Dead Rising Demo Review

[DrSiN]

First Impression Grade: B+ Time Spent: 20 mins I grabbed the Demo on a 360 here at the office and gave it a run. There are my thoughts and first impressions. I'll play it more later this evening and try and get a feel for the single player elements. I had a huge blast. This game is some serious fun. The demo consist of a good chunck of the mall and at least 1 “mission”. The interactivity is amazing and the best I’ve seen to date. The graphics are good considering the trade offs needed to get that many zombies on the screen. And there are a LOT of zombies. Tons upon tons. And oh the things you can do to them. I was riding my skateboard down stairs, hit a zombie, he fell, took out 5 more zombies. Was great to watch. So, why the B+. There are some bugs in the demo that I hope were solved before release. The tooltips that tell you important info like how to shake off zombies didn’t appear until I was 10 mins in. The controls are sloppy and somewhat inpercice. This doesn’t hurt the overall feel of the game since so far it was very forgiving. I also give it a B+ because without the story/missions (which I haven’t tried yet) it’s going to get old pretty quick. Overall.. great game so far. I totally can’t wait until Tuesday.

[p2501]

how well does the "improvised weapons" system work?

[kidgloves]

Just wanted to add to the 1st post by DrSin. I must admit when i first played this demo i was underwhelmed to say the least. It seems at first like its a hack and slash game with nothing else to offer. This is mainly down to the lack of back story. You just get a cut scene to start where Frank is given a gun and thats it - you're in the mall with the zombies. There are no missions to do. Its just explore, kill and take photos for 15 mins. Lots of people wont give this demo a second look because of this. Once you start exploring, picking up weapons and nearly get eaten a few times, you get a feel for the game, These zombies are nasty. Some of them don't seem interested in you at all, while others will lunge at you as you run past them. Get surrounded and you are dead unless you have a big big weapon.The animations and character of them shines through more than anything else. At one point one of them was just blankly staring at me through a store glass window with a knife to his own throat trying to cut his own head off. If they catch on that you are in a store they surround the store, break the windows and start climbing in. They slip and fall down stairs, try to climb over their fellow zombies - just to eat you. The atmosphere/tone of the game is spot on. Its not the laugh a minute gorefest you have seen in the trailers (although you can make it that way if you want). Because its a limited demo (both time and area), when the game ends you get a cut scene that gives a peak at the storyline of the full game and there are some fu@ked up scenarios going on. All of which have been talked about at some point on this board. Remember there are other people in and outside this mall just trying to survive as well. The full game really does look something special for zombie freaks if you take the time to look at the detail in the game. Roll on September (im in the UK)

[CoinReturn]

I like this disclaimer on the official Dead Rising site:

[DrSiN]

I think there is a single player component to the demo, hence the whole mission intro. I just think most people ignore it off the bat. I'm going to dig in to it later tonight. I loved all the disclaimers too. I guess the company that owns the rights to Dawn is pretty ****ed. It's been the hit of the office today and lord knows we are picky in terms of what we play. P2501, Anything can be used as a weapon.. and I mean anything. You grab a case of soda and beat zombies over the head with it, then go to targetting mode and hurl individual cans at them. Classic.

[Wooly]

Thank God they at least awknowledge the immense similarity to DotD. Phew. What PO's me is that a bunch of kids are going to play this and either a ) Think it's based off of the REMAKE, unaware that there is a '78 ORIGINAL. b ) Think the idea is totally fresh and original. Naive 'lil bastards. Anywhoo, it's a shame that the demo is so limited. The space they allow you to roam is indeed the size, or bigger, of the Monroeville Mall...now consider that this is a demo and the mall is HUGE! I really like how many weapons there are and the variation of zombies and their behavoirs. Little touches like zombies tripping and falling into a pool of water are nice. Also, the grapics are amazing considering how many zombie they managed to fit on screen...and the motion blur makes it that much better. I don't have a single complaint about the demo except this: It has the gore and the humor of DotD, so they could at least POSITIVELY awknowledge it as INSPIRATION rather than just dismissing George's participation in the project for a few seconds at the game's startup. I'd also like to say that the faces are awsome! I mean, the character animations are VERY fluid and real looking...plus in the cutscenes the faces look very convincing and real.

[Wooley]

Is the demo available for download and play on PC?

[Wooly]

A ) No. The graphics on a 360 are far better than PC ones, and they would have to dumb-down the game for PC's. This is a 360-only game. B ) TWO WOOLYS/WOOLEYS? Hi twin!

[CoinReturn]

1up.com has posted thier review (8/10): http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3152674 The end result is a relentlessly inventive game worth the price of entry. With more than enough first-person shooters, racing games, and other cookie-cutter filler swamping the 360, it's encouraging to see such an original title land on the system. The experience is flawed -- some might say hampered -- by the save system and curiously designed game structure. But whether you 'get it' or not, Dead Rising nevertheless provides a wealth of secrets and mysteries for both eager gamers and the adventuresome.

[erisi236]

You know what would make it the perfect game, "The Gonk" being played at some point in the game, a toy store store, a candy shoppe, anywhere! Since it's a library track it could happen with no copywrite problems at all.

[coma]

A ) No. The graphics on a 360 are far better than PC ones, and they would have to dumb-down the game for PC's. This is a 360-only game. Sucks big time. I hope they do it anyway