The Game Dame™

The first time I saw a commercial for Dead Rising, I was totally excited. I hate going to the mall, and the idea of being able to kill people wandering the halls sounded divine. Last night, I downloaded the demo on my 360 and, much to my surprise, I was sorely disappointed. First of all, if you’ve ever tried downloading demos on the 360, you know that it takes for freaking ever… but usually, they’re worth the wait. This one – not so much.The Dead Rising demo starts out promising. The first cinematic looks nice. Good graphics… good voiceover work. Then, you start getting help screens and messages to help you through. The font is so tiny that even though I was playing on a 37″ flat screen, I still had to squint to read what the hell they said. Not cool.

So, there a LOT of zombies. And you’re supposed to kill them. You start with a few weapons and can pick up tons of stuff from stores and displays around the mall… but the controls felt weird. I’m assuming you can change your setup in the full version, but that took a minute to get used to. I decided just to walk around and explore. Apparently, I walked into the check point because before I’d killed even 5 zombies, I got another cinematic. Then, it was over. “Purchase the full version of the game to continue.” WAHOOOOO!!!!! Yesss! Awesome.

I decided to give it another chance. After all, I hadn’t really explored any of the stores or weapons… I’d just walked right into the check point. I loaded the demo again. Of course, you have to sit through the cinematic again – no skipping in demos. The mall layout is interesting… and there are plenty of weapons for you to choose from. The zombie killings are bloody, but because there are so many of them, the hacking and slashing felt too repetitive for my taste. It was the unpredictable camera angles – not the blood and guts – that made me feel a little queasy. I was hoping for more of a Condemned*-esque, creep-tastic game… but based on the demo, I don’t think this is it.