This review contains spoilers
My personal history with Dead Rising starts as a youngster, someone who was stuck on the Playstation 2 Era of gaming consoles in a time where the Xbox 360 and PS3 were considered the next generation of hot, new consoles for years. Around this age I was imaginative, super excited about the state of gaming and where it would go, and obsessed with zombies. I was REALLY into zombie media as a kid from games to movies to books and would actively seek out new stuff to play, and eventually wish as growing up after my parents divorced there wasn’t exactly a lot of funds in the house under a single mother and my father thought of video games as a waste of time when I could be “learning something useful” like physical work. Around this time I was obsessed with ScrewAttack and their top ten lists (mainly due to the sound design and 2000s gamer aesthetic); and these lists, while archaic today, felt like a way for me as a young person to interact with a gaming world I had yet to attain. One of these was a “Top Ten Zombie Games” list, and this list is where I would come to learn of at least two games that I love dearly: Stubbs the Zombie and Dead Rising. The idea that I could pick up ANY weapon to kill zombies in an open world wearing ANY outfit that I please felt amazing, and as such I would actively keep track of this game. I also remember watching a bit of Youtube Machinima Creator Jackspicer2311 as a kid who would have a couple of Dead Rising references though my memory is foggy as to whether this was where I got interested in the game too (though that’s how I got into Twisted Metal I believe so shoutout).
I don’t remember much of my first games on the Xbox 360 (except The Godfather 2 being my very first one) but I remember the games that really made me want to go into the next gen series were specifically Dead Rising and Grand Theft Auto 4. I don’t remember when I got Dead Rising but when I did get it I would play for hours and hours, looking up Youtube guides on how to master button combinations, weapon locations, psychopath tips, basically anything and everything I could get knowledge on I would do it. In the process, Dead Rising would become one of my most prized games of all time as well as probably my favorite game of all time despite the frustrations that come with playing a title with some interesting design choices. I’d later go to try Dead Rising 2 and on but the games wouldn’t ring as well as this one did, Capcom Japan really made something special with this one that resonated a lot with my younger self. Having played it repeatedly as a kid, I’d later pick it up on Steam and have since in the past five or so years only really played it twice, including the recent playthrough. However, in my quest to get through most of my backlog and having played and reviewed the other Dead Rising games with my buddy BFD Survivor, before playing the Wii Port to DR1 as well as the later black sheep Dead Rising 4, I wanted to talk about what really makes this game special to me.
According to a 1UP interview with Keiji Infaune, Dead Rising originally started off as a sequel to PS2 exclusive Shadow of Rome, specifically Agrippa’s action parts. Poor sales however pushed it into the game it was today, spinning off to instead take a western influence that it came with today. During the development according to a forum board I found, a lot of assets were used from Shadow of Rome and originally only had Dead Rising as a sort of working title while the word Snatcher was used as the placeholder title for the entire development cycle. Influences of course are obvious, with the movie Dawn of the Dead being one of the first things that come to mind as a zombie movie in the form of a game. It was so similar enough that a warning was placed on the cover art dismissing any sort of copyright infringement with the George Romero classic only to get sued by the company who held the rights to the movie. Keiji Inafune also apparently wanted Dead Rising to include co-op play but due to the lack of time and resources needed to make it a functioning feature, it was instead saved for Dead Rising 2 and beyond. Over the years, different alpha and beta copies would also be produced, with cut content like removed weapons and such falling into the hands of like minded Dead Rising enthusiasts like STiPO to be explored. One of these concepts apparently included a sequence of Isabela Keyes using a sniper rifle to shoot some zombies only for that to be cut. It would then make its first appearance in E3 2005, along with the Microsoft Convention that same year using the same build. Over the next many years the builds would change as assets were re-done (most notably Frank West, who originally had a black jacket and black turtleneck I believe?). Eventually however, it would make its release date of August 2006, after dealing with a crunch period in March. So what was the critical reception like for this game? It was pretty much positive across the board minus a few hiccups here and there and as someone who loves the game to death, I think most people love this game (except for the ones who don’t like the timer which is understandable).
Dead Rising cold opens with a pair of legs shambling towards an open road in the middle of the night, whether they’re just shambling or trying to go towards the light is unknown. That motherfucker straight up gets run over in the next five seconds by a mother and her youngest daughter in their car, where the mom is trying to keep her daughter from looking out to see the carnage. Along the dirt road the background is filled with burning buildings and the sounds of blackhawk helicopters before the two get smacked by an out of control semi-truck. Mom is unconscious as the little girl tries to get her awake, all the while a shambling person roams nearby. This messed up looking man attempts to break into the vehicle with half of his jaw ripped off and attempts to make a quick snack of the mother and daughter duo before the mother manages to kick him away from the door. However, that victory doesn’t last for long due to the fact that the car won’t start and more zombies proceed to surround them before it abruptly cuts to black.
Cut to later on, September 19th of 2006. Photojournalist Frank West is investigating the small town of Willamette, Colorado to figure out why the National Guard has seized the town off. Hiring helicopter pilot Ed DeLuca, the two fly off into the distance as they witness the military blocking off all bridges. Pulling out the camera, Frank snaps shots of multiple survivors getting mauled on, ripped apart and eaten alive by the undead in a series of horrific events (though skippable) introducing the camera mechanic. Taking his photos, they fly their way to the Willamette Parkview Mall, Frank loses his equipment due to military blackhawk helicopters swarming Frank and Ed, forcing Frank to jump out of the helicopter and onto the top of the mall with one dictation from Ed: be back in 72 hours or else Frank will be left behind. Taking one foot forward, he suddenly runs into a mysterious hispanic man in a flashy looking shirt with the collar up, asking weird questions like if Frank “came alone” and making painfully obvious small talk. Heading down into the security room he witnesses a lady getting eaten on the TV monitor and after that heads down into the Entrance Plaza. Down here he witnesses numerous things, of which include cranky old men, beautiful latina ladies and an older woman obsessed with yelling out for her dog. One of the cranky old men identifies the people as “zombies” which Frank surprisingly doesn’t believe even when he witnessed numerous people getting chewed alive. Regardless everything goes from bad to worse as the old lady screaming “Madonna” witnesses her dog trapped with all the zombies and barges through to save her dog despite the fact they seem to be ignoring the little pup. The zombies barge through and everyone starts to die except an African American man in a yellow shirt, who yells at the survivors to run up the stairs to the security room. Getting to the security room, they weld the entrance shut, and the African-American man heads back into a nearby air duct to go into the mall. Frank introduces himself to a nearby blonde woman, and she asks to see some photos. She fixates on one for a bit, one of the cranky older men with the cane in the introduction. Shrouded in mystery, the blonde woman introduces herself as Jessie and the African American man from before as Brad. After the older african american man, Otis, warns him about the dangers outside and gives him a walkie talkie to head out into the open.
Here is where you’ll get introduced to the first two survivors, an older couple named Natalie and Jeff though it’s not mandatory to do so. Frank heads down an elevator into a nearby storage room and nearly clocks Jessie with a fire extinguisher, thinking that she was a zombie. Falling down and spraining her leg due to Frank’s ambush. It’s learned that Jessie followed behind because she witnessed Brad being ambushed on the monitor. This is where “I’ve Covered Wars Ya Know” debuts to become a legend, and Jessie gives him her gun and Frank makes his way over to the food court. While there, Frank nearly gets shot by a familiar hispanic gentleman armed with a P90 along with Brad. Whittling this man down with bullets, he escapes via a rope to the ceiling. Frank demands an explanation only to be rebuffed by Brad, only to concede to Frank’s demands for information a bit when he shows him the earlier old man picture. They begrudgingly agree to work together and Brad reveals himself as DHS, as in the Department of Homeland Security. They travel through the Al Fresca Plaza and into the Entrance Plaza where they unlock the shutters and find the old man. He refuses to leave the closed store until he’s promised safe passage. Frank heads back to the security room only to swat a giant bee, which when killed has every zombie’s head explode nearby. Heading into the security room, Brad and Jessie reveal the older man’s name, Dr. Barnaby. Trying to establish contact with HQ, Jessie learns that the signal is blocked. Frank reveals that his helicopter will be arriving in 3 days, and promising info in return, Brad goes to find supplies to last for a couple of days. Before the next case, you can go about other cases and find survivors, with one of the first optional psychopaths encountered being Adam the Clown along with the convicts in the park which brings up a question: how the hell did they get their attack jeep in there and where did they break out of prison, along with why do they respawn every day? Regardless, eventually Brad finds the supplies before talking to Frank about how not everything is allowed to be printed or even revealed. Eventually after waiting around, the monitor above shows the mysterious hispanic gentleman from earlier dragging the old man through the Entrance Plaza and Brad reveals that the professor was called to this mall mysteriously. Heading to the Entrance Plaza, Brad saves Frank from getting plugged by the hispanic gentleman and his high powered sniper rifle. He reveals arc words “Pachamama” (meaning Mother Earth) while holding his locket and continues to fire while Barnaby is held by rope over top of a crowd of zombies. Defeating this man again, he escapes again while Brad gets shot in the leg. However, Barnaby is saved and brought back to the security room while Brad is patched up a bit by Jessie. Jessie's tasks Frank with finding medicine and he beelines for a grocery store in the Northern Section. Going inside, he finds a grocery store manager going fucking nuts with the hispanic woman from earlier unconscious inside of his grocery cart. Frank defeats him and wakes the lady up, who freaks out and accuses Frank’s “people” of causing “Santa Cabeza”. Picking up the medicine, he brings it back to Brad before Jessie notices blood on his clothes. He tells Jesse about the girl and Santa Cabeza after getting roasted by Jessie, and the mention of Santa Cabeza startles Barnaby enough for him to wake up from his tranquilizer.
