We don’t think that Capcom planned for Dead Rising to come across as an homage to George Romero’s zombie-fest celluloid masterpieces, but this game is truly like becoming the main character in Dawn of the Dead, and all the fun that comes with it.

The game plays out entirely from the innards of the Willamette shopping mall, and you’ve got the freedom to explore every nook and cranny for fun things to play with. That alone would be an intriguing game for some people, but throw in screen-filling numbers of zombies and the odd psychopath for good luck, and well, there just aren’t words…

Whatever comes into your mind when you think of running free in a giant consumer fun-house, you can do in Dead Rising. Ride bikes through stores, steal wine from the food court, beat all the other shoppers (alive or un-dead in this case) out of the way with a handbag – these are just a few of the ‘lighter’ examples of the freedom given to you in this game.

You can go almost anywhere and pick up nearly any item, and like a kid who found Santa’s grotto, you’ll be grinning from ear to ear the whole time you play. Sadly, sometimes the zombies seem to be trying to stop your manic mall-games, but hey, they decided to throw in a storyline, damn them.

Actually, you might be expecting a weak storyline from a game whose main premise looks to be ‘kill zombies with whatever’s to hand’, but it doesn’t let the side down. Instead, when you think you’ve clicked onto how the game is going to evolve, there’s a new turn in the playing experience and you discover there’s more to Dead Rising than meets the eye.

The story is this. You play Frank West; devilishly handsome photojournalist, who’s after his big scoop. Flying into Willamette to follow a lead, he decides he can get his Pulitzer Prize-winning shot in the zombie-infested mall, and has to survive for 72 hours (about 7-8 hours in real time) before the chopper returns to pick him up. Its up to you how you spend that time, but you can follow the main story line and find out exactly how the zombie infestation came about, go around saving as many people as you can, or simply leave them all to die, and run around the mall smashing stuff, dressed as a goblin. Quality stuff.

You’ll be given multiple ‘scoops’ a.k.a. missions as time goes by, and it’s completely up to you if you decide to take any on. These can involve saving shoppers spread far and wide all across the mall and getting them to the safety of the security room (lots of Prestige Points for this, which is the currency for levelling up in Dead Rising), fighting psychos who take on the mantle of ‘bosses’ in this game, or following the main story line as it unfolds. There are time limits as to how long each mission will be available though, so take care; missing out certain ‘scoops’ may mean you never get to find out the truth – and for those that want to follow the storyline, this could lead to a frustrating reloading scenario if you don’t get your timing right.

Make sure you do gather those Prestige Points though, as when you start off, Frank’s run is slower than a tortoise. Levelling up will give Frank more speed, stronger attacks, longer throwing distances, larger itineraries and new melee attacks that will make life easier and more interesting.

The gameplay experience is great, and although we don’t have nearly enough room to tell you about all aspects, we can give you a taster. One of the best things about this game is that even as a survival horror title, it’s overflowing with comic opportunities. There hasn’t been a game to make us laugh like this for a long time, but Dead Rising will have you chuckling with glee. Putting Frank in a dress, or a skin tight Lycra sports combo is hilarious, and well the fun you can have with bumbling zombies is endless. Throwing pies in zombies faces never ceases to be amusing; it’s like we can now relive any comedy moment know to man, thanks to the fact that we have a whole mall to pillage. Our favourite moment to date has to be putting traffic cones onto the heads of tens of zombies and getting a top notch photo. Wait, maybe it was the Greek plate throwing session when they just kept queuing up on the other side of the food counter to get battered by crockery. Oh no, no, it had to be the mass-murdering lawnmower moment. Sorry, there’s just too many to choose from.

Picture taking can also be an interesting hobby – and help you to level up through Prestige Points from your better shots - however you often get so drawn into the game that you forget to take pictures. Often the only times you do remember are when you’ve just done something decidedly disgusting or hilarious and need a memento. See; comedy rules this game.

Sadly though, there are some areas that let Dead Rising down. Sometimes you can get frustrated by the number of zombies blocking your way, and what should be a quick run from the nearest toilet to the Food Court can become a ‘Running Man’-style sprint for survival. That’s the difficulty level for you; you’ll find that you’ll rack up a lot of hours from this title, simply because you’ve died and had to reload it god knows how many times.

