Full Review of Dead Rising for XBox 360
Next | Other Reviews for this game

You are Frank West, a photojournalist who wants to get his scoop. You have some pilot fly you into a town, which just happens to be infested with zombies. You start by taking pictures of the town until you come to a mall which is where you land, telling the pilot to come back in 72 hours to get you. The zombies aren't inside the mall...yet. Turns out some lady looking for her dog opens the door and dooms you all. Then you fight your way to a door which leads you to the security room, a safe haven in the mall. You find other people there and two of them are some kind of government agents. You go back and forth between the mall and the security room saving survivors and doing different missions, thus expanding the storyline. Also you encounter many psychopaths, humans who have gone crazy and try to kill you, along the way. Finally, if you make it 72 hours you wait for the helicopter and there's a suprise ending!

Graphics

The graphics are pretty good for Dead Rising. Everything from characters to zombies to weapons all look realistic. Another good thing is when Frank is killing zombies blood splatters not only all over the floor but also all over Frank but it disappears after a short-while. The only thing I didn't like graphic wise is the cutscenes. Some of the characters look weird, especially their mannerisms and how they talk. But this isn't that big of a deal, so I still gave it a 9 for graphics.

Sound

The sound is good. There's plenty of noises from the zombies, not only when you kill them but also just walking around you hear moaning and other zombie ambience. The weapons also make a specific noise when used which I liked. There is music playing during certain psychopath battles but I would've liked if they would've added music to the entire game. But sound is still a solid 9.

Gameplay

Gameplay overall was pretty good except for a couple of things. First I really liked the way there were different endings depending on what you did, it gave the player some control. Also I liked just rampaging through the mall dominating zombies left and right. But the only things I didn't like were: some things seemed to childish and corny which took away from the gameplay a little bit. Also Otis (surviving janitor) keeps calling you which makes a little noise but you have to pick up to get certain missions, the only thing is that when you pick up you're completely vulnerable which sucks when you're in the middle of a huge hoard of zombies. Also missions are timed which is sorta cool but also annoying especially when you're about 2 feet away and time runs out...but overall good gameplay.

Lastability

You could pretty much play this game over and over and over. At the end of the game, at least with the ending I recieved, you unlock another mode that isn't timed and you can just go around killing zombie after zombie. There's also the fact that you could go back, start a new game and try to save people you didn't last time. Replay value is extremely high.

Overall

Overall I'll give this game a nine. If it wasn't for the silly/immature things, no music, sorta bad cutscenes, Otis calling, and annoying timed missions this game would be an easy ten. So if you can get past those things I mentioned this would be a great buy or rental.