With his access to Barnaby restricted after intending to snoop, Frank tries to find the hispanic woman and notices her on the monitors heading back towards the supermarket and goes to meet her for information. She doesn’t take kindly and tries to kill him on her motorbike in return. A nut shot later, she finally decides to ask if he’s a reporter. Further questions towards the woman to learn that the mysterious hispanic man from earlier? His name is Carlito and he wants everyone to know that America created the zombies and not him. They proceed to make a deal: she will talk to Carlito about an interview with Frank in exchange for publishing U.S. war crimes. She then reveals that she’s Carlito’s little sister, who reveals that the zombies were a message from Carlito as revenge against the U.S. She gives a rendezvous date: midnight near the camera shop. Frank heads back to the security room (before or after defeating Jo the lesbian cop psychopath and the Hall family sniper psychopaths), Barnaby has apparently revealed that Santa Cabeza was the center of the CENTRAL AMERICAN drug trade and that “zombie drugs” are the cause. Frank starts to question why that would make sense, and Barnaby lies that there’s no logic because they’re terrorists. Before I continue, I capitalized Central America because later games would constantly say MEXICO instead and it drives me fucking nuts because it’s COMPLETELY different. Meeting up at the spot later, he witnesses Carlito’s sister get attacked by zombies and with a bloody patch on her arm. Rescuing her, she says that Carlito went crazy and shot at her while extremely upset. Frank escorts the woman (named Isabela) back to the security room while Carlito begs for forgiveness over the speakers.
Bringing her back, Frank explains to Brad the situation and says that the same person who shot him also shot her. It’s also revealed that Carlito has a backup plan, and when asking Isabela later what these plans are she reveals that there wasn’t a drug trade in Santa Cabeza, but an American research facility doing research into a wasp (NOT A BEE SORRY) that was supposed to fatten up cattle for American consumption. Barnaby confirms this after almost turning and biting Jesse: the wasp process was supposed to reduce costs to produce cattle before creating zombie livestock. Frank takes a picture of Barnaby’s corpse as Isabela recounts the Santa Cabeza Incident, with the queen wasps escaping from the lab. Barnaby rises from the grave and attempts to kill once again before getting a dome shot to the head. Brad brilliantly summarizes the Willamette Incident as “terrorism as retaliation for a cruel government cover-up”. Brad begrudgingly agrees to let Isabela “atone for her and her brother’s sins” and lets her check up Jesse. Psychopaths in the meantime include the cult leader of the True Eye Cult, a group of mysterious green masked raincoat clad men along with mentally disturbed goth man Paul, who threatens to burn some civilians with a molotov. Carlito apologizes again over the loudspeaker and begs for Isabela to come back, revealing the existence of a “last resort”. This last resort involves blowing up the mall, with several trucks planted with bombs in the underground car park mixed in with a flammable gas that Carlito plans to flood.
Frank races to the underground tunnel and collects the bombs one by one, which Carlito tries to stop. This part is important, because if you’re able to defeat Carlito while he’s in his truck and attempting to kill you, a cutscene plays where Carlito gets out of the van and runs while Brad gives chase as they exchange gunfire. Brad tells Frank to collect the bombs now while he chases down the suspect, and Frank does so, pushing them all in a shopping cart to the outside of the car park. Another cutscene reveals the battle between Carlito and Brad, which ends in Brad being kicked out into a horde of zombies. You’re able to go back to the spot after where you see his fate, and Brad encourages you to put him down and not to tell Jesse. He puts him down before heading back to the security room, where Isabela reveals that more of Carlito’s plans could be revealed if they head back to their secret hideout. Going there with Isabela, she finds the computer but learns that it’s password protected and nearly not hackable. While she hacks it, later on Frank gets called back to the security room again, where he watches footage of Carlito getting captured by a giant man into a butcher’s shop in the basement of the North Plaza. Heading there to get Carlito, he witnesses Larry the butcher attempting to chop him up while laughing maniacally. Refusing to let Carlito go, Frank attacks Larry before beating him and cornering Carlito. Frank gloats about how Isabela is on their side, before Carlito goes on a rant about American meat consumption, ironically while he’s dying in a butcher’s shop. However, Frank promises to tell the world about Santa Cabeza and Carlito gives Frank his locket, telling him to give the locket to his sister. He reports back to Isabela about Carlito’s death and some condolences before giving her the locket. Inside, she learns of the code word: Panchamama, “Mother Earth”. Hacking the computer, the signal finally frees up for Jesse to call up HQ. This call goes bad though as apparently DHS decides to ignore everything, cover up the incident and that Special Forces will arrive at midnight. Jessie goes into a near breakdown state and goes into the fetal position, while the special forces later arrive to rescue her. However, this doesn’t go well as she then turns into a zombie herself and kills the special forces representatives.
Frank arrives at the security room to find the aftermath and kills zombie Jessie, and many hours later the special forces teams officially arrive and proceed to wipe out most of the zombies in the entire mall. I assume they wanted the military there instead of just bombing everything so it doesn’t get out too much into the rest of American society. Regardless, it’s learned in a note that the special forces have been abducting all the survivors that you saved and that Otis escaped in one of the helicopters and tells Frank in a note that he “owes him a drink”. In the daytime, Brock Mason (or Ed Harris lol) pops up as the commander of the special forces.
Frank hangs out on the helicopter pad while Ed is scoping out to see if he’s made it, excited when he finally sees him because payday. How he didn’t get spotted by special forces I don’t know, but he attempts a pickup only for a zombie to have stowed away on the helicopter and feast on him violently, the helicopter crashing into the mall inside the park. Frank slumps down, having lost all hopes and with almost everyone dead except Isabela as zombies surround him. Cut to credits right? WRONG. If you’ve beaten every case in 72 Hour Mode there’s one more mode to beat for the story and that’s:
OVERTIME MODE.
Overtime shows Frank previously having given up and waiting for death, only to be saved by Isabela. Frank goes unconscious only to wake up back in Isabela’s lair, with my genuine surprise considering he’s a pretty big dude and to lug him across the mall must’ve been tough. It’s revealed here that Frank has been infected and that he’ll turn in a limited amount of time if he doesn’t find the tools and ingredients to survive even with his high level of resistance. Frank roams around the mall dodging special forces to collect all kinds of shit like blenders and it’s revealed that this drug was created specifically on orders from Carlito as a backup plan. Frank’s moaning about being a “time bomb” triggers something in Isabela, and she reveals that Carlito created an NPO to help war orphans, but had secretly experimented on them all as zombie time bombs to be unleashed in the future. It’s here I want to bring up something else so spoilers for Dead Rising 3: Nick and Diego have the Numbers 12 and I forget the other number. The list has Number 12 as Lisa Jackson, and while this could’ve been a sort of secret code thing, I’m 100 percent sure the developers just missed the research or decided to retcon. Besides the point, yes, Carlito infected orphans with a special zombie virus and spread them all over the country as a future revenge plot. Isabela sends him to the clock tower in the park to turn on the generator, only for Frank to see a giant hole that Ed’s helicopter made, revealing a tunnel into an unknown location. Afterwards, she asks for adult queen wasps, and a whole lot of them to be exact. She’s able to create a sort of temporary vaccine to help stop the infection spread and jabs him, before going on about how she’s able to isolate a pheromone to repel zombies away from them. Frank tells her about the tunnel, and she creates the pheromone.
They make their way out to the clock tower and hesitantly head down into the cave with the temporary vaccine and the “smelly perfume” and slash their way through the tunnels. On the other end, it starts to wear down a bit as they notice that special forces are guarding the end of the cave. Holding Isabela on his back, they fight their way through and steal a special forces jeep, driving out into the open of a big ass construction site. Similar to The Thing: The Video Game, a rail shooter segment where you play as Isabela while you shoot out certain weak points on the tank, along with shooting down drones that attack you. This doesn’t stop the tank’s commander Brock however, who switches from automated controls to manual and proceeds to shoot the jeep and flips it over. Isabela is alive but unconscious while Brock holds Frank hostage, where it’s revealed that Brock led the cleanup operation on Santa Cabeza. The two argue about the governments fuckups, while Brock goes on about how humanity excels at being a fuck up. Brock decides to flip the tank around to look at a horde of zombies, while Frank gives him a punch in the mouth and knocks out his cigar. Frank and Brock engage in a violent hand to hand duel, which knocks him out cold off the tank and onto an audience of zombies. Isabela is trapped on top of the jeep kicking away zombies and Frank once again gets on his hands and knees, but this time screams into the clouds as a slideshow of black text appears over the screen. The results: Frank apparently escapes Willamette (shown in the Road to Fortune comic), the news is released and the U.S. government takes partial blame, however the Willamette Mall Incident was forgotten in the future.
