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By Andrew T. Finger on May 11th, 2006
You can admit it, you love Zombies. Of course you do -- you clicked on this preview. I recently had time to sit down with Dead Rising from Capcom, the zombie masters who brought you the Resident Evil games. You assume the role of a photojournalist sent on an assignment to investigate a mysterious loss of communication with a nearby metropolitan town. Gameplay began as I performed a brief mission of taking photos of the carnage. I saw a few people fend off zombies as they ran to safety but many more joined the ranks of the undead as they attempted to take a stand. Eventually you take refuge in a local mall in an attempt to get a closer look. The game skipped ahead for me being a limited build and I was exploring the mall and started investigating. As you discover certain people, places, and things the game gives you a new case file (mission) which slowly allows you to uncover the mystery of what happened in the town. I soon made my way to the main floor of the mall where the fun really begins. Apparently somebody let some zombies in. By some of course I mean hundreds. I was facing down one huge gaggle of zombies as I picked up a book. As it turns out, much to my dismay, books are the only items in the game which cannot be used as weapons. The power of a book will not be missed, however, as most everything can be used as a weapon. You can use all the items in the mall including hardware stores and grocery stores to lay down some serious hurt on your undead opponents.
I quickly swapped the book for a baseball bat which thankfully can be used as a weapon and went to town. I beat zombies in the side of the head; I beat zombies with a loaf of bread. I beat zombies until my kill count reached 53; I also killed zombies while thinking of the Nintendo Wii. Then the zombies in a more poetic move than my verse, closed in on me and I started again in the upper halls. Then during the beautifully done real-time cinema, I was able to see the character models up close. One in particular, a beautiful, cleavage-bearing, blond, woman had a pretty pale skin tone, and her endowment, hair, and necklace all moved perfectly in sync with her movements. Control is tight, responsive, and simple as you mostly bash what’s left of the brains in the brain eaters. You can pick up on things within seconds and hop right into the fun. The fun is limited to 75 hours in game time though as you can play through multiple times for multiple results. With Dead Rising scheduled to release by the end of this quarter, the fun will soon begin.
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