Dead Rising has come and gone. To some it was an excellent game with a few minor problems. To others it was a failed experiment. With Dead Rising 2 on the horizon I decided to play part 1 again. While playing it a friend messaged me asking why was I playing a piece of shit game like Dead Rising for when I could have been playing one of the better, newer games I owned. This question kick started out debate with neither side backing down. It ended in a stalemate because I needed to go to bed so I could wake up for work in the morning.

The debate is still fresh in my mind, and I know there isn't going to be a resolution to this between us. In my mind this was a great game. It was fun, very new, and a great concept. The story was good, voice acting was a tad bit cheesy in some parts, the text was a pain in the ass in read, saving was frustrating, the survivor AI was beyond incompetent, and Otis was annoying as shit. But the core game play was top notch. Being able to kill a zombie with anything not bolted down was great and remained fun. It gave players freedom to keep things fresh and you never had to worry about being caught without a weapon. Even if you did, your hands could get the job done just as well. Now targeting with a gun could have been better, but it was obvious to me that gunplay would not be a major factor in this game. The whole photography aspect of the game was implemented fairly well, especially for being optional. Now it did factor into the RPG element of the game by offering up XP boosts for taking some rather interesting pictures, but you could easy run head long into a crowd of zombies just swinging away with your mini chainsaws and still level up, but it was nice knowing there were other ways to become stronger to speed up the process. And you will need to get stronger if you plan on taking out all the psychopaths (bosses) the game throws at you. In a twist you didn't fight mutants, giant monsters, or even super zombies. You fought humans who were pushed over the edge by the events taking place around them. Each psychopath had a minor back story, explaining why they snapped and started killing people, as well as zombies. Personally I liked Cliff the Vietnam Vet. He was a rather challenging boss, using guerrilla warfare tactics to stalk and ambush you. And to me he was a homage to Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. He was a big muscular dude who attacked you with a machete, much like Jason, but he was dressed in a red and black flannel shirt, with a black hat, which reminds me of the way Freddy dressed..



But aside from that, his story was actually heart breaking. I felt bad for Cliff because it wasn't his fault he went crazy. I even hung around his body for awhile killing all the zombies that tried to feed on it before I decided to continue on my journey for the truth and any survivors.



And this was another aspect of Dead Rising that I enjoyed. This game was silly and over the top, but it could also become very dark and serious. Combine all this with the replay value of the game, and all the unlockables (can you say Mega Man costume with working mega buster) and you have a great game, that can only get better with each iteration.


I kind of wish this thing was a bit stronger. It should be able to take out multiple zombies.

Now that was my side of the argument. My friend addressed the same problems as I did, but in greater detail. I see no need to go back over them. But there was one thing he said that stood out the most, and was his top reason for not liking the game. He hated the fact that the missions/scoops were timed. He felt the game should have had no time limits and allowed you to do everything whenever you wanted to. Even the 3 days you had in game should have been tied to the story so when you did a certain mission you would progress on to the night, then the next day. Personally I loved the fact that you had a set amount of time to do all the "scoops". It gave the game a sense of urgency, and added a level of difficulty to the game. Do you investigate the mysterious figure walking around in hardware store? Do you save this survivor because he is closer, or do you save this one because she is about to die, or do you check out the hardware store then save one survivor as you make your way to the other on your way back to the safe room? The choice was yours. You could try to save everyone one at a time, or you could save multiple survivors and try to lead them all back to the safe room in one piece. This of course was made harder as the game progressed because there were more zombies between you and safety, and like I mentioned before the survivors were all dumb as nails, being hammered into a concrete block. And if you failed to get to a survivor or scoop in time it would be gone. Either they will be dead, or the event will be over. Still it was fun. My friend didn't see it that way. He hated the fact that he couldn't just kill zombies for a few hours, and rescue survivors when he wanted to. He couldn't appreciate the fact that all of that stuff was optional, at the price of the story. But he wanted his story, and his mass zombie killing too.

After he laid that bombshell on me he stated if Dead Rising 2 had the same mission setup it would fail. Personally I'm hoping the game keeps that feature from the first one. He wants there to be a central HQ where you can select missions as you progress, and then you are given a time limit to take care of it. Personally I think it would take away from the atmosphere of the game. But what do you guys think. Do you think Dead Rising 2 would suffer if they dumped the mission structure of the first game, in favor of a more traditional structure where you get a list of mission that you can accept?