Tuesday, August 22, 2006

GAME REVIEW: Dead Rising [Xbox360)

Everyone has had the chat with their mates about what would make the 'best.... ever'. Usually its something unfeasible 'Wouldn't it be great if The Smiths and Radiohead had made a joint album?', 'Wouldn't a film were Arnie and Stallone had been enemies have been amazing?' or 'Wouldn't it be amazing if their was a game were you where trapped in a shopping mall swarming with Zombies and ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING IS A WEAPON!' Hey, wait a second....

Coming with a disclaimer that the game isn't anything to do with 'Dawn Of The Dead', Dead Rising nevertheless never tries to insult the players intelligence about its inspirations - some allusion or reference to any film from Zombie film/game history wades to the surface around here somewhere. But it doesn't get in the way of what is probably going to be one of a frighteningly large amount of people's favourite games ever,

Assuming the persona of Frank West, a photojournalist hell bent on investigating what's going on at Willamette Mall, and with only 72 hours to do it, you simply run around the mall (including the grass lands outside) and avoiding or killing pretty much anything you come across with anything you come across. And anything you come across includes CD's, Frisbees, Light swords, bowling balls, scythes, shotguns, other zombies hands...The list is endlessly inventive and endlessly enjoyable. In fact, it overtakes GTA in the way that you can get just as much enjoyment from the game by mucking around simply breaking and killing stuff as you do from following the in game narrative itself. And there is a lot to kill - there is an unprecedented amount of detailed enemies on screen for you to both kill and be killed by and all with a spookily accurate realism. More importantly, this all happens without slowdown, the bane of so many similarly ambitious games.

One particularly interesting feature of the game is the way in which it implements its real time system, with key events happening at specific times (in a similar way to the N64's 'Zelda: Majora's Mask) and if you're not careful important story elements and opportunities can (and will) be missed, giving that essential replay value that many games lack.

It's very hard to find anything bad to say about a game which fulfils all the criteria that gaming is meant to have: fun, technically sound, featuring the best elements of others within its genre whilst retaining its own individuality, interesting, offering new experiences. Essentially, Dead Rising plays like a game made for gamers by gamers, made by people who understand the sort of game we've been wishing to be made since se first picked up our first joypad/stick/keyboard.

Ultimately, Dead Rising is the best reason to own an XBOX 360 so far, the sort of great game that makes those who don't own the console want to as soon as they've finished playing their mates copies. It doesn't even suffer from the fact that it doesn't feature any real online features... why would you want to share your Dead Rising time with anybody else?

9/10 - Excellent

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