes a big stuffed teddy bear, a push lawnmower, baseball bats, CDs, 2'x 4"'s, showerheads, chairs, plates, bowling balls, knives, chainsaws, hockey sticks, toy laser swords, frisbees, soda cans, parasols, pylons, pies, HDTVs, potted plants, shovels, push brooms, soccer balls, benches, battle axes, skateboards and katana swords ,shotguns, machine guns, and pistols. This list does not even begin to go over the incredible plethora of possible weapons. After using a weapon a number of times it will eventually break and so the search for new weapons is a major element of the game. My favorite items is the electric guitar that makes sounds when you smash zombies with it and the push lawn mower so you can shred the undead bastards to mulch. The first time that you find a car and drive through the zombie infested underground passages beneath the mall is a quite special event. There are hundreds of different kinds of zombies and you don't notice repeating character designs.
All the boss characters are living people who were turned into mentally deranged psychopaths by the zombie apocalypse. There is a psychotic evil clown that juggles chainsaws, a hillbilly gun store owner, really fat evil female rent-a-cop and my absolute favorite one super market owner that makes a shopping cart of death to defend his store from the zombies that want to vandalize his precious store. It is a delicious irony that while the mall is filled with the living dead the real evil in the game is the regular humans.
There is some music in the cinematic events and fights with psycho bosses but mostly the soundtrack is full of the paranoia inducing sounds and moans of the zombie masses. I put some hard core 80's heavy metal on a playlist on my iPod to kill zombies too. Anthrax and Megadeth really put you in the mood to kill some zombies with large blunt objects. After playing the game for several hours straight I then went to bed and dreamed about zombies.
There is a quite controversial save game system where you can only save the game in a mall bathroom or by taking a nap. By making saving points scarce it adds to the since of isolation and paranoia and it gets rid of the addiction to saving and loading. When compared to the automatic save and load of Call of Duty 2 I see why Capcom went with this system. However there is a possible problem where you can save the game with not enough time to get the next vital story point or with not enough health or weapons to make it. Frank will actually go up and take a leak in the urinal to save the game. There is the option to re-start the game over again and you get to keep your experience and skills. I started the game over again about three times before I went through and finished the game. The beginning of game goes a lot quicker when you are at a higher level and it lets you catch up to where you were at when you needed to re-start. There is more people that need saving and psychopaths that can be beat in a single attempt. This creates some decent desire to replay the game and find the stuff that you did not have time to get done the first time around.
Can't wait for a sequel and I am overjoyed to see that it was a best seller and has encouraged Capcom to reconsider making more games for the Xbox 360. It is a completely re-envisioned approach to the concept of the survival horror games. Dead Rising makes me optimistic about where the entire videogame industry is going in this era of high detailed 3D graphics. Stock up on some beef jerky before playing. This game is completely orgasmically zombastic.
Jake at October 10, 2006 
Reviews
Comments
I keep reading these great revies, have played it for a few minutes at a time loving the environment and zombies -- but the small-text issue is just killing me! I can't get into the game not knowing what's going on . . . might have to spring for an HD tv just so I can enjoy what seems to be a real xbox360 gem . . .
Posted by: Allen at October 11, 2006 3:27 PM
If anyone needs further convincing on how good this game is, I should point out that there's a demo available on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
Posted by: james @ hohocognitive at October 12, 2006 5:08 AM
I tried the demo last night. I think I need this game now, it captures a zombie apocalypse better than RE did.
I thought it was funny they put a disclaimer at the beginning that the game had nothing to do with dawn of the dead.
Posted by: Llydis at October 13, 2006 8:44 AM
i can't beat the flippin gun store owner and it's driving me stir crazy i need some freakin help!!!!
Posted by: steve-o at January 6, 2007 7:19 PM
Sure steve-o, save your progress and start over again, You will keep your current level and start the game with more health and experience. The first thing you do is go to the gun store and stock up on shotguns and sniper rifles. That hick bastard will not be there yet. Then go check on Brad and fight Carllito. Then go take out the gun store owner once you have some gun to fire back. Also carry some milk to heal during your fire fight. Shoot the motherfucker in the head with the shotgun. Repeat as needed.
