deadrising was one of the games that first sold me on the xbox 360, at the time i was very much a sony person, i had a ps3, which i got for final fantasy 13, a psp, which i got for persona 3 portable, and a ps2 which i got for digital devil saga, but not an xbox, it wasn't that i didn't like microsoft, it's just the consoles had not cought my eye. that is until deadrising cought my eye, the game looked great, a dawn of the dead styled horror game from the company that puts out resident evil? sign me up! combine that with finding out about lost odyssey and the last remnant on the same day and by the end of the month i had bought myself an xbox 360 with all three games. the game really blew me away at the time, i was mostly used to more liniar experiances like those earlier resident evil games and obscure, so a game where you could free roam around a large mall was mind blowing, it felt like there was so much freedom and did a really good job of showing how next-gen horror could be, not that the game was scary at all, even as someone with a fear of zombies, the game just is not scary outside of some tense moments in the tunnels. The game was, however, tons of fun and it still is, over the years i have replayed the game more than almost any other, got every ending, every trophy in the games ps4 remaster and did just about everything there was to do, and there is a tone to do. you have a good 6 hour experiance over a standard playthrough, not accounting for deaths of restarts, every 2 hours real life time is a day ingame and you have three days total. this may sound short, but there's a lot to do, missable bosses, survivors, achievements, costumes and endings, most of which you will miss on your first few playthroughs, even the games true ending, unless you're very good at the game, will be elusive until at least your second time through the game. there's also even more to unlock, superweapons like megamans megabuster, a full costume for the blue bomber, lazer swords, ghosts and goblins stuff, there's a lot. theres even some new modes, such as an epilogue and a survival mode with a particularly infamous achievement attached for surviving 7 days, 14 hours in real time, without dying or starving under the modes new hunger mechanic, this is as hard as it sounds but over the years i managed to do it, it makes for a fun night with friends.

the game looked amazing too, the character models were very realistic and the zombies had pretty good variety, though if you paly enough you spot the same ones over and over, i even named them. characters all had distinct looks and were pretty memorable albiet realistic looking which makes the bosses stand out as very exxagerated and even out of place, but they were all memorable, the convicts and adam the clown still scare the hell out of me, and i get chills seeing the raincoat cultists running at me. those convicts especially, all it takes is hearing even a note of their theme will give most people the worst memories of their lives, horrifying. the mall looks great though, the game is very detail oriented in its design and the mall feels very lived in, each store feels real and there's so mucn to look at, it has great hangoutability, you can just sit in a safe place and vibe with the games atmosphere it's great, the zombies kinda stop being a threat for a few minuites and you can just take in a chill atmosphere, it makes almost any area you chose into a safe room, i spent a lot of time doing this on my multiple seven day survivor runs and it really gave me an appreciation for the malls different areas, the sunny skies of the alfresca plaza, the terror of the park and its convicts, the parts laid bare north plaza and the dingy tunnels, every area has a vibe to it, i spent a lot of time in the food court building barricades in those runs, as well as hiding on bookcases in the paradise plaza, they have a lot of variety and all of the areas still look great, the detail shines through and you'd be shocked how modern it can all look, very colourful too. the detail oriented design goes into gameplay too, the interactivity is very impressive, there's tons of hidden areas and items, windows can be broken, weapons have different damage styles (for example a toy sword will hurt an enemy much less than a baseball bat) cars can be damaged and most weapons even have multiple attacks, it makes the world feel far more interactive and is a design style i wish the games kept with, as the later games are very lacking in this, having a bigger world but one with much less to really interact with.

the music is great too, the boss theme for the convicts still scares me, but the mall music is very chill and calming, i stick on the mall OST's quite often while i'm writing, they're all just so catchy and they gave the game a nicer vibe, even a comedic one sometimes, but the boss music is a lot less chill, still good though, especially gone guru and justified. on the other audio side is the voice acting, and oh gosh, the voice lines. outside of a resident evil game or metal wolf chaos, there are very few games as quotable as this, frank's one liners are legendary and have became injokes with many of my friends over the years, while references to them became played out in the rest of the series, stuff like "i've covered wars you know" and "GET OUT OF MY STOREEEEE" still makes me chuckle, it's all great, peak of the generation. the voicework isn't bad at all either, it all works great for the game and all the actors do a good job convaying the story. the story itself is actually surprisingly interesting, it's pro-vegan almost and as a vegitaran its nice to see the meat industry called out as it is, the characters are great too, brad and jessie are fun and frank is a great protag. love the guy.

the gameplay is where the game really shines, and why i replay it so much. it's just so fun, weapons have so much varity, from toys, masks and guns, to sticks, boxes and sickles, there's no end almost, there's even those unlockable weapons and sometimes even bosses will drop them, like the infamously overpwered mini chainsaws you get for defeating adam the clown, there's always a sense of sroungiing for new weapons on an average playthrorough, just trying to make your way through to wherever you're going because the game is very difficult, there's no checkpoints and limited save slots which makes the game very tense, though you can always restart upon death or missing a case, where you'll carry over levels and info to try again, giving it an almost roguelike quality for those first few playthroughs, the leveling system is very cool too, as frank levels up by taking pictures using the games fairly basic camera system, killing certain numbers of zombies or bosses, you'll earn pp which will level you up, you'll get new moves for the games actually pretty in depth melee system, more health, item slots and stats, you feel a lot more powerful by the end of a playthrough and it really helps with progression, making each subsequent playthrough feel a lot easier. i also mentioned the timer earlier but didnt go super in depth, the game gives you those three days, and really you can do whatever you want, but there is a main story, it sends you all over the mall investigating the events of the outbreak, saving people and fighting new bosses, but the game is very strict about timing and it's very easy to fail the case, leading to a bad end, perfecting this is frustrating, but a lot of fun, i like the timer a lot. one aspect of it i do not like though, mostly, is the AI, the game is infamous for this as the survivor AI really is that bad, they'll often just wander into walls, crowds or just stand still doing nothing, and even if they do something often they'll just stand in place clearing an entire area instead of following you and being left with so little health that they die on the way to you, it makes for some very comedic moments though, so i cant hate it, the survivor deaths are very shocking too.

has been ported a few places in recent years, while it sadly never showed up on ps3, it had ps4 and xbox one ports, as well as a PC port too, they have all of the cosmetic dlc on disc and an upscale as well as giving you more save slots to work with, it plays fine and is how i got my platnum for the game, it has yet to reach switch though, hopefully someday. the most interesting ports though are for the wii and phones. the wii version is a whole new game almost, putting the deadrising framework into the resident evil 4 engine, it's really cool and i intend to cover it at some point. the phone port is much of the same, completely converting it to be more arcady and bite size, though it's not very good, but a cool relic. it also had multiple sequels, deadrisng 2 in 2010 was developed by a different team however, blue castle games who turned into capcom vancouver, one who would also make 2's xbox live games, its expansion and the two sequels, 3 and 4. i'll cover all of these games on their own but they vary in quality, i wouldn't call any bad though. the game was developed internally at capcom, spearheaded by both site regular, keiji inafune as producer, and Yoshinori Kawano as director. keiji needs no real introduction, being a part of series like onimusha, megaman and soul sacrifice, leading his own studio comcept later on and cameoing in the otome game, sweet fuse. yoshinori was also known for his work on games in the megaman legends series, breath of fire 3,the megaman zero games as well as steel battalion heavy armour and helping with games like tatsunoko vs capcom and project crosszone, a banger library has to be said. deadrising is a classic, you have to try it at least once.