Dead Rising (2006)

I remember seeing all of the ads for Dead Rising at the time of its release and being so mad I didn’t have a 360 to play it on. The chance to experience a Dawn of the Dead scenario with over-the-top action thrown in?! The wonders of the “next-gen” seemed almost too good to be true.

Finally playing it 19 years later, its presentation and structure really are as good as I hoped. As a timer counts down to your promised rescue, you’ll run around a mall grabbing whatever you can find to mow down zombies while rescuing NPCs and advancing the thin plot. A few boss battles liven things up and provide you with new advanced weaponry that keeps the carnage going. On paper, it’s a slam dunk.

The actual gameplay mechanics are another matter. The zombies are very aggressive and predicting when one is close enough to grab you is difficult (impossible), making the weakness of the standard accessible weapons like baseball bats even more annoying. Stronger items like park benches deal the damage you want, but only last a handful of swings, leaving you defenseless in a horde of aggressive enemies. Add the difficulty of actually killing large swaths of zombies to maybe the worst NPC AI I’ve experienced, and the game’s many escort missions quickly become enraging. I abandoned multiple survivors halfway through an escort as they got bogged down fighting zombies while I yelled for them to follow me instead. When your game is centered on escort missions, these cascading issues turn the experience into a chore.

I wish I had played the recent remaster instead of the original, as I assume many of the AI weaknesses are fixed and the controls are modernized. I’m sure I would have overlooked its many flaws to praise its ambition if I’d played this in 2006. In 2025, all I could focus on was the constant frustration Dead Rising caused while failing to live up to its potential.

I am on a journey to beat 360 random Xbox 360 games. Here is my next adventure.

Game number 8 is Dead Rising. This game sees the player play as a journalist, named Frank, as he investigates a zombie outbreak in a small town. You get to play as him as he mows down zombies and investigates the local shopping mall. In order to beat this game, I finished the 72 hour mode and the Overtime mode.

The action in this game is honestly really fun. Instead of having a horrific zombie thriller, Dead Rising focuses on collecting points and mowing down thousands of zombies. Everything in this game is centered around having more fun. Items are scattered around the mall and you can use all of them as weapons to kill zombies. Everything also feels organic because it is in a mall setting and stuff makes sense to exist.

The main game is on a timer. You get 3 days of moving around the mall, completing missions and rescuing survivors before you get rescued by the person who brought you to the mall. I may be alone here, but I like games that have time limits (this, majora's mask, lightning returns). It keeps me on my toes and I don't feel the need to complete every last side quest.

One complaint I have with this game is that the whole game is basically escort missions. You are constantly returning npcs back to the safe area. I don't think escort missions are that great in any game, but they are slightly better here.

The way that this story is told is genius. I love how its framed as an investigation and I needed to be at certain locations at certain times to figure out clues to how the zombie infestation occured. I loved this and it really made me invested in the story.

Overall, Dead Rising is super fun and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a lighthearted time killing tons of zombies. (4/5)

This game took me 12 hours, 34 min, and 12 sec to beat.

I have spent 97 hours and 31 minutes on the RoadTo360 challenge so far.

Next game: Planet 51 The Game

Before zombies became completely mainstream and overdone, there was Dead Rising. An Xbox 360 exclusive way back in 2006 that brought the likes of Dawn of the Dead to life in a fully imersiful modern day mall.

To be a considered a classic by now, Dead Rising brings the zombie genre to an open worldish killing buffet, that includes a never ending line of ways to destroy those blood thirsty beasts!

Given a set time to explore and save survivors throughout a mall, you must yourself survive the hoards of zombies and various human psychopaths that get in your way. Depending on how you play and mission follow throughs you complete, can effect what ending you get.

Graphically speaking, this game was revolutionary at the time, and really still looks good today. With loads of gore and cheesy one liners, this is a fun ride.

Dead Rising is an industry example of how a zombie game should be, and one that will remembered for generations to come.

Dead Rising oli Capcomin yritys viedä zombipelit eri urille kuin mihin Resident Evil -sarja oli ne vienyt. Monilta osin se onnistuukin erittäin mallikkaasti.

