Dead Rising (2006) (VG)

Director:

Yoshinori Kawano

Writers:

Makoto Ikehara (scenario editor)
Yoshinori Kawano (scenario editor)

Release Date:

8 August 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Photojournalist Frank West finds himself trapped in a shopping mall overrun by flesh eating zombies. |

Plot Keywords:

Shopping Mall | Helicopter | Telephone Call | Obesity | Flesh Eating Zombie

Cast

T.J. Rotolo	...	Frank West (voice: English version)
Kim Mai Guest	...	Isabella Keyes / Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Laura Napoli	...	Jessica McCarney / Additional Voices (voice: English version)
T.J. Storm	...	Brad Garrison (voice: English version) (as TJ Storm)
Alex Fernandez	...	Carlito Keyes (voice: English version)
Phil Proctor	...	Russell Barnaby (voice: English version)
Gregg Berger	...	Brock Mason (voice: English version)
Susan Silo	...	Lindsay Harris (voice: English version)
Steve Blum	...	Cliff Hudson / Roger Hall / Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Philip Tanzini	...	Thomas Hall / Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Peter Renaday	...	Sean Keanan / Additional Voices (voice: English version)
John Kassir	...	Adam MacIntyre / Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Gabriel Olds	...	Paul Carson / Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Adam D. Clark	...	Steven Chapman / Additional Voices (voice: English version) (as Adam Clark)
Marty Belafsky	...	Kent Swanson / 'Fantastic!' Photo Shot Call / Additional Voices (voice: English version) (as Marty Belassky)

Country:

Japan

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:18 | USA:M | Australia:MA | Germany:(Banned) | South Korea:18

Company:

Capcom Company

Trivia:

In-game there are various references to the Mega-man series. Frank can wear a full Mega-man outfit and can unlock the 'Mega-blaster'. Also, there is a Mega-man film being advertised outside the movie theatre.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When you fight Carlito a second time, he uses a .50 bolt action rifle, but he fires it like a semi-automatic rifle (continuously).

Quotes:

Ed DeLuca: [Returning to mall at the end of the 72 hours] I doubt that guys lasted this long... but hey, a promise is a promise.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes (2008) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Gone Guru

Dead Rising... is it your kettle of fish?

Dead Rising, from Capcom, the masters of survival horror, is the first true Next Gen game for the xbox 360. Any other game out there, its questionable that they could've been done on a lesser console. This one however, is the first 'must buy' if you want to show off your consoles prowess.

The first time you run into the mall and see two hundred to three hundred zombies shambling around in front of you, your jaw will literally hit the ground... simply because the game does this with ease whilst keeping a truly solid frame rate and an excellent level of graphics.

The concept is shockingly simple. You're a journalist, dropped into a town overrun with zombies, specifically at the mall, you have to survive 3 days. Sounds easy right? Hell no.

Dead Rising is unfortunately going to draw comparisons between two properties. The first is George Romeros zombie movies, and fair enough, it does borrow the concept of the Dawn of the dead movie. The second, the Resident Evil games for some reason.

Let me assure you, the only thing Resident Evil 1 2 3 and 4 have in common with Dead Rising is that there's zombies. But in Dead Rising however, the zombies are much more threatening.

We're not talking modern day running zombies though, we've got the old style swarming zombies. Ever see a zombie movie and wonder 'How the hell did they get eaten? They could've just walked around them!' or something? Get your ass into the maintenance tunnels of Dead Rising, where literally hundreds of zombies pack the halls and you have to wade your way through.

The game play is third person above and behind, the controls are fluid and intuitive, response time from Frank, the journalist, is superb. Capcom have really outdone themselves. The controls are simple, not complicated and every time you get a new skill, it's something to add to your arsenal to turn Camera from Camera toting wimp into Zombie masher extraordinaire.

The weaponry in this game, is incredible. Every sound seems spot on for whatever you're using. You can use things from knives to katanas, pistols to 50. cal machine guns, from chainsaws to fence post hole diggers called Excavators. Each weapon affects the zombies in an individual way for the most part. The Katana will slice zombies in half with whatever angle it hits. It may be from the shoulder to the groin or the head to the leg, it doesn't matter, no hit seems to be exactly the same. The Excavator is just pure gold but I won't spoil that one, it's got to be seen to be fully believed.

Dead Risings only missteps, are minor ones. Well, maybe one major one and the rest are minor. So what are they? 1. People complain about the one save slot. However, Capcom ensure you'll never have to truly start again as any progress in a previous game, if you're killed, can be taken over into a new game. Personally I found a way around only one save slot. I use a memory card and a hard drive in conjunction with each other. This allows me essentially two.

2. No true Free roaming mode. There's a survival mode you can unlock and thats nice, but there doesn't seem to be a true 'free roam' mode as such. Not that that's such a bad thing. The game might get a tiny bit tedious if that was all you'd do...

3. Unforgiving plot. In this game, you have main cases and side cases. Side cases are optional, they're usually rescuing people or defeating psychopaths. Main missions are the ones you must do to progress. Miss one of these and you're done.

4. Time goes by way too fast. An hour goes past in 4 minutes roughly. The game lasts 72 hours, you're looking at between 5 - 6 hours game play. But thats a truly MINOR quibble. The game has that much re-playability it's not funny. If you can get through this, or even half way, in your first few days, I'll buy you a beer :D So to conclude. Dead Rising isn't without its faults. Pobodys Nerfect as they say. It's my cup of tea and then some, but it's not someone elses, but they're not writing this review. My recommendation is this... if you want a showpiece for your 360, a game that you can either stuff around in for hours or play seriously, if you want something that's surprisingly deep for such a shallow concept, check out Dead Rising, you won't be disappointed.