This brings up another big problem with the game save feature. Once you die in the game you have the option to load your last save or “Save Status and Quit.” “Save Status and Quit” to gamers means “alright, I’m done playing for now, save my game and quit out of Dead Rising.” However, what this really means is “save how many points I have, delete all other progress, and let me start the entire game over from the very beginning.” Anyone that isn’t aware of this issue is probably going to end up making that mistake more at least once before they figure out what is going on (except for you fortunate enough to have read this review first!).
Besides the game save gripe, the firearm weapons have a few problems. They are not easy to use and are not nearly as fun as all the other melee weapons. There are two ways to use the firearms: just shoot, or aim and shoot. An unguided auto aim hits miscellaneous targets if you just hit the button to shoot, making it an easier solution, but usually has horrible results based on what weapon you use. The shotgun usually fairs well when just shooting, but the 9mm handgun is almost ineffective unless you aim yourself and for the head. Shooting without aiming is best for saving time if you’re on the run, but when you are firing into a crowd of zombies, the auto aim seems to randomly pick and choose what it wants to shoot at.
These guys seem to know how to use a gun, but you sure do not.If you decided to aim before shooting, the view will change to a first person mode and a cursor will pop up on the screen. The largest problem with doing this, however, is that once you enter this mode, you will be aiming in the direction that your character was facing and not where the camera was looking. This takes some getting used to because it also takes some time to move back to where you wanted to aim in the first place. Not only that, but it’s pretty hard to aim in this mode. The control is very touchy and hard to line up. These problems with the firearms will be quite evident while fighting a boss; it’s really, really hard to hit a moving target when aiming the firearms.
One last problem in Dead Rising is the way that the missions are communicated to you. The main missions are told to you through cut-scenes, which work very well. However, there are a lot of side missions that you can choose to take or not. These are communicated to you through a walky-talky that always seems to be ringing. A transceiver icon will show up on the screen and a loud, annoying ringing sound will be heard about every three seconds after you enter a new location. It is easily one of the most annoying things ever seen in a video game. On top of that, often trying to press right on the d-pad to answer just hangs it up. Oh but the caller will try again and again and yells at you for hanging it up. Wow! I just wish I could bash the stupid thing over a zombie’s head and get rid of it!
The annoying walky-talky in useNot only is the stupid walky-talky annoying as anything found in a video game, but instead of having voice-overs for what you are supposed to be doing, some text just pops up on the bottom of the screen that tells you what to do. So you actually have to stop what you are doing, answer the stupid phone, and read tiny text at the bottom of the screen. Another problem is that this text is so tiny that it is almost unreadable on standard definition television sets, especially if it is a small one. Capcom has said that they are working on the issue. That’s a pretty obvious problem, something Capcom doesn’t often do, which assists in the conclusion that Capcom didn’t spend as much time on this game as they should have.
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