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"The Jet Gamer" Game Review: Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop
9 years ago
A mature rated game on the Wii, well that’s difference once again.
Dead Rising: Chop till You Drop
Dead Rising being on the Wii isn’t something you would likely expect at all. This was my first game on the 360, so getting a chance to try out the Wii version that I’ve heard a bit about over time was something I was actually looking forward to a bit. I’ve heard mixed things about it and I wanted to see them for myself. Does this version of Dead Rising live up to the 360 version or this an inferior version that you should avoid? Let us find out shall we?
Gameplay
The gameplay of the Wii version of Dead Rising isn’t that different than the 360 version, but there are some big differences there mixed in as well that make this game quite different than its 360 counterpart. The basic premise of you having to kill zombies as you are making your way through a zombie infested mall while trying to complete missions and safe survivors is still there, it is just done in a different way due to some of the limitations of the Wii compared to the 360. One of the biggest differences is that the time limit that annoyed some players of the 360 version is now no longer there. There are also no longer multiple endings. Due to there being no time limit, there is no way to miss the story missions like there were in the 360 version which would then make getting the main ending impossible without reloading a save. This can take some of the realism of having to play beat the clock, but at the same time, not having to worry about the clock does make the game run more at your own pace rather than the pace the game forces you to run through it. The survivors are now no longer just randomly popping up in the mall either. Due to there being no time limit, the survivors are now locked behind missions that are available from Otis in the safe zone at points during the story. This means you can rescue survivors without having to worry about missing the main story missions. It also means survivors are rescued one at a time, or at the very least, in the groups you normally encounter them on the 360 version if they were in groups to begin with. This means you won’t have to split your time between many survivors at the same time. When you finish one mission of survivors, you will head out to do another when it is available. There is still some time limits, since if you can do these survivor missions quickly, you can unlock more survivor missions which if you do well in them you can unlock new weapons, and other items for the game. Still, you can tell this was done due to limitations of the Wii, but I actually don’t mind this. While the active time beat the clock method of the 360 version works well, this method actually works well in its own way. I’m sure some people will not like this, but to me, it is just a different experience on playing the same game. However, one big thing you will notice the more you play the game is that, unlike the 360 version, this version relies heavily on the use of guns. In the original game, guns were sort of a luxury and you stockpiled them when you could. In this version, you have guns on you at all time with ammo being rather easy to come by. You also can only carry one physical weapon at a time, so you do need to keep this in mind and know when to replace your melee weapon or to pick something else good nearby if your weapon breaks. One reason this game relies way more on guns is that this Dead Rising is basically Resident Evil 4 skinned to look like Dead Rising. You run around and shoot just like in RE4, and you even have most of the same guns that Leon uses in that game. When you kill enemies, a lot of the time, red or blue glowing boxes of money and ammo will drop to help replenish your supply. I’m sure that sounds familiar. Yes, this is basically Dead Rising in the RE4 engine that was on the Wii. That’s actually not too bad of a thing though. Whereas the original had you using melee almost all the time, you will get to shoot a lot of zombies in this version as you go. Many people like just shooting zombies in general, so they will likely not care that they are using guns so often. It does make the game a bit easier though as you can, in many situations, just shoot your way out of trouble. Some bosses have been removed from the game and some of them were just made standard enemies that are roaming the mall several times over. This once again is a limitation of the Wii. Some of the boss battles just wouldn’t work well in this version of the game, but they at least found ways to include most of the bosses. A big thing as well is that the photography element has been completely removed from the game. I honestly don’t mind this, as the photo elements were sometimes a bit tricky to do at times, but it does sort of remove the element of the main character being a photographer trying to get his scoop on the situation. So yeah, those are some of the main differences with the games. While some elements have been removed or modified to fit the Wii, the game overall has the same feel of the original game. If you want more survival aspects, then the 360 is still superior, but if you want a version where you can more take your time and also go gun happy on a bunch of zombies, then the Wii version is actually more for you in the end. While there are differences, they don’t change the main game overall.