So, with that beast of a synopsis gone, how do I feel about the story? I love it. Compared to the other games, it feels like there’s more of an atmosphere, more of a vibe to it. The plot to me makes sense, has build up, engages in thematic build up that you could only expect from the earlier George Romero movies. The plot with american cattle, government cover ups, the terrorist retribution, the plot twists just kind of all feel perfectly in sync with each other; moreso here than compared to the other games. The stories behind the psychopaths aren’t just “crazy people”, but people who snapped and freaked out. The one psycho I don’t think I mentioned is a perfect encapsulation of this: Cliff Hudson. A Vietnam veteran who runs the hardware store in the North Plaza, the death of his daughter and grandchild (whom I believe were the mother/daughter from the introduction), the flashbacks to Vietnam. Yes, it’s a vietnam flashback but in this one side quest, it feels like it has a lot more depth than most of the other characters in the next couple of games. There’s a tinge of sadness in it, and this sadness spreads around to the other characters in the series. The lore is interesting as hell as well. I want to know more about Santa Cabeza and what has happened there. The True Eye Cult, how did they come about? Were they a cult before, spurred on by the apocalypse or perhaps were they created in such a short time frame? These are only a few examples, and honestly while I’m sure it’s not a perfect story, it feels appropriately perfect to me. The characters that inhabit this game, while feeling kind of detached, are all unique and memorable to me. I remember Brad Garrison, Jessie McCarney, Russell Barnaby, Carlito & Isabela Keyes and I DEFINITELY remember Frank West. There’s something about all of these characters that while they feel kind of detached due to their speech patterns, they feel human. Frank as a character is iconic as fuck between his outfit, his quotables, like he feels like a sort of perfect legacy character that’s unique in it’s own way. The problem with this is that because I’m not a Youtube Essayist who can go into super in-depth detail, I can’t tell you why everything feels so perfect other than it just does. When I was a kid, this game captured my imagination and held onto it in a warm embrace of a bear hug, and while I don’t play this game all the time anymore, each time I do play it? It keeps the magic and not a lot of things can do that for me. And truthfully, none of the previous games (aside from Off the Record MAYBE-ish) really feels like it can match in line with the series. This game is the high point, and while other games are good it just doesn’t reach the heights.
What’s the gameplay of Dead Rising like? Well there’s multiple different facets of the game: the actual gameplay, the combat and miscellaneous stuff. The actual gameplay is as follows: you are dropped off in the mall to sort of free roam around, killing the undead in unique ways while wearing different types of clothes, engaging in side quests (after getting calls on your transponder from Otis) and finding secrets while under a 72 hour time limit. What I will say about this is that you start off with a low level, you’ll barely have any health and you have to earn your way to level 50 by obtaining PP Points (or Prestige Point…points?). As you level up, unlike other games you won’t be able to choose what skill points you get, what’s invested in what; it’s all pre-chosen for you. In one way I’m cool with not managing ANOTHER skill tree, however it does kind of feel like it’s choosing how you should play instead of investing in yourself in a way that matters. Regardless, the game is REALLY difficult and time is NOT on your side. In fact, the timer is part of the reason why others don’t really care enough to play it. You will barely get any time to follow the cases, save all the survivors, fight all the psychopaths AND have a free roaming fun time. Even though this is my favorite game, the amount of times that I’ve died due to being swarmed or failed due to juggling too much at one time would infuriate me to no end. However, it had that Dark Souls effect where I would just want to keep going, try to give it another run. It’s one of those titles where you kind of have to memorize runs, learn where special weapons like the Katana and Uzi are kept, food combinations and the routes you need to plan. Of course though, you’re not forced into this; you could very well just screw off and ignore everything and be fine, at the cost of getting a bad ending due to not following the main plot. You could also just ignore the survivors and that would be just as valid, it’s not really a rogue-like in all honesty but it does have interesting elements that make it fit. If I could say anything bad about it is that honestly, I understand and respect the challenge that the game puts forward but I prefer the leniency that the later titles in the series would provide. Another annoying thing? The survivor A.I. fucking blows fat dick, like they’re annoying as hell even if it is immersive as hell with people who go panic mode around zombies. They’ll run into each other all the time, get stuck on objects, sometimes you have to hold their hand or carry them on your back which doesn’t allow you to use your weapons to defend yourself. It can honestly be a chore to deal with despite the semi-immersive factor to it all, and honestly zombies can and WILL make quick work of their ass if you’re not helicopter parenting their ass at all times.
How about combat? How does that work? Well, I’ll start with Psychopaths, which are their own separate side quests where you can rescue survivors, but also have their own cutscenes and personality. They’re all unique in their own way and usually you’ll get rewarded with a unique weapon, survivors and a lot of prestige points. Oftentimes the best thing you can do is get a high damage weapon, like the Katana or the dual chainsaws from Adam after you beat him. These guys are bullet sponges and the truth is with how free form and structureless the combat is other than aiming down the sights, oftentimes you might take a decent bit of damage while trying to deliver damage yourself. While difficult at first, these can be decently easy to overcome (other than the final boss Brock, fuck that guy) and besides your enviornment around you, you can also unlock combat skills the more you level up. However, another thing is that in Dead Rising 1 it’s very context based and needs a lot of practicing: for example if you want to ground slam you need to jump then hold aim and attack buttons at the same time in order to slam down (ex. Xbox Controller = A, RT + X at same time). You can jump in the air and do a backwards kick flip by pressing jump and attack very quickly as an example; other skills are useful but require certain situations like jumping right up against a zombie to hop on top of their shoulders. It’s a strange system, yes, but one that honestly I’ve kind of gotten used to dealing with over time even if I feel that the controls in Dead Rising 2 and beyond are better. Speaking of Dead Rising 2, there are absolutely no combo weapons in the slightest so you can’t go into battles with a paddlesaw or anything totally unrealistic.
How about miscellaneous stuff? Well, other than the aside stuff you can take pictures with your camera, which helps gain Prestige Points, with a certain amount of points in certain categories needed in order to progress in certain quests. This is mostly side quest stuff however, so if you’re not worried it’s perfectly fine but can help with later runs if need be. You can also collect secret PP stickers in order to get a lump sum bonus of PP but that’s about it? You can also drive certain vehicles, but this is rare (mostly involving the Convict Jeep, a red convertible, and a motorcycle but honestly the driving controls are kinda iffy. The only other thing I can really point out is that in certain locations there will be sorta hidden weapons to help out, like the Katana on the awning outside the juice bar, or the Uzi in the fountain of Al Fresca Plaza or the Shotgun in the Entrance Plaza. These are what I consider to be essential places to pick up extra weapons if you’re trying to arm survivors or whittle down psychopaths faster. In order to gain certain perks like weapon durability you have to pick up books in set locations and KEEP it in your inventory at all times otherwise you lose the perks, and the more of these books you have the more they stack stats. If you get captured by certain enemies (mainly by being killed by special forces or the cult), then you’ll show up either in a closet or in a helicopter, and these mini “human enemies” are can vary from easy-ish to kill to difficult if you don’t have the right equipment like the special forces. If you’re able to achieve certain thresholds (like killing 53,000 something zombies and getting the Zombie Genocider achievement), then you’ll unlock the Mega Buster. Beat the Infinity Mode in 7 days and you’ll unlock Mega Man clothing. Other outfits that can be unlocked include Special Forces outfits, Boxers, Otis’s outfit, etc.
The last thing to bring up gameplay wise is a whole ‘nother mode: Infinity Mode. This isn’t a free roam thing with infinite time exactly as much as it is a “how long can you last” mode. Your health will constantly go down, so it’s only recommended to try this at Level 50, and you will need to constantly eat food in order to survive. Sounds easy right? Wrong. You don’t get infinite food items, they only spawn once and so if you waste it all then you’re fucked. You’ll be able to kill hostile survivors and psychopaths who spawn in, who give you a random assortment of goods from their corpse like food or weapons but sometimes it’s useless. Balancing all of this with health constantly decreasing and it can be a depressing and miserable experience, and getting to the 7 Day mark without dying and restarting all over takes around 16 hours give or take, maybe more? I’ve only done it once and I will NEVER do it again, but if you want to try then be my guest.
How do the graphics and the atmosphere for Dead Rising hold up in the present day? Honestly, compared to the other games in the series I feel like everything holds up the best, though Dead Rising 2 is very much second up for how close it comes to bringing Fortune City to life. Dead Rising’s Willamette Mall on the other hand feels like an american paradise of sorts with a sort of mall that honestly would do pretty damn well in a city. Everything about it is unique, wholesome, as well as unextraordinary, which is why when contrasted with the zombie invasion it brings this unique sense of isolationism into it, the feeling that anyone could be targeted at any moment. Even the opening sequence where you travel on helicopter over the small town while you witness people being chewed to bits felt unique, like a place I wished I could explore outside of the mall. However the mall is the centerpiece for the town of Willamette, and if the mall is in the center then to sound like a pretentious fuck, american capitalism is the centerpiece to every facet of american society. In fact, to be honest, the entire game’s atmosphere is a result of American capitalism and the greed caused by it. It would be too painfully obvious of course to go deeply into this aspect as everyone who does youtube essays could explain this fact better than I ever could but it’s still a prominent fixture in the game.
