So finally my first review! Here we go.
General:Name: Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop
System: Nintendo Wii
Publisher/Developer: Capcom
Genre: Action, Horror
Age Rating: +18
Story: You play as Frank West who is a photographer/journalist and gets dropped on the roof of a mall infested with zombies. He has to stay three days at the mall until the helicopter comes back. That's pretty much it.
Gameplay:First of all you are locked with a bunch of other characters in a safe room, where you can change your clothes, find the people you've saved, save your game and get the missions you have to achieve.
From there on, you have access to the main place of the mall where you always have to go through. Then you can decide where to go. Later on you will find some shortcuts so you can come more easily to other places of the mall.
Missions: You have two kinds of missions: the important missions which help you continuing in the story and the other small missions where most of the time you have to save people or explore areas. But most of the time you have to complete all of the missions to continue in the game. Sense, this makes none.
The missions can get repetitive like if you have to save someone, you have to go to that place and the person will follow you but you still have different tasks to do so that they finally can follow you to the safe room.
Example: You have to save a guy who likes to eat. So before you can bring him to the safe room you have to get him to the next food store and then only he will follow you. Stupid but at least it brings some diversity in it.
The mall and objects: The only thing that keeps changing are the enviroments. The mall is so big that you never really play at the same places twice. Of course you have to go through some passages like every single time which may get frustrating. But as said before, you will find shortcuts later in the game.
It's basically a go from point A to point B game, the way is shown you with an arrow or shown on your map and it is pretty easy to find the place. No problems with that.
The way you have to go to reach your destination is long and annoying. With annoying I don't really mean the hords of zombies you have to fight but the parrots and dogs which always keep attacking you and which are terribly difficult to kill because of the camera and your restricted capability to move.
But a good point is that there are so many objects you can interact with! You can do special moves with the wii mote, you can use your weapons or as I just said use the many different objects that are lying around to get rid of your ennemies.
Logic: The game is not very logical like why the hell do they give you so much money when you save people? Yes you can buy guns which doesn't make much sense either because they could simply take all the guns to the safe room and share them like everyone would do it! And the mall is infested with zombies, you don't need to leave cash behind if you change your clothes (which you can do by the way! You can even put on women's clothes. Yeah, not joking.) .
Characters: The characters are also very simple, nothing is in depth which is really sad because in situations like this, the characters' reactions, emotions and how they behave with other people are important. The people you have saved only get in a room where you barly can talk to them. Maybe later they will play a more important role, who knows?
Frank is an ok character I would say. He doesn't show much emotions either but he's still funny.
Boss fights: And the boss fights!! If you can call this a boss fight! As much as I have played, I always fought a human boss, which you have to shoot like hundreds of times until he finally 'dies' or gives up. This doesn't make any sense at all! And they don't seem to have weak points! You only shoot at them until they are finally beaten.
Loading time: Oh dear, the loading time is horrible!! You leave a place like the safe room, the game loads, you make 3 steps until you reach the elevator, more loading and you play for some more minutes and there is still more loading!!! I really don't get it why it has to take so damn long and at every single place!
Graphics: The graphics are ok, Wii standart I would say. But who needs excellent graphics to kick some zombie butts?
Genre: It is meant to be an action/horror game and I think this really suits. It's a zombie game so still scary for some people and some of the cut scenes are not really something for weak souls.
And for the action, it definitely does its part!
Xbox 360 Version: I haven't played the xbox 360 version but I've heard that you can take pictures during the game which is logical because the main character is a photographer!! On the wii game he strangly holds the camera in one hand but never uses it. It is really sad that they didn't added this because with the wii controls it would be really fun taking pictures of zombies. And you don't have that much actions to do with the wii mote apart of these special moves. Normal attacks work also when you push the 'A' button.
Verdict: All in all, the game is really fun and you are free to decide what you can do like playing the story or just hanging around at the mall with your zombie friends. There is also a lot to discover and to interact with. So it is basically a game you can pick up and play immediately!
Unfortunately, there are still some weak points like these really annoying animals which keep attacking you, the long ways you have to make to your goal and to come back to the safe room, the loading time and the illogical parts like the boss fights and the fact that you can't use your camera.
It's certainly no Resident Evil game and if I had played the Xbox 360 version I would certainly recommend this one for you.
But still, if you are not afraid of fighting zombies and if you like exploring big places and having some fun, this will definitely suit you.
Not a real thumb up for this game but not a thumb down either.
