The player takes on the role of the photojournalist Frank West; as he tries to discover the cause of a zombie outbreak.
Now, the gameplay. Almost any object (within reason) you see in this game is a weapon. Of course you can utilize firearms such as pistols and shotguns; but it is the melee weapons that stand out here. You are able to wield the typical zombie-fighting weapons such as baseball bats or 2×4′s, but how about running the hordes down with a lawn mower? Driving them out of your path with a parasol? Swinging a battle-axe to send limbs all around? Or, if you're feeling extremely brave, you could try taking on the flesh-eating monstrosities by throwing pies at their face, or shooting them with a water gun.
The shooting mechanics are kinda odd. You can only aim when standing stationary, and the camera movement then goes strange. It feels quite stiff and clunky, so it's not great. Melee is what you will be using most of the time anyway, so you can just mash X in all directions instead.
The main missions don't have much variety; often requiring you to make your way to an area then either rescue somebody, gather a certain item or kill a certain person. Somehow it doesn't get all that repetitive, oddly. There is plenty to do during downtime between the primary missions. There is a friendly janitor who will radio in to tell you if he sees anything you should check out; often leading you to other survivors and sometimes psychopaths. There are, however, many survivors and psychopaths you won't be told about; and you will need to explore the mall and discover them yourself. The psychopaths are boss fights; and rather interesting ones at that. Whilst playing this game I wondered what kind of people work over at Capcom, and how many of them have sort of sick mental illness. I mean really, whoever came up with the chainsaw-wielding clown psycopath must be insane. The psychopaths are for the most part, very fun to fight, and often reward the player with additional survivors or weapons.
I think I hated the survivors more than I hated the zombies, which may sound odd as the former were not trying to tear off my extremities and feast on them at any point. The reasoning is that the survivor AI is simply horrendous. Never have I seen so many AI get stuck on small environmental objects. One time, after battling through the hordes with my four katana-wielding survivor friends, I reached the door to the next area. Before opening the door, which initiates a loading screen, I checked to ensure the survivors were close enough to the door to head through with me (rather than remaining in the previous area). I counted three of the four. In a panic, I ran back the way I came from in search of the troubled missing survivor. I found him, trying (and failing) to run over a foot-high plant pot whilst getting mauled by the hordes. After about a minute of hacking through the zombies in an attempt to rescue him, he was killed. Pretty annoyed at the stupid AI, I turned back to regroup with the three remaining survivors. I got back to the door to find them all neck deep in zombies, as apparently they decided they didn't feel like using the damned katana swords I gave to each of them. They all died, also. Sadly events such as these are not uncommon.
There is a levelling system by which you can improve the stats of your character, which are maximum health, melee damage, running speed and throwing distance. In addition to these, you also unlock new melee attacks to perform, some of which are incredibly gruesome (think punching your way in to a man's stomach, grabbing hold of his intestines and ripping them out… yeah). Experience points are gained through almost anything- completing missions, rescuing survivors, killing psychopaths and taking photos. The photography aspect of the game is rather pointless; it offers little experience and is barely touched upon in the missions. There are five different categories for the pictures you take, being horror, drama, erotica, brutality and outtake. These are relatively self-explanatory. There are special stickers which go by the name of PP stickers scattered throughout the mall. Taking a snap of these will offer a significant XP boost, which unlike normal photos, are helpful to level.
Dead Rising uses a very uncommon time-based system. Certain events will occur at certain times, and if you don't get there in time? The mission expires; you can't even attempt it. I quite like this system; it gives a sense of urgency, you know that if you don't hurry your ass up, there will be consequences; whether that is the end of the story, or the death of fellow survivors. However many people dislike this; as it gives very little time for freedom- to perform a zombie-slaying rampage or to slam Lego-heads on to nearby zombies.
I need to tell you about the save system. Whoever decided to use this should be shot. The game requires you to go to one of five or so special rooms in which you can save the game. What happens if you forget to save for a while and die, you say? Then the game will metaphorically stick two fingers up at you as it forces you back potentially hours, as there a no type of autosave at all. Incredibly frustrating. So to anybody yet to play the game- SAVE OFTEN. Please.
The sounds on this game are decent, nothing special. The voice acting is okay, but the sound effects are satisfying. The revving of a chainsaw, the crunching of bones… all nice touches. One thing worth mentioning is that most of the speech with minor characters such as other survivors is not actually spoken; it is simply text on the screen with no audio. This is unfortunate, and would be much improved with real voices.
Do not expect anything desirable in the graphical department, please bare in mind this game is now four years old. The graphics are not bad enough that they will make your eyes bleed; nor will it detract from the overall experience; just don't expect to be impressed. Very importantly; I highly recommend avoiding this game if you do not yet have a HDTV. The majority of the text is absolutely miniscule; and in SD it is simply unreadable.
The main mode, 72 hour mode, will take 6 hours to complete- as one Dead Rising day is equal to 2 real hours. This doesn't seem like much, but multiple playthroughs are encouraged as there is plenty to do (such as rescue more survivors), as well as multiple endings. Then there is overtime mode, which is an extra few hours on top.
Graphics – 5.5 It's a 2006 title, so it is not good by today's standards.
Gameplay - 8.3 It's a fun game, simple. Lots of things such as the colossal list of weapons is very good, but things such as survivor AI hold it back.
Story – 8.0 Interesting and engaging plot, but certainly room for improvement.
Longevity – 8.2 Completion of story mode as well as overtime will take under 10 hours, but there is good reason to replay the game again.
Overall – 8.0 (not an average)
This is a good little game that is dirt cheap now; I suggest a purchase if you haven't already.