Less zombies = less gooder |
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by the hammer of Jim Squires! |
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There’s been a lot of chatter on the internets these past few days about the drastic reduction of zombies in the Wii version of Dead Rising, Dead Rising: Chop ‘Til You Drop. I think the above picture says it all.
Also — flash photography will not be permitted Willamette Parkview Mall this time around. 
8 Responses to “Less zombies = less gooder”
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Dan Zuccarelli on 22 Jul 2008 at 10:15 am #
Dead Rising is really best remembered as a case study for game designers for how to ruin a game with poor structure. On it’s surface it’s a no-brainer for gameplay, and killing zombies quite frankly NEVER gets old. But there were enough design choices that almost seemed in place to make the player fail for arbitrary reasons.
The fact that Otis would call on the radio and even if you were in the middle of a fight you’d have to stop and take the call cause missing it could mean having to start the whole game over. The same goes for the real-time missions, which when missed means you started over. Having to break off from your objective to save the game in the bathroom, of course one ill-timed save could mean having to start the game over again as well.
I understand needing to make the player not rely on any one weapon, but the weapons breaking was (for lack of a better word) broken. I mean I’m beating the undead with a lead pipe, it should last FOREVER.
Of course it was hard to see what missions needed to be done unless you had an HD television, since they’re admitted to never testing the game on a standard television.
The “photo” system was tacked on and never really served a greater purpose.
Now it seems a good chunk of these MAJOR problems are being addressed in the Wii game, namely the mission structure. Though the sheer number of zombies on-screen was one of the high points of the 360 game, I’d be willing to sacrifice that to gain a playable version of Dead Rising.
Surprisingly, I beat Dead Rising. In spite of all the things the designers threw in front of my seemingly to suck the fun out of it.
Rikki 'DrFaustus666' G. on 22 Jul 2008 at 12:56 pm #
That’s pretty harsh, Dan.
First, I hear ya about the lead pipe, but if the sword lasted forever the game would be no fun. I would be unstoppable.
Second, you didn’t have to start over if you missed an event. That’s just the completist in YOU. I believe that the Dead Rising team was going towards something we don’t see a lot of in games anymore… replayability. Getting a new experience the second and third time through. I think that should be commended, not seen as a design flaw.
I can give no excuse for the Otis calls. Having to answer the phone in the middle of battle? That just sucked.
The photo system may have seemed tacked on, but within the first ten minutes of the game I had already taken a picture of a woman jumping off the roof of a building to avoid being eaten by zombies. What other game does that? The tension was so high during that chopper ride, and seeing it all through a photographers lens… priceless.
I can’t defend the save system, but knowing that I had to get to a bathroom to save… well… uh… yeah, it just sucked.
Dawn of the Dead has to be one of my all time favorite movies (I even like the remake!). So this game I feel deserves defending. That is all.
Dan Zuccarelli on 22 Jul 2008 at 1:10 pm #
Second, you didn’t have to start over if you missed an event. That’s just the completist in YOU. I believe that the Dead Rising team was going towards something we don’t see a lot of in games anymore… replayability. Getting a new experience the second and third time through. I think that should be commended, not seen as a design flaw.”
I’m not trying to be harsh, promise. But I DID run into a situation where I was in the grocery store, and needed to be back to the safe area by a certain time to trigger the next event. I physically did not have enough time to run back to where i needed to be, thus missing the event and having the game fail. I tried shortcuts, running, everything and finally had to start the game over from scratch. It sucked royally trust me.
As far as the weapons go, I agree that if you’re unstoppable it would’ve been no fun, but I would’ve liked a better reason for the inventory change up, maybe you can’t carry as much at a time, or the zombies occasionally wrestle the weapon away from you, etc. This wasn’t detrimental to the gameplay, just a smaller aggravation.
I agree with you about the chopper ride in, simply awesome (and the only place the camera use was cool).
The rest of my points you agree with
For the record I f’ing love zombies and this game was uber-high on my want list. There were just some things I felt that seemed to be put there just to keep me from having too much fun with it
Rikki 'DrFaustus666' G. on 22 Jul 2008 at 6:58 pm #
Come to think of it, there were a few times I didn’t make it back in time. I’d forgotten about that. Bummer.
…and the camera was significantly more cool to me since I took pics of Carlito’s sister any chance I got. Wait, did I just say that out loud?
Dr. Cossack on 22 Jul 2008 at 8:53 pm #
I’m not worrying too much about the graphics yet. Yes, the Wii version will have less-shiny graphics. Yes, the Wii version will probably have at least a bit less zombies. However! The Wii version is a work-in-progress. The developpers have plenty of time yet to optimize things and get it closer to the original. We’ve seen some near-miracles before in similar situations.
Tahiri on 22 Jul 2008 at 10:38 pm #
I disagree with Dan. I never had any problems with the save system, the first time I played I didn’t even know about the bathrooms, I just ran back to the security room. The save system and time limits were put in place for a specific reason. It gave you a sense of consequence.
It was meant to get you excited/worried about the possibility of failure and it worked. I got many adrenaline rushes out of the game. A save-anywhere system would have ruined it. And tons upon tons of games use time limits.
Weapons break. Lead pipes do not last forever. It was meant to get you to try more weapons. There are also exploits (books) to make weapons last longer. You’re not meant to be able to stock up on weapons and be a walking tank. You are meant to be vulnerable.
The photo system was definetly not tacked on. Taking it out of the Wii version will remove tons of stuff. It was a significant way to level up. Is it confirmation there will be no achievements? There were a lot of photo taking ones. The achievements were 100% of the replay value. A game that only lasts 6 hours needs the replay value.
I’m sorry Dan but you sucked at the game, the game did not suck.
Oki, Otis sucked. I’ll give you that one.
I am worried about the graphics. The game was bloody amazing. I don’t see how you could play it in SD, without surround sound, without HDR color (used a lot in a game with lots of darkness) without the 800 zombies on screen at a time. Well, without the fun
Dan Zuccarelli on 22 Jul 2008 at 10:52 pm #
I appreciate the disagreement and can see total validity in all your points save one…. The fact that you think I sucked at the game. I beat it. So yea, you’re wrong on that count.
And I must disagree about the mission structure, when the text is to small to read on an SD set and you miss objectives and thus fail at the game because of it… there’s definitely a design issue at work.
Faith on 23 Jul 2008 at 1:42 am #
All in all Dead Rising had the wrong save feature ever and the HD text issue really made figuring out what to do next in the game really hard.
If these too things are fixed in the Wii version, I’ll give it another try but I actually liked taking the pictures. Kind of like Pokemon Snap but gorier and with more zombies.