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| Dead Rising |
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| Action |
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| Capcom |
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| Capcom |
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8th September 06 |
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8th August 06 |
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18+ |
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(M) - Mature |
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Zombies have featured in a number of games now as far back as I can remember most notably the zombie inspired games from Capcom with their Resident Evil series. Whilst on the PSone where Resident Evil first appeared the zombies were sparse and moved with the speed of tortoise. Since then things have changed and whilst further chapters in the Resident Evil series have included more and more zombies we have come to a crossroads as far as how do the developers progress the basic zombie idea. Resident Evil 4 showed us that zombies don’t necessarily have to be the main attraction when it comes to survival horror yet deep down the desire to smash zombie skull remains. Well with the arrival of the Xbox 360 and obviously more processing power it’s great to see Capcom returning with a more traditional zombie game with the forthcoming Dead Rising. Rather than focus on few intelligent enemies it seems that Capcom is going for big numbers.
In Dead Rising, which as far as I am aware will be an Xbox 360 exclusive title, players assume the role of photo-journalist Frank West who as we know gets caught up in some rather strange happenings down at the shopping mall. In his quest for the ultimate scoop Frank arrives at a small town only to discover that its inhabitants have a taste for human flesh and aren’t too good at conversation. Looking for what he feels will be adequate shelter in the town shopping mall turns out to be the beginning of Frank’s journey into the world of zombie journalism.
Having played some small sections of Dead Rising from an early preview build I think the first thing that will catch the eye of the player are the zombies themselves as never before in a video game have they been so numerous. Now granted they don’t all attack at once (come on where would the fun be in that dying every 2 seconds?) but they do make for challenging opponents especially as Frank is ill equipped to begin with. Zombies will also become more powerful and perhaps speedier during the night time which will no doubt make Frank’s job even tougher. Luckily the mall is a haven for all sorts of makeshift weapons which can be picked up from the many stores. You see an item whether it is an umbrella to a shotgun and you can use it to fend off those pesky zombies keen for a taste of human blood. With the odds against him Frank really needs to keep on his toes otherwise he gets overwhelmed; luckily there are food items as well as weapons for him to grab and use. The mall isn’t the only location in the game as there will be various locales both in and outdoors. Controlling Frank (a third person viewpoint is used with the camera panning close to the character for precise aiming with guns) is very simple and intuitive and with various context sensitive actions available means that players will have no trouble with the controls and can focus on smashing zombie skulls.
During the short mall section I played there were opportunities to interact with other surviving humans and with a limited control scheme where you can ask any followers to wait or follow means that challenges will be present throughout Frank’s adventure and if previous Capcom games are anything to go by then I will assume that rescuing as many of possible will no doubt unlock some goodies or increase your ranking at the end of the game. In fact we are told that the main storyline will take a short while to complete yet never fear as we have also been told that replay value will be very high.
As a photo-journalist Frank is obviously in the business of taking snaps with his camera and in Dead Rising, players will be rewarded depending on how good a particular shot is; remember Frank is after that ultimate scoop. I’m not sure how the photography will be implemented, such as being required to take pictures of certain objects or events however we do know that if Frank is distracted then he may miss some events that happen elsewhere as these occur regardless of Frank’s whereabouts.
My closing thoughts after playing Dead Rising are that Frank’s escapades will no doubt be very fun yet brutal and gory at the same time; the type of thing that we can all appreciate. I think Capcom are aiming to please hardcore and the casual gamers among us and with Dead Rising and I’m pretty sure if they can keep challenges entertaining and diverse that they could well be onto a winner. Smashing zombie heads with Golf Clubs and such like can never get tiring especially if you are of frustrated disposition. Dead Rising is due in stores on the 15th of September 2006.
Preview By: Robert Cram
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