Dead Rising is a third-person survival horror game released in 2006 by Capcom for the Xbox 360. The game takes place in a shopping mall overrun by zombies. Players control photojournalist Frank West, who must survive for three days by completing missions and saving survivors. The game was inspired by zombie films like Dawn of the Dead and includes horror, gore, and dark humor. It received a PEGI 18 rating for its graphic violence and references to cults. Players can get different endings depending on their choices and how many survivors they rescue. Effort is required to complete missions and find weapons/items to aid survival. Players become attached to characters and invested in Frank's goal of discovering the outbreak's cause.

1. CallumDeighton
Assignment 1
The Logo for Dead Rising
Game: Dead Rising
Publisher/Developer: Capcom
Genre: Survival Horror/Action/Third Person
Release Date: August 8th
for Xbox 360
I have chosen Dead Rising for my game to analyse, the reason is
because even though it never gets mentioned too often it is one of
my favourite games of all time due to the creativity the game
presents as well as the highly enjoyable Gameplay and the massive
amounts of freedom the game gives you.
Thematic Analysis

2. CallumDeighton
Dead Rising is a Third-Person Action Survival Horror Video Game created, developed and
published by Capcom (a famous video games company responsible for other big hits such as
Street Fighter, Resident Evil and Mega Man) and released on Xbox 360 on August 8th, 2006,
The game became a massive hit for the Xbox 360 as one of its first hits and later spawned
two sequels as well as a remake on the Nintendo Wii.
The Protagonist, Frank West, in the Willamette Mall with
some survivors.
The game centres around Frank West, a Photojournalist trying to get a big scoop by flying
into Willamette, Colorado after it gets quarantined off by the Military. As he flies through
the town he notices humans “attacking” and killing other human beings, and also notices a
huge horde of the people at the local shopping mall. He gets dropped off on the roof of the
mall and enters to find out that most of the population of the town have become Zombies
and shortly thereafter they break into the Mall where Frank must survive for 3 days until the
Helicopter comes back to pick him up, in which he also must find his scoop which is what
has caused this outbreak.
The game’s culture is very inspired by many horror films and shows which can be seen very
well throughout the game, the most obvious of which is the zombie classic Dawn of The
Dead, a 1978 classic (which also got a 2004 remake) which involves a group of survivors
trapped within a shopping mall during a zombie apocalypse, so for any horror movie fans
this game would definitely reach out to them. This game’s content would also generate
mainly towards younger audiences, especially with the tones of the game as well as the
gameplay styles and content.

3. CallumDeighton
Frank surrounded by a bunch of dead Zombies.
The game is represented with Horror and Gore as its main two visual inspirations as the
enemies are very grotesque and blood is frequently used throughout the game. For the
aural aspects of the game the game has a wide frequency of music and sounds that fits the
meaning of the game, whether it be from the very eerie and creepy music that plays on the
main menu as the Zombies are seen crowding the mall to the times during gameplay when
no music is heard and the only sounds heard are from the multiple groans of the zombies to
when a large crowd of zombies crowd the player and high-paced tense music plays. The
game also includes a lot of humour to both find some laughter from the sometimes
depressing environment, as well as be used as irony. For example, the player can find
clothing such as superhero outfits and horse masks that can look very funny among the
zombies, blood and gore.

4. CallumDeighton
Frank wearing a “Mega Man” outfit nearby some “Servbot”
masks, which can be put on the zombies in a humorous
manner.
PEGI Analysis
An example of some of the games Adult Humour.

5. CallumDeighton
Dead Rising is rated as a 18 and above only game. This makes sense as from the get go the
game has vast amounts of violence which definitely wouldn’t be okay for tamer audiences
as well as a lot of harm being done to innocent characters as many people are seen being
killed and devoured by the Zombies, sometimes in graphic detail. The game also includes a
few sexual references as some of the female characters are seen in scantily clad clothing.
Other possible reasons include the use of many dangerous weapons such as multiple guns
and items such as knives as well as references to dangerous real-life things such as cults
(which comes an integral part of the games plot at one point) and representations of the
government and military.
Structural Gameplay Analysis
For the Structural Gameplay Analysis I will be using the framework of Jesper Juul, a very well
renowned Video Game Researcher and Theorist in the field of Video Game Studies, to go
over all the keypoints of the game’s gameplay.
Fixed Rules
An image of some of the main mandatory quests within the
game.
The game follows this rule to a decent degree as although the game is “sandbox” in which
the player can explore anywhere around the mall and do whatever they want, there is a
“Main” story line which consists of “cases” that will become available at certain times
throughout the day that the player has to respond to at the certain times they are available
otherwise they will suffer a “game over”. Some other fixed rules within the game include is
that the player can only save at certain areas throughout the game and that at every night
the zombies become a lot stronger due to an effect in their mutation and as such are much
tougher to kill and are best to avoid whenever possible.

6. CallumDeighton
Variable Outcome
Brad Garrison and Carlito Keyes, two of the crucial characters
of the storyline.
Dead Rising is very good with their outcomes as the game has many points in which the
player has multiple options they can do at the situation which can effect which “ending” the
player gets, whether the player does things considered morally “good” or “bad”.
Valorisation of Outcome
An example of one of the “bad” endings of the game.

7. CallumDeighton
The endings that the player can get have many different outcomes and a grade to reflect
what happens which can vary from the “worst” ending of a grade F to the best possible
outcome the player can get which is graded at A and is the “canon” ending.
Player Effort
Some of the survivors that can be found within the game.
The game has the player go through great effort in order to get the best possible outcome
including completing all of the main storyline goals, and saving as many survivors as the
player come find as one of the main storyline characters, Otis, will occasionally update the
player whenever a survivor is found and tells them where they can be found. Another way
player effort is used in this game is that if the player decides to use some of their time to
explore the mall, the multitude of shops have items that can help the player, whether they
be weapons or healing items or even cosmetic items such as hats and clothing that the
player can feel free to wear.
Player Attachment

8. CallumDeighton
Frank West and Isabela Keyes, one of the love interests and
main characters.
The game can be really good in making the player emotionally invested as the game
explores a multitude of situations which the player can invest into including the elements of
the main storyline in which the player will want to know what caused the zombie outbreak,
paralleling the feelings of the protagonist. Another intriguing point of the game are the
multiple psychopaths the player can encounter throughout the game. The psychopaths are
humans that have become insane, for a multitude of reasons which can vary from a Vietnam
Veteran that witnesses his family get eaten by the zombies and so has his mind transport
him into thinking he’s back in the war to a clown that worked at the amusement section of
the mall who witnessed his audience get slaughtered by the zombies. The game is very good
in making you care for the survivors of the apocalypse as well as for Frank as you feel like
you really want to help him accomplish his goal and release his story to the world.
Negotiable Consequences

9. CallumDeighton
The Burgundy Wine outfit, one of the free outfits available for
download.
The game does not really have many negotiable consequences as once the product itself is
bought no more money needs to be spent on the game at all in order to fully enjoy it as well
as having no paid downloadable content the player would need to spend on to gain.
In Conclusion, I think Dead Rising is a very good game with a lot of
interesting content that is enough for the player to come back and
get different experiences each time they play, it has enjoyable
gameplay, an interesting story and overall a fun experience that
should be experienced at least once.