Story
The story is completely unchanged from the 360 version of the game. That’s probably the only complaint I have about the story other than it still ending a bit too soon in the end. The basic story of the game is that Frank West has come to a town in the middle of nowhere to get a story that is supposedly going on at the moment that no one knows about yet due to military suppression. Frank is let down in the large mall of this town and now has three days to discover what is happening in this town. It is pretty quickly shown that the town has been overrun by zombies and now you must work with a few surviving agents as you work to not only rescue any survivors you may find in the mall, but to also discover how this zombie invasion happened. It’s actually a good story, and I’m glad they didn’t change it. Imagine, being stuck in a large mall full of zombies as you work to save people while trying to stop someone that is roaming the mall to try and do terroristic acts from the looks of it. All the while, you have to deal with random psychopaths that are still humans, but have gone insane killing both zombies and other humans that still roam the mall. Overall, I still enjoy this story, and the thought of having to survive like this is actually a good story to base a survival story on.
Graphics
This is likely the main area where you can say this version is inferior to its 360 counterpart. Obviously, the Wii can’t do the number of zombies on the screen at the same time as the 360 can do. This does mean there are fewer zombies crowded around in one place compared to the way the original game was done, but due to the fact you are going to be using guns most of the time anyway in this version, the lower number of zombies actually works rather well. If there were too many zombies on the screen, then you would be using your guns so much that ammo would likely be a problem or you would just be shooting all the time trying to clear space that you had to clear in the original game. So yes, you don’t have as many zombies on the screen at the same time, but at least you will still be racking up the kills as you do in the original game. Many areas have had to be roped off as well in the game to make you take specific paths as you are roaming around. Some stores have been closed, but many of them do still remain open for you to enter into if you wish to do so. There are also fewer items to pick up, and health items around sometimes as well. A lot of this is due to limitations again, but it is also due to how much you are going to come to rely on guns throughout the game. If you have great guns, why do you need to have so many melee options? Yes, you still will want and use the melee weapons quite often, but they aren’t as essential as they are on the 360 version of the game. Some of the cutscenes don’t look as nice, but for the most part, I’m actually impressed with what the Wii can do with this game. Yes, the 360 version looks a bit better and has different features, but this is at least a case where, yes they had limitations on making the game, but they did the best with what they had and instead of just giving an inferior product, they changed the game slightly to work with the limitations instead of against them.
Sound
The sound is pretty good in this game as well. Many of the music tracks from the original game are still there, and many of the random sound tracks and music bits that are playing in the background of the mall are still here as well. The sound and voice acting from the cutscenes is the same and sounds just fine. I honestly don’t have much problem with the sound of the game. It’s pretty good. I guess there is no big difference between the sound chips with these consoles, or sound effects are just easy to transfer around between consoles. I can’t really think of much bad to say here, as the sound does a good job of letting you know when zombies or enemies are around and in what direction as well. This is a good thing as you want to know when bad things are around. Overall, the sound is great to be honest.
Control
This is one of those games where the motion controls actually don’t get in the way of things for once. Motion controls are minimalistic in what random things they do in this version. Most of the game is actually played with just the buttons, with the gun being the main thing that the motion controls are used for. Here is the big thing as well, they actually work rather well and are pretty accurate. I guess every now and then, they find a good use for motion controls and done in a way where they aren’t intrusive to the gameplay overall. You use the wiimote to aim at where you want to shoot and you simply press a button to raise your gun and to fire. It’s surprisingly accurate. There are some areas where the motion controls aren’t perfect, and that is mainly when it comes to physical fighting moves. They often times require shaking or certain motions to get them to work right and they won’t always work properly. I’m just glad this isn’t a big part of the game, and that the bulk of the game is just the buttons and the motion controls being used for the gun. While they aren’t perfect, I’m just glad they are mostly good and work the way they are intended.
