I love zombie movies! Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later, the Dawn of the Dead (the remake version…never liked Romero’s stuff for some reason) just to name a few. Dead Rising takes that zombie movie formula (especially lifted from the fan favorite Dawn of the Dead) and brings it to the Xbox 360, and unlike games that might have zombies in them, this is one of the first to actually feel like a zombie movie.

Now, I’m sometimes a baby when it comes to horror games (Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and this last Resident Evil game are just a handful of the ones I’ve never been able to complete cause I get too freaked out during them), but such is not the case this time around as this game is all about action, and though it can be creepy, it is far from the nerve racking scary of other horror games.

The game sees you as a photojournalist helplessly stranded in a shopping mall with several other survivors. After an old lady opens up the doors to the shopping mall to retrieve her precious poodle, zombies overtake the woman (yes, kill the stupid) and come rushing in. Now, maybe I read it wrong, but it appears that the game changes based on your choices, as your first thing to do is survive this initial onslaught of zombie attackers, which is quite a challenge as the Xbox 360’s power allows for a whole lot of zombies to be present and moving on the screen at one time. So you can do what I did and just grab something that can be used as a weapon (really anything since I saw someone also use a deck of cards to attack a zombie to death) and then proceeded to follow the police officer’s advice and make my way up the stairs. As I ascend the stairs I notice a few other survivors struggling against the zombies, and my character gives this look back as if he could have helped them, so maybe, just maybe the game’s story changes based on what you do in the game. Don’t quote me on that though!

If I’m wrong on the last part then this next part describes why he does what he does, which is decide to leave the confines of the upper floor and descend to the bottom where you are going to try and save those civilians. As you run around you can use almost anything you see in the environment, which can be a deck of cards (as already said) to potted plants to baseball bats to iron bars and anything else you can probably think of. The combat was pretty simple, as one hit was all you needed to put one zombie down for good.

The game also has a unique story as it all takes place in only a matter of 71 hours (not real-time). Based on what I hear the game plays until these 71 hours are up and what you do during that time is completely up to you. So, in theory, I suppose you could just stand around for that time and simply wait it out. Or you could save some people. Or you could do one of a number of things I suppose.

Overall I was really impressed with the amount of zombies that were visible on the screen at one time and the whole game was just fun, so this is definitely one I’m looking forward to reviewing when it is eventually released.