Of course compared to other zombie games this title, while it takes its story seriously, is a lot less serious otherwise. This is the game where you can literally use a lawnmower to run over all the zombies you find, or throw plates to knock zombies down, or even wear granny clothing and smack them with a bench. There isn’t much about this game you can totally take super seriously. HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean that when shit hits the fan that it can’t deliver a gut punch. Take survivor deaths for instance, a lot of times when survivors die due to zombies there will be this little cutscene where they get tackled to the ground, chewed up and gnawed on throughout the entire process as they scream for dear life and bloody murder. It’s demoralizing as hell, and other than trying to save everyone for the rewards, led me multiple times to reload my save file to help these goofy AI bastards. The threat only gets more ominous when you learn that engine wise you can have around 800 zombies on screen at once, which you would never realize due to just how many there are in comparison to the smaller sized spaces. As for the graphical fidelity itself, while it still looks like an Xbox 360 game and while it doesn’t have the super in-depth facial muscle textures that half of these games use in the modern day, it still looks pretty slick brought up to 1920 on Steam. The zombies still look threatening, covered in a bluish tint and red slopped on their body while they shamble around what looks like could be a mall in Florida.
The voice acting for this game is strangely paced, offbeat and detached, yet infectious (no pun intended) at the same time between how they say things, when they say things that it’s become a bit of a meme status in the Dead Rising community. Stuff like “I’ve covered wars you know” sank its teeth (proverbially) into the gaming pop culture sphere, or the older lady screaming her dog Madonna’s name repeatedly before doing something stupid, or even Otis chiding you for hanging up while you’re in the middle of getting chewed on by zombies as if he’s not self aware enough to realize that. It adds to this strange charm, a game that both takes itself a bit seriously as well as not taking itself too seriously. I wouldn’t even doubt it if it had something to do with Japanese localization, but it adds to this whole mysterious vibe that it gives off. Terence J. Rotolo here is a perfect exemplification of that as the game’s lead Frank West. Looking back on my previous Dead Rising reviews, I felt that Chuck’s character was kind of a rip off of Frank’s vibe, as if he does all the catchy one liners. I was blatantly incorrect with this, as Frank might have his quips but he doesn’t drop cheesy one liners like Chuck did so my apologies for that. Alex Fernandez is solid as the ominous threatening yet mysterious Carlito Keyes, the main antagonist along with Kim Mai Guest as his sister Isabela Keyes, who is regretful yet angry at their shared trauma with Santa Cabeza. Other notables are Phil Proctor as the angry and shady Dr. Barnaby, T.J. Storm and Laura Napoli as Brad Garrison and Jessie McCarney. You’ll hear some other ones as well, like Steven Blum as Cliff the Vietnam Vet and once I learned that Jason Spisak voiced one of the Hall psychopaths I instantly made the connection there as well. Everyone does a good job at keeping up this tone, sometimes being serious yet tonally kinda hilarious to straight up serious. It’s unnerving to say the least and helps keep the horror atmosphere that I don’t feel any other game could match.
So how is the music? The music in Dead Rising is unique to say the least. Frank West’s theme (what I consider to be the “oh shit” theme) has this strange combination of string instruments and this shaking rattling sound that I guess could be electronic? Another favorite of mine is Gone Guru by Lifeseeker, which plays during the Convict psychopath battle in the park and has become notoriously catchy for being involved in such a bastard of a fight. Justified by Drea (the end credits song) is this power metal ballad of sorts that just feels right, like it’s got this emotionally uplifting vibe and as someone who doesn’t listen to metal in the slightest it just feels perfect for the tone of the overall game. A lot of the incidental mall music that plays over speakers sounds like straight up elevator music, sometimes straight up but sometimes having this funky groove to it with a woman singing over it. Sometimes you hear it over the actual loudspeakers but oftentimes you’ll mostly hear it just entering stores of specific kinds. The Kent Swanson theme sounds like it could be straight out of a Yakuza game with how much it kicks ass and the “Adam the Clown” theme just sounds straight out of a Matrix/Jet Set Radio styled soundtrack. It’s certainly eclectic but everything just connects itself together as a soundtrack should, but in a way that makes your stay at the Willamette Parkview Mall iconic.
Finally, how are the environmental sounds? Amazing, simply couldn’t be more perfect in the sound design department. Whenever you slash something with a katana it just oozes this slick feeling of a samurai clash mixed with blood. Shooting the basic pistol, while one of the weaker firearms, feels punchy on its own regardless. The UZI feels like a lower powered yet effective gun, the sniper rifle sounds like it could take someone’s head clean off (and often does) while the actual assault rifle late-game feels like a powerful version of the uzi. HOWEVER, by far the best one is the shotgun, which sounds like one of the punchiest shotguns I’ve ever had the pleasure of holding. This shotgun is like a literal gun nut’s orgasm in the form of a loaded firearm, like it sounds like it could put a hole in five separate people and just has this crunch to it that I can’t get from any other shotgun in any other game. Slamming a zombie with a park bench produces this breaking wood effect that sounds perfect and runs over the undead with a lawnmower? Forget about it, don’t even remind me of how awesome it is. I don’t even just mean with weapons, footsteps sound great as well along with breaking glass. The humming sounds and chants of the True Eye Cult are ominous and creepy, and give off an actual threat. The zombie groans, with how many there are also give off this authentic threat in numbers, eerily quiet almost when you’ve killed most of them. There isn’t one damn sound effect in this game that I can find an actual fault with, something that I have to suck Capcom Japan’s dick on because it’s amazing.
What can I say about Dead Rising that others haven’t? I love this game. I love Frank West, the plot and it’s twists, the american cattle thematic angle, the threat of the undead, the survivor system, the psychopath system, the fact that you can wear and use ANYTHING as a weapon is just fucking amazing. I have a near reverence for the game even though I don’t really go out of my way to play it much anymore. To me, this game is such a high pedestal that I’m not really sure how you could truly follow up on with a sequel in a perfect way. That’s by no means saying that this game is the best game ever or even that it’s perfect, because it’s not. But to me, this game oozes charm from the small town surrounding environments and the friendliness of Willamette and its color scheme to the threatening clash of the undead. Granted I will say after years of playing without mods I decided to play this game with mods (stopping the timer a couple of times and throwing on infinite health and such for a more chilled and relaxed experience) so I could get more of a sandbox feel and just as always there’s always this certain magic that brings me into the atmosphere of the game that no other game in the series OR game in general could really accomplish. While I can’t sit here and say I totally played it legitimately on PC, I’ve played it so many times on the Xbox 360 that honestly? Who cares, truth be told, maybe one day I’ll get one of those Frame-A-Game frames so I can hang it up on a wall so much that I love this game. If you decide you want to play this game, I feel you’ll be in for a fun time, with three caveats: the survivor AI sucks balls, the timer will fuck you for messing around for too long, and there’s a good chance you might die a bit so save as often as you can. However, the game is one hundred percent worth a legitimate playthrough the first time around and it’s something that I truly encourage if you want to try out something unique, just know what you’re getting into first before jumping in head on. It’s unique enough that the community itself is heavy into researching the origins of each of the games, with Youtuber STIPO being the main figurehead behind the search into Dead Rising’s beta.
The future of the franchise is something I already went over multiple times before, mostly considering this was the first game in the series. A Wii port would be created right after and released in 2009 in the midst of the “Wii craze”, with a lot of its assets being ripped straight from the popular Resident Evil 4 Wii port with a bunch of different changes. Capcom would later outsource the sequel to Vancouver based Blue Castle Games (having developed baseball titles before then) along with its free prologue Case Zero and its epilogue Case West (along with a tie-in comic book Road to Fortune) and would go on to reach relative success and acclaim. Straight after this, Capcom decided they wanted to release a Dead Rising game for IPhones in 2010 (along with a Java 2008 port) which I don’t think I ever played but would be an interesting experiment where you could play as other characters like Brad, Carlito and Jessie while slaying the undead. They’d go on to later be bought out and assimilated into Capcom larger itself as Capcom Vancouver and from Dead Rising 2 the series would go on to have a troubled franchise. Pitches included rivaling The Last of Us with a series tone which got nixed, attempts to create different games based on other IP as well as attempting to develop their own IP would either fail or get nixxed by Capcom themselves. Dead Rising 3 would have development trouble with their last gen ports and got turned into an Xbox One exclusive which saw a moderate amount of success. The troubles would only continue onto Dead Rising 4 as creative visions clashed with Capcom themselves and attempting something different lead to the disaster that Dead Rising 4 would become but that’s a different tale for the future. Nothing has been able to capture the magic that was the first game, with the fourth one “attempting” to but coming up shorter than my dick size. For me, this represents a bit of a personal journey this year which I would try to get to as soon as possible except one thing: moving issues. However, I plan to finish off all of the Dead Rising games, with the next one being the Wii port as my Wii game of the year and the finale being the black sheep of the franchise: Dead Rising 4. Those will come, but for now I appreciate the memories and the love this game fills me with. I guess to sound like a cringey fuck: Dead Rising is love, Dead Rising is life.
Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQCbFb_m5no&list=PLRoKwfu_qjekpXozraCHHoWIkkuyK7_-C&index=7&ab_channel=Deadforge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Rising_(video_game)
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/DeadRising
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6-GwG556gLM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csil5mX3sBY&ab_channel=ScrewAttack%27sVideoGameVault
https://www.supercheats.com/guides/dead-rising/unlockables
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/DeadRising
https://deadrising.fandom.com/wiki/Dead_Rising_Mobile
https://web.archive.org/web/20160305000556/http://www.1up.com/news/1up-interviews-keiji-inafune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9Ki3br3Qec&list=PL0672E00A6DC5AD80&index=3&ab_channel=Tomzumir3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rm9LC9n7zY&list=PLRoKwfu_qjekpXozraCHHoWIkkuyK7_-C&index=183&ab_channel=JackMadrox
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
I don’t remember much of my first games on the Xbox 360 (except The Godfather 2 being my very first one) but I remember the games that really made me want to go into the next gen series were specifically Dead Rising and Grand Theft Auto 4. I don’t remember when I got Dead Rising but when I did get it I would play for hours and hours, looking up Youtube guides on how to master button combinations, weapon locations, psychopath tips, basically anything and everything I could get knowledge on I would do it. In the process, Dead Rising would become one of my most prized games of all time as well as probably my favorite game of all time despite the frustrations that come with playing a title with some interesting design choices. I’d later go to try Dead Rising 2 and on but the games wouldn’t ring as well as this one did, Capcom Japan really made something special with this one that resonated a lot with my younger self. Having played it repeatedly as a kid, I’d later pick it up on Steam and have since in the past five or so years only really played it twice, including the recent playthrough. However, in my quest to get through most of my backlog and having played and reviewed the other Dead Rising games with my buddy BFD Survivor, before playing the Wii Port to DR1 as well as the later black sheep Dead Rising 4, I wanted to talk about what really makes this game special to me.
According to a 1UP interview with Keiji Infaune, Dead Rising originally started off as a sequel to PS2 exclusive Shadow of Rome, specifically Agrippa’s action parts. Poor sales however pushed it into the game it was today, spinning off to instead take a western influence that it came with today. During the development according to a forum board I found, a lot of assets were used from Shadow of Rome and originally only had Dead Rising as a sort of working title while the word Snatcher was used as the placeholder title for the entire development cycle. Influences of course are obvious, with the movie Dawn of the Dead being one of the first things that come to mind as a zombie movie in the form of a game. It was so similar enough that a warning was placed on the cover art dismissing any sort of copyright infringement with the George Romero classic only to get sued by the company who held the rights to the movie. Keiji Inafune also apparently wanted Dead Rising to include co-op play but due to the lack of time and resources needed to make it a functioning feature, it was instead saved for Dead Rising 2 and beyond. Over the years, different alpha and beta copies would also be produced, with cut content like removed weapons and such falling into the hands of like minded Dead Rising enthusiasts like STiPO to be explored. One of these concepts apparently included a sequence of Isabela Keyes using a sniper rifle to shoot some zombies only for that to be cut. It would then make its first appearance in E3 2005, along with the Microsoft Convention that same year using the same build. Over the next many years the builds would change as assets were re-done (most notably Frank West, who originally had a black jacket and black turtleneck I believe?). Eventually however, it would make its release date of August 2006, after dealing with a crunch period in March. So what was the critical reception like for this game? It was pretty much positive across the board minus a few hiccups here and there and as someone who loves the game to death, I think most people love this game (except for the ones who don’t like the timer which is understandable).
Dead Rising cold opens with a pair of legs shambling towards an open road in the middle of the night, whether they’re just shambling or trying to go towards the light is unknown. That motherfucker straight up gets run over in the next five seconds by a mother and her youngest daughter in their car, where the mom is trying to keep her daughter from looking out to see the carnage. Along the dirt road the background is filled with burning buildings and the sounds of blackhawk helicopters before the two get smacked by an out of control semi-truck. Mom is unconscious as the little girl tries to get her awake, all the while a shambling person roams nearby. This messed up looking man attempts to break into the vehicle with half of his jaw ripped off and attempts to make a quick snack of the mother and daughter duo before the mother manages to kick him away from the door. However, that victory doesn’t last for long due to the fact that the car won’t start and more zombies proceed to surround them before it abruptly cuts to black.
Cut to later on, September 19th of 2006. Photojournalist Frank West is investigating the small town of Willamette, Colorado to figure out why the National Guard has seized the town off. Hiring helicopter pilot Ed DeLuca, the two fly off into the distance as they witness the military blocking off all bridges. Pulling out the camera, Frank snaps shots of multiple survivors getting mauled on, ripped apart and eaten alive by the undead in a series of horrific events (though skippable) introducing the camera mechanic. Taking his photos, they fly their way to the Willamette Parkview Mall, Frank loses his equipment due to military blackhawk helicopters swarming Frank and Ed, forcing Frank to jump out of the helicopter and onto the top of the mall with one dictation from Ed: be back in 72 hours or else Frank will be left behind. Taking one foot forward, he suddenly runs into a mysterious hispanic man in a flashy looking shirt with the collar up, asking weird questions like if Frank “came alone” and making painfully obvious small talk. Heading down into the security room he witnesses a lady getting eaten on the TV monitor and after that heads down into the Entrance Plaza. Down here he witnesses numerous things, of which include cranky old men, beautiful latina ladies and an older woman obsessed with yelling out for her dog. One of the cranky old men identifies the people as “zombies” which Frank surprisingly doesn’t believe even when he witnessed numerous people getting chewed alive. Regardless everything goes from bad to worse as the old lady screaming “Madonna” witnesses her dog trapped with all the zombies and barges through to save her dog despite the fact they seem to be ignoring the little pup. The zombies barge through and everyone starts to die except an African American man in a yellow shirt, who yells at the survivors to run up the stairs to the security room. Getting to the security room, they weld the entrance shut, and the African-American man heads back into a nearby air duct to go into the mall. Frank introduces himself to a nearby blonde woman, and she asks to see some photos. She fixates on one for a bit, one of the cranky older men with the cane in the introduction. Shrouded in mystery, the blonde woman introduces herself as Jessie and the African American man from before as Brad. After the older african american man, Otis, warns him about the dangers outside and gives him a walkie talkie to head out into the open.
Here is where you’ll get introduced to the first two survivors, an older couple named Natalie and Jeff though it’s not mandatory to do so. Frank heads down an elevator into a nearby storage room and nearly clocks Jessie with a fire extinguisher, thinking that she was a zombie. Falling down and spraining her leg due to Frank’s ambush. It’s learned that Jessie followed behind because she witnessed Brad being ambushed on the monitor. This is where “I’ve Covered Wars Ya Know” debuts to become a legend, and Jessie gives him her gun and Frank makes his way over to the food court. While there, Frank nearly gets shot by a familiar hispanic gentleman armed with a P90 along with Brad. Whittling this man down with bullets, he escapes via a rope to the ceiling. Frank demands an explanation only to be rebuffed by Brad, only to concede to Frank’s demands for information a bit when he shows him the earlier old man picture. They begrudgingly agree to work together and Brad reveals himself as DHS, as in the Department of Homeland Security. They travel through the Al Fresca Plaza and into the Entrance Plaza where they unlock the shutters and find the old man. He refuses to leave the closed store until he’s promised safe passage. Frank heads back to the security room only to swat a giant bee, which when killed has every zombie’s head explode nearby. Heading into the security room, Brad and Jessie reveal the older man’s name, Dr. Barnaby. Trying to establish contact with HQ, Jessie learns that the signal is blocked. Frank reveals that his helicopter will be arriving in 3 days, and promising info in return, Brad goes to find supplies to last for a couple of days. Before the next case, you can go about other cases and find survivors, with one of the first optional psychopaths encountered being Adam the Clown along with the convicts in the park which brings up a question: how the hell did they get their attack jeep in there and where did they break out of prison, along with why do they respawn every day? Regardless, eventually Brad finds the supplies before talking to Frank about how not everything is allowed to be printed or even revealed. Eventually after waiting around, the monitor above shows the mysterious hispanic gentleman from earlier dragging the old man through the Entrance Plaza and Brad reveals that the professor was called to this mall mysteriously. Heading to the Entrance Plaza, Brad saves Frank from getting plugged by the hispanic gentleman and his high powered sniper rifle. He reveals arc words “Pachamama” (meaning Mother Earth) while holding his locket and continues to fire while Barnaby is held by rope over top of a crowd of zombies. Defeating this man again, he escapes again while Brad gets shot in the leg. However, Barnaby is saved and brought back to the security room while Brad is patched up a bit by Jessie. Jessie's tasks Frank with finding medicine and he beelines for a grocery store in the Northern Section. Going inside, he finds a grocery store manager going fucking nuts with the hispanic woman from earlier unconscious inside of his grocery cart. Frank defeats him and wakes the lady up, who freaks out and accuses Frank’s “people” of causing “Santa Cabeza”. Picking up the medicine, he brings it back to Brad before Jessie notices blood on his clothes. He tells Jesse about the girl and Santa Cabeza after getting roasted by Jessie, and the mention of Santa Cabeza startles Barnaby enough for him to wake up from his tranquilizer.