Dead Risingissa zombit ovat typeriä, hitaita ja niitä on helvetin paljon. Toimintaleffamaisen asepornon sekä arsenaalin viilailun ja uppaamisen sijaan taisteluvälineet ovat vaihtuneet paljolti arkisiin astaloihin. Miljöö on Dawn of the Dead -henkisesti iso kauppakeskus, jossa hissimusiikki soi ja kauppojen hyllyt notkuvat käyttötavaraa zombien murjomiseen. Päähenkilönäkin häärii keski-ikäinen tavistoimittaja Frank West antiteesinä esimerkiksi juuri Resident Evil 4:n miesmalli Leon Kennedylle. Maanläheisyys on miellyttävää.

Dead Risingissa Frank West lähtee nimettömän vihjeen perusteella etsimään megalööppiä Willametten kaupunkiin. Kaupungissa tapahtuu arvattavasti kummia ja zombeja on miltei kaikkialla. Aihetta tutkivalle journalismille siis selkeästi on. Kyytinä toimivalle helikopterille ainut turvallinen laskeutumispaikka on kauppakeskuksen katolla. Frank jää kyydistä ja lupaa kopterikuskilleen palaavansa 72 tunnin kuluttua samaan paikkaan lööppi takataskussaan.

72 tuntia ei ole pelkkä maininta välivideoissa: Dead Rising heittää oman mausteensa selviytymiskauhun soppaan tekemällä aikarajoista olennaisen osan pelin kulkua. Juonen selvittämiseksi, bossien näkemiseksi tai hätään joutuneiden kanssaihmisten pelastamiseksi tarvitsee olla oikeassa paikassa oikeaan aikaan. Tarinan osalta näin on pakko tehdä, sillä muuten gameoverit napsahtaa. Bossien ja pelastettavien ihmisten osalta taas ei: jos heidän luo ei pääse, jäävät ne sillä pelikertaa oman onnensa nojaan. Tosin, bossien voittamisesta ja ihmisten pelastamisesta saa hyvän mielen lisäksi paljon expaa, jolla Frankistä saa monin tavoin mukavamman pelattavan. Aikarajat ovat yleensä joko liian rasittavia tai liian lepsuja, mutta Dead Risingissa tuntui, että ne toimivat hienon painostavasti ja syvensivät pelin zombiapokalyptista maailmaa. Katastrofitilanteissa on vaikea venyä kaikkialle.

Kaikesta yllämainitusta seuraa oppimisesta ja useammista pelikerroista palkitseva peli, joka on ajoittain turhauttava pelaajalle, joka haluaa tehdä mahdollisimman paljon yhden pelikerran aikana. Frank on pelin alussa harvinaisen jäykkä, hidas ja kykenemätön. Tämänkaltaisen hahmon kanssa ja pelin lainalaisuuksista tietämättä esimerkiksi ihmisten pelastaminen on hankalaa. Tämän takia ensimmäisellä pelikerralla on todella vaikea saada kaikkia pelastettua tai edes nähtyä kaikkia bosseja. Samaten, pelin alussa ei vielä tiedä paikkoja hyvien aseiden löytämiseen tai esimerkiksi parannusesineiden hamstraamiseen. Peliin sopiikin luontaisesti New Game + -moodi, joka onneksi pelistä löytyy. Vielä en ole sitä aloittanut, mutta suunnitelmissa on, sillä kiinnostaa nähdä kuinka paljon paremmin tuhonkylvö onnistuu sekä miten pelastusoperaatiot ja bossifightit onnistuvat toisella kierroksella.

