The summer is coming to a close, but for gamers the end of summer is something to smile about because that is when big releases start to pick back up just in time for the fall! The summer isn’t quite over yet, and Capcom has released a little something called Dead Rising on the 360. Unlike the majority of games that come out during the slow summer months, Dead Rising isn’t based on any type of Japanese anime, summer blockbuster film, or some second rate Nickelodeon cartoon.

At first glance Dead Rising looks like a video game tie-in for George A. Romero’s classic zombie flick Dawn of the Dead and as a mater of fact the front of the game has a disclaimer letting everyone know that Dead Rising is in no way related to Dawn of the Dead, but being related to a Romero zombie film isn’t a bad thing by any means. The premise of Dead Rising, being trapped in a mall full of zombies, is a Romero fans wet dream and Dead Rising delivers on that wet dream in many ways.

Gameplay
Easily one of the coolest concepts for a game in quite sometime, it just doesn’t get much cooler than a mall full of zombies and an assortment of weapons to slaughter horde after horde of undead. The gameplay in Dead Rising is easily the game’s strongest area, it’s just constantly fun to play and there is a whole lot to do in the Willamette mall and a whole hell of a lot of zombies to kill.

The main mode in Dead Rising is called “72-Hour Mode” and it’s exactly what it sounds like, you are given 72 hours to get as many photos and uncover the truth to what’s going on in the town of Willamette before your ride arrives to pick you up. Once inside the mall you start out with what the game calls case files, these case files are what drive the main story of the game. You are going to want to make sure you don’t miss them because they need to be started and finished within a set amount of time. There are also a plethora of side missions in Dead Rising, unfortunately these side missions only consist of boring escort missions, where you will guide survivors all the way back to a safe room. There is a benefit to the frustrating and boring escort missions however and that is racking up “PP” (prestige points) which is how Frank learns new moves, gains more life and inventory slots to hold items.



Dead Rising also features its fair share of boss battles, which all called psychopaths. The bosses you meet in Dead Rising are far from sane, they all were once normal people, most of them worked in the mall, but after the zombies came they all went loco. You’ll run into everyone from a deranged chainsaw wielding clown to a criminally insane grocery store manager. Killing each psychopath will also give Frank a nice amount of PP points. Killing psychopaths and escorting survivors isn’t the only way to gain PP points though, just the best ways to gain a lot at once. You can gain PP points by simply taking pictures and killing zombies as well.