Why must a zombie game be mindless? Sure, it’s fun to go around decapitating zombies left and right, but it’s really nothing more than masturbation. Apparently Capcom feels the same way, because if you sit around beating off in Dead Rising you’re never going to get anywhere.
Instead of opting for a traditional open ended experience where players are free to play around before starting missions, in Dead Rising everything runs by the clock. Be in the wrong place at the wrong time to start a mission, and you’ll miss it. Take too long completing other missions and you won’t have time to finish the rest. It forces you to keep moving, and while it may seem a little complicated and will cut into your random zombie bashing time, it actually makes the game very frantic and keeps things interesting. There is a chance however, that it may cause you some grief if you aren’t careful with your save points.
The game only gives you one save slot to work with, so you’ll have to be extra careful about when you save. Save with too little health and you’re going to have a hard time getting anywhere. Save with too little time and you may have to start the game over. At first this may sound like a bad design and certainly a little rough, but it actually works to provoking an emotional response in the player because you get to a point where you know you can save and you must survive.
Some gamers have criticized the system because they had to restart the game after they saved without enough time left to complete a mission; however this is not the fault of the developers but rather the fault of gamers who failed to pay attention to the game’s core element, time. Capcom was even nice enough to allow gamers who make such a mistake to carry all the skills and experience they had earned so they have a much easier time getting back to where they started.
Article comments
1 - Matt Paprocki
Oh yes, so dumb. I mean, if I need to go to work, need to save quick to leave, and am forced to redo six hours of gameplay when I get back, it's a perfect system!
Or maybe I get a request to play something else from a friend and need to save quick. Playing for another 20 minutes is perfectly acceptable because the design is perfect!
Simply put, it's completely ridiculous. The timed gameplay is fine. The single save slot is utterly absurd. If the game was a few hours long, I could see it. Of course, it's not, and a few of the boss fights are rough. Replaying any portion of a beat-em-up is never fun, and the genre is my favorite.
Letting the players keep their stats isn't a kind feature, its required. To even attempt the overtime mode in anything less than level 15 or so is impossible. You HAVE to restart the game a few times to even stand a chance because of bad design. Oh, and the less said about the stupid ass people who walk either straight into the range of your weapon or right into the mouth of zombies the better.
I can't fathom how that's acceptable to anyone.
2 - Jason "Njiska" Westhaver
Hey if you save often you'll be fine. Just don't save when you've less then 5 real world minutes to do something.
You don't need to keep playing for twenty minutes to accomplish something, you can just stop in any of the plentyful bathrooms and save just fine.
The fact is you just aren't saving and paying attention to time and that is your problem.
And to make a point i never restarted over at a higher level, nor did i ever do any FF power leveling (although i did take the car for a spin in the maintence tunnels every now and then when i had time) and i never had a problem with the save system, nor difficult.
3 - darkbhudda
Well, Japanese RPGs have been giving us bad save points for years. I end up pausing the game overnight when they hide the save point in some ridiculous spot or during day if I play before work.
4 - Kay
This is part of what is ruining games today - people calling challenges "bad design".
I remember the days of NES, SNES where you sat and finished a game at a go or not at all (e.g. Battletoads, TMNT, Double Dragon as illustrated at my website). Being able to save at all was a blessing. Now, people want to be able to save at any time without any repercussion.
So boring.
5 - Matt Paprocki
But back then, games were a few hours long at best. I can rip through Double Dragon in about an hour and a half. Restarting wasn't that much of a problem. They were built around memorization too. Also, we were kids back then with plenty of time on our hands.
My problem isn't with the fact that you can't save anywhere, it's that saving can force a full restart. When you're in a rush, you don't always pay attention to the four or five missions currently open. You need to go, so you head to a save point only to come back and realize you screwed yourself.
"and i never had a problem with the save system, nor difficult."
Funny, I seem to remeber you ready to toss the controller and complaining about the "ridiculous" clown boss.
6 - Jason "Njiska" Westhaver
Yeah i did think the Clown was ridiculous, until i realized i was being an idiot and not paying attention to how he moved. I wasn't realizing that this block with his chainsaw destroyed weapons. Once I corrected MY mistake he was quite beatable.
And as for your further complaint with the save system you just verified my point by stating you weren't paying attention. It's not hard to do, press left on the d-pad and check the time. Then either spend 5 minutes finishing one, or save. Easy as pie.
Besides if you do screw up and have to restart (which only happens if you don't pay attention) you still carry all your stats over so not only can you get through missions faster, but you do what you always wanted to do, "Just kill zombies."
7 - liam blair
well dead rising is a very good game but also boring sometime.you get bored of killing zombies all the time and when you complete the game there is nothing else to do.