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Frank West is a freelance photojournalist. In pursuit of a
juicy lead he makes his way to a small suburban town only
to find that it has become overrun by zombies. He makes his
way to the shopping mall, thinking it will be a bastion of
safety yet it turns out to be anything but. It will be a true
struggle to survive the endless stream of enemies, Can he
fight off the flesh-hungry mob and search for the truth behind
the horrendous epidemic...?
The
best way of describing Dead Rising is as a modern twist
on the Resident Evil franchise - but with so much more.
As Frank, you must negotiate your way around the levels picking
up anything that may come in useful against the hordes of
zombies that are roaming loose around the city. On your travels
you must rescue as many of the innocent civilians that are
trapped in the mall and bring them back to a safe haven. And,
if you have the time, you can even take photos to ensure that
if and when you survive you have the photo story to end all
photo stories - this also increases your points and skill
rating.
You
start the game on board a helicopter as it approaches the
city. Something doesn't look right from the start, and it's
up to you to figure out what on earth is going on. You are
under a time limit. The helicopter is scheduled to return
to pick you up 72 hours later and as you make your way around
the shopping mall you can start to piece together why the
locals have turned into zombies... or you can stay on the
roof top and patiently wait for the helicopter's return. The
choice is yours. However, having spent £50 I'm assuming
that most people will want to explore their surroundings a
little.
To
ensure that the zombies don't get their rotting fingers on
you you can use numerous items from around the mall. From
footballs to benches, each item has a different property and
dispatches your enemies in various ways. In fact part of the
fun of this game is finding new items and seeing what they
do to the unsuspecting zombies. Some of my favourite items
included the lawn mower (which lets you plough through the
zombies); Kantana sword and the bowling ball. There are also
novelty toy heads that you can wear yourself or stick on the
heads of your enemies. These include a Lego head, horse's
head and many others.
The
fact that time is ticking down is an interesting addition
to the game - creating that all important jeopardy that ensures
that you can't afford to leave the game running while you
nip to the loo. And you'll need every minute you have to save
the other humans in the mall and unlock the mystery.
When
the sun goes down there are added hazards to avoid - watch
out for the psychos running and driving around who will kill
anything that moves. These include convicts in a jeep, a psychopathic
clown (who runs around breathing fire, throwing exploding
balloons and wielding a couple of lethal chainsaws) and numerous
other fruit cakes that seem to only come out at night.
Sadly
the game doesn't quite offer the open level of freedom that
the press release promises. Okay, yes you can wander around
the mall to your hearts content, but this soon gets incredibly
dull. And, if you wisely decide to follow the main narrative,
you soon realise that you are being shepherded around with
very little option to do anything else.
There
were several issues that I had with the game though. Firstly,
despite the fact the options menu lets you flip the X and
Y axis for the camera controls and photo mode, I found that
when you changed them on the photo mode it didn't actually
make any difference. And secondly, the on-screen text was
so small that I had to get my nose right up against the screen
to read it - which was a real pain, especially as I was playing
this on a large widescreen TV.
However,
to be quite honest, those moans are nothing too major and
I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable romp. Hilarious
in places, nail-biting in others, this is a lot of fun.
Nick
Smithson
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£39.99
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£39.98
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£39.99
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£39.97
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All prices correct at time of going to press.
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