Metareview - Dead Rising (Xbox 360)

by Christopher Grant { Aug 8th 2006 at 7:15PM }

The summer gaming slump shuffles on, slowly, lifelessly, with vacant eyes, targeting the pile of grey meat residing in your skull. It's been a tough summer, and Capcom's new zombie-killing/shopping simulator aims to spread (through a post brain-chomp exchange of bodily fluids) its unique brand of humor and action throughout the 360 nation. So, will Dead Rising take its place in the zombie gaming pantheon next to Capcom's Resident Evil series?

Gamespot (84/100) - points out the repetition elephant in the innovation room: "As a departure from the zombie games of old, Dead Rising is a great success, wonderfully blending campy undertones and visceral, zombie-killing action into something highly playable. It suffers from structural faults, and the game does find itself leaning heavier on repetition than you'd probably like, but Dead Rising overcomes these shortcomings by being a lot of fun to play.
1UP (80/100) - also praises the title's inventiveness while noting the "typical" problems , writing, "Dead Rising brings to mind memories of other ambitious games that tried to expand the survival-horror genre (like Blue Stinger on Dreamcast back in the day). It has all the hallmarks -- new play styles, a decidedly different pace from the Resident Evil franchise, and (in theory at least) next-generation graphics. And while it suffers from some typical early-generation pitfalls, it's a feverishly inventive game that triumphs over the very shortcomings that threaten to hold it back."
IGN (83/100) - reiterates the fun factor, and credits said fun with saving the game from its other problems: "With a better save system, more intelligent NPCs, a more forgiving story progression, and tighter controls, Dead Rising could have been even more fun than it already is. Even despite those issues, after several times through it's impossible to deny the appeal inherent in slaughtering Willamette's zombified shoppers."

Sounds like we have a game where you kill zombies over and over and over and over and, despite being repetitive, manages to be inventive and ambitious all at the same time. Killing hoards of zombies in a shopping mall is pure fun? Who'da thunk?

See Also:
Joystiq Metareviews

Read - Metacritic
Read - Game Rankings

Tags: Capcom, Dead Rising, DeadRising

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Psaakyrn @ Aug 8th 2006 7:22PM

Sounds like Serious Sam or Shadow of the Collosus, in that they take one key element, and focus on it really well. Though about AI, at least they've an excuse that the enemies are technically braindead. :P

GSI @ Aug 8th 2006 7:25PM

Hmm...I just may have to buy this game now. I was going to wait and maybe rent it first, but if all the reviews are hitting around the mid 80's (out of 100) then it might be better then I thought.

Stick_Man @ Aug 8th 2006 7:26PM

GTA:ZOMBIE!!! Seriously though, how can anyone get sick of killing zombies? If zombies started rising from the grave tommorow I think I might shed a few tears of joy for the endless killing spree that would soon ensue.

Striker dude @ Aug 8th 2006 7:28PM

WOOH!! An 8 is higher then I expected. I also thought the DEMO was fuckin awesome. Im glad this game got a pretty decent score. Well, I won't be playing it until tomorrow because of my Gamestop.

James Sorensen @ Aug 8th 2006 7:29PM

cant wait to play the full game.. just a fun kill zombies game... only reason its so popular i because there is nothing else coming out so it gets all teh attention...

wish the load times didnt suck

Todd H. @ Aug 8th 2006 7:29PM

After all the reviews I might have to break down and rent this game, HA! Just kidding, I'm feeling I'm going to be short $59.99 this weekend...

Todd
http://www.proxbox360.com

GSI @ Aug 8th 2006 7:38PM

If anyone lives by a Fry's Electronics, you should try and get it there. They usually sell games $5-10 less then the normal retail on the frist day it comes out.

I bought NSMB for $25 (I think) instead of the normal $35 when it came out.

Measure @ Aug 8th 2006 7:38PM

An 8 out of 10? On the game-rating bell curve, that's what, just slightly higher than average? Oh well... I'll rent it anway.

InfectedZero @ Aug 8th 2006 7:38PM

This game is amazing. Its what Ive been waiting for all my life seriously. Ive played the demo 20+ times and am not bored. If I have this much fun with the demo the game is going to be orgasmic.
The load times arnt that bad. Im picking it up in the monrning. Im still afraid of the $60 price tag but I think it will be worth it.

Kritz @ Aug 8th 2006 7:54PM

Ha. Too bad it doesn't ship in Australia for another month(ish). I also had to try out that "XBLive Silver" thing to get it, because apparently the Australian marketplace hates me.

But for the trouble it was signing up a new gamertag and .Net passport, I love the demo. 15 minutes of Katana swinging, CD throwing, broom prodding and trolly.. trollying goodness.

I only wish I could continually pull off a combo without a skateboard or shopping cart. It'd make the game a little easier (bad thing), but make it look a lot cooler. Ah well, this is a buy for me. Even if I have to pay about 90 USD for it thanks to shipping.

>> Kritz

My Dead Rising Demo Review @ Aug 8th 2006 8:03PM

Already Pre-Ordered (yes I'm a sad UK buyer who has to wait a month) Demo was great of course. I expect it to be a future cult-classic - talked about in years to come. A game with a personality, innovation and most importantly massive fun quota! :)

epobirs @ Aug 8th 2006 8:22PM

I suspect this is one of those games that will do well in its initial release but not hugely well. Then later, as a Platinum Hit, it just sells and sells forever as an irresitable novelty at the right price, until it ultimately makes more profit as a PH title than as a regular release.