Replay Value
The replay value isn’t as great as it is with the 360 version in that the 360 has that more unpredictability factor that goes along with trying to do time management. The Wii version though has the element of trying to get better rankings due to all the missions that are available. Better rankings get you more missions and often times better weapons or items to use in other playthroughs of the game. Seeing as this version of the game is more straight forward and also more about missions than the randomness that comes with having to play beat the clock, I can see how this version can get a bit more old than the main version. Still, the fact that you do have to try a bit more to get better rankings in order to get more missions, it does encourage you to do better than you did before. Also, you have the two extra games that unlock after you beat the game one time that is nothing but mission mini games that it tries to get you complete random tasks while also working for ranks once again. This is all good and all, but still, as much as I like the fact you don’t have to rush in this version of the game, it does simply stuff a bit to where the game does lose some of that random factor once again that does increase replayability. While replayability is still good and it does encourage you to replay the game or to do new game plus, I guess you never realize that the time randomness and doing everything at once actually can offer some great replayability at the same time.
Overall, I’m actually quite impressed with the way Dead Rising has stood up to the limitations of the Wii. Throwing Dead Rising into the RE4 engine is pretty much what helped a lot and helped get around the limited number of zombies and randomness that couldn’t be done in this version of the game. You have all the guns you get to shoot zombies with now, and you also don’t have to worry about the stress of beat the clock if you just want to play through the game normally. Yes, you have lost that randomness though, which is good for a standard playthrough, but if you want a playthrough that is more all over the place and has you really trying to work to get a better playthrough, the 360 version actually does show where it is more superior to this game. I know I have compared this to the 360 version a lot throughout this review, but it is sort of necessary overall to show you the differences between two systems that have such different specs. This game shows that you don’t have match the tech of a stronger console to bring the same enjoyment that the original game had, just in slightly different ways. Overall, if you enjoyed the original Dead Rising, I can see you enjoying this version as well. It may not be for some of the same reasons as the 360 version, but the Wii versions offers its own unique positives that make it a good zombie game overall. I would suggest you try it out before you bash on it for just being on the Wii instead of the 360. Capcom actually did do well with working with the limitations. It shows that you don’t always have to be the strongest to get a great game out for the people to play.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Dead Rising: Chop till You Drop an eight out of ten.
Gameplay: 8
Story: 9
Graphics: 7
Sound: 10
Control: 9
Replay Value: 6
Overall: 8
Dead Rising: Chop till You Drop
Dead Rising being on the Wii isn’t something you would likely expect at all. This was my first game on the 360, so getting a chance to try out the Wii version that I’ve heard a bit about over time was something I was actually looking forward to a bit. I’ve heard mixed things about it and I wanted to see them for myself. Does this version of Dead Rising live up to the 360 version or this an inferior version that you should avoid? Let us find out shall we?
Gameplay
The gameplay of the Wii version of Dead Rising isn’t that different than the 360 version, but there are some big differences there mixed in as well that make this game quite different than its 360 counterpart. The basic premise of you having to kill zombies as you are making your way through a zombie infested mall while trying to complete missions and safe survivors is still there, it is just done in a different way due to some of the limitations of the Wii compared to the 360. One of the biggest differences is that the time limit that annoyed some players of the 360 version is now no longer there. There are also no longer multiple endings. Due to there being no time limit, there is no way to miss the story missions like there were in the 360 version which would then make getting the main ending impossible without reloading a save. This can take some of the realism of having to play beat the clock, but at the same time, not having to worry about the clock does make the game run more at your own pace rather than the pace the game forces you to run through it. The survivors are now no longer just randomly popping up in the mall either. Due to there being no time limit, the survivors are now locked behind missions that are available from Otis in the safe zone at points during the story. This means you can rescue survivors without having to worry about missing the main story missions. It also means survivors are rescued one at a time, or at the very least, in the groups you normally encounter them on the 360 version if they were in groups to begin with. This means you won’t have to split your time between many survivors at the same time. When you finish one mission of survivors, you will head out to do another when it is available. There is still some time limits, since if you can do these survivor missions quickly, you can unlock more survivor missions which if you do well in them you can unlock new weapons, and other items for the game. Still, you can tell this was done due to limitations of the Wii, but I actually don’t mind this. While the active time beat the clock method of the 360 version