dead rising review

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Average Ratings

Addiction Level	7.4/10
Graphics	9.4/10
Value for Money	7.6/10
Overall rating	8/10

83% Recommended5 out of 6 Reviews

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By Takahiro on 29th Sep 2006

Takahiro's Ratings

Addiction Level	8/10
Graphics	9/10
Multi-player	No
Value for money	7/10
Overall value	7/10
Takahiro's recommendation

Good Points

Fun, large mall to muck around in
Hundreds of weapons
Hundreds of zombies on screen

Bad Points

Survival mode is a huge disappointment
Eventually it does become tiresome

General Comments

I really didn't want to say anything bad about this XBox 360 game. I really didn't, because for the first week or so I loved this game. Just the sheer concept of it is almost enough to make it a classic, and seeing hundreds of shuffling, groaning zombies on screen at the same time is mind-blowing, and the amount of fun you can have trying out different weapons and just mucking about is huge.

So basically, if you haven't heard anything about Dead Rising; essentially it's Dawn of the Dead the game, you're trapped in a Mall with thousands of zombies, a handful of survivors, and you can maim them in whatever way you wish. Well, at least with what items you can find in the various shops littered about.

But once the novelty's worn off, you start to notice some flaws. Firstly, and one of the biggest, is if you don't have a HDTV (so most of us then) you are going to have a very hard time reading the in-game text, especially on smaller TV's. It's so small you can hardly make out what you're supposed to do, and you end up ignoring it.
And you can count this as a good or bad thing depending on your style of gaming, but it's also quite hard, however much of it is because of game flaws, or weakness of your character, which forces you to replay the game to level Frank up and make him stronger, so you can progress. It's unnecessary and goes some way to ruining your fun, especially once the military arrives. They're tough to kill, and knock you out very quickly. Once you're a high enough level to use some of Frank's better abilities (especially disembowel), the soldiers become easy to take out quickly, but to get that you've got to play the game over and over until you level up enough.

The save game system is hugely idiotic, as it only allows you one save file which is constantly overwritten, and once you finish the game or die, your stats are carried over. It may not sound too bad, but there are times when you wish you could have more than one save slot, because if you die, that's it, back to the start or last save, so you'll want to save often. But then if it all goes horribly wrong and a vital character has died, or you've saved but not left yourself enough time to get to a vital mission, then the game will continue, but you won't be able to progress with the story, which means restarting, and it can be frustrating.

The last thing is the disappointing survival mode. I was looking forward to unlocking it. However, to survive for as long as possible you really need to avoid taking damage. So unless you're some sort of ninja, you'll need to avoid tackling the zombies as much as possible, which is taking away the entire point of the game.

However, if you can put up with the niggles and problems, Dead Rising is a modern take on the old Dynasty Warriors style of game, and it is massive fun. It's pretty gory, and while not being scary, when you're low on health and weapons and hundreds of zombies block your path, it can get tense. Having the camera is a great feature, and you can get some really fantastic shots with it. But most importantly, you'll have a blast the entire time you play it.

Total Respect: +2