Ensimmäisellä pelikerralla bossit ja pelastusoperaatiot eivät suoranaisesti aiheuttaneet riemunkiljahduksia. Ne muodostavat mielestäni pelin ehdottomasti huonoimmat puolet. Dead Risingit bossit ovat hahmoina kyllä erinomaisia elämääsuurempia lahopäitä, mutta niitä vastaan taisteleminen on monesti järkyttävää kohellusta. Taistelut ovat monesti ärsyttäviä, epäreiluja, tökeröitä ja kömpelöitä. Selviytyjien pelastamiset puolestaan kompastuvat kerta toisensa jälkeen järkyttävän typerään tekoälyyn. Dead Risingissa NPC:t eivät osaa kulkea automaattisesti aukeavista ovista (tai no, ovet eivät edes aukea heille). Lisäksi he jäävät hyvin helposti kahinoimaan zombien kanssa ja vaativat Frankin auttavaa kättä, jotta eivät jumitu ja kuole sille tielle. Osaa pelastettavista hahmoista voi kantaa, joka on siunaus, ja osaa voi kirjaimellisesti pitää kädestä, joka on puolittainen siunaus, sillä se toimii välillä hyvin ja välillä ei. Kyllähän ihmisten auttamisen vaikeuskin sinänsä sopii zombiapokalypsian keskelle, mutta hauskaa se ei pelaamisesta tee.

Muutoin pelistä ei suoranaisesti muita heikkouksia löydy. Tai no, kontrollit ovat paikoitellen jäykät ja tahti hidasta, mutta nämäkin paranevat pelin edetessä ja Frankin oppiessa uutta.

Yleisesti pelaaminen ja erilaisilla aseilla kikkailu on erittäin viihdyttävää. Vaikka kyseessä on selviytymiskauhupeli, sandbox-fiilistä ja löytämisen iloa on hienosti pelissä mukana. Dead Rising (tai sen remaster nyky-Xboxeille) näyttää hyvältä ja etenkin järkyttävän isot zombimäärät vakuuttavat edelleen. Kauppakeskusmiljöö on oudolla tapaa viihtyisä zombilaumoista huolimatta ja pitää sisällään monta hauskaa pikkuyksityiskohtaa. Musiikkipuolella kauppakeskuksen easy listening -kappaleet ja bossifighttien raskaampi rock palvelevat tarkoituksiaan hyvin. Aika tavanomaisesti alkava tarinakin piti minut hyvin otteessaan ja sai kiinnostumaan lopputulemasta. Loppuratkaisujakin on useita erilaisia, mikä istuu pelin avoimuuteen hyvin. Voisi sanoa, että peli voitti minut puolelleen monin tavoin.

Sinänsä on vähän harmi, että pelistä on jo julkaistu remaster. Bossifightteja ja NPC-hahmojen tekoälyä hiomalla sekä pienillä QoL-parannuksilla pelistä olisi voinut saada täyden napakympin. Xbox 360 -ajan klassikko Dead Rising jo on, että sinänsä todistettavaa ei enää ole.

Mielenkiinnolla odotan, mitä muuta pelisarja pitää sisällään, vaikka myöhempien osien maineet ovatkin vaihtelevia. Dead Rising 2 on jo kierrossa, ja siitäkin olisi jo kerrottavaa.

Beat overtime, ending at level 30. After playing Dead Rising 2, I took this game off my wishlist, deeming it not worth paying for. So I played it for free on xbox gold. It had the same problems as 2 and much of my time playing was swearing: “No don’t pick that up/do that your moron”, “Get the Jesus up there”, “Fuck sakes don’t get grabbed”, “Move god damnit”, “What the hell are you doing over there!?”. Clunky controls, irredeemable time limits, stupid quick time events, and escort quests everywhere. Most of the game was frustrating but it was quite a different experience playing on console instead of PC.

I died in the tutorial because the QTE to get out of zombie grabs was shown in the slow text crawl on the bottom of the screen, instead of front and center where I was looking. Well that was not game over as I just woke up in the safe room. The weapons I found most useful were the hunting knife, lead pipe and 2x4, because of their speed. The pipe and wood had the optimal balance of speed and range, though the knife was a bit more risky with less range. They were great for just clearing a path. The sledgehammer at the beginning could last much longer but it was slow and risky, while the standard attack had very short range. The nightstick was another common weapon, but its normal attack has terrible range, so the charge attack was better. The handgun was good for clearing out zombies if you had a safe distance, but not good for moving through them. I focused on the cases fighting Carlito with handguns. The shooting controls were not good. I changed it to arcade but that proved to be a bad idea because of using the same thumb to aim and shoot. Why can’t right trigger be shoot and left trigger be aim like a normal shooter? So I beat that and rescued a couple survivors. I tried to get back to the security room from the main entrance, fighting very carefully with only 1 hp only to find the door welded shut. God damnit. Had to go the long way around through the park leading 3 survivors when the convicts in the jeep showed up. What the hell, how is this fair? I did manage to run past and get those to the safe room. Then I messed up the next case and had to reload a backup save.