With his access to Barnaby restricted after intending to snoop, Frank tries to find the hispanic woman and notices her on the monitors heading back towards the supermarket and goes to meet her for information. She doesn’t take kindly and tries to kill him on her motorbike in return. A nut shot later, she finally decides to ask if he’s a reporter. Further questions towards the woman to learn that the mysterious hispanic man from earlier? His name is Carlito and he wants everyone to know that America created the zombies and not him. They proceed to make a deal: she will talk to Carlito about an interview with Frank in exchange for publishing U.S. war crimes. She then reveals that she’s Carlito’s little sister, who reveals that the zombies were a message from Carlito as revenge against the U.S. She gives a rendezvous date: midnight near the camera shop. Frank heads back to the security room (before or after defeating Jo the lesbian cop psychopath and the Hall family sniper psychopaths), Barnaby has apparently revealed that Santa Cabeza was the center of the CENTRAL AMERICAN drug trade and that “zombie drugs” are the cause. Frank starts to question why that would make sense, and Barnaby lies that there’s no logic because they’re terrorists. Before I continue, I capitalized Central America because later games would constantly say MEXICO instead and it drives me fucking nuts because it’s COMPLETELY different. Meeting up at the spot later, he witnesses Carlito’s sister get attacked by zombies and with a bloody patch on her arm. Rescuing her, she says that Carlito went crazy and shot at her while extremely upset. Frank escorts the woman (named Isabela) back to the security room while Carlito begs for forgiveness over the speakers.
Bringing her back, Frank explains to Brad the situation and says that the same person who shot him also shot her. It’s also revealed that Carlito has a backup plan, and when asking Isabela later what these plans are she reveals that there wasn’t a drug trade in Santa Cabeza, but an American research facility doing research into a wasp (NOT A BEE SORRY) that was supposed to fatten up cattle for American consumption. Barnaby confirms this after almost turning and biting Jesse: the wasp process was supposed to reduce costs to produce cattle before creating zombie livestock. Frank takes a picture of Barnaby’s corpse as Isabela recounts the Santa Cabeza Incident, with the queen wasps escaping from the lab. Barnaby rises from the grave and attempts to kill once again before getting a dome shot to the head. Brad brilliantly summarizes the Willamette Incident as “terrorism as retaliation for a cruel government cover-up”. Brad begrudgingly agrees to let Isabela “atone for her and her brother’s sins” and lets her check up Jesse. Psychopaths in the meantime include the cult leader of the True Eye Cult, a group of mysterious green masked raincoat clad men along with mentally disturbed goth man Paul, who threatens to burn some civilians with a molotov. Carlito apologizes again over the loudspeaker and begs for Isabela to come back, revealing the existence of a “last resort”. This last resort involves blowing up the mall, with several trucks planted with bombs in the underground car park mixed in with a flammable gas that Carlito plans to flood.
Frank races to the underground tunnel and collects the bombs one by one, which Carlito tries to stop. This part is important, because if you’re able to defeat Carlito while he’s in his truck and attempting to kill you, a cutscene plays where Carlito gets out of the van and runs while Brad gives chase as they exchange gunfire. Brad tells Frank to collect the bombs now while he chases down the suspect, and Frank does so, pushing them all in a shopping cart to the outside of the car park. Another cutscene reveals the battle between Carlito and Brad, which ends in Brad being kicked out into a horde of zombies. You’re able to go back to the spot after where you see his fate, and Brad encourages you to put him down and not to tell Jesse. He puts him down before heading back to the security room, where Isabela reveals that more of Carlito’s plans could be revealed if they head back to their secret hideout. Going there with Isabela, she finds the computer but learns that it’s password protected and nearly not hackable. While she hacks it, later on Frank gets called back to the security room again, where he watches footage of Carlito getting captured by a giant man into a butcher’s shop in the basement of the North Plaza. Heading there to get Carlito, he witnesses Larry the butcher attempting to chop him up while laughing maniacally. Refusing to let Carlito go, Frank attacks Larry before beating him and cornering Carlito. Frank gloats about how Isabela is on their side, before Carlito goes on a rant about American meat consumption, ironically while he’s dying in a butcher’s shop. However, Frank promises to tell the world about Santa Cabeza and Carlito gives Frank his locket, telling him to give the locket to his sister. He reports back to Isabela about Carlito’s death and some condolences before giving her the locket. Inside, she learns of the code word: Panchamama, “Mother Earth”. Hacking the computer, the signal finally frees up for Jesse to call up HQ. This call goes bad though as apparently DHS decides to ignore everything, cover up the incident and that Special Forces will arrive at midnight. Jessie goes into a near breakdown state and goes into the fetal position, while the special forces later arrive to rescue her. However, this doesn’t go well as she then turns into a zombie herself and kills the special forces representatives.
Frank arrives at the security room to find the aftermath and kills zombie Jessie, and many hours later the special forces teams officially arrive and proceed to wipe out most of the zombies in the entire mall. I assume they wanted the military there instead of just bombing everything so it doesn’t get out too much into the rest of American society. Regardless, it’s learned in a note that the special forces have been abducting all the survivors that you saved and that Otis escaped in one of the helicopters and tells Frank in a note that he “owes him a drink”. In the daytime, Brock Mason (or Ed Harris lol) pops up as the commander of the special forces.
Frank hangs out on the helicopter pad while Ed is scoping out to see if he’s made it, excited when he finally sees him because payday. How he didn’t get spotted by special forces I don’t know, but he attempts a pickup only for a zombie to have stowed away on the helicopter and feast on him violently, the helicopter crashing into the mall inside the park. Frank slumps down, having lost all hopes and with almost everyone dead except Isabela as zombies surround him. Cut to credits right? WRONG. If you’ve beaten every case in 72 Hour Mode there’s one more mode to beat for the story and that’s:
OVERTIME MODE.
Overtime shows Frank previously having given up and waiting for death, only to be saved by Isabela. Frank goes unconscious only to wake up back in Isabela’s lair, with my genuine surprise considering he’s a pretty big dude and to lug him across the mall must’ve been tough. It’s revealed here that Frank has been infected and that he’ll turn in a limited amount of time if he doesn’t find the tools and ingredients to survive even with his high level of resistance. Frank roams around the mall dodging special forces to collect all kinds of shit like blenders and it’s revealed that this drug was created specifically on orders from Carlito as a backup plan. Frank’s moaning about being a “time bomb” triggers something in Isabela, and she reveals that Carlito created an NPO to help war orphans, but had secretly experimented on them all as zombie time bombs to be unleashed in the future. It’s here I want to bring up something else so spoilers for Dead Rising 3: Nick and Diego have the Numbers 12 and I forget the other number. The list has Number 12 as Lisa Jackson, and while this could’ve been a sort of secret code thing, I’m 100 percent sure the developers just missed the research or decided to retcon. Besides the point, yes, Carlito infected orphans with a special zombie virus and spread them all over the country as a future revenge plot. Isabela sends him to the clock tower in the park to turn on the generator, only for Frank to see a giant hole that Ed’s helicopter made, revealing a tunnel into an unknown location. Afterwards, she asks for adult queen wasps, and a whole lot of them to be exact. She’s able to create a sort of temporary vaccine to help stop the infection spread and jabs him, before going on about how she’s able to isolate a pheromone to repel zombies away from them. Frank tells her about the tunnel, and she creates the pheromone.
They make their way out to the clock tower and hesitantly head down into the cave with the temporary vaccine and the “smelly perfume” and slash their way through the tunnels. On the other end, it starts to wear down a bit as they notice that special forces are guarding the end of the cave. Holding Isabela on his back, they fight their way through and steal a special forces jeep, driving out into the open of a big ass construction site. Similar to The Thing: The Video Game, a rail shooter segment where you play as Isabela while you shoot out certain weak points on the tank, along with shooting down drones that attack you. This doesn’t stop the tank’s commander Brock however, who switches from automated controls to manual and proceeds to shoot the jeep and flips it over. Isabela is alive but unconscious while Brock holds Frank hostage, where it’s revealed that Brock led the cleanup operation on Santa Cabeza. The two argue about the governments fuckups, while Brock goes on about how humanity excels at being a fuck up. Brock decides to flip the tank around to look at a horde of zombies, while Frank gives him a punch in the mouth and knocks out his cigar. Frank and Brock engage in a violent hand to hand duel, which knocks him out cold off the tank and onto an audience of zombies. Isabela is trapped on top of the jeep kicking away zombies and Frank once again gets on his hands and knees, but this time screams into the clouds as a slideshow of black text appears over the screen. The results: Frank apparently escapes Willamette (shown in the Road to Fortune comic), the news is released and the U.S. government takes partial blame, however the Willamette Mall Incident was forgotten in the future.
