Dead Rising (Xbox 360)

The game uses just one save slot and you can only save in set places. A couch in the security room and any restroom in the mall will serve as save spots. If you die, you can reload the game and you’ll be back in the last place you saved. This could be a frustrating feature since most people like to use multi save slots, like me. However I can respect and understand why the developers chose this route.

The game would be a lot easier to beat if you had more than one save slot, plain and simple.

If you find that things are too tough the first time around, you can also restart the main story and Frank will keep his level and statistics. This helps a great deal especially if you forget to save and accidentally ruin the main storyline like I did. One of the surviving heroes died and the whole case file notebook went red. I attempted to get to a save spot but the masses of zombies took me down, Frank’s first adventure ended in his death.

I didn’t mention that this happened at night, when the zombies get faster and even more aggressive – oh joy.

You’ll also find that a guy called Otis gives you a radio transceiver and this will be your primary source of contact for your scoops. Otis however doesn’t really care that you’re knee deep in zombie guts most of the time and he’ll call you up even in the middle of a boss battle (we found this was the most irritating thing in Dead Rising) and longed to be able to put a shovel in the guy’s head.

Scoops aside the rest of the game is focussed on action; it’s not like RE, where it’s thoughtful maiming of the undead and big mutant monsters. Dead Rising is a game that focuses upon the wholesale slaughter of the zombie menace via any means at your disposal. We had the following inventory stock of around 7 items during some point in the game.

1: Lead Pipe – this makes a great zombie smashing weapon; it lasts a good while and is fairly quick to use. Zombies don’t like it when you smack them in the teeth with it.

2: Katana – for quick sushi-style chopping skills, the samurai’s favourite weapon of choice carves a bloody swathe through the zombie hordes. It doesn’t last too long so make the best of it.

3: Untouchable drink – more about drinks in a short while. Not only does it taste of pie and orange juice, it’s also able to restore most of your health as well as stop the zombies from grappling you for a short duration.

4: Quickstep - Another drink that seems to double or triple Frank’s foot boogie power.

5: Machine gun: One of the many weapons found later on in the game, careful conservation of ammo allows you to use this as a quick way to carve off chunks of a boss’ health – or mow down quite a few zombies.

6: A queen - Without spoiling the plot, zombie smart bomb, say no more.

7: Shotgun – A wider spread makes this weapon good to blast a clear path through the undead.

There are weapons that can’t be held in your inventory, like the big drill, the parasol and the chainsaw. There’s a lawn mower and even a toy laser sword (this doesn’t make a good weapon at all, but its fun).

There are other non lethal items, books that whilst in your inventory will give you certain bonuses and various food stuffs that can be consumed. If you can find a blender you can mix food stuffs to create special bonus drinks, some of these drinks will have a strange and bizarre effect, and others will give you a definite bonus. Such as the formerly mentioned Untouchable drink (pie and OJ) for example.

As a general rule of thumb, if it has a small icon next to it, then it can be picked up, interacted with or used in some way, shape or form. It’s up to you to find out what each and every item in the mall does, some like the shopping trolley have to be pushed with X to keep them going. But if you press A then Frank will boot the trolley at the nearest group of zombies.

There are also costumes that you can wear and novelty hats and certain items that will impede the zombies’ teeth. Ramming a coat hanger into their mouth stops them from biting you and can provide a comedy shot if you’re quick enough with the camera.

Put a lego-man style head on a zombie and watch it bumble around completely blind and unable to do anything. Get a group of these and you can take an amusing photo to earn a wad of PP.

Watch out for PP icons (little stickers) on various objects throughout the mall as well, these icons will show up with a small percent meter on your camera – take the right snap to earn a mega bonus of PP.

So there are a lot of things to keep you occupied in Dead Rising, especially in terms of exploration and discovery. Most of the best weapons and items are in other areas of the mall and the story takes you to some of these places but to find the other items, you’re going to have to either wait for a break in the story or use the time to just explore.

Frank can arm any survivors he meets by giving them his equipped weapon, be careful as some of these people are just out to get what they want from you and if you give them a gun, you might end up as the target. Mostly they’re just pleased to see you and will be grateful if you get them out of their sticky situation, they can be ordered to follow you or given a command to head to and guard a location.

Useful if you have given them a gun, they’ll fend off any zombies that try to come near.