Getting deep on Dead Rising

I was disappointed with Dead Rising. It was weird because everyone I knew loved the game and I was almost afraid to admit in public that I didn't like it. I feel as if part of it is America's fascination with zombies and this was a game for the George Romero fans out there. Maybe it was also because it came out during the boring summer months(I also feel like Prey wouldn't have been so highly reviewed if it came out in the Fall). Yea, I thought the zombies were cool and I loved the demo. However, after I started playing the full game and picked up and thrown all the things I could find, I found the game frustrating. It had a very unorganized mission structure, where I wasn't sure if I was going in the right direction. I couldn't tell if saving someone will advance the plot or even where to take them so they are safe. The boss fights were tough as hell and as cool as the zombies on the screen were, after your 1,000th kill it starts to get annoying. I hope this doesn't make me seem like a bad gamer because I've done things like beat Call of Duty 2 on Veteran, but when I was playing that game I had no idea what to do.

Well, they give you an arrow on your screen and waypoint indicators on your map, so it shouldn't have been too difficult. Aside from that, the couple on the roof are supposed to play as your tutorial for returning people to the Safe Room.

The game did come out at a convenient time, with literally no competition for attention, and was played to its fullest throughout the boring summer months. However, the game deserved every praise it received. It was a beautiful, living (er... sort of) mall full of secondary and tertiary objectives as well as an interesting, albeit familiar, premise.

The game was, as Frank would say, "faaaantastic!"

As a zombie freak (so I'm obviously biased) I thought the game was excellent. It was exactly what I wanted when I went in.

The save point is to make it seem more dramatic. It's similar to Resident Evil's save system. So it's scarier if you're close to dying, which is what the game is about.

People seriously want to bitch about something, and if they bitch about the save system... They really shouldn't be playing video games. They should aspire to become politicians... Please.

Summer release is the best thing to this game. but still, not taking anything away from it, it's a great game and a xbox360's best.

Glad to see it will have a sequel, I am just wondering, will it be an exclusive?

@ Judd

I understand where you are coming from, however, when you DO get what is going on, it actually becomes quite amazing. I am not going to say it's the best game ever, but maybe the guy is right about going back to what games were originally. I mean, where's the save feature in Pacman? Still, even if at it's core Dead Rising did emulate (even if accidentally) original video games, this may not neccesarily be a good thing.

At the end of the day, I love Dead Rising, and I love Call of Duty 2, but both are entirely different. To put one aspect of DR that immediately separates it with a lot others where you're the hero amongst villians, you aren't expected to kill everyone in DR. In fact, you'd be foolish to even try. So ya, different games :)

That article was useless. More then that, it was factually wrong. You can't just stand there in the safe room, you have to advance plot.

Aha! It's Aderack. I had a feeling it'd be somebody from that crew, just reading the topic title.

@7

Yes, you can just sit in the Safe Room. You just get a much worse ending that way.

I could appreciate Dead Rising as a great game even though I didn't all that much care for it. I am perhaps a bit of a completist and didn't like that I just couldn't save everyone and was wandering confused, just trying to save people and advance the main storyline. That is what made the game cool, but I just couldn't let it go that some people I was trying to save died and others I couldn't even get to and yet I had to keep going with the game.

Dead Rising truly deserves the credit it gets, but understand that some people like myself just aren't going to enjoy it that much.

Capcom did a great job capturing the good things about Zombie films, especially Romero's work.

Problem was, they relied on out-dated gaming concepts to act as a support when none was needed.

The Mission system they used, as well as the time limits they put in place are obsolete for a very good reason. They're not fun on a console.

If they simply had opted to allow for more freedom ala GTA, with Plot/Time progression done through "Events" rather than a dedicated clock that always screws you, Dead Rising would have been perfect.

I just always feel like instead of being rewarded for exploring and discovering cool things, I'm being punished for not following their crappy structured mission and plot.

(Not that the plot sucked. I actually liked the Plot)

I just really couldn't stand not being able to save everyone. They should die because I fail. Not because it's part of the game.

I found this article to be a very interesting and insightful read. It sort of reminded me of a thesis or some such document relating to game theory.