works well, this method actually works well in its own way. I’m sure some people will not like this, but to me, it is just a different experience on playing the same game. However, one big thing you will notice the more you play the game is that, unlike the 360 version, this version relies heavily on the use of guns. In the original game, guns were sort of a luxury and you stockpiled them when you could. In this version, you have guns on you at all time with ammo being rather easy to come by. You also can only carry one physical weapon at a time, so you do need to keep this in mind and know when to replace your melee weapon or to pick something else good nearby if your weapon breaks. One reason this game relies way more on guns is that this Dead Rising is basically Resident Evil 4 skinned to look like Dead Rising. You run around and shoot just like in RE4, and you even have most of the same guns that Leon uses in that game. When you kill enemies, a lot of the time, red or blue glowing boxes of money and ammo will drop to help replenish your supply. I’m sure that sounds familiar. Yes, this is basically Dead Rising in the RE4 engine that was on the Wii. That’s actually not too bad of a thing though. Whereas the original had you using melee almost all the time, you will get to shoot a lot of zombies in this version as you go. Many people like just shooting zombies in general, so they will likely not care that they are using guns so often. It does make the game a bit easier though as you can, in many situations, just shoot your way out of trouble. Some bosses have been removed from the game and some of them were just made standard enemies that are roaming the mall several times over. This once again is a limitation of the Wii. Some of the boss battles just wouldn’t work well in this version of the game, but they at least found ways to include most of the bosses. A big thing as well is that the photography element has been completely removed from the game. I honestly don’t mind this, as the photo elements were sometimes a bit tricky to do at times, but it does sort of remove the element of the main character being a photographer trying to get his scoop on the situation. So yeah, those are some of the main differences with the games. While some elements have been removed or modified to fit the Wii, the game overall has the same feel of the original game. If you want more survival aspects, then the 360 is still superior, but if you want a version where you can more take your time and also go gun happy on a bunch of zombies, then the Wii version is actually more for you in the end. While there are differences, they don’t change the main game overall.
Story
The story is completely unchanged from the 360 version of the game. That’s probably the only complaint I have about the story other than it still ending a bit too soon in the end. The basic story of the game is that Frank West has come to a town in the middle of nowhere to get a story that is supposedly going on at the moment that no one knows about yet due to military suppression. Frank is let down in the large mall of this town and now has three days to discover what is happening in this town. It is pretty quickly shown that the town has been overrun by zombies and now you must work with a few surviving agents as you work to not only rescue any survivors you may find in the mall, but to also discover how this zombie invasion happened. It’s actually a good story, and I’m glad they didn’t change it. Imagine, being stuck in a large mall full of zombies as you work to save people while trying to stop someone that is roaming the mall to try and do terroristic acts from the looks of it. All the while, you have to deal with random psychopaths that are still humans, but have gone insane killing both zombies and other humans that still roam the mall. Overall, I still enjoy this story, and the thought of having to survive like this is actually a good story to base a survival story on.
Graphics
This is likely the main area where you can say this version is inferior to its 360 counterpart. Obviously, the Wii can’t do the number of zombies on the screen at the same time as the 360 can do. This does mean there are fewer zombies crowded around in one place compared to the way the original game was done, but due to the fact you are going to be using guns most of the time anyway in this version, the lower number of zombies actually works rather well. If there were too many zombies on the screen, then you would be using your guns so much that ammo would likely be a problem or you would just be shooting all the time trying to clear space that you had to clear in the original game. So yes, you don’t have as many zombies on the screen at the same time, but at least you will still be racking up the kills as you do in the original game. Many areas have had to be roped off as well in the game to make you take specific paths as you are roaming around. Some stores have been closed, but many of them do still remain open for you to enter into if you wish to do so. There are also fewer items to pick up, and health items around sometimes as well. A lot of this is due to limitations again, but it is also due to how much you are going to come to rely on guns throughout the game. If you have great guns, why do you need to have so many melee options? Yes, you still will want and use the melee weapons quite often, but they aren’t as essential as they are on the 360 version of the game. Some of the cutscenes don’t look as nice, but for the most part, I’m actually impressed with what the Wii can do with this game. Yes, the 360 version looks a bit better and has different features, but this is at least a case where, yes they had limitations on making the game, but they did the best with what they had and instead of just giving an inferior product, they changed the game slightly to work with the limitations instead of against them.
