That’s the number of zombies I had to kill in order to finish Dead Rising, which is far and away my favorite Xbox 360 game so far this year. It’s a strong contender for my favorite game on any platform. Of all the games I’ve played this year–and the list is very long–ranging from BF2 to Oblivion to Titan Quest to Hitman to New Super Mario Brothers. I’ve even done a few things I didn’t think possible–I played Prey and I enjoyed a Tomb Raider game. But, Dead Rising hits all my buttons just right.
If you’re not familiar with the game, it’s fairly simple. You play a photojournalist trapped in a mall filled with thousands upon thousands of zombies, and your ride isn’t going to be back for 72 hours. You can use virtually everything in the mall as a weapon, from trash cans and benches to baseball bats and chainsaws. And it’s vital that you keep good weapons on hand–without them, you’ll have serious problems fighting your way through the zombie hordes. And I do mean a horde–there can be literally a thousand zombies onscreen at any given moment.
If that was all there was to the game, it would be good; but there’s more. Instead of zombie boss monsters, the many bosses you’ll face are human psychopaths. Each one has different weapons and strategies, and all require a slightly different tack. Defeating them frees other people and gives you access to other weapons and even vehicles.
To maximize your score, you need to take exciting photographs, escort survivors, and figure out what caused the zombie outbreak in the first place. When you finish the story mode, there’s plenty left to do, whether you go back and save more surviors, or just go out and slay all the zombies.
The save system initially frustrated the hell out of me, but I’m quite fond of the way it works and the way it encourages you to play the game. I’ll talk about it more when I can keep my eyes open.
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