Capcom is known for introducing video game zombies as we know them in the Resident Evil series. Tension and scares are a constant, every time you open a door or turn a corner. Because you know they might be there.
Dead Rising offers you exactly the opposite. You know the zombies are there, they’re not sneaking around, they just flock in your direction. Yes, flock, since these zombies gather in exceptionally high numbers.
The story of Dead Rising could have been subtitled Dawn of the Dead: the Game, since that is pretty much what it is.
Dead Rising tells the story of freelance reporter Frank West, who is hunting for that special story that might award him a Pulitzer Prize. It all begins with Frank on a helicopter, pursuing a lead that takes him to a sieged town. What goes on below gets him even more curious, as he takes pictures of violent mobs attacking a woman on the roof of a building and surrounding a school bus. After this short “scenic route” paved with brain-thirsty zombies, Frank orders the pilot to land on the roof of the mall and come back to pick him up in three days.
As it turns out, the mall isn’t as safe as Frank thought, and due to a stubborn old lady and her poodle, security is breached and the mall is now crawling with undead things. So basically, Frank now has 72 hours to search for the truth while trying to survive.
The path to the truth is set as a series of case files, which are the basic storyline missions. Case files happen at a specific place on a pre-designated time and day, and you have to get to them and complete the missions. All the case files are connected and have a sort of progression system, so if you fail one, you won’t be able to get the next.
Aside from the main “quest” there are also a series of side quests, entitled Scoop Missions. These are optional, but they will reveal more info about what’s happening. Scoop Missions involve finding survivors, escorting them back to safety and fight some psychopaths in between.
Psychopaths are other survivors in the mall, but they’ve gone insane and are now as dangerous as the zombies themselves. They’re somewhat unconventional boss fights, with the bosses being anything from a clown with a chainsaw, crazy cult leader, shotgun-wielding redneck and enraged store owners.
There are tons of these escort missions, and they’re somewhat annoying because of the bad AI. Some survivors won’t move unless you hold their hand, others have to be carried because they’re injured, some actually get weapons and can fight with you, but they don’t, because they’re as dumb as a post and can’t follow orders properly. And you really can’t do all of the missions you are offered, so if you’re the kind of person who like doing everything in every game, forget it. You don’t have time.
Completing missions is one of the ways to get Prestige Points. Prestige Points (PP) are basically Frank’s experience points. As you gain PP, you level up and he gets new abilities (such as being able to carry more items or run faster) and cool moves, such as walking on the back on zombies or perform some painful wrestling finishers.
You also get PP by killing zombies and taking photos. Since Frank is a reporter, he can grab his camera at any moment and snap a picture of anything around him. Pictures are rated according to their content: drama, comedy, horror and eroticism.
Exploring the mall is as dangerous as entertaining. The mall is of gigantic proportions and there are tons of things you can use to arm yourself. There are obvious items like guns, pipes and baseball bats, but then there are mannequin arms, laser toy swords, CDs, jewels, lawn mowers, chainsaws, benches, plates… Basically if you can pick it up, you can use it as a weapon.
Random zombie carnage is a lot of fun, especially when you can sear their faces with a hot frying pan, stick Servbot masks on their heads, break flower pots on their skulls, beat them with baseball bats, spill grease on the floor to make them slip and fall, hit them with a gigantic teddy bear, throw a propane tank and shoot it for a nice explosion – the list of fun activities goes on. You can also find some alternative means of transportation such as skateboards and bicycles (even a shopping cart) that you can use to run zombies over.
Fighting off hordes of zombies becomes especially hard after dark, when they seem to gain renewed hatred. They are so pissed off that their eyes glow red and they get a higher grabbing range.
Aside from weapons and “vehicles”, there are other useful items as well. Books can teach you new skills like driving or a new combat move, and there are food items that you can mix in blenders or cook in the stove to give them a more powerful effect and sometimes even special abilities. There are also a number of clothes and accessories for Frank to wear, including a horse head, sunglasses, Megaman helm and suit, a dress, and so on. There’s nothing more hilarious than shooting zombies with no shoes and wearing a horse head. Well, there is, he could have been wearing the dress…
Unfortunately, save spots in the game exist only in restrooms and mall security rooms. Reaching them involves passing through an ocean of zombies who want you as their next snack. Don’t think you won’t die, because you will. And probably often too.
The game only has a single save file slot (I wonder who came up with that silly idea), so if you die you can either load that file or start the game all over again but with Frank’s current level and abilities. This isn’t so bad, since you can do those missions better and faster now that you are higher level. The downside of this single save slot is that if you happen to have saved your game at a point where you get stuck with the case files, you can’t backtrack and are forced to start over.
Graphically, Dead Rising looks sharp and smooth, even with those hundreds of zombies filling up the screen at the same time. The attention to detail all around the mall is fantastic, as well as in every single object existing in it. The zombies look creepy and gruesome and show all different decomposition states, which is quite impressive. They actually look better than many movie zombies.
The sound effects are what set the mood for the entire game. Every object that you use as a weapon has its own unique sound. Break a window, and you hear realistic glass shattering. Break a skull, and you hear a squishy sound. Be it gunshots, blunt weapons, dishes breaking, everything sounds exactly like it should.
The background music isn’t really a topic of conversation, since its similar to what you would hear in a real mall (something I like to call elevator music) and it just slips into the background in the middle of grunts and groans, especially in highly zombie-populated areas.
Dead Rising is a brutally violent game, but the violence takes a secondary place to the sillyness fest of showerheads stuck into zombies’ skulls gushing blood or zombies wandering aimlessly because they have street cones on their heads, among other equally hilarious moments. It’s a game that is unique in style, story and appearance, and overall, an enjoyable experience.
It gives a whole new meaning to survival-horror.