Sound
The sound is pretty good in this game as well. Many of the music tracks from the original game are still there, and many of the random sound tracks and music bits that are playing in the background of the mall are still here as well. The sound and voice acting from the cutscenes is the same and sounds just fine. I honestly don’t have much problem with the sound of the game. It’s pretty good. I guess there is no big difference between the sound chips with these consoles, or sound effects are just easy to transfer around between consoles. I can’t really think of much bad to say here, as the sound does a good job of letting you know when zombies or enemies are around and in what direction as well. This is a good thing as you want to know when bad things are around. Overall, the sound is great to be honest.
Control
This is one of those games where the motion controls actually don’t get in the way of things for once. Motion controls are minimalistic in what random things they do in this version. Most of the game is actually played with just the buttons, with the gun being the main thing that the motion controls are used for. Here is the big thing as well, they actually work rather well and are pretty accurate. I guess every now and then, they find a good use for motion controls and done in a way where they aren’t intrusive to the gameplay overall. You use the wiimote to aim at where you want to shoot and you simply press a button to raise your gun and to fire. It’s surprisingly accurate. There are some areas where the motion controls aren’t perfect, and that is mainly when it comes to physical fighting moves. They often times require shaking or certain motions to get them to work right and they won’t always work properly. I’m just glad this isn’t a big part of the game, and that the bulk of the game is just the buttons and the motion controls being used for the gun. While they aren’t perfect, I’m just glad they are mostly good and work the way they are intended.
Replay Value
The replay value isn’t as great as it is with the 360 version in that the 360 has that more unpredictability factor that goes along with trying to do time management. The Wii version though has the element of trying to get better rankings due to all the missions that are available. Better rankings get you more missions and often times better weapons or items to use in other playthroughs of the game. Seeing as this version of the game is more straight forward and also more about missions than the randomness that comes with having to play beat the clock, I can see how this version can get a bit more old than the main version. Still, the fact that you do have to try a bit more to get better rankings in order to get more missions, it does encourage you to do better than you did before. Also, you have the two extra games that unlock after you beat the game one time that is nothing but mission mini games that it tries to get you complete random tasks while also working for ranks once again. This is all good and all, but still, as much as I like the fact you don’t have to rush in this version of the game, it does simply stuff a bit to where the game does lose some of that random factor once again that does increase replayability. While replayability is still good and it does encourage you to replay the game or to do new game plus, I guess you never realize that the time randomness and doing everything at once actually can offer some great replayability at the same time.
Overall, I’m actually quite impressed with the way Dead Rising has stood up to the limitations of the Wii. Throwing Dead Rising into the RE4 engine is pretty much what helped a lot and helped get around the limited number of zombies and randomness that couldn’t be done in this version of the game. You have all the guns you get to shoot zombies with now, and you also don’t have to worry about the stress of beat the clock if you just want to play through the game normally. Yes, you have lost that randomness though, which is good for a standard playthrough, but if you want a playthrough that is more all over the place and has you really trying to work to get a better playthrough, the 360 version actually does show where it is more superior to this game. I know I have compared this to the 360 version a lot throughout this review, but it is sort of necessary overall to show you the differences between two systems that have such different specs. This game shows that you don’t have match the tech of a stronger console to bring the same enjoyment that the original game had, just in slightly different ways. Overall, if you enjoyed the original Dead Rising, I can see you enjoying this version as well. It may not be for some of the same reasons as the 360 version, but the Wii versions offers its own unique positives that make it a good zombie game overall. I would suggest you try it out before you bash on it for just being on the Wii instead of the 360. Capcom actually did do well with working with the limitations. It shows that you don’t always have to be the strongest to get a great game out for the people to play.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Dead Rising: Chop till You Drop an eight out of ten.
Gameplay: 8
Story: 9
Graphics: 7
Sound: 10
Control: 9
Replay Value: 6
Overall: 8