Psaakyrn @ Aug 8th 2006 8:36PM

to #12 epobirs:

To bad many good games falls under that catagory, like Psychonauts, Sly 3, Shadow of the Colossus. Though given the multiple playthroughs of the demo by people, I'm willing to hazard a guess that there has to be some quality in it.

epobirs @ Aug 8th 2006 9:37PM

#13

Psychonauts does not fall in the category of games that do well but not huge. Psychonauts tanked badly, moving well less than 100K units before being clearanced, yet it was not a inexpensive production.

'Colossus' did close to 200K units in Japan alone in 2005. The combined 2006 global numbers should put it close to or better than a million by now. I haven't seen any Sly Cooper 3 numbers but I'd be willing to bet it's done far more business (without a four year development cycle) than Psychonauts. The first game in that series has cleared a million.

I fully expect 'Dead Rising' to clear a million units before it gets severely marked down. At this point the size of the Xbox 360 installed base and the still thin library make it an easy goal. I also believe it will see far more sales over the long term as a low priced item that is considered as a required part of every Xbox 360 library. For now it can be a big fish in a small pond but only becaus eit is so early for the 360. The same game on the PS2 would have far more potential buyers but far more competition as well and would probably make a much slower climb to platinum status.

Thomas @ Aug 8th 2006 9:53PM

I just PreOrder'd from GameStop last night.. Was gunna get it from BestBuy, but for the heck of it I stopped at GS to see if they would be doing a Midnight Sale (thats how bad I wanted this game).. And it was a good thing.. GS was giving out T-Shirts for a pre-order gift.. Tis a sweet shirt. Says "Chop til you Drop" and is kinda an ad for the Mall in the game..

Cant wait till 2marrow afternoon when I pick this up.. Might have to call in sick the next day.. -j/k..

Darth Pixel @ Aug 8th 2006 10:29PM

Wait until conservative politicians find out about this one. The GTA mess will look like a joke in comparison.

fat boy @ Aug 8th 2006 10:54PM

From the Gamespot review:

"Save points are scattered in a few specific spots throughout the mall, and you only get one save per storage device on the Xbox 360. Considering most people probably only have one storage device, that means one save for the whole game. The inherent problem with this is that because the game revolves so heavily on a rigid schedule for the case files, if you save yourself into a corner where you can't feasibly get to that next case file in time, you're screwed. "

What made Capcom decide to set up the save system in this way? Was it to sell more 360 memory cards? Or are they just cruel?

Save point nitpicks aside, this game does look like fun.

Carl Winslow @ Aug 8th 2006 11:00PM

Zombie Strom Thurmond will not be amused.

GSI @ Aug 9th 2006 12:44AM

conservative politicians? Hell what about the nutcase liberals?

*cough*Hillary*cough
*cough*Leiberman*cough*

For the record I'm neither Republican or Democrat...I'm not stupid enough to align myself with one party and be forced to think like everyone else. :-P

sockatume @ Aug 9th 2006 5:27AM

Is there a reason why he's glowing on the box? I mean, I'm open to suggestions.

Lagomorpho @ Aug 9th 2006 8:33AM

fat boy,
The saving issue my only criticism of the game so far. I had to re-play the beginning of the game 15 minutes in and I'll have to do it again tonight. There are really only like 2 save points and I'm not that worried about saving without having enough time to finish a quest. It's having to do those quests two or three times just so I can get through them AND save.

Oh and it asking for where to save each time is a bit annoying but so far the game is fantastic. Something I kept remembering is that this guy is a photojournalist. Make sure and take pictures of all the stuff that's happening.

OtakuCODE @ Aug 9th 2006 9:14AM

If you find yourself playing Dead Rising and being a bit disappointed by the repetition, there is a really easy solution I swear by. Turn the game off, and put in something else. Yeah, I know, it sounds insane, but trust me, it works! Come back the next day, start up Dead Rising again and it'll be fun once more!

Some things aren't meant to be enjoyed 10 hours at a stretch. There are several games I've loved to death that I couldn't play for more than 3 hours at a sitting because they simply got too repetitive.

My only fear after playing the demo is that the controls are going to be a big sluggish... it seemed that way in the demo. I want nice agile quick zombie slaughter like in THE Oneechanbara.

Dook @ Aug 9th 2006 9:42AM

I played the demo and after a few minutes it was basically State of Emergency with zombies.

Really boring. I like zombies, yeah, but a game like Silent Hill would have been much better. This is just boring.

Batman @ Aug 9th 2006 12:46PM

perhaps anyone that has this game can tel me, as i have yet to be able to find anything online about this.

Does it have on-line multiplayer type of thing,or is it strictly a 1 player game ?

naib @ Aug 9th 2006 1:04PM

@Batman
No MP at all. There's some kind of Survival mode leaderboard, but that's it. Hopefully we can get some co-op in the sequel.

I can't believe people found the demo boring. I'm ashamed to admitt how many times I've played it. First I just tried to find all the cut-scenes, then tried to see how many I could kill in the allotted time. I just read about mixing the different smoothies. Haven't got a chance to try that..

Anyway, my EB just called to say it was in. Looks like I may be leaving work early today. ;)