Game Review: DeadRising (Mobile – Free to Play)

DeadRising (all one word) is in no way connected to the Capcom Dead Rising game series. Instead, this is a 2D pixel rogue-like shooting game that could have been great if it wasn’t for some seriously frustrating gameplay mechanics.

Created by Hao Meng, this review is for version 1.0.2 released two years ago and claimed to fix translation errors. Have a look at the screenshot below to see how that worked out.

A zombie-rouge like game, the cartoon visuals are very eye-pleasing and a story does exist even if it’s not exactly gripping. An experiment has gone wrong creating a load of zombie mutants and it is up to your character to make it out alive.

Throwing in randomised loot, weapons and upgrades, DeadRising has all the hallmarks of a memorable experience. Even the bad translations and spelling errors give it some charm. However, the further you progress, the more you’ll notice its issues.

Weapons can break and will very fast. You will get a high-powered shotgun and watch in dismay as it breaks on a large group of enemies. You can leave weapons and go back to pick them up but often these will be severely under-powered. You’ll end up finding yourself holding back the good weapons for the bosses just so you have the power to take them down. That is provided you don’t run out of ammo.

To offset this, seeing as not all enemies drop bullets, vending machines are dotted around that can supply you with health, ammo and small repairs to your weapons. Excellent, you might think, after all this gold I’m picking up must be useful somewhere. Alas, it’s not used for these. No, if you want to use the vending machines you have to watch ads.

Now you might think that these vending machines are optional so it’s not a problem but here’s the thing…they’re not. On multiple occasions I’ve run out of ammo. Then had to run all the way back to a vending machine and watch ad after ad just so I could progress. Each time you only get a handful of bullets so you’re going to have to watch quite a few. Then you have to do the same for health and repair items too!

This mechanic alone makes this a bad game. All the good work with the visuals and controls is undone by greed. It didn’t need to be free to play, it had enough going for it that a small price would have made it worthwhile. Why pick up gold in game when you can’t use it until the level ends? There it is used for upgrades but these cost so much, you won’t be getting many. Of course, you can spend real money to buy gold too. Bear in mind though that should you die, you have to start all over again and these upgrades will not cross over.

It’s a real shame as this could have been such a good game.