While its premise is amazing, Dead Rising may not appeal to some due to repetition and tedious objectives.
Dead Rising is a third person action game from Capcom. You play as Frank West, a photojournalist who decides to go to a small town under lock-down to uncover the mystery that lies within. You'll meet survivors, crazy psychopaths, and of course, zombies. There is never a shortage of zombies in this game, as even one achievement will ask that you kill over 53,000 of them. You will have the wide range of different zombies to kill as well, and different personality types of survivors to rescue, though as fun as this may seem, it can grow extremely repetitive far too early into the game.
Gameplay:
You start out with essentially nothing, except a handy dandy camera. You can use the camera to take photos of zombies and survivors. The points you get go towards you leveling up. As you level up, you can gain abilities to certain moves you can use in combat, though you have no direction at all on which abilities you can use, and this makes the game seem more linear. With such a wide array of different places to go, ways to kill zombies, etc.. it seems that this part of the game was just slapped on as a bonus, though it doesn't feel rewarding at all.
A big part of the game is to rescue as many survivors as possible, even though it is not required. Those looking to master this game may try to accomplish this, though it feel unnecessarily repetitive throughout.
Your character moves like a snail, and I don't know really if that is good or bad seeing as the zombies move at a crawl at most points. If zombies are in a large group however, beware as they will more than likely take a chunk out of your juicy flesh, thus draining you of some of your health. While it can be avoided at a lot of times, you will find an area you need to go to, and a horde of zombies sitting there waiting on you. The couple of areas where you can drive a vehicle can be fun as well, as you go guns blazing killing tons of zombies.
Now with the few "boss" fights in the game, this is where the game feels tedious, and very difficult. For example, guns feel worthless in this game, and your enemy is on a platform that you cannot reach. Your instincts say to shoot him by aiming. Well, the aiming system in this game feels extremely broken, because it is almost impossible to aim well at all. I wish they had a slight auto-targeting system, because you just struggle to find that balance you may be used to in other games.
With all that being said, yes, the game is fun, but is very tedious almost at some points.
Sound:
This game sounds average at best. Music is repetitive and has almost no variety. The voice acting is pedestrian at best, and Frank West sounds more like a rookie than a "pro" photographer. Zombies all sound great with their usual grunting and moaning on how much they wish to eat you on a silver platter. Just make sure you never have to listen to the crunching then of yourself being feasted upon by them, because it actually sounds really well.
Story:
As mentioned, you are Frank West, a man trying to uncover possibly the biggest story of all time. You will meet two people from Homeland Security who have mixed emotions on how exactly they should react to your presence there at the mall. You have some interesting little dialogue scenes between them, though it never really will blow your mind away. A major plus at least, is that the story is original, and fans of zombie games will be pleased at that.
Graphics:
This area is mixed for me. The zombies look fantastic, as they all look like they have been mutilated in every way imaginable, and the blood effects of your actions on them also look very nice. The other character models themselves are hit or miss. Frank looks really good considering this was an early title on the 360. The environments feature tons of variety within shops, different areas of the mall, as well as the outdoor parts as well.
Presentation:
This is your classic zombie scenario. You feel outnumbered at all times, and it all is really fun for the most part. While it is repetitive in some areas, players will be pleased with the original setting, and almost entirely original gameplay. The aren't many glitches at all, mainly only things like limbs being stuck in another zombie and the such. Overall, it is a very smooth gameplay experience.
Conclusion:
Dead Rising is a good game, worthy of time from hardcore zombie lovers. Fans of Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead may enjoy this, as though are really the only "zombie" games around these days. The mall is fairly large, so you have plenty of places to go, though don't think this is an open world game so much. Grabbing almost anything as a weapon is fun, and can lead to some interesting kills and gameplay sequences, though a confusing interface, along with horrible usage of guns drag the game down. The corny story may appeal to most players for the very reason that it's corny, though if you are looking for anything solid in the plot/story department, you are probably better off someplace else. If you are looking for a sometimes fun beat-em-up action game, Dead Rising is definitely for you.
Gameplay Score: 7/10
Sound Score: 7.5/10
Story Score: 6/10
Graphics Score: 8/10
Presentation Score: 7.5/10
Overall Score: 7.5/10
Replay Value: Moderately Fair