I had resolved to kill those convicts figuring I would get rid of them for good to make future travel safer. It took quite a few tries and at one point I looked for guns and went to the gunstore only to get shotgunned to the face. Ok so knife and handgun it is. I almost killed 2 of them by just running around knifing, but it was very random how well I performed. I then decided to hang around the trees and got them stuck for easy pistol kills. Then I took the heavy machine gun, mowed down the gunstore owner, then beat Carlito 2nd fight in seconds. But this turned out to be a dead end series of events because I did not have enough time to get the medicine, even though I owned the store manager with my shotgun. So I had to replay that entire day and looked online to see other options. Oh those shutters blocking the way to the Carlito fight were up now so I did not even have to take the long way around. And there is an easy smg there in the fountain. Very good. Took a few tries to beat Carlito this time because the smg is so much weaker than the HMG, that and the terribly slow aim speed. Then I think I did the medicine, killing the store manager with smg. Then finally went back to beat the convicts again and use the HMG to kill the gun store owner. From then on I kept stocked up on shotguns as much as I could. I killed the fat cop psycho with shotgun and had several women following me back to the safe room, but 1 died somehow. I did appreciate the ability to make survivors stand in a specific spot, so I could work on clearing out zombies rather than trying to rush through and hope they don’t be incompetent. The fight with Isabella on her motorcycle was a pain and took a couple tries, because of the slow aiming speed again. I ended up baiting her into running me over, then shotgunning her from a pile of stuff. I hated the dodge move done by double pressing movement stick, because of the amount of times that I accidentally performed it; same reason I hate double pressing left or right to run. Near the end I beat the cultist leader; a fair bit of shooting but had to finish him with knife. His sweet sword lasted me the rest of the game and killed quite a few soldiers. I did the bomb mission in the tunnels and barely managed to scrape by on the 1st attempt. My truck was wrecked and I had to go on foot with only 1 hp and no healing items, while Carlito tried to run me over and the zombies were thick. I did not think I would do it and resolved to take that bastard Carlito down with me. I unloaded shotguns into Carlito’s truck until it blew up and he ran away, then got a level up from; oh that sweet free healing. Killed the butcher no problem with shotguns.

By the end I went around killing soldiers until my inventory had that sword and every other slot filled with machine guns. I tried to shoot down that chopper in the park. My 1st attempt took so long that I failed the game. Then I looked up online how to do it because I was having an incredibly difficult time with the atrociously slow aim speed. Ended up having to change the controls back to classic. It took several tries but I finally shot it down, then went on the finish overtime mode. Ended up with about 15 survivors saved, 4800 zombies killed. The tunnel part with the anti zombie perfume was a bit annoying so after a while I started killing them. I had enough ammo to clear the tunnels; like 7 or 8 machine guns with 150 ammo each, so enough to kill maybe 1000 zombies. Plus all the melee weapons. I ended up going down to 1 hp though with some melee fighting and having to be extra careful at the end. Final boss fight against the tank was done without me taking a single hit, but then I died in the fist fight after. Got it the next try, still that fist fight was awkward.

