Dead Rising


Dead Rising is a series of action-adventure survival horror games, created by Keiji Inafune. It was originally developed by Capcom until Capcom Vancouver took over developing the franchise. As of December 31, 2019, the game series has sold 13 million units worldwide.

Setting

The games in the franchise take place in fictional cities, although real cities are mentioned, the first game takes place in a large shopping mall in the town of Willamette, Colorado. The prequel for the second game Case Zero takes place in Still Creek, a small town near Las Vegas, while the main game takes place in Fortune City, a casino mall, the epilogue downloadable content Case West takes place in a Phenotrans facility nearby. The third game takes place in Los Perdidos, California. Dead Rising 4 takes place again in Willamette with a zombie outbreak happening in the Willamette Memorial Megaplex which was constructed to honor the victims of the first game's outbreak.
Phenotrans is a multimillion-dollar pharmaceutical company. It creates and distributes Zombrex, a medicine which can, if taken daily, prevent an infected person from turning into a zombie. The company serves as the main antagonist of the series. There are also organizations like C.U.R.E. which fights for the rights of the zombies.

Protagonists

Voiced by Terence J. Rotolo, Victor Nosslo, Peter von Gomm, Rikiya Koyama and portrayed by Rob Riggle.
Frank West is the protagonist of Dead Rising, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record and Dead Rising 4, and also appears in the downloadable content of Dead Rising 2: Case West, and the film Dead Rising: Watchtower. Frank West is a freelance photographer and photojournalist who has covered many world events, wars, and other big stories. Looking for the next big scoop, he stumbles onto some strange events happening in the small town of Willamette, Colorado. While not the most polished and professional person in his field, he is strong, genuinely kind and decent, and always operates on instinct. Not your typical journalist, Frank is capable of handling himself in combat and helping other survivors to safety.
In his non-canonical appearances, Frank West is the main protagonist of the remakes Dead Rising: Chop till you Drop and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, the mobile game, and also being a playable character Dead Rising 3: Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha.
Voiced by Peter Flemming and portrayed by Victor Webster.
The protagonist of Dead Rising 2 and all of its downloadable contents as well as a supporting character in Dead Rising 3, and having a cameo in the film Dead Rising: Endgame. Chuck is introduced in Dead Rising 2 as a former motocross champion and an extremely resourceful mechanic, able to repair and construct anything he can imagine. Chuck arrives at Fortune City, Nevada, to take part in Terror Is Reality, a controversial sports entertainment game show where contestants kill zombies for cash prizes. Chuck wants the prize to have money to buy an expensive medicine called Zombrex, which only if taken daily is able to suppresses the zombification process of his daughter Katey, who was bitten by her zombified mother during a previous outbreak in Las Vegas.
In his non-canonical appearances, the co-op player of Dead Rising 2: Off the Record always controls Chuck, within the same game a second Chuck appears as a psychopath having gone crazy after the death of his daughter, Chuck is also playable in the downloadable content Dead Rising 3: Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha.
Voiced by Andrew Lawrence.
The protagonist of Dead Rising 3. Nick is an orphan-turned-mechanic who works for Wrench O' Rama in the city of Los Perdidos. While he has excellent mechanical skills, Nick has difficulties formulating plans and acting under pressure. Many details of his life remain a mystery, but a distinctive physical trait is a tattoo of the number 12 on his neck. Despite his shortcomings, Nick is a friendly young man who holds his friends in high regard, especially his boss Rhonda, who is about the closest thing he knows to a mother. Nick also has a crush on a girl named Annie. The co-op player of Dead Rising 3 controls a character called Dick.
Chase Carter is the protagonist of the films Dead Rising: Watchtower and Dead Rising: Endgame. The character is also a journalist.