So, with that beast of a synopsis gone, how do I feel about the story? I love it. Compared to the other games, it feels like there’s more of an atmosphere, more of a vibe to it. The plot to me makes sense, has build up, engages in thematic build up that you could only expect from the earlier George Romero movies. The plot with american cattle, government cover ups, the terrorist retribution, the plot twists just kind of all feel perfectly in sync with each other; moreso here than compared to the other games. The stories behind the psychopaths aren’t just “crazy people”, but people who snapped and freaked out. The one psycho I don’t think I mentioned is a perfect encapsulation of this: Cliff Hudson. A Vietnam veteran who runs the hardware store in the North Plaza, the death of his daughter and grandchild (whom I believe were the mother/daughter from the introduction), the flashbacks to Vietnam. Yes, it’s a vietnam flashback but in this one side quest, it feels like it has a lot more depth than most of the other characters in the next couple of games. There’s a tinge of sadness in it, and this sadness spreads around to the other characters in the series. The lore is interesting as hell as well. I want to know more about Santa Cabeza and what has happened there. The True Eye Cult, how did they come about? Were they a cult before, spurred on by the apocalypse or perhaps were they created in such a short time frame? These are only a few examples, and honestly while I’m sure it’s not a perfect story, it feels appropriately perfect to me. The characters that inhabit this game, while feeling kind of detached, are all unique and memorable to me. I remember Brad Garrison, Jessie McCarney, Russell Barnaby, Carlito & Isabela Keyes and I DEFINITELY remember Frank West. There’s something about all of these characters that while they feel kind of detached due to their speech patterns, they feel human. Frank as a character is iconic as fuck between his outfit, his quotables, like he feels like a sort of perfect legacy character that’s unique in it’s own way. The problem with this is that because I’m not a Youtube Essayist who can go into super in-depth detail, I can’t tell you why everything feels so perfect other than it just does. When I was a kid, this game captured my imagination and held onto it in a warm embrace of a bear hug, and while I don’t play this game all the time anymore, each time I do play it? It keeps the magic and not a lot of things can do that for me. And truthfully, none of the previous games (aside from Off the Record MAYBE-ish) really feels like it can match in line with the series. This game is the high point, and while other games are good it just doesn’t reach the heights.
What’s the gameplay of Dead Rising like? Well there’s multiple different facets of the game: the actual gameplay, the combat and miscellaneous stuff. The actual gameplay is as follows: you are dropped off in the mall to sort of free roam around, killing the undead in unique ways while wearing different types of clothes, engaging in side quests (after getting calls on your transponder from Otis) and finding secrets while under a 72 hour time limit. What I will say about this is that you start off with a low level, you’ll barely have any health and you have to earn your way to level 50 by obtaining PP Points (or Prestige Point…points?). As you level up, unlike other games you won’t be able to choose what skill points you get, what’s invested in what; it’s all pre-chosen for you. In one way I’m cool with not managing ANOTHER skill tree, however it does kind of feel like it’s choosing how you should play instead of investing in yourself in a way that matters. Regardless, the game is REALLY difficult and time is NOT on your side. In fact, the timer is part of the reason why others don’t really care enough to play it. You will barely get any time to follow the cases, save all the survivors, fight all the psychopaths AND have a free roaming fun time. Even though this is my favorite game, the amount of times that I’ve died due to being swarmed or failed due to juggling too much at one time would infuriate me to no end. However, it had that Dark Souls effect where I would just want to keep going, try to give it another run. It’s one of those titles where you kind of have to memorize runs, learn where special weapons like the Katana and Uzi are kept, food combinations and the routes you need to plan. Of course though, you’re not forced into this; you could very well just screw off and ignore everything and be fine, at the cost of getting a bad ending due to not following the main plot. You could also just ignore the survivors and that would be just as valid, it’s not really a rogue-like in all honesty but it does have interesting elements that make it fit. If I could say anything bad about it is that honestly, I understand and respect the challenge that the game puts forward but I prefer the leniency that the later titles in the series would provide. Another annoying thing? The survivor A.I. fucking blows fat dick, like they’re annoying as hell even if it is immersive as hell with people who go panic mode around zombies. They’ll run into each other all the time, get stuck on objects, sometimes you have to hold their hand or carry them on your back which doesn’t allow you to use your weapons to defend yourself. It can honestly be a chore to deal with despite the semi-immersive factor to it all, and honestly zombies can and WILL make quick work of their ass if you’re not helicopter parenting their ass at all times.
How about combat? How does that work? Well, I’ll start with Psychopaths, which are their own separate side quests where you can rescue survivors, but also have their own cutscenes and personality. They’re all unique in their own way and usually you’ll get rewarded with a unique weapon, survivors and a lot of prestige points. Oftentimes the best thing you can do is get a high damage weapon, like the Katana or the dual chainsaws from Adam after you beat him. These guys are bullet sponges and the truth is with how free form and structureless the combat is other than aiming down the sights, oftentimes you might take a decent bit of damage while trying to deliver damage yourself. While difficult at first, these can be decently easy to overcome (other than the final boss Brock, fuck that guy) and besides your enviornment around you, you can also unlock combat skills the more you level up. However, another thing is that in Dead Rising 1 it’s very context based and needs a lot of practicing: for example if you want to ground slam you need to jump then hold aim and attack buttons at the same time in order to slam down (ex. Xbox Controller = A, RT + X at same time). You can jump in the air and do a backwards kick flip by pressing jump and attack very quickly as an example; other skills are useful but require certain situations like jumping right up against a zombie to hop on top of their shoulders. It’s a strange system, yes, but one that honestly I’ve kind of gotten used to dealing with over time even if I feel that the controls in Dead Rising 2 and beyond are better. Speaking of Dead Rising 2, there are absolutely no combo weapons in the slightest so you can’t go into battles with a paddlesaw or anything totally unrealistic.
How about miscellaneous stuff? Well, other than the aside stuff you can take pictures with your camera, which helps gain Prestige Points, with a certain amount of points in certain categories needed in order to progress in certain quests. This is mostly side quest stuff however, so if you’re not worried it’s perfectly fine but can help with later runs if need be. You can also collect secret PP stickers in order to get a lump sum bonus of PP but that’s about it? You can also drive certain vehicles, but this is rare (mostly involving the Convict Jeep, a red convertible, and a motorcycle but honestly the driving controls are kinda iffy. The only other thing I can really point out is that in certain locations there will be sorta hidden weapons to help out, like the Katana on the awning outside the juice bar, or the Uzi in the fountain of Al Fresca Plaza or the Shotgun in the Entrance Plaza. These are what I consider to be essential places to pick up extra weapons if you’re trying to arm survivors or whittle down psychopaths faster. In order to gain certain perks like weapon durability you have to pick up books in set locations and KEEP it in your inventory at all times otherwise you lose the perks, and the more of these books you have the more they stack stats. If you get captured by certain enemies (mainly by being killed by special forces or the cult), then you’ll show up either in a closet or in a helicopter, and these mini “human enemies” are can vary from easy-ish to kill to difficult if you don’t have the right equipment like the special forces. If you’re able to achieve certain thresholds (like killing 53,000 something zombies and getting the Zombie Genocider achievement), then you’ll unlock the Mega Buster. Beat the Infinity Mode in 7 days and you’ll unlock Mega Man clothing. Other outfits that can be unlocked include Special Forces outfits, Boxers, Otis’s outfit, etc.
The last thing to bring up gameplay wise is a whole ‘nother mode: Infinity Mode. This isn’t a free roam thing with infinite time exactly as much as it is a “how long can you last” mode. Your health will constantly go down, so it’s only recommended to try this at Level 50, and you will need to constantly eat food in order to survive. Sounds easy right? Wrong. You don’t get infinite food items, they only spawn once and so if you waste it all then you’re fucked. You’ll be able to kill hostile survivors and psychopaths who spawn in, who give you a random assortment of goods from their corpse like food or weapons but sometimes it’s useless. Balancing all of this with health constantly decreasing and it can be a depressing and miserable experience, and getting to the 7 Day mark without dying and restarting all over takes around 16 hours give or take, maybe more? I’ve only done it once and I will NEVER do it again, but if you want to try then be my guest.
How do the graphics and the atmosphere for Dead Rising hold up in the present day? Honestly, compared to the other games in the series I feel like everything holds up the best, though Dead Rising 2 is very much second up for how close it comes to bringing Fortune City to life. Dead Rising’s Willamette Mall on the other hand feels like an american paradise of sorts with a sort of mall that honestly would do pretty damn well in a city. Everything about it is unique, wholesome, as well as unextraordinary, which is why when contrasted with the zombie invasion it brings this unique sense of isolationism into it, the feeling that anyone could be targeted at any moment. Even the opening sequence where you travel on helicopter over the small town while you witness people being chewed to bits felt unique, like a place I wished I could explore outside of the mall. However the mall is the centerpiece for the town of Willamette, and if the mall is in the center then to sound like a pretentious fuck, american capitalism is the centerpiece to every facet of american society. In fact, to be honest, the entire game’s atmosphere is a result of American capitalism and the greed caused by it. It would be too painfully obvious of course to go deeply into this aspect as everyone who does youtube essays could explain this fact better than I ever could but it’s still a prominent fixture in the game.
Of course compared to other zombie games this title, while it takes its story seriously, is a lot less serious otherwise. This is the game where you can literally use a lawnmower to run over all the zombies you find, or throw plates to knock zombies down, or even wear granny clothing and smack them with a bench. There isn’t much about this game you can totally take super seriously. HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean that when shit hits the fan that it can’t deliver a gut punch. Take survivor deaths for instance, a lot of times when survivors die due to zombies there will be this little cutscene where they get tackled to the ground, chewed up and gnawed on throughout the entire process as they scream for dear life and bloody murder. It’s demoralizing as hell, and other than trying to save everyone for the rewards, led me multiple times to reload my save file to help these goofy AI bastards. The threat only gets more ominous when you learn that engine wise you can have around 800 zombies on screen at once, which you would never realize due to just how many there are in comparison to the smaller sized spaces. As for the graphical fidelity itself, while it still looks like an Xbox 360 game and while it doesn’t have the super in-depth facial muscle textures that half of these games use in the modern day, it still looks pretty slick brought up to 1920 on Steam. The zombies still look threatening, covered in a bluish tint and red slopped on their body while they shamble around what looks like could be a mall in Florida.
