I really, really tried to like Dead Rising. This is a unique game with a good story. It's a game that manages to succesfully blend action, adventure, and even a little bit of RPG-style character leveling thrown in. It's a fun, zombie-bashing action games at times. I really applaud the developers for finding a way to get so many zombies on screen at once, still have the game look good and run very smooth. The voice acting is surprisingly good, and the game is set-up for multiple playthroughs if you like it. But after playing this game for quite a while now, I could no longer overlook how many MAJOR design flaws that absolutely killed the game for me.
The first annoying thing you will notice is the save system. I know this has been much talked about, but it's definately worth mentioning. I have no idea what the developers were thinking when they implemented this. There is only one save slot and while there are several locations in the game to save, it needed several more. On top of that, the game places you in a situation where you need to be in a certain place at a certain time to complete the main story. If you save your game, are too close to the deadline, and you can't get there in time.......tough rocks. You then have to start the game over from the beginning. This is completely insane to me to even think about making a player do this, but it's what Capcom chose to do.
The controls are just as bad as the stupid save system. While you are running around, the controls are basic enough. It's when you decide to aim your firearm is when the game goes out of whack. You play the game as a character named, Frank. He is a journalist who decides to investigate what is going on in a small town in Colorado. Obviously when you get there, you find things have gone haywire and zombies are running amok. Of course, one of your main goals is to take pictures of your findings. These controls are pretty good, as you hold the left trigger and take a picture with the 'X' button. While in aiming mode, you move your view around with the right thumbstick.
In what is another terrible design flaw, that is not the case when you aim your firearms. When you shoot a gun in this game you have to hold the right trigger (if you shoot without going into first-person mode, you won't hit anything) and press 'X' to shoot. The problem is that you move your aiming view with the LEFT thumbstick for some reason. It makes no sense whatsoever to have the controls different from the camera view and I never really got used to it. Not only that, but your aiming is very loose and it's really hard to hit anything unless they are standing still. Thankfully, zombies move very slow. But the bosses in the game are all human and don't stand still much. This ends up being VERY frustrating and it didn't have to be like that.
While you are running around the mall killing zombies and completing the main story, you can also do 'escort missions'. These involve you getting a call on your transmitter (basically a cell phone) from the janitor telling you where living (not undead) people are stranded in the mall. You have to go to them, convince them to join you, and get them back to the security room (your base of operations, basically) alive. Like the terrible aiming controls, this is made way more difficult than it should be due to poor design. The A.I. of the people you are trying to save is terrible. They will often run directly into zombies and usually don't last long unless you help them. If you help them, then YOU usually don't last long either. By the time I stopped playing the game, I had completely given up on completing these missions as they were too annoying for me.
Then there are a bunch of other flaws that just make me wonder what the developers were thinking. For instance, when you get a call about a survivor from the janitor, you are vulnerable to attack while answering and listening to his call. Some of these stupid calls take over thirty seconds to complete. When you are surrounded by hundreds of zombies, this is obviously a problem. And why is the on-screen text so small and hard to read? Better yet, why am I reading on-screen text in the first place?!! Capcom couldn't pony up the $$$ to get all voice acting in the game? Give me a break. For some reason, the game will not let you change the brightness. This is a huge problem while you are trying to run outdoors and can't see anything while trying to navigate through hundreds of hungry zombies. Especially since the zombies become much stronger once the sun goes down.
While running around outdoors, you will eventually come upon three escaped convicts who have stolen a jeep and are running over/shooting everything they come across. This is a very hard battle made near impossible due to the terrible aiming controls I mentioned earlier. What's even more puzzling is that even if you do manage to kill them all (which I did), they RESPAWN shortly thereafter and are back for more. Huh? Did I miss something? Wouldn't they be friggin' zombies?!!! It makes no sense.
While it is fun to use anything you can pick up for a weapon, the weapons they are actually useful 'break' after a very short period of time. And when you do find cool guns to use, you have to deal with having limited ammo and if you want more you have to trek across the gigantic mall to get more. All while fighting this ticking clock, the save system, thousands of zombies, and terrible aiming controls if you do get the weapon.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. This game should've been one of the best games on the Xbox 360 (and many think it is, for some reason), but it's easily the most frustrating game I have played in a long time. It's frustrating because this could've been SO good if the developers wouldn't have made such stupid design choices. And most of the choices, I have no idea why they would even THINK of putting them in this game in the first place. Even the achievements don't make any sense. I get twenty points for killing 1,000 zombies, but I still get twenty for killing over 53,000?
Dead Rising is a great game hidden underneath what ends up being an overly, uneccesarily frustrating experience. I would urge you to rent this game first before any purchase if you are interesting in buying it. It's still got a high price tag ($60 at the time of writing this), and I would hate to see another gamer drop that kind of cash on a game that is essentially broken.
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