I feel like the survival horror genre itself is the last of its kind that actually demands any serious challenge from the player. This stems from the notion of allowing players to make important choices that will later affect whether they'll see the game through to completion. Item managment is crucial in most games of the genre which adds another layer of urgency that you can't find in games of other genres.

While not all survival horror games are equal, I feel like no other genre denies the player from reaching their goal if they don't make their decisions carefully.

Recently, most games seem to do whatever they can to not frustrate the player and can be easily finished simply by getting from point A to point B. If more games challenged the player by presenting death as an end rather than a means to an end, then I feel that games would feel more satisfying for players to complete.

So, if i expect a good control scheme from a game, is that too "institutionalized"?

The controls in Dead Rising were all but intuitive and totally destroyed the whole experience for me.

Coincidentally, I just started playing Dead Rising 2 weeks ago. The problems I see that people have with this game are based on personal confusion and a lack of understanding of the situation the game poses, rather than the game itself.

The only understandable complaint I've seen is the inability to turn off your damn walkie-talkie. Albiet, only a small annoyance overall, it is still pretty damn frustrating.

Overall, I judge Dead Rising very highly. I gauge it highly based on the premise of the story, compared to the execution of what it was going for.

Dead Rising is one of my favourite games of all time, I admit that yes it a bit frustrating but all in all its an incredibly fun game to play. I caught myself not reloading games a lot of times (specially in the beginning) and just starting over just to accumulate experience points and enjoy chopping some zombies and finding new things to do or other ways to go about the game. I don't think the difficulty and the whole save point issue are flaws in the game, I think it was made to replayed over and over again for those aforementioned reasons, the problem is doing that isn't for everybody.


----

Ultrarobotninja
ultrarobotninja.blogspot.com

@RUSKULL

I only pointed out COD2 because if I said that I struggled in Dead Rising someone might have gone "well maybe it's just cause you suck at video games." I could've just as easily said beating Guitar Hero or Gears of War on the hardest difficulties, I just chose COD2.

See, there is a fine line between challenging and annoying. Many people who have played old school NES games can attest to that. I have played many games where I've died over and over again, but it gets extra frustrating when you feel as if it wasn't your fault. Yes, there were arrows but somehow when I tried bringing the hostages to the Safety Room they wouldn't let me. Yes there should be a challenge with hostages, but why can't they stay put in an empty store for like two minutes while I try to fight off everyone else? And even Otis wouldn't be so annoying if I could actually fight while he's talking to me on the walkie talkie, not to mention that if I got bitten he'd have to repeat the message all over again.

And also I agree with Robochocobo. I understand if they wanted to have a mission mode where you are racing against the clock, but why couldn't there be a gametype where you could fool around? I was looking forward to a game where I could wander around the mall, checking out the different stores and weapons, and fighting off zombies along the way. I actually liked the demo more than the full game. I had 15 minutes to do whatever the fuck I wanted and I had a blast. What if they actually had a timed mode but it was something like, kill as many zombies as possible in 1 minute, 10 minutes, an hour? Then you can go for a high score or something.

If any of you think that a high score is dumb, I anticipated Dead Rising to have that arcade, high score, kill as many things as possible, sort of feel. You know, since the game is old school and all.

Judd.

Survivors will happily stand still, but you do have to tell them where to stand first. They follow you by default, but the game uses a waypoint system. This is mentioned in the manual, and also in the game when you meet one of them. You can't complain about the lack of a system that you just didn't use.

Also, there is a 'do whatever the fuck you like' mode in Dead Rising. It comes once you complete 72 hour mode. There are actually several different ways to complete 72 hour mode, as well. Only one of these involves saving survivors and following the missions. You can, as one poster above pointed out, just stand in the security room until the helicopter comes back should you choose to do that.

Your complaints are therefore irrelevant. Dead Rising is a phenomenal game, and since the article suggests that people like yourself are too entrenched in current game rules, then perhaps the article is the most relevant thing you could ever read!

