Monday, August 28, 2006

Dead Rising (Overtime)

I finished Overtime mode in Dead Rising a few nights ago.

First off, here's something you'll need to know. When you finish the main game with the "A" ending and unlock Overtime mode, as soon as you start, save your game somewhere. The reason you want to do this is that you carry over all your weapons and items from the main game, but if you get killed and have to restart from the begining of Overtime mode, those items all vanish. I found that out the hard way. Even worse, the mini-chainsaw won't respawn in that situation (it will if you saved).

Overtime mode is very entertaining, but it's very different as well, and I didn't enjoy it as much as the main story mode. There are a few epic moments, though, and it's well worth playing. It's particularly worth playing for the story arc.

Like I said last week, if this game were only about killing zombies, it would be an entirely one-dimensional game. There is so much more to be done, though, that it goes from being an interesting concept to a great piece of design.

It's funny--most of the people I know who are playing this game don't mind the save system (I thought I would, but I don't, either). Every review I've seen, though, included bitter complaints specifically about the save system.

I thought that was curious, but it makes sense, really. Reviewers need to finish the game. They need to finish the game so they can write about it, and this is not a game that can be powered through. So the way that reviewers want to play the game is specifically what Capcom was trying to prevent with the save system.

On the 360, at least, I think this is Game of the Year at this point. It has a fun to work ratio that is just off the charts.

Oh, and for the first time, I briefly felt the compulsive lure of online rankings. I decided to see where my 3.6 million experience points ranked. I never got that far, but if I'd had another million points, I would have been in the top 100. A million points in this game, once you know what you're doing, would not take very long to get (two hours, tops). So I actually almost started playing the game again just to improve my ranking.

I realized I was crazy before I started, thank goodness, but the competitive juices were really flowing for a few seconds.

One last note: if, at any point, you get stuck in the game, just remember that there are many, many ways to defeat any enemy. A staggering number, really.

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