This game is an extremely addicting classic!

For those who haven't played it or have only heard about it, imagine if you will the concept of the (also classic) movie Dawn of the Dead:

There are survivors stuck in a mall with a bunch of zombies and some psychotic crazy people wreaking havoc. And much like how the survivors in (the original) Dawn film disposed of the zombies in all sorts of funny ways by using random items around them, this concept is a core gameplay mechanic!

You can throw stacks of CD's at them(much like the record throwing scene in Shaun of the Dead), smash them over the head with childrens toys and potted plants, throw buckets of paint at them splattering them with bright colors, pick up 24-packs of soda and start chucking cans at them, throw pies at them, mow them down by the dozens with machine guns, blow their heads off with hunting rifles, hit hockey pucks at them, play zombie bowling with them with a bowling ball, pick up a big a** salmon from the pond and whack them with it, throw propane tanks into a crowd and shoot it taking out a group of them(don't tell Hank Hill), and the list goes on.

Now in the Dawn film, there was a group of crazy bikers led by the great SFX artist Tom Savini causing a bunch of mayhem to occur. In Dead Rising they took that concept and pumped it full of caffiene and steroids. You've got a huge plethora of different psychos that you can choose to go up against if you go to the right places at the right times. Doing so will reward you with a ton of XP (or PP as the game calls it) which will help level you up a great deal.

These whackos include, but aren't limited to: A sniper with his two equally disturbed sons, a crazy lard who owns the grocery store with a souped up shopping cart as a weapon, a war vet with a machete who looks like Michael Rooker, a drinkin hillbilly gun store owner and even an overweight policewoman beating up a group of fine ladies for some odd reason(the ladies in question you can be rescued for some good ole fashioned PP points)

The overall tone of the game is a fun one similar to that of a dark comedy. It's somewhat light hearted, filled with a lot of colorful characters both good and bad and can be both dark but also funny in a way that isn't annoyingly jarring. Similar to the first Borderlands before the series tone devolved into constant references and stupid jokes that are told right around extremely serious plot points. To better utilize a quote from Todd Howard: "It just works". The protagonist Frank West is fairly likeable photograher and it's fun to watch him interact with the people he runs into.

I'd also like to add that it's refreshing to see a piece of media with zombies in it wherein the characters refer to the zombies as zombies. I don't know about you but I feel like in the real world, we'd call a zombie a zombie if there were zombies walking around turning people into zombies.

Your zombie-killing playground is Hugh Mungus and it's truly addicting to just run around and f*** with them using random items. The amount of zombies in the mall is insane and there's nothing more satisfying than just enflicting mass carnage on the massive crowds of them. To add to this addictiveness there's a constant kill-counter at the bottom right of the screen and even achievements for getting certain amounts of zombies dispatched. This is also strengthened by the leveling system that increases health, damage output, speed and special attacks among other things.

Much like in the original Fallout there's a certain amount of time you have to beat the game but you'll get used to it after while. Interestingly enough you can choose at any point to restart the game at whatever character level you're at including all of the abilities and upgrades you've acquired. Which is weird... but personally I kind of like it.

Really if I had to say anything bad about the game it would only be two things:

-The A.I. for the survivors you can escort back to your hideout is abysmal and when you've got a swarm of zombies to get through while trying to get their dumb a**es to follow you without getting helplessly attacked is a true torture fit only for those on death row or those staying in Guantanamo Bay. Made ten times worse for those trying to get a perfect run. My heart goes out to anyone trying to do a perfect speedrun.

-It's similar to the three best GTA games in that you have to go into certain rooms in order to save the game and they are, in my opinon, too few and far between. Which is ungodly annoying if you've just made a ton of progress or completed an annoying mission only to get killed by a stupid mistake on your way to a save point.

Aside from the two aforementioned gripes I love everything about this game and I think it's a perfect choice for those looking for something great to play. This game is just as good as I remembered it all the way back in 06. If you see this game on a sale or I've sold you on it and you don't mind spending 20 smackaroons you should definitely pick this up. And if you've bought this game on a Steam sale binge and already have it in your library I hope I've sold you(Just stay away from the Wii version!).