The voice acting for this game is strangely paced, offbeat and detached, yet infectious (no pun intended) at the same time between how they say things, when they say things that it’s become a bit of a meme status in the Dead Rising community. Stuff like “I’ve covered wars you know” sank its teeth (proverbially) into the gaming pop culture sphere, or the older lady screaming her dog Madonna’s name repeatedly before doing something stupid, or even Otis chiding you for hanging up while you’re in the middle of getting chewed on by zombies as if he’s not self aware enough to realize that. It adds to this strange charm, a game that both takes itself a bit seriously as well as not taking itself too seriously. I wouldn’t even doubt it if it had something to do with Japanese localization, but it adds to this whole mysterious vibe that it gives off. Terence J. Rotolo here is a perfect exemplification of that as the game’s lead Frank West. Looking back on my previous Dead Rising reviews, I felt that Chuck’s character was kind of a rip off of Frank’s vibe, as if he does all the catchy one liners. I was blatantly incorrect with this, as Frank might have his quips but he doesn’t drop cheesy one liners like Chuck did so my apologies for that. Alex Fernandez is solid as the ominous threatening yet mysterious Carlito Keyes, the main antagonist along with Kim Mai Guest as his sister Isabela Keyes, who is regretful yet angry at their shared trauma with Santa Cabeza. Other notables are Phil Proctor as the angry and shady Dr. Barnaby, T.J. Storm and Laura Napoli as Brad Garrison and Jessie McCarney. You’ll hear some other ones as well, like Steven Blum as Cliff the Vietnam Vet and once I learned that Jason Spisak voiced one of the Hall psychopaths I instantly made the connection there as well. Everyone does a good job at keeping up this tone, sometimes being serious yet tonally kinda hilarious to straight up serious. It’s unnerving to say the least and helps keep the horror atmosphere that I don’t feel any other game could match.
So how is the music? The music in Dead Rising is unique to say the least. Frank West’s theme (what I consider to be the “oh shit” theme) has this strange combination of string instruments and this shaking rattling sound that I guess could be electronic? Another favorite of mine is Gone Guru by Lifeseeker, which plays during the Convict psychopath battle in the park and has become notoriously catchy for being involved in such a bastard of a fight. Justified by Drea (the end credits song) is this power metal ballad of sorts that just feels right, like it’s got this emotionally uplifting vibe and as someone who doesn’t listen to metal in the slightest it just feels perfect for the tone of the overall game. A lot of the incidental mall music that plays over speakers sounds like straight up elevator music, sometimes straight up but sometimes having this funky groove to it with a woman singing over it. Sometimes you hear it over the actual loudspeakers but oftentimes you’ll mostly hear it just entering stores of specific kinds. The Kent Swanson theme sounds like it could be straight out of a Yakuza game with how much it kicks ass and the “Adam the Clown” theme just sounds straight out of a Matrix/Jet Set Radio styled soundtrack. It’s certainly eclectic but everything just connects itself together as a soundtrack should, but in a way that makes your stay at the Willamette Parkview Mall iconic.
Finally, how are the environmental sounds? Amazing, simply couldn’t be more perfect in the sound design department. Whenever you slash something with a katana it just oozes this slick feeling of a samurai clash mixed with blood. Shooting the basic pistol, while one of the weaker firearms, feels punchy on its own regardless. The UZI feels like a lower powered yet effective gun, the sniper rifle sounds like it could take someone’s head clean off (and often does) while the actual assault rifle late-game feels like a powerful version of the uzi. HOWEVER, by far the best one is the shotgun, which sounds like one of the punchiest shotguns I’ve ever had the pleasure of holding. This shotgun is like a literal gun nut’s orgasm in the form of a loaded firearm, like it sounds like it could put a hole in five separate people and just has this crunch to it that I can’t get from any other shotgun in any other game. Slamming a zombie with a park bench produces this breaking wood effect that sounds perfect and runs over the undead with a lawnmower? Forget about it, don’t even remind me of how awesome it is. I don’t even just mean with weapons, footsteps sound great as well along with breaking glass. The humming sounds and chants of the True Eye Cult are ominous and creepy, and give off an actual threat. The zombie groans, with how many there are also give off this authentic threat in numbers, eerily quiet almost when you’ve killed most of them. There isn’t one damn sound effect in this game that I can find an actual fault with, something that I have to suck Capcom Japan’s dick on because it’s amazing.
What can I say about Dead Rising that others haven’t? I love this game. I love Frank West, the plot and it’s twists, the american cattle thematic angle, the threat of the undead, the survivor system, the psychopath system, the fact that you can wear and use ANYTHING as a weapon is just fucking amazing. I have a near reverence for the game even though I don’t really go out of my way to play it much anymore. To me, this game is such a high pedestal that I’m not really sure how you could truly follow up on with a sequel in a perfect way. That’s by no means saying that this game is the best game ever or even that it’s perfect, because it’s not. But to me, this game oozes charm from the small town surrounding environments and the friendliness of Willamette and its color scheme to the threatening clash of the undead. Granted I will say after years of playing without mods I decided to play this game with mods (stopping the timer a couple of times and throwing on infinite health and such for a more chilled and relaxed experience) so I could get more of a sandbox feel and just as always there’s always this certain magic that brings me into the atmosphere of the game that no other game in the series OR game in general could really accomplish. While I can’t sit here and say I totally played it legitimately on PC, I’ve played it so many times on the Xbox 360 that honestly? Who cares, truth be told, maybe one day I’ll get one of those Frame-A-Game frames so I can hang it up on a wall so much that I love this game. If you decide you want to play this game, I feel you’ll be in for a fun time, with three caveats: the survivor AI sucks balls, the timer will fuck you for messing around for too long, and there’s a good chance you might die a bit so save as often as you can. However, the game is one hundred percent worth a legitimate playthrough the first time around and it’s something that I truly encourage if you want to try out something unique, just know what you’re getting into first before jumping in head on. It’s unique enough that the community itself is heavy into researching the origins of each of the games, with Youtuber STIPO being the main figurehead behind the search into Dead Rising’s beta.
The future of the franchise is something I already went over multiple times before, mostly considering this was the first game in the series. A Wii port would be created right after and released in 2009 in the midst of the “Wii craze”, with a lot of its assets being ripped straight from the popular Resident Evil 4 Wii port with a bunch of different changes. Capcom would later outsource the sequel to Vancouver based Blue Castle Games (having developed baseball titles before then) along with its free prologue Case Zero and its epilogue Case West (along with a tie-in comic book Road to Fortune) and would go on to reach relative success and acclaim. Straight after this, Capcom decided they wanted to release a Dead Rising game for IPhones in 2010 (along with a Java 2008 port) which I don’t think I ever played but would be an interesting experiment where you could play as other characters like Brad, Carlito and Jessie while slaying the undead. They’d go on to later be bought out and assimilated into Capcom larger itself as Capcom Vancouver and from Dead Rising 2 the series would go on to have a troubled franchise. Pitches included rivaling The Last of Us with a series tone which got nixed, attempts to create different games based on other IP as well as attempting to develop their own IP would either fail or get nixxed by Capcom themselves. Dead Rising 3 would have development trouble with their last gen ports and got turned into an Xbox One exclusive which saw a moderate amount of success. The troubles would only continue onto Dead Rising 4 as creative visions clashed with Capcom themselves and attempting something different lead to the disaster that Dead Rising 4 would become but that’s a different tale for the future. Nothing has been able to capture the magic that was the first game, with the fourth one “attempting” to but coming up shorter than my dick size. For me, this represents a bit of a personal journey this year which I would try to get to as soon as possible except one thing: moving issues. However, I plan to finish off all of the Dead Rising games, with the next one being the Wii port as my Wii game of the year and the finale being the black sheep of the franchise: Dead Rising 4. Those will come, but for now I appreciate the memories and the love this game fills me with. I guess to sound like a cringey fuck: Dead Rising is love, Dead Rising is life.
Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQCbFb_m5no&list=PLRoKwfu_qjekpXozraCHHoWIkkuyK7_-C&index=7&ab_channel=Deadforge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Rising_(video_game)
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/DeadRising
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6-GwG556gLM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csil5mX3sBY&ab_channel=ScrewAttack%27sVideoGameVault
https://www.supercheats.com/guides/dead-rising/unlockables
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/DeadRising
https://deadrising.fandom.com/wiki/Dead_Rising_Mobile
https://web.archive.org/web/20160305000556/http://www.1up.com/news/1up-interviews-keiji-inafune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9Ki3br3Qec&list=PL0672E00A6DC5AD80&index=3&ab_channel=Tomzumir3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rm9LC9n7zY&list=PLRoKwfu_qjekpXozraCHHoWIkkuyK7_-C&index=183&ab_channel=JackMadrox
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/