You are free to roam around the mall, choosing what you want to do, be it, search for the reason for the outbreak, other survivors or simply kill zombies, many zombies!

You start the game with a helicopter ride over the city, which ends at the mall. Then the clock starts ticking. You have 72 hours before the chopper returns for you, and it is crucial that you utilize the time well. The game is very self-explanatory so there is no tutorial, which is good, because you don’t need one.

But there are a lot of cut scenes, and very much loading, so much in fact that I felt like I was playing on an old playstation. And the fact that the game only have one save slot, makes the game harder than necessary. I would not complain if they had included some more places to save the game, then making it unnecessary to run a marathon getting to one.

There are several missions that are tied to the story of the game, and these missions have to be started and completed at certain times. But the game is open, so you can choose to execute these missions, save other survivors or roam around the mall, satisfying your curiosity and killing zombies.

It’s a fun game. There are a lot of zombies (almost overwhelming at first), and even more ways of killing them, some of which are really funny and inventive. The game offers an array of bad characters, so you’ll find your self face to face with more than just zombies.

I was pleasantly surprised by the graphics. The movement of the characters is not as animated as I would have expected, but it’s still a little to stiff for my liking, something you probably will notice when looking at the way they run.

The zombies all have a mind of there own, which is good, because you can then more or less choose if you want to engage the zombies. If your on a mission, and don’t have time for massacre, you can try to avoid a lot of the zombies.
The game does get a little dark at night time, but most of the mall is well lit up so you can see all the gory details, which there are more then a few of.

The sound in the game is dominated with a lot of grr-ish sounds, coming from the zombies. But since the game takes place at a mall, you can expect a lot of elevator music, so hook up your iPod, and listen to the music you want to listen to during the game. The dialog is OK. Maybe a little corny. It’s not the best, but it’s not bad either.

The control is very easy to handle, so you won’t have a problem with that.
There is also an arrow that points the way toward certain missions. And I don’t just mean the general direction, but very detailed, so if you follow the arrow, you won’t find any dead ends. And everything you need to know about health, inventory and zombie-kills are displayed on the screen. But there could be a more convenient way of accessing the map.

Dead Rising is definitely a game worth trying, if you like the ingredients. It’s not disappointing, and there are some aspects of the game that makes me wish I could finish the game in one sitting. But I think Capcom should have made the game with multiple save slots, thus making the game even better and less difficult. So maybe it’s not the game I would bring if I where to be deserted on an island, but its not a bad way of spending a Friday night either.