This week I played my very first zombie game and even though this is not really my genre of choice, I did not hate it. Dare I say I even had some fun? I may have grinned a little at beating up the undead with a mannequin but I deny all accusations of laughing maniacally while running over zombie poodles with a lawnmower.
I really am not into horror. I'd rather read the Wikipedia article for a synopsis than watch a horror movie, and so it was with a bit of trepidation that I began Dead Rising: CTYD. Soon my fears were allayed when I discovered this was more like a brawler than a survival horror game. Thusly relieved, I snagged a shopping cart and proceeded to run down the undead like a possessed bargain hunter on 50% off sales day.
If Dead Rising were a movie, it would sit comfortably in the B movie horror/comedy sub genre. The story is pure B grade cheese loaded with ridiculous scenarios, peppered with plot induced stupidity. That's not to say it's awful. The unfolding of the story is interesting enough. The dialog is, well, not as bad as Capcom's usual efforts and the voice acting is decent. Ultimately it doesn't matter much because we didn't come for the writing; It's a Zombie Apocalypse and anything can potentially be a weapon!
And here is the heart of Dead Rising. You are Frank West, freelance photojournalist, trapped in a mall with thousands of zombies. You must survive for 3 days by any means necessary while also rescuing fellow survivors. It really is a great video game premise. The mall is loaded with mundane objects Frank can make imaginative use of. A good thing too, as the missions can be challenging. Zombies populate the mall in small clusters and will occasionally pop out of nowhere. Often I wished the camera was a bit farther away from Frank so I could see behind him a little, regardless, the camera didn't get in the way and the controls worked well enough. As you bludgeoned zombies with various objects, different flicks of the Wiimote or button presses would unleash different kinds of attacks. The zombies themselves were mostly slow. Some obligingly stood around doing nothing, giving you time to line up that shot with a saw blade or whatever else you wanted to throw. Just don't grow too complacent or the smarter, more aggressive enemies later in the game will eat your brain, and watch out for the dive bombing killer parrots.
A lot of the missions involved escorting survivors to safety. Thankfully, the AI did not suck. The characters would actually fight back if grabbed. Most importantly, they did not seem to have suicidal tendencies. I once did a little game testing on a MMORPG and one of the missions I replayed over and over again involved escorting a prince who's sole purpose in life seemed to be to aggro everything on the map.
The only aspect of Dead Rising: CTYD that really disappointed me were the visuals. As is so often the case these days, it aimed for a photorealistic style but fell short. The graphics are gracelessly utilitarian. The environments were appropriately detailed if a little rough, but the characters creeped me out. It looked like a lot of motion capture was used in the cut scenes and really, mixing different levels of realism is a no-no. The animation of the body and gestures were at a higher level of realism than the models, while the facial animation was at a lower level. The muppet-like mouth movements did not match the realistic faces and the body gestures only emphasized the lifeless mannequin-like qualities of the models. The end results often caused the non-dead characters to appear less life-like than the undead ones. The game was hardly an eyesore, but the characters did tumble a little ways into the Uncanny Valley.
There really was a lot going on in Dead Rising: CTYD and rather than try to go into detail on the miscellany, let me just end by listing a few of the oddities.
~ You can find all manner of alternative costumes for Frank in the clothes stores. Alas, I did not find any high heels to go with the dress I had him wearing.
~ Frank is apparently only a photographer in cut scenes, as you never get to make use of his camera yourself, not even as a blunt instrument.
~ The Wii remote pointer makes aiming guns a breeze, but you still have to use the analog stick to look around.
~ Why would anyone want to eat a piece of fruit dropped by a zombie?
Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop sets out to give gamers an arena to go zombie killing wild with whatever comes to hand and it succeeds. If watching the above video made you giggle (and you are hopefully older than 17), then this game is for you. This non zombie game fan gives it a B.
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