This game is an extremely addicting classic! For those who haven't played it or have only heard about it, imagine if you will the concept of the (also classic) movie Dawn of the Dead: There are survivors stuck in a mall with a bunch of zombies and some psychotic crazy people wreaking havoc. And much like how the survivors in (the original) Dawn film disposed of the zombies in all sorts of funny ways by using random items around them, this concept is a core gameplay mechanic! You can throw stacks of CD's at them(much like the record throwing scene in Shaun of the Dead), smash them over the head with childrens toys and potted plants, throw buckets of paint at them splattering them with bright colors, pick up 24-packs of soda and start chucking cans at them, throw pies at them, mow them down by the dozens with machine guns, blow their heads off with hunting rifles, hit hockey pucks at them, play zombie bowling with them with a bowling ball, pick up a big a** salmon from the pond and whack them with it, throw propane tanks into a crowd and shoot it taking out a group of them(don't tell Hank Hill), and the list goes on. Now in the Dawn film, there was a group of crazy bikers led by the great SFX artist Tom Savini causing a bunch of mayhem to occur. In Dead Rising they took that concept and pumped it full of caffiene and steroids. You've got a huge plethora of different psychos that you can choose to go up against if you go to the right places at the right times. Doing so will reward you with a ton of XP (or PP as the game calls it) which will help level you up a great deal. These whackos include, but aren't limited to: A sniper with his two equally disturbed sons, a crazy lard who owns the grocery store with a souped up shopping cart as a weapon, a war vet with a machete who looks like Michael Rooker, a drinkin hillbilly gun store owner and even an overweight policewoman beating up a group of fine ladies for some odd reason(the ladies in question you can be rescued for some good ole fashioned PP points) The overall tone of the game is a fun one similar to that of a dark comedy. It's somewhat light hearted, filled with a lot of colorful characters both good and bad and can be both dark but also funny in a way that isn't annoyingly jarring. Similar to the first Borderlands before the series tone devolved into constant references and stupid jokes that are told right around extremely serious plot points. To better utilize a quote from Todd Howard: "It just works". The protagonist Frank West is fairly likeable photograher and it's fun to watch him interact with the people he runs into. I'd also like to add that it's refreshing to see a piece of media with zombies in it wherein the characters refer to the zombies as zombies. I don't know about you but I feel like in the real world, we'd call a zombie a zombie if there were zombies walking around turning people into zombies. Your zombie-killing playground is Hugh Mungus and it's truly addicting to just run around and f*** with them using random items. The amount of zombies in the mall is insane and there's nothing more satisfying than just enflicting mass carnage on the massive crowds of them. To add to this addictiveness there's a constant kill-counter at the bottom right of the screen and even achievements for getting certain amounts of zombies dispatched. This is also strengthened by the leveling system that increases health, damage output, speed and special attacks among other things. Much like in the original Fallout there's a certain amount of time you have to beat the game but you'll get used to it after while. Interestingly enough you can choose at any point to restart the game at whatever character level you're at including all of the abilities and upgrades you've acquired. Which is weird... but personally I kind of like it. Really if I had to say anything bad about the game it would only be two things: -The A.I. for the survivors you can escort back to your hideout is abysmal and when you've got a swarm of zombies to get through while trying to get their dumb a**es to follow you without getting helplessly attacked is a true torture fit only for those on death row or those staying in Guantanamo Bay. Made ten times worse for those trying to get a perfect run. My heart goes out to anyone trying to do a perfect speedrun. -It's similar to the three best GTA games in that you have to go into certain rooms in order to save the game and they are, in my opinon, too few and far between. Which is ungodly annoying if you've just made a ton of progress or completed an annoying mission only to get killed by a stupid mistake on your way to a save point. Aside from the two aforementioned gripes I love everything about this game and I think it's a perfect choice for those looking for something great to play. This game is just as good as I remembered it all the way back in 06. If you see this game on a sale or I've sold you on it and you don't mind spending 20 smackaroons you should definitely pick this up. And if you've bought this game on a Steam sale binge and already have it in your library I hope I've sold you(Just stay away from the Wii version!).