Then I tried infinity mode. I liked the lack of rushing around with the only goal being minimizing damage and finding food to stay alive. It meant I could play more at my own pace, and spend more time clearing out zombies and getting familiar with each area and weapon. I started off by going for the smg in the fountain, then did the entrance plaza. The pyro psycho was there and I killed him with my smg; he really made a mistake when he tried to get past a group of zombies with acetylene tanks. I got a health book to boost healing items but I did not bother to find out where to get the other. I went from store to store looking for food and just waiting around for my health to tick down until I needed to eat. Then to the foot court where I killed Carlito with smg, which was a very easy battle. I stayed there a long time eating the food but decided to save the big stash of wine for later, so moved up to wonderland. There I killed the clown. I did not have enough bullets to kill him, so I lured him into a store and corner camped him with knife and katana. Then I went into the north construction area and made my way to the gun store to get a sniper rifle and load up on shotguns. Then went into the big hardware store and fought the psycho who used machete and dynamite. He was a pain in the ass and I took a lot of damage, but I got him with a fair few shotgun blasts. Then I climbed up on the shelves and waited for him to appear. Got a few sniper shots off and finished him with smg. Then I stepped out into the park and got shot by the snipers there. Nope, not fighting snipers in a big open area. Backtrack and go all the way around to the entrance again. Along the way I used a random juice that machete guy dropped, which made me stomach sick right in the middle of zombies. God damnit. The quick time events were not working and I nearly died. I had to time my movements so the stomach pains would not occur near zombies, lost the smg, and made it to that wine stash with only 1 health left. Then I did paradise plaza and the cinema. On the way back from the cinema, the photographer psycho attacked. He kicked my ass with his jump kicks and I used 2 healing items to beat him with a mix of chainsaw and shotgun. He died on top of restaurant tables, which put his full healing steak out of reach. Only place left to go now was the park so I went out. No snipers. The jeep convicts were off in the distance stuck ramming into a tree, so I sniped the 3 of them. Then I drove the jeep into the underground to the butcher. Was running over the zombies to clear the area when… who the hell is throwing grenades? Carlito shows up in his truck, so I hop out and get the heavy machine gun to wreck him in seconds. Clear the butcher but no boss in there. I go back to the gunstore and now the owner is there, but he was easy to kill with smg from outside the store. Some random survivor got killed in wonderland and did not drop any healing, then shopping cart psycho was in the food court. After that I had planned to get another smg then go to the cinema looking for the cult leader, but I never made it that far. The zombies were too thick. Final score: survived for 3 days 7 hours, and killed over 1200. I was disappointed that this was not the main game mode without any time limits, but at least I got to experience some psychos I missed.

I liked this game a little better than Dead Rising 2, I think because of better presentation and less ridiculousness. It still has the bad game mechanics that make the game far more frustrating than it needs to be. It makes no sense how the zombies not only keep coming back, but increase in number over time when you are killing them by the 1000s. Same with the soldiers coming back despite being killed, and all items respawning. It makes it feel too much like a game rather than a believable experience. I would rather the game have no time limits, with finite enemies and resources, so the challenge would be using limited resources to defeat enemies without dying.

6.5/10

[Spoliers]

Dead rising is a perfect mess. If they could have cut out overtime mode or made it better. Then this game would have been a perfect 5/5. But Jesus, the ending was a complete mess, and the villain was a complete letdown. Felt extremely rushed. Wished they could have maybe extended the story a bit longer to give the villain a better character arc.

Besides the disastrous ending, everything else was perfect. The main cast was charming, the survivors were harlious, the psychopaths were excellent. The music was addicting despite the endless loop. Lastly, the weapons were the best part of the game. Everything is a weapon! Makes the game feel more realistic. Wish other games made this an option.

This game at its core is a 4/5. But...... what made my review drop to a 3/5 was the trophy system. It's what almost ruined my enjoyment of the game. To stay alive for 14 straight real-life hours was complete BS. You can't save, frank has to eat every 20 mins or he dies, can't enter a certain area since it would crash the game. You have to have your console on for 14 hours straight if you pause the timer stops. 7-day survivors is one of the worst ever trophies ever created.

Conclusion

It's a great game that you would enjoy, despite its flaws. But......If you're going to try to get a 100% for this game. You're going to end up hating it. It's best to play this game casually, or aim to save all the survivors.

Final Verdict

 3/5

Pros

• Gameplay is fun
• It has an Incredible attention to detail
• The psychopaths was well thought out and believable
• The dialogue and acting just came across as cheesy humor makes Dead Rising the ultimate homage

Cons

• It has some of the worst dumbest AI I've ever experienced
• Incredibly annoying walkie talkie, constantly calling you when you're busy