Dead Rising (Xbox 360)

Controls

We’ve talked a little about the gameplay style, now onto the controls. I felt that the control scheme and camera could have used a little tweaking. The major annoyance I have is that if you pull the right trigger to aim a gun, you move the gun with the left thumb stick.

If you pull the left trigger to aim the camera, you move the camera with the right thumb stick. This confused me at first but once I’d gotten used to it – it became second nature.

Weapon cycle is on the left and right shoulder buttons, attacks are performed by using X and either tapping it or holding it in. Various fighting game style combinations trigger Frank’s ever expanding arsenal of hand to hand attacks and can deal various amounts of damage to the dead.

There’s the map, Frank’s watch (where you can get a handle on scoops) and the D-pad controls the answering of Otis’ annoying transmissions, as well as dropping or placing items on the ground.

The game has an auto aim but the closer a zombie is to you, the auto aim suffers, especially with a gun. So it’s best to use manual aim with the right trigger.

Graphics/Animations

The 360 churns out hordes of undead without blinking, sometimes there’s the odd frame rate drop when you’re ploughing through the zombies in a car and there’s lots of explosions (usually caused by zombies walking around with fuel canisters on little wheeled trolleys) – there’s a lot going on however and it can be forgiven in that respect.

There are hundreds of zombies on screen at once and you’ll be knee deep in shambling corpses in no time, Frank can rack up an impressive kill count in just a few minutes of exploration even at the earlier stages of the game, expect to see thousands of the dead made even deader. The game has dynamic light/shadow effects, time passes and as night draws closer the zombie eyes begin to take on a shade of glowing red.

There’s something about being in the dark in this game that’s truly disturbing as you can see all of the nice little touches like this. The textures in Dead Rising are great, the palette is a vibrant one and it’s captured with an artistic flair that puts RE to shame on the Gamecube.

It doesn’t cut back on the blood either; bits of viscera fly everywhere as you mow down the zombie menace. Frank gets covered in gallons of the red stuff (which fades quickly) and zombies leave trails of blood around as they walk through fresh claret. It reminds me of the first time I saw a Half Life Deathmatch and the walls were splattered like an abattoir.

The level of detail on Frank and the survivors is excellent, as well as the zombies, each one is unique in some way and they don’t tend to all look the same. The various injuries really would make the Godfather of the zombie genre (George.A.Romero) proud.

The story scenes are all told using the in-game engine and are realised with crisp visuals and excellent direction/camera work.

The animation in Dead Rising is top notch, the zombies are excellently animated as well as the main characters, they move in a fairly lifelike manner and the level of detail on their faces/facial expression is impressive.

Models

As well as the excellent amount of detail in the game, the models have all been realised to a suitable level of detail as well. The various bad guys such as the Psychopaths, all have a unique look to them as well as a unique design, especially Adam – the Clown.

Level Design

The mall loads in chunks, not surprising really considering it’s a massive place. Each area is suitably large with enough secrets and little hidden bonuses to keep the explorer in you happy. The actual design of the mall is a definite homage to the one seen in Romero’s movie. You will get to see quite a lot of the mall if you follow the main storyline, of course you won’t see it all unless you go off wandering and explore.

The mall is well designed and there’s a nice level of interconnectivity between the various sections, as well as inside the mall itself – each floor has stairs and even a few inside the shops, you’ll need to memorise and effective route since the zombie menace congregates in certain areas more than others depending on the time of day and the time that’s passed in general.

AI

The AI in Dead Rising is a mixed bag. You can forgive the zombies for being dumb as walking undead rocks, but the survivors have a really weird AI that tends to cause a lot of problems when you’re trying to escort them. Now this happens to be something you’ll be doing a lot, to earn a lot of PP and level up Frank.

You don’t want the AI for the survivors blasting you in the back every five seconds with a shotgun, or using an area effect weapon like a sledgehammer to clear their path. If you give them there weapons, they’ll use them on the zombies and you. Some of the time they don’t mean to use the weapons on you, but they don’t care if you get in the way of a spread-shot of lead for example.

There are various AI systems at work, the survivors all have different temperaments and desires – they all have different survival mechanisms, but they can get caught on scenery and in some cases they’ll go nuts and wade into a massive group of zombies off to one side when there’s a perfectly clear path for them to go through the middle – here’s it is useful to learn how to set a waypoint with the aim trigger and Y.

There are times as well when you have no control over the AI you’re meant to be escorting, they’ll run ahead and often if you’re not on the ball, they’ll get themselves killed and you’ll fail the scoop. This is frustrating if you’ve actually spent precious hours doing the scoop and only have a few minutes to get to the next case start or point.

I feel that the AI could have been a lot better.