Pros: Allows 100+ enemies on the screen at once, leveling system, huge environment, loads of weapons
Cons: inconvenient save system, sense of repetition
The bottom line: Dead Rising takes a great twist on survival horror. Excellent gameplay and a great story, it's on of the best on the console.
Okay...let's run down the list.

We have the hero, who can, for some ungodly reason, hold a load of large items all at once, yet appear empty-handed. Then we have thousands of starving zombies surrounding said hero, and all of them need a snack. Then we have our developer, Capcom, who is famous for their zombie adventure titles.

This may taste just like another Resident Evil title, but this is something completely different. Capcom has delivered a whole new take on zombie slaughter in the form of Dead Rising on the Xbox 360.

The story of Dead Rising revolves around Frank West, a freelance photojournalist who travels to Willamette, Colorado to look into a huge lead on some strange occurances that have taken place. Before he knows it, he and a handful of survivors are trapped in the local shopping mall, which is infested with zombies and psychopaths. Within seventy-two hours, he must discover the truth behind the infestation, get the biggest scoop in journalism history, and most importantly, live to tell about it.

At first glance, Dead Rising comes off as a game that would play much like State of Emergency, as the screen is flooded with zombies. In some aspects, you'd be right, but there's far more to it than that. The challenge isn't to see how many zombies you can slaughter; it's all about getting from Point A the Point B without becoming zombie chow while working against the clock to accomplish a series of goals.

Dead Rising grants players the freedom of taking on the game any way they see fit. The actual story line in Dead Rising is in the case files, and completing them within the seventy-two hour timeline will get you the best ending. Outside these case files are the optional side quests called scoops. Your scoops come in via a custodian named Otis speaking to you through a walkie-talkie, who tends to call, repeatedly, at the most inopportune times. You may be asked to run to certain stores in the mall and escort people to the security room, provide support for an NPC who is involved in the story, or, of course, go kill some whack-job who may or may not be directly involved with the infestation. Of course, the case files take precedence over scoops, so you can forgo a scoop if necessary, but completing as many as possible will get you closer to the truth behind the infestation, as well as upgrade Frank's attributes and abilities.

Aside from hunting and neutralizing psychopaths, escorting survivores are something special. Rescuing trapped survivors is an intricate task, for in Dead Rising, you have to work around the mobility and personalities of the victims; you can't just run and expect them to follow like in most other games. You may run across some that are overweight and slow, forcing you to keep up with them and protect them longer. Some may be too hysterical to function, so you'll have to carry them on your back or grab their hand to lead them to safety. Others may be fully functional and able to fend for themselves, allowing you to arm them with weapons. Saving the people is important, as they will clue you bit by bit on what's been going on, helping you progress further in the story. There's no set number of people you have to rescue, but saving as many as you can definitely helps in the long run. Keeping them alive can be tricky depending on the survivor, and is yet another brilliant touch that adds depth to the gameplay.

In some cases, if you miss a case file, your game will end, but you may be given the option to save your status and start over, meaning you can replay the game from the beginning with the levels you earned and attributes carrying over from the last game. This is also the case when you complete the game, so you can play it over and over, each time making Frank better able to cope with the tasks.

The environment as a whole is as real as real can be. Willamette Mall is huge and spacious, loaded with many different stores, and each store has stocked with items at your disposal. Dead Rising advertises the "use everything" tagline, and that's exactly what you do. Almost everything is a weapon in this game, but whatever item you use directly affects your attacking strategy. Of course, not everything packs the same punch. Some things you pick up aren’t really weapons and can put you in a worse disposition. With that, Frank’s attacks are different for almost every type of weapon he picks up, forcing the player think about what they choose to wield rather then just running through the pack smashing everything in sight.

Since we're on the subject of weaponry, let's get into the use of firearms. Using guns is great fun, but in Dead Rising, it is tragically flawed. You can fire your weapon from the default third-person view, but the game's controls and emphasis on directional fighting can have a substantially negative effect on your accuracy. By pressing the R-trigger, you can switch to the over-the-shoulder view a la Resident Evil 4, but if you get into a gun battle with a boss and you're hit, you'll be knocked out the view altogether and left wide open. Not only that, aiming is entirely too slow. Once you go into over-the-shoulder, lining up a shot with the left stick takes forever, and again, you’re left vulnerable. For those reasons, you may see yourself using more melee weapons than anything throughout the game.

Getting to a save point can be a real pain, and at times it becomes a major drawback. The restrooms and the security room are the places where you can save your game, but just like your mission objectives, getting to them is a challenge. Sometimes it’s just as difficult to find a restroom, because like in real malls, they are often tucked away around corners in obscure hallways. Put a hundred undead between you and a save point, and you have yourself a problem, especially if you’re low on health. Gamers these days would much rather not have to work themselves to death for the privilege of saving their progress. By making the save system another challenge you'd have to fight for, it makes the issue just as tedious as the Resident Evil games of the past, when you had to collect ink ribbons and find a typewriter. No one misses that, and Dead Rising would have been much better off with a traditional saving method.

The graphics aren't necessarily next-generation perfect, but the overall presentation is excellent all the way through. With a hundred zombies on the screen at any given time, Dead Rising hold still holds true and still gives its players the "me against the world" look and feel, and with all the ruckus taking place, there are very few slowdowns and hiccups in frame rate. There isn’t great detail in the zombies, but when you have such incredible gameplay and the game’s ability to hold so many zombies on the screen at once, that is easily forgivable. There are few rough edges here and there, but I promise you, you would have to put the game under a microscope to notice or even care.

The sound is true to the environment. You are in a mall full of mindless zombies, so that's what you get-- madness in the ambiance of your everyday department store music and overhead shopping announcements and advertisements. As for actual music, Dead Rising has a surprisingly short soundtrack, and you’ll only hear the actual game music during boss fights and during certain cut scenes.

Dead Rising one of those games that just won’t quit. Whether you want to run around and play search-and-rescue, shoot some high-value snapshots, or come up with a bunch of creative ways to kills hordes of zombies, this game will keep you entertained for hours on end. As mentioned before, you can play over and over, and that alone is enough to keep anyone coming back from more. Throw in fifty Xbox Live Achievements and a slew of hidden items and photo opportunities, and Dead Rising’s replay value stretches further than that of many of the games for the system.

Dead Rising is on of those games you seriously have to ready for, because if you play with the intention of getting the best possible ending, you WILL be busy. If you’re just looking to smash the undead, you definitely won’t get the full enjoyment of what this game has to offer. Seemingly endless gameplay emcompassed by a deeply involving environment places Dead Rising as one the best games on the Xbox 360 and a major step up in the genre of adventure gaming.