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Celebrating zombie-cide in Capcom’s classic
Xbox exclusive, Dead Rising CHRIS BURKE
PUBLISHER CAPCOM / DEVELOPER CAPCOM / FORMAT XBOX 360, XBOX ONEZombies. Can’t live
with ’em, can’t kill
’em. But that’s only
because they’re
already dead. You
can, however,
destroy them in any
number of ways, with all manner of
household objects, sports equipment
and lawnmowers in Capcom’s early
Xbox 360-exclusive zombie game.
Back in 2006, the Japanese game
giant was the master of zombie
games. We’d already had ten years of
Resident Evil, but the devs at Capcom
outdid themselves with the scale,
violence, humour and unabashed
movie references of Dead Rising.
The third-person action sees
you in control of Frank West, a
photojournalist first on the scene of
an incident at the Willamette Mall,
Colorado. Willamette is every-State
USA, as chopper pilot Ed
puts it, “Distinguishing
characteristics: jack s**t!
About the only thing
to do is go shopping.”
The stores within are
brilliantly realised and
realistically appointed,
from a sports equipment
store to hardware
emporiums, gyms, clothes
shops, music shops and a food
court. Rather than happy shoppers,
Willamette Mall is teeming with the
undead. Lots of ’em. More in one place
than we’d ever seen in a zombie game
before. Just how many zombies that
is, we still can’t be sure. Interviewed
at the time, Capcom’s Yutaka Haruki,
when asked how many zombies could
be on-screen, said, “Nobody knows,
we want you to count them!”
There have been claims that up
to 800 zombies could be on the
screen at any time, but we’re a little
cynical as, even though it might feel
more than a little crowded in those
bottlenecked plazas, you almost
certainly couldn’t tell if there were 800
zombies. We’ve tried counting them,
and let’s just say we’ve seen well over
100, though even on the Xbox One
remaster, there’s still a bit of pop-in.
While it’s not uncommon to see
zombies shambling in synchronicity, a
bit like you’re in the Thriller video, for
the most part they’re nicely shambolic
in their shambling, while the look of
the horde is varied enough to make it
feel as though many individuals had
caught a zombie-cold in the middle
of a Saturday shopping excursion.
There are certainly enough undead
to make staying alive tricky, as Frank
is required to circumvent the huge
sandbox mall hundreds of times in
pursuit of fetch-quests, and while
rescuing survivors. To help Frank
literally carve a path through
the hordes, a quick visit to any
retail outlet provides something
perfect for stoving-in rotting
skulls. Some items can be
combined or ‘enhanced’, such as a
frying pan that does more damage
if heated up on a stove first. Each
weapon has limited use
before breaking, and so
very often you’ll find
yourself running and
weaving your way
through the zombies,
trying to stay away
from their lunges, and
in this way you can
usually cover ground
without having to use up
precious ammo or weaponry. The
real trouble begins when you
have to escort survivors to Homeland
Security agent Jessie, and the safety
of the security office.Die harder
It’s a universal truth in zombie stories
that you can’t save everyone. But
to this day, we hate escort missions
because of Dead Rising. Let’s face it,
NPCs are almost always too stupid to
look after themselves, and it wasn’t
as though Dead Rising’s NPCs were
a particularly hopeless breed, it’s
just that getting them unharmed
through plazas packed with zombies- particularly the ones who couldn’t
walk well because they were injured - was damned near to impossible. In
fact, this difficulty spike put a dent in
the otherwise feelgood nature of the
ABOVE Despite
the comedic
z-slaying, there
is a bit of drama
thrown into
Dead Rising.DEAD
REISLING
The game was not
published in Germany,
having been denied a
rating for its violence.
Selling a copy there was
actually illegal.More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 101