Games

Main series

The game displays the health bar, the level, the number of zombies killed, depleting bars telling how much time until each mission becomes unavailable, and the current item. The games work within a 72-hour schedule which happens in an in-game time, every event happens within a specific hour. The story happens within a city infected by hordes of zombies and various hostile survivors, and each subsequent game has allowed for more zombies to be displayed on screen, at the same time.
The melee combat system consists of using everything as a weapon, most of the items in the game can be used, as some weapons are very effective, but others are comedically inefficient, in addition weapons constantly break forcing the player to constantly use different weapons. Dead Rising 2 introduced a "Combo Weapons" system, where the player can combine certain items into more powerful weapons, some of which are over-the-top, such as a lightsaber, made by combining a flashlight with jewelry. Dead Rising 3 enhanced the mechanic by introducing "Combo Vehicles" allowing players to combine items with vehicles and even vehicles with other vehicles to make more powerful vehicles, for instance a motorcycle with a chainsaw creates the "slicecycle", a motorcycle with two chainsaws at the sides.
Players can level up by performing mission objectives, which consist of progressing on the main story, rescuing and leading survivors to safety by guiding them to the safe house, and also fighting psychopaths whom are civilians who either have become criminally insane after the zombie outbreak or are taking advantage of it for their own purposes. Leveling up increases the health bar, walking speed, unlocks melee combos, and reveals weapon combinations. Customization allows the player to use different clothes, spread all around the mall, which vary from a sports fan attire, to pajamas, to dresses, to a male stripper outfit, to a Megaman cosplay.
All games feature multiple endings, completing all the missions in the main story is the only way to get the true ending. Since the second game, all games except for Dead Rising 4 feature two player co-op online multiplayer in the story mode, with the fourth main game only including a competitive multiplayer mode.

''Dead Rising'' (2006)

The first game in the Dead Rising series. The game centers on Frank West, a photojournalist who ends up trapped in a shopping mall in the fictional town of Willamette, Colorado, that is infested with zombies. Players can use everything as a weapon. The game story works in a 72-hour clock, with another in-universe 24 hour post game chapter. In total, there are six endings, titled F through A, with Ending A being the only one to unlock the aforementioned post-game; rendering it the game's canon finale.

''Dead Rising 2'' (2010)

The second game in the Dead Rising series. Set in the fictional casino town of Fortune City, Nevada, five years after the events of Dead Rising, the game follows former motocross champion Chuck Greene trying to clear his name after being framed for starting the outbreak in Fortune City, while simultaneously trying to keep his infected daughter alive with "Zombrex", a drug that lags the zombification process. The "72-hour" system returns. The major gameplay improvement over its predecessor is the Combo Weapons system, allowing Chuck to combine certain items by using crafting tables, in addition survivors AI was also improved. The Main story can be played in 2 player online co-op, with the second player controlling a second Chuck. Players can earn money by playing the online multiplayer mode "Terror is Reality".
The third game in the Dead Rising series. Set ten years after Dead Rising 2, the story follows a young mechanic named Nick Ramos and his attempt to survive a massive zombie outbreak in the fictional city of Los Perdidos, California. The time system returns. Combo Weapons can be fused anywhere, as crafting tables were removed, and the crafting system was also expanded by introducing "Combo-Vehicles". While there is no sandbox mode, like in "Off the Record", similar challenges can be found during the Story Mode. Survivors were upgraded to be able to use "Combo Weapons". Like in the previous game, the main story can be played in 2 player Co-op Online Mode where the second player controls a character named Dick.
The fourth game in the Dead Rising series. Set one year after Dead Rising 3, the game features an older Frank West, returning to Willamette, Colorado during the Christmas season, where the newly constructed "Willamette Memorial Megaplex" has fallen under another zombie outbreak. "Combo Weapons" and "Combo Vehicles" return, and camera mechanics from "Dead Rising 2: Off the Record" also return improved. The game introduces an exo-suit. Unlike previous games, the 72-hour timer system has been dropped, to encourage exploration. The main story does not support online cooperative multiplayer, making it a single player experience like in the original game. To address player complaints of the game being too easy, a month after its release Capcom released an update which added the much requested Hard and Ultra-Hard difficulties, in which the items break more easily and the food restores less health, bringing the difficulty closer to that of the previous games, five new Street Fighter themed costumes were also included within the update. A further update was released on December 5, upgrading the game with a new game mode called Capcom Heroes, the new mode allows Frank to don 17 new outfits based on Capcom's video game franchises, each with their own moveset.
There is four player cooperative play, but it does not feature Frank West, as it features four characters from the main story and the cooperative mode is separate from the story. The cooperative mode has the player completing various tasks in the Willamette Memorial Megaplex, while working as a team, and earning scores by doing various tasks. The player must survive until 9 pm that night and make it back to the safe room.

''Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop '' (2009)

A reimagining of the original Dead Rising for the Wii. This version was built with the same engine used for the Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition. While still set in a mall and able to save survivors, there is a greater emphasis on firearms and the game is structured around individual timed missions instead of free roam. Various elements were tailored to the Wii's weaker hardware or limitations of the different engine. These included smaller maps, reduced enemy counts and the removal of the photo system, but new enemy types were added.

''Dead Rising 2: Off the Record '' (2011)

A non-canonical remake of Dead Rising 2, which replaces protagonist Chuck Greene, with Frank West, and also features some slight plot alterations. Fortune City remains mostly the same, but now adds a new place, a small alien thematic park called "Uranus Zone". The "72-hour" system returns, but the game also adds a "Sandbox Mode", where Frank can explore Fortune City without a time limit, and also complete challenges which require the players to use their creativity and crafting the necessary weapons to succeed. More Combo Weapons were added. Camera mechanics from Dead Rising also returned improved. Both the main story and the sandbox mode can be played in two player co-operative online mode, with the second player controlling Chuck.

Re-release compilations

''Dead Rising Collection'' (2014)

Dead Rising Collection is a compilation for Xbox 360 containing the games from the Dead Rising franchise released on Xbox 360: Dead Rising, Dead Rising 2 and its downloadable content Case Zero and Case West, and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record. It was released on March 7, 2014 in Europe.

''Dead Rising Triple Pack'' (2016)

Triple Pack is a compilation pack featuring the original Dead Rising, Dead Rising 2, and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record. It was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 13, 2016. Physical copies of the first two games were released on September 13, 2016 and September 27, 2016 respectively. The ports themselves were praised; but the collection was criticized for not including Dead Rising 2 expansions Case Zero and Case West. Each game includes all of its DLC costumes.

Mobile game

''Dead Rising Mobile'' (2010)

A spin-off was released on iOS on December 9, 2010. It received negative reviews.

Films

''Zombrex: Dead Rising Sun''

In 2010, a Japanese film based on the Dead Rising universe titled Zombrex: Dead Rising Sun was released directed by Keiji Inafune. The film featured a new cast of characters set in the same world as Dead Rising.

''Dead Rising: Watchtower'' (2015)

Legendary Digital Media released a digital feature film titled directed by Zach Lipovsky. Crackle had the initial U.S. rights of the film and while it was internationally distributed by Content Media Corp.
Principal photography began in Vancouver on September 30, 2014 with Jesse Metcalfe, Dennis Haysbert, Virginia Madsen and Meghan Ory joining the cast. On October 20, 2014, Rob Riggle was announced as Frank West, along with Harley Morenstein as Pryo, Aleks Paunovic as Logan, Keegan Connor Tracy as Jordan, and Carrie Genzel as Susan. The film takes place between Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 3.

''Dead Rising: Endgame'' (2016)

The sequel, was released on Crackle in 2016 with Metcalfe, Haysbert and Tracy returning for their roles from the previous film, with Victor Webster as Dead Rising 2 hero Chuck Greene, and Billy Zane, Marie Avgeropoulos, Ian Tracey, Jessica Harmon, Camille Sullivan as new characters. The film takes place between Dead Rising: Watchtower and Dead Rising 3.

Future

Jesse Metcalfe told Digital Spy that depending of the success of the second film Crackle is debating between continuing the franchise with a third film, or developing a Crackle Original series in real time action, in the style of 24, and with zombie drama like The Walking Dead.

In other games

Frank West is a playable character in the fighting games ' and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, with his special moves revolving around the use of zombies and the makeshift weapons from Dead Rising. He has special dialogue with Nova, the Hulk, and Spider-Man, the latter of which he tries to compete with as a rival photographer. Frank also appears as one of the characters at player's disposal in the tactical role-playing game Project X Zone, where he is paired with Hsien-Ko from the Darkstalkers series. Frank West also appears as a multiplayer character in Capcom's ', and in the sequel, Lost Planet 2.
In Valve's add-on content "The Passing" for Left 4 Dead 2, a message from Frank directed to Otis appears among other pop culture messages graffitied on the wall of a bar.