Dead Rising didn’t have a lot of buzz about it until about a month or so ago. It seemed even passed over at E3. However, thanks to a very good commercial and a pre-release Xbox 360 Live demo (which I believe is the first demo that has a strategy guide), the game has picked up quite a bit of PR recently. It’s about time we get a mid-summer release that isn’t football and may have potential to be a great game, don’t you think?

The backstory to Dead Rising is simple. The location is Willamette, Colorado and some strange things have been happening there. The city seems closed to the outside world – communication has been closed off and no one is allowed in or out.

Enter Frank West, freelance photojournalist. Frank knows that something is going on and armed only with a camera, he’s going to get the story. He rents a helicopter with a pilot who has no idea what’s going on and tells him to land at the Willamette Mall. As they get there, you start to see what look like zombies attacking innocent people. Frank must investigate and get the story of a lifetime!

When you originally start the game, you’ll only have one game option: the 72 hour mode. You’ll need to hang around the mall for 72 hours and make sure you get back to the helicopter pad at that time, because the pilot isn’t waiting for you. Don’t worry; it’s not 72 ‘real’ hours. If you were able to play the game all the way through without being killed, you’ll probably have a full day of non-stop gaming. I seriously doubt you’ll be able to play without dying. The game is designed as an action-RPG hybrid in that you’ll have to level up in order to increase your life, the number of items you can carry, the more attack power you have and so forth.

You are taking the role of Frank and start the game at the top of the mall roof and talk to a human who you’ll see later in the game. Once you go through the door and head down to the mall security center, you see what is easily the most frustrating part of the game. You see, you are told that you can only save the game on this sofa in the security room, or in a mall restroom. Not only that, there’s only one slot to save the game. I’m not sure who thought this was a great idea, but it sure isn’t. More on this later.

Anyway while in the mall you have to perform various ‘quests,’ which are called cases in the game. Sometimes, it’s rescuing other humans. Other times, it’s trying to eliminate a boss character. Of course, in between these quasi-missions, you have to fight for your own survival. The zombies are after you and there’s only one thing you can do: kill them by any means necessary.

Luckily, because you’re in a mall, you have plenty of things at your disposal to eliminate the zombies. My local mall doesn’t have a hardware store in it, but I’m glad this one does, because there is nothing more satisfying than chopping up zombies with a chainsaw. I lied actually; there is something more satisfying – getting the lawn mower outside the mall and literally mowing down zombies. That is a blast. This game is rated M for a reason folks, it’s graphic and violent, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You want maximum gore in a game like this and boy do you get it…graphically as well as aurally. It looks good, and the sounds.

Oh yeah, there’s one other thing you need to do in the game while worrying about your own survival and rescuing people and that’s doing your actual job of taking pictures. The pictures you take help your score. There are various genres of pictures that the game assigns them; from horror to drama to erotica. Yes, only in Japan-based game would you net bonus points for taking pictures of dead zombie woman’s panties.

The game itself is a total blast. Literally, there is so much to do in the game: heat up a frying pan and make it melt off zombie’s faces, put stuff in a blender and get a power up, use the microwave to warm up some food, use CD’s and throw them at the big building blocks guy to get 10,000 points, etc. It is amazing how much depth was put into this game.

Once you finish the 72 hour mode, you can then unlock overtime mode, which is a nice touch. There’s also an ‘infinity’ mode which is more of a see how many zombies you can kill before you die mode.