Posted by: Jacob Metcalf ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.8bitjoystick.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 6, 2007 7:30 PM
ok,
Jake
I can help you with the cant read when otis is calling you because i had the exact problem.
If u lower the brightness of the screen very low to live a soft setting then you can read what he's telling you what to do ,ok
Llydis
I can help you too do you know Adam the clown the psychopath that appears in Wonderland Plaza in the night. answer one of Otis call that says by the ride in Wonderland Plaza then you will need about three handguns and if ur good with the golf club bring one of those and a uzi. When you start the fight against Adam the Clown Run away from him on to the leveld part where the shops are Not towards the stairs. He might come after you or he might jump down and try to trick you dont go down there because he will get you but you can still get him because he runs back up stairs. If you are near him he could double lariot with his small Chainsaw's or throw daggers(he's really bad at throwing them) but not a far range. His counter attack would be Prijectile breathing fire and his normal offence is blowing up balloons with tear gas in them. The best way to hit im is through shooting his balloon when he makes them and then the balloon follows you shoot it when Adam first makes one and hits the ground and he will start to choke you can shoot him then too. If you run out of space to fight him or the zombies are coming very close run towards him and past before he double lariot or counter attacks you if he gets near enough to you he can brake all of your melee wepons so avoid close contacts with him and remember best way to attack is when he makes the balloons just pop them.Ounce he dies a very painfull death from his two chainsaws pick the small chainsaws up
ONE OF THE BEST WEAPONS OF THE GAME and stop the ride where theres a person riding on. Hes one of Otis friends and follow him he will send you to the toilets there follow him there and will show you the portal from Wonderland plaza to Paradise Plaza you can use it both ways you really need this guy he is very handy for later on things you'll need to do. (like saving people it will cut you down half the time) The chinese boys are located in W204 in Wonderland plaza Sir Book-A-lot
by the way you need a book to talk to them its by the counter and while your there pick up the criminal biography. Use portal will be under the food resturant in Paradise plaze go to P108 Bachman's Bookporium and get the entertainment & Engeneering Books with the small Chainsaw combined it will make your chainsaw last about 1000 times you can you it so more and if you have used it over 1000 times go back to Wonderland Plaza and pick another one up the place where Adam the Clown directly died by his Chainsaws. I have those three books in my inventory and two chainsaws & im still using my first small Chainsaw and im on Overtime mode and still using it and its not even flashing at all. So keep those books in mind you can kill And Boss in the game with just 2-5 hits with it and they will die it's awesom so do what i said and nothing will go wrong. By the way cletus is easy to kill all you need to do (You need the Small Chainsaw and Books) hide behind the racks and he will shoot his shotgun 6 times before realoding again then jump over the counter and strait to your chainsaw att then he will be die very quickly then the weapons shop will always be open to you. BEWARE there might be three people there two of them have shotguns and the other a machinegun you might need a weapon for that wel one guy runs practically to the entrance just attack him with the chainsaw then take his shotgun shoot the lady in the head and the machinegun boy too. You will honestly need the small chainsaw for the entire game especially for Overtime mode against the federal agents their very strong and can come in big numbers especially if your in the warehouse porblem is that they will all come after you they will kill everything humans and zombies alike the best place to avoid them would be at carlito's place or underground where all the zombies would still be there you can get the queen bees there. When 72 hour mode is about to end theres a twist and quite sad.
If anyone needs any more help just call me
ves92@hotmail.com
If anyone needs any more help just call me
ves92@hotmail.com
Posted by: Ashley at April 9, 2007 4:00 AM
wen im trying find adam the clown and steve i cant find them i keep looking in the wonder land plaza and that food thing were steves in iv only beat carlito and paul.
in fact in al frasca plaza if u look in the fountain theres a secret gun and a weight lifter
Posted by: ryan shaw at May 6, 2007 11:07 AM
to find adam the clown go to wonderland plaza. you will see a rollercoaster in front of you. go up the steps and go to the control panel. it's up their. press (B) to examine and their you go.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 7, 2007 5:08 PM
