And for those of you talking about that  Land of the Dead shooter, know this. We do not TALK about that Land of the Dead shooter.  Thankfully, not many people have actually had a chance to try it, so its existence is still pretty hush-hush.

Anyway, what I’m talking about today is easily one of the best zombie games I’ve played yet–Dead Rising.  You play as Frank West, photojournalist extraordinaire (he’s covered WARS, you know) and he’s on his way to investigate vague reports of happenings in the small city of Willamette, Colorado.  Willamette isn’t known for a whole lot–in fact, about the only thing Willamette’s got going for it is the super-huge Willamette Mall.  How big is this mall?  Sufficiently big to command a small amusement park inside it, along with a panoply of stores, a bi-level food court, and a park in its center.  Sounds like a nice way to spend the day, but these vague happenings make things a little dicey for the citizens of Willamette–seems that, in the immortal words of Romero himself, the dead are returning to life and attacking the living.  Thus, you go into Willamette armed with your camera and whatever you can find along the way to discover what’s behind the legion of walking dead weekend warriors and see if you can prevent it from getting any farther out than it already is.

I love this game.  There’s no two ways about it–this may well be the first EVER functional Zombie Apocalypse simulator ever released.  The story is unsettlingly deep, with lots of horrendous personality disorders roaming the zombie-infested mall.  There’s a variety of weapons for you to play with, each with its own particular effectiveness level.  Weapons break with use, so you’ll have to continually search for and find new weapons.  Just because you’ve got a sweet baseball bat doesn’t mean it won’t break after you break open a few dozen zombie skulls.

A new and especially interesting twist to the game is the option to save your character and replay the game over and over, gaining experience until your character is at maximum level.  There are also books within the mall that will lend extra capabilities to your fighting style or just to your health gauge.

It’s not hard to love this game.  Not only is the main plot a full and rich experience by itself, but beating the game will also give you access to a host of new gameplay modes, including the super-fun survival mode.  This gives Dead Rising an incredible replay value–once you beat it, you’ll have a variety of new versions to beat, and you’ll always be able to duck in for a quick, almost casual, experience where you get to roam the entire mall at your own pace and just blast zombies.  Perhaps even better than that is the special weapons you’ll be able to get your hands on, like the 255-round Mega Buster cannon, a perfect approximation of Mega Man’s that even slips over your forearm.

When you put it all together you get a game that’s as much fun to watch as it is to play, and with news of a sequel currently in the works, it’s all the more reason to get reacquainted with the original.