🧟‍♂️ Dead Rising (2006) 🧟‍♀️

“Shopping mall carnage, satire, and a timer breathing down your neck.”

Lets start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

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🎮 Background & Inspirations

Released in 2006 by Capcom, Dead Rising was heavily inspired by George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978)—the classic zombie film set in a shopping mall. Capcom even faced legal challenges because of the similarities, but the game ultimately stood as its own wild blend of horror, action, and dark comedy.

The premise is simple: a zombie outbreak has taken over the fictional Willamette Parkview Mall, and you, Frank West, a photojournalist who’s “covered wars, y’know,” are dropped into the chaos via helicopter with just 72 in-game hours to uncover the truth and survive.


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📖 Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

You play as Frank West, an everyman with a camera and a sharp tongue, who quickly realizes the mall is more than just a zombie buffet. Government conspiracies, military cover-ups, and deranged survivors (the infamous “psychopath” bosses) make survival as dangerous as the undead themselves.

The story unfolds in real-time—72 hours (about 6 in-game hours of play). If you miss a mission or fail to save survivors, the story keeps going. That relentless timer is both stressful and brilliant, making every choice matter.


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👥 Character Rundown

Frank West – A photojournalist and reluctant hero. Sarcastic, resourceful, and iconic. He’s not a soldier; he’s just a guy with a camera trying to get a scoop. His catchphrase “I’ve covered wars, y’know” is legendary.

Brad Garrison & Jessie McCarney – DHS agents trying to contain the outbreak. Their subplot grounds the game in government conspiracy.

Carlito Keyes & Isabela Keyes – The villains pulling strings behind the outbreak, with personal stakes that give the chaos deeper context.

Psychopaths – Survivors who crack under the pressure and become unhinged bosses (like the insane clown Adam with dual chainsaws). They’re exaggerated, terrifying, and unforgettable.

Survivors – Ordinary people trapped in the mall. Saving them is optional but adds humanity to the carnage (and extra challenge).



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🎮 Gameplay

What made Dead Rising stand out was freedom. The mall is your playground:

Improvised Weapons – Anything can be a weapon: lawnmowers, frying pans, guitars, giant teddy bears. It’s part horror, part slapstick comedy.

Photography Mechanic – Frank earns prestige points (PP) for taking photos of zombies, survivors, and dramatic moments. It adds a journalist’s lens to the gameplay.

Timer System – Missions happen whether you’re ready or not. You can’t do everything in one run, making replayability key.

Multiple Endings – Depending on your choices, survivors saved, and story progress, you can unlock drastically different conclusions.



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⏱️ Pacing / Flow

The game is tense and chaotic. Early on, you’ll feel overwhelmed—hundreds of zombies in tight spaces, the timer constantly ticking, survivors screaming for help. Once you learn the layout of the mall and weapon tricks, the pacing shifts into addicting rhythm: scavenging, rescuing, fighting psychos, returning to base, rinse, repeat.


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✅ Pros

Innovative sandbox gameplay — the mall feels alive with possibilities.

Hundreds of zombies on screen — groundbreaking at the time.

Dark humor — absurd weapons + over-the-top bosses.

Replay value — multiple endings and story routes.

Frank West — a sarcastic, relatable lead who became a Capcom icon.



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❌ Cons

Graphics – Very 2006. Stiff animations, uncanny faces, and muddy textures don’t hold up today.

Save system – Limited saves at bathrooms and one-slot only. Brutal for newcomers.

Escort missions – Survivors’ AI is notoriously frustrating. Watching one die because they got stuck behind a bench is maddening.



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📝 Final Thoughts

Dead Rising is messy, stressful, hilarious, and unforgettable. It reinvented what a zombie game could be—turning consumerism into carnage, with biting satire and endless replayability. The graphics may have aged, but the concept is timeless.

⭐ Rating: 8/10
(Aged visuals and clunky survivor AI knock it down, but it’s still an absolute classic.)


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🚨 Spoiler Warning 🚨

The rest of this review digs into the story details.


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💀 Spoilers

Frank learns the zombie outbreak isn’t random—it’s the result of government experiments tied to cattle farming and a parasitic wasp strain originating in Santa Cabeza, a South American village. Carlito, seeking revenge for what happened to his people, orchestrated the Willamette outbreak to expose the U.S. government’s atrocities.

The “psychopaths” you fight—like Adam the clown, Cletus the gunshop owner, or Steven the grocery store manager—highlight how fragile sanity is under crisis. They’re as dangerous as the zombies and become symbolic of humanity unraveling under pressure.

As the story unfolds, Frank teams up with Jessie and Brad but loses both to the outbreak’s brutality. In the true ending, Frank uncovers the conspiracy, survives the helicopter rescue, and exposes the truth. But in “Overtime Mode,” he discovers he’s infected, forcing him to rely on Isabela’s unfinished drug prototype to survive.

The final confrontation with Carlito’s legacy and the military cover-up reveals the outbreak is far from contained, setting up sequels. Frank’s survival is bittersweet—he lived, but the infection inside him means his story is far from over.

👉 The most haunting moment: after everything, the government sweeps in to silence the event. Survivors are forgotten, the mall is sanitized, and Frank is left as the sole witness—holding proof but knowing the nightmare could repeat.