is a 2006 action-adventure game developed and published by Capcom originally for the Xbox 360. The game's story follows wartime photojournalist Frank West, who becomes trapped inside a shopping mall in the town of Willamette, Colorado, during a deadly zombie plague. West must uncover the truth behind the plague before a rescue helicopter arrives in three days to evacuate him.
The game is played from the third-person perspective and is open world. The open world is set in a large shopping mall. Frank must survive by scavenging weapons to fight zombies and hostile human enemies. Frank can also escort friendly human survivors back to the mall's safe house. The player has 72 in-game hours (6 hours in real time) to finish the main story. Story and side missions are also individually timed, expiring if not completed on time.
Dead Rising was released on August 8, 2006. The game became a critical and commercial success, leading it to being introduced as part of the Xbox 360 "Platinum Hits" lineup and spawning three sequels, Dead Rising 2 in September 2010, Dead Rising 3 in November 2013 and Dead Rising 4 in December 2016. A port of the game developed for the Wii, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, was released in February 2009. A mobile phone version for IPhone was developed in 2010. As part of its tenth anniversary, a remastered version of the game was released on September 13, 2016, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One; along with remasters of Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, respectively. An upgraded "deluxe" remastered version, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on September 19, 2024.
Gameplay
Players can operate the game in one of two modes. 72 Hour Mode is the main mode and the only one available to players to begin with, in which the main objective is to investigate the Willamette Parkview Mall within three days, before Frank can be rescued by helicopter, completing a series of "Case Files" - major missions that, when completed, advance the game's main story. If the player fails a Case File, the game does not end, allowing the player to merely explore the mall instead until the mode is up, though failure to comply to certain conditions (primarily associated with Case Files) will result in earning a different ending. Completing all the Case Files by the time 72 Hour Mode is over, unlocks "Overtime Mode" which players automatically begin, where the main objective to complete has Frank given one more day to complete an additional set of objectives within the mall. The second mode, ∞ (Infinity) Mode, is unlocked after completing Overtime Mode and allows players to roam around the mall in sandbox mode without any time limit, with Frank trying to survive as long as possible.
To survive in all modes, players need to find and seek out weapons scattered around the mall that they can use against the zombies. Over 250 items are available to use in combat; they can be found anywhere, such as in stores, and fall under two categories, melee and ranged, with all ranging from the powerful, to the near-useless. The weapons and other items are firearms, sports equipment, children's toys, furniture, construction tools, electronic devices, and various bladed objects. Frank can carry only a limited number of weapons - baseball bats, 2x4 planks, hammers, pistols, shotguns, and so forth, though he can carry multiple versions of the same type. He can use them only a limited number of times before he must find new ones, as melee weapons eventually deteriorate and break, while guns must be discarded when out of ammunition. Some weapons can be changed by the environment - frying pans can be heated on a stove both to increase damage and grant access to a special move - while others are large objects that Frank cannot store in his inventory and which he will drop if he picks up or switches to another item. Many of the less useful weapons exist purely for humorous effect. For example, the toy Megabuster, from Capcom's Mega Man, shoots tennis balls; traffic cones are put over a zombie's head, causing it to stumble about blindly.
Items other than weapons are available. Frank can try out various outfits from the mall's clothing stores - such as a special forces uniform, wrestling boots, a hockey mask and X's armour from the Mega Man X franchise. He can carry around certain books that can confer bonuses, such as increasing the durability of weapons. He can consume food and drink scavenged while exploring to recover health, or blend them together to make different "juices", which have temporary effects on the player. In Infinity Mode, players need to eat food to stay alive, as Frank's health drops every 100 seconds. They cannot access the supermarket within the mall, and food items are limited, but they can acquire weapons and food items from all characters; survivors are hostile to them in this mode.
Dead Rising incorporates a role-playing element in the form of an experience system, in which completing various actions will reward Frank with "Prestige Points" (PP). While in both modes, killing large number of zombies can earn PP, so too can taking photographs. Any photograph that Frank takes in the game is automatically scored based on five "genres" - horror (zombies and graphic gore), outtakes (humorous events or scenes), erotica (photos of female survivors or zombies, particularly those focusing on the breasts and crotch), drama (dramatic events, such as the survivors' reactions while in the security room), or brutality (deaths of zombies and other characters) - with the score converted into PP. In addition to these actions, both 72 Hour Mode and Overtime Mode award PP for completing Case Files, and completing the optional task of rescuing survivors within the mall, and defeating "psychopaths" - boss characters who have either been driven insane by the zombie attacks, or are using the outbreak as cover for their own purposes. Once enough PP is earned, Frank will level up, resulting in upgrades to either attack power, running speed, throw distance, health, or to the number of items Frank can carry in his inventory, while new moves can be unlocked, which boost his effectiveness with hand-to-hand combat. Any experience, levels, and unlocked moves earned in a playthrough will automatically be carried over into a new game should the player choose to restart, which can make subsequent playthroughs much easier.