Also, although we are aware that the single save slot option is there to ‘keep up tension and time pressure’, we just found it annoying. Save without thought and you can be in dire circumstances; one bar of health and only a football to hand might be a tough situation to get out of.

Controls can take a little getting used to too. Overall they’re ‘ok’, however movement when trying to aim weapons is excruciatingly slow, and often fighting can feel that it might be RSI-inducing with manic button bashing interludes as you try to get out of a zombie’s grasp. As you level up you are also treated to a wider selection of melee moves. These can be great if you can pull them off, however they do seem a little fiddly, and the odd occasion will arise where you’ll find you fall into the arms of the closest zombie when you were simply trying to crowd surf over them.

Graphically however, this game excels. Sure, it has its odd weak moment, but overall it stands up to the 360 challenge and offers a very stylised picture, reminiscent of the Dreamcast’s Shenmue. Characters such as Adam the lunatic clown look great in the HD FMV cut scenes, but even in-game graphics are detailed, and although gore can’t really been ‘jazzed’ up, you’ll love the way the blood splatters across you and the floor when you get your mitts on a chainsaw for the very first time. We love gore anyway, but in this game there are masses of it, and it looks damn great. Add to that motion blur with Frank’s quick movements, and this is what you expect from a next-gen game.

Animations also show next-gen at its best, with character movements and mannerisms really bringing them to life. Watching zombies slide down staircases and shuffle along, they look more like Romero’s cast of extras than the software’s NPCs. Visually however, the strongest graphical point to note is the pure number of zombies that can be on the screen in any given moment. Hundreds of zombies can be in our vision without a frame rate hitch, and its not like Grand Theft Auto where you come across the same looking NPC over and over, the developer has really made an effort to get a lot of variety in their flesh-eaters’ appearances.

The only downfall graphically that we could see if that when you are radioed scoops, there is no voiceover; the message is simply subtitled to you. This sounds fine on its own yes, but with such an irritatingly small font, even our healthy eyes were squinting and we were running over to the screen to get the message before it disappeared forever.

Next up is the sound, which fits moments perfectly. Music gets down and dirty during the more stressful moments like ‘boss’ fights, but whilst zombie bashing in the mall, your ears are nurtured by the smooth piano sounds of Muzak. Sound effects also excel with weapons sounding as they should, and death-dealing blows of all ilks leave you oddly satisfied.

Dead Rising’s premise may come across as simplistic, and some may think that it will lack a decent life span on that alone, however you’ll be surprised at how much it can offer a gamer. There are so many new things to come across that you’ll almost never run out of discoveries. When you think you’ve seen it all, just turn a corner and then there’s more.

Plus, it’s currently unique. There’s no other game that offers such variety, and the different ways you can approach it mean that it has a high replay appeal. There’s many reasons for this however; there’s so many missions you wont be able to do them all in one sitting, you’ll easily spend hours running around the mall having fun, basically there’s just too much to do!

It may have its faults, however overall Dead Rising is a really enjoyable game. Frustrating at points yes, but you wouldn’t want a game so simple you could play it with your eyes shut now, would you? This is a game that you’ll want to pick up and play for a couple of hours simply to run around discovering new toys. Ignoring objectives is easily done as your draw drops in awe of the gruesome scythe attack, you go round every clothes store trying on outfits, or create new juice concoctions in the blender. Even the first time you discover you can spit at zombies seems endlessly amusing.

In truth, these moments of madness offer downtime in what can otherwise be a quite tense game. You’re constantly trying to stay alive, as well as keep others alive and you’ll find your heart starts pumping frantically whenever you find yourself in the middle of a zombie foray. But it’s a good tense, and the ability to change pace and mix things up as and when you choose is something that makes this game stand out even more than single human in a crowd of undead.

Verdict
Dead Rising finally gives us some real next-gen experiences; variety, gorgeous graphics, and with the masses of zombies on screen at any one time, its actually using the 360’s processing power well. Sometimes tense, sometimes hilarious, it’s a must have for all 360 owners, and for those without, it’s a reason to get one.

Rating
9/10
Gold Award