Epic Default Productions

A little late, but better than never. Come check out the movies, video games, and general fun in Rant Time With Anthony.

1.    Most Sterile, Clean Room Looking Zombie Game: Left 4 Dead

(-Blasphemy!-)

So yesterday, I was out and about around the city, grabbing some things for PAX and what not, and I managed to come across a Gamestop (not that that’s a rare occurrence or anything, they are becoming the Starbucks of Video Games). So I went in and just took a look at the games, to see if I could grab any deals.

I scored what I thought was the ultimate, a copy of Capcom’s Dead Rising for just under $15! I couldn’t contain my excitement as I rushed home to play the game. Well, 24 hours later, I wish I had my 15 bucks back.

Loving cheesy movies the way that I do, and knowing Anthony as long as I have, I have an affinity for the survival horror/zombie genre. This was one of the titles that I wanted to have since the moment my family gave me the 360 last Christmas. The concept is amazing! Survive in a mall infested…no…overrun…no…crawling…no…filled to the brim and foaming over with zombies, for three days…initially. Use whatever you can get your hands on to beat your way through the horde as you explore the mall. That aspect right there, is the only reason why I wanted the game.

And it should have been the only thing in the game. But no, you have to go through a story, where you do a bunch of tasks while fighting off zombies and then have to get back to the chopper at noon on the third day. Okay, fine I can understand that, a game needs to have a point, even if it’s about an event that has no point, except for destruction.

But here’s the thing, in an attempt to make it feel truly like “I have to fucking survive this,” Capcom committed the ultimate atrocity. NO AUTO SAVE.

I’ll let that sink in.

Okay, maybe not, unless you have played the game, you’re probably thinking right now, “Stop complaining and enjoy the zombie smashing goodness.” Well, allow me to elaborate.

You have no lives except your own. A single chance to survive. You have a health bar, but pretty much every time you get attacked by a zombie (which is pretty fucking frequent, since the camera controls are pretty much non-existent), a bar disappears. And you start off with four. So, you’re pretty much fucked.

I’m getting ahead of myself, let me explain what I have read of the game and heard from others who have played it. There are multiple modes that you can unlock.

72-hour mode: Survive for 72 hours
Overtime mode: survive for an extra day in order to wrap up the story line.
Infinity Mode: Survive as long as possible, find food, a kill as many fucking zombies for as long as you can. The ultimate of all the modes.

To unlock these modes, you need to Unlock ending A in 72 hour mode. The endings are labeled A-F. Luckily, this ending is the easiest, just beat 72-hour mode. However, I haven’t done that yet (still on my first play through, and I’ll get to why in a minute) so it’s confusing as to what happens. See, because you can unlock a different ending if you rescue enough survivors, it’s very vague as to if that ending will work too…or if you pretty much have to say “fuck all the survivors” and just find out what the hell is going on.

Which is fine either way, but what pisses me off is the vague nature of it. I want to be nice and save as many survivors as I can, but if it ends up that because I saved too many survivors I can’t get that extra mode, I’ll be ready to throw this game into moving traffic.

But that’s not my main beef. The major sucking point is the Game Save aspect. After each level, or Case file, you get to save. Fine and dandy, except for the fact that THERE ARE ZOMBIES GNAWING AT YOUR BRAIN THE ENTIRE FUCKING GAME and THE BOSSES ARE UNBELIEVABLY INVULNERABLE TO GUNSHOTS AND CAN HEAR YOU SNEAKING UP ON THEM AS IF THEY HAVE ULTRASONIC HEARING!!!!!!

Let me breathe for a minute.

So, to combat that, they have restrooms that you can save your game in. Good, except that there’s only 5 of them around the mall. In the most inopportune places too (much like a real mall…guess I gotta give them that for authenticity). Okay so stock up on health, right? Wrong. There are not many stock areas to hold items, and food is a rarity, AND you need as many weapons as frigging possible. So it ends up that I have to go 100 yards (filled with zombies, can’t stress that enough) in the opposite direction to save a game before taking on a boss battle, than battle my way back through the gauntlet of zombies, loosing my health, and end up going into a battle against a boss with a sniper rifle, with a piddly pistol.

Now sure, maybe Dead Rising is not made for gamers like me. I rarely play games with a plan, I usually just run and gun my way through whatever is in front of me, and hope I come out on the other side. And I can understand and appreciate the realism that Capcom was trying to make you experience when deciding which path to take in the game. So, I probably have to make a plan, write it down, and execute it while listening to some song on my ipod, so that my motions are perfectly synced to get the best possible result. But honestly, I don’t want to.

Not because I’m lazy, not because it’s hard, but because….IT’S A ZOMBIE GAME!!! Run and gun and wreaking havoc should be the ultimate strategy!

Unless…holy shit I never thought about this…maybe this is a training exercise that Capcom has given us. They probably have a plan to release the disease on the world, to create a new utopia, and only the people who have the proper plan will survive.

Shit, I gotta prepare.