Come on, admit it – we’ve all done it at some point. Every single person reading this magazine will, at least once in their life, have wondered ‘What exactly would I do if my town was overrun with zombies?’ It may seem a rather childish idea, but it’s one of those things we all feel the need to consider, just in case. Now, thanks to Keiji Inafune and his imaginative band of magic makers at Capcom, we no longer have to waste valuable dream time imagining such things. Dead Rising does the job instead, by dropping the player directly into a shopping mall full of the brainhungry shamblers with only everyday consumer appliances to help send the undead back to where they belong.

Sure, there have been other zombie games before: Sega’s House Of The Dead and Capcom’s very own Resident Evil series both did a terrific job of simulating the horror of a zombie infestation. However, those games put the player in control of special operatives: highly skilled in shooting the hell out of anything until it’s stopped dead in its tracks. They never offered us the chance to experience the situation through the eyes of the average man, which is where Dead Rising comes in. Our hero, Frank West, isn’t actually a ‘hero’ in the true sense of the word; he’s a self-absorbed freelance photographer whose aim of the game is to get the next big scoop and to – ultimately – stay alive.

Dead Rising is much more of a survival-horror game than any of the Resident Evils, as Frank really has no combat skills and must rely on his wits and his ability to adapt to the situation in order to get out of the mall in one piece. This is the central premise of the title’s gameplay, the one element that gives the player the most control of the action. What would you do if your mall was overrun with zombies? Do you sneak through the shadows, hoping that none of the mindless deadites spot you while you search for survivors and escort them to safety? Alternatively, do you adopt the cavalier approach, use whatever weaponry you can find to tackle the decaying masses head on and get to the bottom of the problem as fast as possible?

The choice is put firmly in the player’s hands. Although the game’s strict 72-hour time limit does not allow for everything to be experienced in one play through, there is enough time to wallow in the mall’s many possibilities and doing so is really in the player’s best interests. Dash between set pieces without taking in the building’s many shops and not only will the player miss out on hundreds of great moments and hidden items, but they will also find the going much tougher as they won’t have built up Frank’s abilities by completing sub-quests.

Yes, what wasn’t immediately apparent in Dead Rising’s early screenshots and demos is that Frank can grow and learn new abilities through the course of the game. In fact, doing so is near essential in order to keep the difficulty level manageable. In a similar way to the Devil May Cry games, Frank’s abilities can increase in levels; he can improve his health, strength and other attributes as well as learn new fighting skills as the game progresses. Levels are increased by obtaining Prestige Points in a number of ways. Points can be earned simply by killing lots of zombies or causing a lot of damage in a single hit, while certain parts of the mall also hide secret points like the treadmills in the gym that award 200 points if you run on them for long enough. The easiest (and most fun) way to earn points, however, is with Frank’s camera. Hold the L trigger at any time to aim the camera in the firstperson perspective and take a snap of anything you see. Each photograph is then judged by the CPU for the number of bodies (alive, dead or undead) in the frame, the quality of the action and any other interesting features. Capture a ‘brutality’ or even some ‘erotica’ in the shot and the game can potentially award you thousands of points for one snap – as long as the pictures are dynamic enough.

As hoped, the photography elements are an integral part of Dead Rising’s gameplay: as they evolve, so too does the character. They also provide variety and a welcome diversion from the zombie bashing. That’s not to say that the combat isn’t tremendous fun though. In fact, if you find the right item to suit your play style then taking on the brainless hordes can be a very rewarding experience. Almost everything in the mall can be picked up and used as a weapon. Tap the X button and all manner of objects can be used as bludgeoning or stabbing weapons. Hold the R-trigger while pressing X and objects can be hurled through the air, causing chaos if you throw a particularly heavy item, such as a cashier’s till. The best weapons, however, are the secret and one-off items. Our favourites are the petrol lawnmower – which minces a crowd of zombies in seconds – and the katana, a relatively hidden weapon that can slice through a zombie in just one simple hit and cause considerable damage to the boss characters.

Oh the bosses, in all the excitement, we almost forgot to tell you about Dead Rising’s excellent boss battles. In a change to the typical zombie genre of videogames, Dead Rising doesn’t feature mutated monstrosities as its bosses. In fact, the hardest creatures to beat are often the human characters. In a knowing nod to George Romero’s classic zombie films (Night Of The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead and so on) it is the humans’ own selfish interests and lack of moral fibre that causes the most trouble for our hero, and presents the biggest danger to the player. Whether they be escaped convicts, a deranged clown or even a freakish religious cult, it is the intelligent humans and their ability to wield weapons that can make progress particularly tricky throughout this game. Motivated by greed, survival instinct or just plain lunacy: the human characters’ threat to the player is much greater than a zombie’s desire to feast on a bit of flesh and ultimately, it’s a lot more frightening. Once you’ve seen a clown menacingly juggling two chainsaws, you’ll never be able to visit the circus again.

Aside from such genuinely chilling moments, Dead Rising’s horror comes more from its abundant use of gore more than anything else. Although it graphically pales in comparison to certain other Xbox 360 games (we suspect that the raw power of Microsoft’s super console had to be reserved to get hundreds of zombies on screen at once) the actual art direction of Dead Rising is exemplary. Capcom has made every possible effort to ensure that the volume of blood on screen rises exponentially with every kill. After mashing a few undead bodies up with a baseball bat or spade, it’s not uncommon to see Frank covered in blood and standing in a pool of the crimson goo that stretches off in every direction. Every zombie features some kind of stomachchurning disability, some are missing an arm (you’ll probably be able to pick it up somewhere nearby though) while others have face wounds that allow you to see the inner workings of their mouths in truly nauseating detail. Dead Rising certainly isn’t a game you’ll be showing to your dear old gran – every few minutes you’re sure to see a head explode or someone’s guts fall out – so she definitely wouldn’t approve.

But this game wasn’t made for your gran. It was made for an entire generation of filmgoers who grew up on sickeningly violent yet politically astute zombie films. And while we’re not going to bang on about the socio-political metaphors of Dead Rising too much (we’re not Sight & Sound you know) we will say that Dead Rising borrows from its inspirations in all the right ways. The political subtext is certainly there – the photography elements easily turn the player into a voyeuristic paparazzi vulture, for example – but what we’re most concerned with is the way Capcom has captured the look and feel of Romero’s zombie movies through excessive gore, deranged human dangers and a shopping mall that is almost a character in its own right.

What Capcom adds to the genre is 23 years of game design expertise; combat is simple yet undeniably good fun, and level design is expertly tweaked to allow maximum freedom to experiment while also keeping some areas locked so that the game unfolds Zelda style to keep things fresh. The entire experience has been paced so that the simple gameplay never becomes monotonous. As soon as it looks like you might become bored of fighting zombies, a new weapon or a boss battle or a new cut-scene will emerge.

Dead Rising represents yet another high watermark of console gaming from the horror masters. Classy, stylistic and polished to perfection, Dead Rising is the Japanese killer app the Xbox 360 has been waiting for since last November. It’s utterly essential, and if you don’t love it as much as we do then you’re dead to us.

Ashley Day