Dead Rising was great. What I like in that article is it basically says WHAT I FELT/SAID in my blog review of it way back when it was released. Especially the bit about it being more like a classic "arcade" game and the way they obv ignored convetion to bring back a sense of fun.

It is still a stunningly atmospheric and colourfully/camp fun game and one of my all time favourites. The pre-requisite being that you are into the theme of the game (not "zombies" per se but fun action horror, like good old horror films from the 70's and 80's before they got too serious).

When you go into overtime mode and start fighting against soliders instead of zombies, the atmosphere changes completely (a good extra bonus) and the whole Mall feels like a real environment, far more than most games I've played (inc GTA which has size on it's size but lacks detail).

My original review (if anyone is bored and wants something to read): http://sharpfish.realityfakers.com/?p=85

I had very little problem with the structure of Dead Rising. The save system took a while to get used to, but once you realize that you don't have to/can't do everything in only three days, it becomes very bearable. I found it best to ignore the story at first, and just go around, saving survivors. That way when you tackle the actual story, you'll be at a good level...actually, maybe you'd be at TOO good of a level, 'cause all the bosses were super easy once I took on the plot cases.

The survivor AI did suck though, and make the game a little less enjoyable. >

"And also I agree with Robochocobo. I understand if they wanted to have a mission mode where you are racing against the clock, but why couldn't there be a gametype where you could fool around?"

I think that the presence of the clock is causing you (and so many others) to overlook the overall sandbox nature of Dead Rising. I was in the same boat, once upon a time.

The thing about Dead Rising--yes, there is a clock in place, and for good reason. But it really isn't important unless you want to find out what's going on in the plot. In the time you're given, you can do anything you want. If you want to get to the bottom of the story, you can. If you want to rescue survivors, you can. If you just want to ignore all that and explore the mall, you can. Anything you want to do. Yes, there's a timer--but there are a lot of real life hours that pass in those 3 days. Plenty of time to get your wander on.

The save system... I love it. Honestly, I hope that DR2 uses the same save system--controversial as it may be. It's brilliant. Inevitably it makes how you play the game the determining factor in the difficulty of the game, rather than some arbitrary difficulty "setting". The more experience you net--from photo taking to zombie killing to psycho killing--the more skilled you becoming and the easier the game gets. In this game, one which starts so difficult, it only serves to become more fun as it becomes easier. By the time you hit max level, the mall is your play place--and you can -really- do anything you want. (and those boss fights aren't so hard).

I've logged a lot of re-play hours in Dead Rising and expect to log many more--it has risen to be one of my all time favorite games. It just takes a while to settle in to -- takes some learning to love.

I love Dead Rising. It's a fantastic game that really captures that good old zombie feel. I actually LIKED that you couldn't save all the survivors - that's far more realistic as in most zombie films almost all the characters end up dead.

The save system was frustrating. Less so because of the fact you had only one life and more because there were so few save points. Add maybe four more save points and I don't think many people would have complained. The trouble was there were a lot of points where you'd complete a super hard mission then find you were 500 zombies away from the nearest save, making it really hard to save after you beat the boss.

The annoying thing about the 'freeplay' mode is all the *Spoiler* marines stalking about - you can't just have fun beating up zombies as there's assault rifles pointing at you everywhere.

I think Dead rising is one of my favourite games for a long time. There's just a few things they could have done to make it more perfect.

To me, Dead Rising was a Triumph of modern game design. Let me mention, before I go on, that I'm not a fan of Zombie games in the least. I'm not even much of a player of Capcom's own Resident Evil, and I hate horror movies overall. But Dead Rising was much more than a product influenced by it's parts, to me.

The "Save stats and start over" system, as well as how you actually felt more natural and "at home" in the mall as gametime went on... it truly allowed them to make a confined experience one of the most detailed games ever. This is the Capcom I fell in love with during the Street Fighter 2 era. DR felt incredibly well fleshed out; before I got a 360, my highest anticipated game was DR, much more than Gears, because I knew this game offered "Next Gen" Levels of interaction.