An in-game HUD is provided, which displays information on Frank's health, his prestige level and the amount of PP progress he has made towards the next one, his inventory of weapons and their condition/amount of ammo left, a counter for the number of zombies the player has killed during a playthrough, and objective counters for both major and optional tasks, which consists of a bar that counts down the amount of time a player has to reach where the objective is located within the mall and complete it, before it is considered to be failed. Players have access to a map to help them make their way around the mall and pinpoint where they must go in the main game mode, can receive calls on a transceiver about anything suspicious that Frank can investigate (he cannot jump, attack, switch weapons, or pick up/use any item when taking a call), and can view Frank's watch to determine what time it is; in-game time progresses faster than real time, with a day in the game taking two hours of real time, while the time of day affects the behaviour of the zombies - during the day, they are sluggish and weak, but become more active, tougher, and more numerous at night. Players may save by using green couches or the mall's various restrooms, though the original Xbox 360 version allows only one game-in-progress save to be made per memory device and player profile; the save system is disabled for Infinity Mode. When Frank is killed, the player may reload from the last save or restart from the beginning.
Plot Photojournalist Frank West is alerted by an anonymous source that something is occurring in Willamette, Colorado. Flying into town via helicopter, Frank learns that the town is under quarantine by the U.S. military, witnessing several violent incidents throughout. Wanting to cover the story, Frank asks his helicopter pilot to return in three days and is promptly dropped off at the town shopping mall helipad. Upon entering the mall Frank learns the quarantine was caused by a zombie outbreak, infecting a majority of Willamette's population.
Eventually, the mall is breached by zombies, forcing Frank to hide in the security room. With the help of janitor Otis Washington, Frank is able to safely travel through the mall. After helping DHS agent Brad Garrison in a firefight against an unknown assailant, the two team up. A person of interest to Brad, an elderly man named Russell, is currently locked in a bookstore, which he refuses to leave. When Frank and Brad return to the security room, the two realize that they can't call for help due to a communications jammer.
Frank meets and saves several survivors, as well as facing more psychotic individuals. Eventually, Frank and Brad are able to rescue Russell, who was captured by the assailant who had previously attacked the two. While rescuing Russell, Brad is injured leading to Frank needing to search for medicine to treat him. In his search, Frank finds the medicine he needs in a supermarket held by its manager; who is also keeping a woman captive. Frank gains the medicine by killing the manager and saves the woman, who strongly rebukes him while also mentioning something named Santa Cabeza. Russell later reveals that Santa Cabeza was a Central American town linked to a drug trade, which distributed drugs that had a zombifying effect.
When Frank finds the woman, she reveals herself to be Isabela Keyes, the sister to Frank and Brad's prior assailant, Carlito. She promises to set up an interview between Frank and Carlito, but going to the meeting alone is shot by a rageful Carlito. She is rescued by Frank to the security room, and reveals that Santa Cabeza held a research facility experimenting on cattle involving native wasps. These experiments intended to boost the performance of the cows but instead had a zombifying effect that infected Willamette. In response, Santa Cabeza was quarantined and massacred by the U.S. military to cover up the incident. Isabella was research assistant for the project, while Russell was the head operator of it. Upon her explanation, Russell ends up becoming a zombie, attacking Brad's partner before being shot by Frank.
With Russell dead, Isabela reveals that Carlito plans to use the mall as a staging point to spread the wasp parasites across the country, by blowing it up with bombs in its parking garage. Followed by Brad, Frank disarms the bombs, while Carlito is wounded in a firefight with Brad. Carlito kicks Brad into a horde of zombies, resulting in Brad dying and becoming zombified. Frank eventually tracks and relocates Carlito, who was taken captive by a butcher. Upon killing the butcher, Carlito gives Frank his locket before he then dies from his injuries. A photo inside the locket provides Isabela with a clue, letting her type in the password to Carlito's computer and shutting the communications jammer. Regardless, U.S. Special Forces arrive with orders to clear out the area of any zombies or survivors; save for Brad's partner who ends up zombifying shortly after they arrive. Otis and any other survivors that Frank rescued end up escaping by helicopter.