Dead Rising reviewed

I played Dead Rising recently for the Xbox 360 and I must say it was pretty good. The only real downside for me so far has been hard kind of a pain it is to save your game. Every once in a while I'll come across a hard mission which takes me much longer than it should mostly because it takes me 10 minutes to get to where I need to be but then I'll die and have to do it all over again.

Beside that slight frustration, the game itself is way fun. If the idea of beating a zombie with a maniquin limb excites you, or if the thought of mowin down some zombies with a lawn mower gets you going, you'll totally dig this game.



The story itself begins simply enough, you play as a freelance photographer named Frank who is flying into the town of Willamette, Colorado (not a real city, I checked) because he got a tip that something big is going down. The pilot doesn't know what he's talking about but as they fly in you get a look at what Frank was led to believe was just a riot. At this point in the game you're introduced to your camera and how to take gruesome pictures to score more "PP" points. After this little excersie, you make it into the mall and the action begins.

While the zombie bashing is fun, it wouldn't be as fun if it didn't look as good as it does, on a high def tv that is. The game just screams "next-gen" graphically and graphical prowess pays off in spades here. The environments are bright and varied and the zombies just look cool. The cutscenes and the NPCs themselves look pretty slick as well. Being the graphics sucker I am, I loved playing this on my brothers Xbox 360 (no I still don't have one) and HDTV combo. It was super sweet.

I also dig the way the story is being revealed. You get it in pieces in a somewhat general but linear order. It's interesting and pretty cool thus far. You also only have 72 "game hours" to beat the game really. The way the story plays it is that you have to complete all these tasks (or as many as you can) and still make it back to your friend with the helicopter within 72 hours. It adds another layer of simmering tension since it's always in the back of your mind.

Overall, the game is good fun. There just something I love in beating a zombie with a huge stuffed teddy bear. It just warms my heart :)