Truly, graphics are not the key factor that makes me consider a game "Next Gen"; I want a gameplay experience that feels like it couldn't have been offered before. The scope and scale of DR, the amount of different items to interact with, the "every store is a fully fleshed out store!" aspect, these details are things I always moaned and groaned about in past game, with their cardboard-cutout hollow buildings, and their non-interactive items in the buildings you COULD go into. To me, DR is "Sandbox done RIGHT"; THe initial story is gripping and compelling to get through, and afterwards, the world is rich enough that you can play your own way, ignore the parts you didn't like, and revelle in the parts you enjoyed so much.

Also, the save system, or Otis, didn't bother me after my first play through. I actually appreciated the sensibility of it all. Save in the only odd place the zombies can't interfere. Save in a way that your "plan of attack" can always be reviewed, and if you mess up the first time, you CAN start over again. Quicksaves wouldn't have ruined this game, but they'd have really taken the element of "desperation" that you feel from following the clock away. The whole game is pretty much beatable in 6 hours. This isn't THAT much time to say "Ok, do everything right, to the letter, to get the ending you want." If the game was any longer, it would have been a pain. Any shorter, and it would have been unsatisfying.

And Otis... if you ignored him, or hung up the phone on him, he reacted accordingly. You had to put up with a "Nagging old man" in order to get your info. The situation was dire, and his insistent calls helped reflect that. Finding a safe spot to talk to Otis wasn't all that hard. You could simply duck into the back of a store, and listen away.

Oh, and lastly, carrying a train of survivors wasn't all that difficult once you used the waypoint to make them duck into store as you would "Layeth the smackdown upon the rootie pootie zombies". Non-directed survivor AI was annoying, but controlling it yourself allieviated alot of the problems.

In closing, I thing Dead Rising represents exactly the kind of expeience I desired from Next-Gen. Not only is it a triumph of Modern ideas and Old-skool flavor, but it's also a shining example of progressive Japanese-flavored game design. The bits of comedy, and the overall depth of "character" and personality within the important characters of the story are at a level you just don't get with most western game design. If all of Japan could put the amount of passion into their games as Capcom did with Dead Rising, Games like Tenchu Senran and Bullet Witch would slowly switch from being the butt of savvy jokes, to being the gems of the console. Viva la Capcom, and Viva la Dead Rising! (oh, the irony.)

14 "Coincidentally, I just started playing Dead Rising 2 weeks ago"
Really, Trevelyan?? That's what you've been playing?
Really?! Oh...k.

So tell me what is the weather like in the distant future? Does that global warming turn out ok? Who wins the super bowl next year? I hope these questions are ok - I've never talked to a time traveller before and don't what to mess up the timeine too much.

Don't trust Trevelyan he is a Lienz Cossack traitor.

eeble - Please tell me you are trolling and playing the part of an idiot, otherwise I feel very sad for you.

He just started playing Dead Rising (pause) 2 weeks ago.

Um... eeble, Trevelyan started playing Dead Rising, fourteen days ago.
Not dead rising 2 several weeks ago.

There are two possible interpretations of his sentence... use common sense to choose which one...

oh, c'mon you guys are no fun.
I really just wanted to call him a Lienz Cossack traitor. :)

when those damn Convicts re-spawned I threw the game out the window.

I agree that Dead Rising has replayability. When I was first playing the game I was quite annoyed at the save system - then I started figuring out how to make it work to my advantage. Let's face it - to achieve the BEST ending, this game is basically unbeatable without dying and restarting at least once.

That doesn't mean that you can't actually get an ending - they do have several different endings built into the game. It's only if you actually do everything - complete the plot - that you can get the overtime and then free play mode. You know you don't even actually have to sit in the security room - if you get onto one of the signs in the entrance lobby and just sit there, you can watch the zombies run around below you, take some pictures, and basically kill time until the 72 hours is up. (I kept one of the initial people in the entrance alive for 6 game hours that way - he was back by the lowered fence, and the zombies were all chasing after me - so he just stood back there.)

I mostly just enjoy the sandbox mode of the game now that I've beaten it several times - there's just something quite satisfying - albeit disturbing - about jamming a shower head into the zombies.

And the special forces aren't really that much of a hassle - get the book that lets you keep your blades longer, and then chop 'em with the katana.