Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher/Developer: Capcom
ESRB Rating: M
Genre: Action

If you’re a big fan of the movie Dawn of the Dead, you’ll probably like the game Dead Rising. Like the movie, Dead Rising places gamers in a stranded mall full of zombies. Your only chance of survival is to use the various items in the mall’s stores to kill of the zombies.

While Dead Rising might seem like your typical survival-horror game, Capcom does a great job of bringing something unique to the genre. Dead Rising starts in a small town that has been sealed off by the National Guard because it has been taken over by zombies. Players are put into the role of Frank West, a freelance photojournalist who wants to get this story out to the public. The game plays in a “real-time” kind of way in which you have to be at certain locations at certain times. Throughout the game you will progress through “case files,” which are just like chapters of a game. You’ll continue through certain primary goals and optional side missions, using bats, benches, cash registers and lawn mowers to kill off hundreds of zombies while doing so.
Although the game does a great job of separating itself from other survival-horror games, Dead Rising does have a few shortcomings. The graphics are said to be “next-gen,” but you can clearly tell they really aren’t up to 360 standards. Capcom does a great job of putting many enemies on screen at once and the cut-scenes are nice, but the graphics still seem a little plain.
Another thing that bothers me is the awkward save system. When you get a chance to save, you are given the chance to continue the game or end. If you continue and die, you’ll be given the chance to save your progress thus far and then restart from your last save point or just load your last game. Essentially, it’s the same thing, because you’ll have to start over again anyway. The game play is kind of repetitive already and the save system just makes it even more so.
If you’re a big fan of survival-horror games or just a hardcore gamer looking for a good game to play, you should definitely check out Dead Rising. While it could have been a better game with just a few minor tweaks, it’s still one of the better games on the Xbox 360.