Dead Rising

The Good
Dead Rising is one of my favorite video game franchises. I played it years ago on Xbox, and I got it on PC, and it still holds up as an absolute classic. There's much to love about this game, let me just go over it all piece by piece.

The gameplay of Dead Rising is very unique. Rather than using only guns and your basic melee weapons, you have a whole arsenal of weapons, because everything is a weapon. You can use benches, potted plants, large wooden boards, lawn mowers, cooked frying pans, so on and so forth. You also have a camera, which you can use to take pictures to earn experience. The more you level up, you can even learn all of the pro-wrestler kind of moves like a suplex and a double lariat.

The side missions are pretty weak, except for the psychopaths. There is great selection of main mission and side bosses called psychopaths. They are exactly what they sound like. They are unique, crazy-ass characters that have had their minds corrupted by the zombie outbreak. They have great cutscenes, they're all unique, and you can even get some powerful weapons from them that will always respawn when you reload the area coughAdam's chainsawscoughcough.

There's a wonderful catalogue of clothing spread throughout the mall. You can pick up a suit and tie with a trilby hat, OR you can wear small children's clothes with the infamous Servbot mask. The variety is massive in this game. It's also tradition for this series to give you a full costume and weapon based on a Mega Man character. You can't beat that.

SPOILER ALERT Back when I played this game on Xbox, I never really got how deep the story was. It has a strong message of a corrupt government that wants to keep the zombie infection out of the public eye. Near the end of the game, the government issues a clean sweep of the whole city in order to hunt down and kill not only zombies, but people, since they could be witnesses, and they don't want that. Now that I'm older, I really appreciate how far the story goes. It's not some, "shoot the zambies and survive a post apocalyptic world" kind of game. It's a game where you need to expose the truth to the world and not let the corrupt government win. This story really got me thinking. If there was a zombie outbreak in a city somewhere, would our government help us, or try to cover it up like they did here? I can't say for sure.

The Bad
The AI. For the love of everything holy the AI. There's a bunch of survivors in the mall that you have to take to the safehouse. The reason this is bad is that the NPCs in this game just want to die. They will run through entire groups of zombies, they will go and fight some for no reason, or even just stand there and get eaten alive. The terrible AI in this game is insufferable, and I would've been ok with them just tweaking them a little for the rerelease.

Your camera runs out of batteries and you have to refill them at camera shops. There's no reason for this.

SPOILER ALERT The last mission in the game for the true ending is where it just stops being fun. You have to walk though a narrow tunnel full of zombies while this girl you're with holds a zombie repellent. You can hold her hand, but it's barely helpful since you can break free so easily. After this, the game slaps you in the nuts by letting you carry her on your back, making you think, "why couldn't I just do that before?" After the boring tank fight, you have to fight the final boss. Tip: spam double lariat. That's the only way to beat him without having a heart attack.

The Bottom Line
This game is a classic. If you haven't played them, they're on almost every console now. If you had an Xbox at release and haven't played this, shame on you. It was also made like 13 years ago and can run on anything. Play it on your grandma's Windows Vista PC, for God's sake.

The Good
The variety of stuff to do. You can solve the cases that surround the mysteries of how the mall became swarming with zombies (or not), you can go on a zombie genocide spree, you can rescue survivors and get them to safety, you can use anything even mildly pointy or heavy as a weapon (from cactus plants to chainsaws to garbage cans) and you can even shop the mall, picking up golf clubs, bowling balls and even milk and bread (which can all be used as weapons or health items)

The variety of attacks and characters is astounding and you can play through this game twenty times and still see or do something new every time.

There is no slowdown at any point during the game and the fun factor never ceases. The story for this game is also suprisingly excellent and averts the possible boredom that could insue from smashing zombies for hours on end. The achievement system is also top notch and is entertaining as well as rewarding (there is even a mode of play you can unlock where you have to survive in the mall for up to 7 game days, with a wonderous reward waiting for you on the other end)

The Bad
While the graphics are not on level with other Xbox360 games like "Condemned" and "Quake 4", the lack of detailed shoe textures is more than adequately made up for by the literally hundreds to thousands of zombies that fill your screen at any one time with no slowdown. The game is a powerhouse at rendering all those zombies with their own activities and personalities.

The save system is flawed however. There is only one save slot and minimal save stations around the zombie infested mall. It can be a real pain hoofing it across the entire map to get to a save point.

Also, the melee attacks availible to Frank vary from easy to use to downright awkward to pull off. Good thing they're all listed in your menu and told how to pull each off easily.

The Bottom Line
Top notch! Worth every penny of the $60 price tag with massive replay value, both hilarious and frightening characters and a suprisingly deep political story that will keep you intrigued until the final second of the 72 hour survival mode.

For some bizarre reason, you'll probably wish that the 72 hours would never end, this game is that good.

The Good
When I first saw the commercials for Dead Rising, I had high expectations. But did the game actually live up to them? The answer is yes. But first, a quick summary of the plot. You play as Frank West, a photojournalist who is flown by helicopter to Willamette, Colorado to investigate why the National Guard has blocked it off. Upon landing at the city's mall, he discovers that it is infested with zombies. Frank has 72 hours to find out how and why the zombies are there. Dead Rising is a sandbox game. Because it takes place in a mall (with lots of different stores), anything and everything is a weapon (including but not limited to pistols, guitars, potted plants, knives, mannequins, human arms, gumball machines, Frisbees, bowling balls, and even novelty masks).

The Bad
While a great game, Dead Rising is not without flaws. My two main complaints are the save system and the transceiver. Only one save slot is available, which means that if you want to start a new game while still keeping your progress, you're out of luck. I absolutely hate the transceiver. It constantly rings and when I do answer it, I'm completely defenseless. I can't jump, use a weapon or anything. If the call is somehow interrupted, you are called back in a couple seconds and scolded for being rude, before they start giving you the same information from the beginning.

The Bottom Line
Overall, Dead Rising is a good game. It's not too easy, but not too hard either. Its difficulty is just right. If you're looking for a fun zombie game, then Dead Rising's for you. I'd recommend it to either a hardcore gamer or someone who's just looking for something to do.