Dead Rising

Dead Rising is an action-adventure, sandbox style game published and developed by Capcom. It first appeared on the Xbox 360 on August 8, 2006 and was ported to the Wii as Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop on February 24, 2009. Dead Rising has spawned a sequel, Dead Rising 2, that was released on September 28, 2010.

Synopsis
Dead Rising is about Frank West, a freelance photographer looking for the "scoop of a lifetime", and heads to the Willamette Parkview Mall in Willamette, Colorado. He believes it may be a riot, but as he enters the mall, he sees the truth banging on the doors trying to eat anything unlucky enough to be caught up in the attack. They, of course, are the living dead, safely outside of the mall. This changes as soon as an elderly woman, Lindsay Harris, opens the doors in an attempt to rescue her dog, Madonna, releasing the zombies into the mall. Frank must use his camera skills and a whole bunch of everyday items and save any survivors that are left, while finding out what caused the outbreak in the first place.

72 Hour Mode

 * Note: as Frank, the player has the opportunity to complete or fail certain cases or scoops that will result in the player receiving one of six different endings. The following storyline details Ending A, the "true ending", accomplished by completing all "key" cases during the course of gameplay, and omits non-vital plot points and any optional events the player is not required to participate in.

The game focuses on the exploits of Frank West, a photojournalist investigating why the fictional town of Willamette, Colorado has been sealed off by the National Guard. Frank is dropped on top of the city's mall by helicopter; he tells the pilot, Ed DeLuca, to return in exactly 72 hours. Upon entering the mall, Frank finds zombies mobbing the front entrance, eventually being let in by a panicked older woman looking for her dog. A Homeland Security officer named Brad Garrison urges everyone to retreat to the security room. Upon entering, the janitor, Otis Washington, welds the door shut. Brad then leaves the security room via the air ducts. Jessica McCarney, also of Homeland Security, recognizes an old man she identifies as Dr. Barnaby in one of Frank's photos, but neither Brad nor Jessie are willing to share what they know. After receiving a transceiver and map from Otis in order to be kept informed of the mall's events, Frank returns to the mall through the air ducts. He encounters survivors who need his assistance to the security room, as well as other people driven to madness by the zombie infestation, known as "Psychopaths".

As the story unfolds, Frank and Brad have a series of violent encounters with Carlito Keyes, a mysterious Hispanic man, while Frank continues to come across a beautiful Hispanic woman named Isabela Keyes. Frank and Brad are eventually able to bring Dr. Barnaby and later, Isabela, to the security room. Isabela reveals she is Carlito's sister and that Dr. Barnaby was the head of an American research laboratory in the fictional Central American city of Santa Cabeza, the hometown of Carlito and Isabela. Dr. Barnaby, however, suddenly attacks Jessie and begins to show signs of zombification. When Frank questions him, he confesses that the research facility was attempting to find methods of mass-producing cattle, but instead, Barnaby and his team discovered an insect called a "queen" that would turn the cattle into zombies with a single sting. After one of the "queens" escaped and infected the town of Santa Cabeza, the US government sent a Special Forces team in to wipe out the entire city. The massacre was covered up under the pretence that it was a raid on drug-trade operations. Outraged over the slaughter of his people and home, Carlito released "queens" in Willamette in revenge. After Dr. Barnaby reveals the true nature of the infection he dies and turns into a zombie, but is shot in the head by Brad before he can harm Frank or Jessie.

The zombie outbreak in Willamette is only the tip of the iceberg however, as Isabela later explains Carlito has much bigger plans. Hidden beneath the mall are five bombs that when detonated will propel queen larva into the stratosphere, making a worldwide zombie pandemic a possibility. Frank is able to disarm the bombs in time to stop the explosion, but Brad is mortally wounded by zombies while pursuing Carlito. Frank and the remaining survivors turn their attention towards escaping to safety. Isabela reveals that Carlito has a hideout in the mall containing a laptop full of information, as well as a jamming device preventing Jessie from calling for outside help. Jessie tracks Carlito to an underground meat processing plant via the security cameras and Frank rescues him from an insane butcher, but is unable to acquire the laptop password from Carlito before he dies from his wounds. However, Carlito's dying request to give Isabela his locket helps her figure out the laptop password and deactivate the jamming device.

Jessie places a call for help, only to be told that another cleanup mission has been authorized instead; Special Force soldiers arrive in the mall shortly thereafter, killing anything that moves. Frank makes his way back to the security room, only to find it empty save for two dead soldiers killed by Jessie, now zombified from Barnaby's earlier attack. A note reveals that Otis has commandeered a Special Forces helicopter and flown himself and possibly a few others to safety (the survivors list after the game's "A" ending shows all survivors made it out of Willamette or at least survived) After avoiding capture by the Special Forces soldiers, Frank makes his way back to Carlito's Hideout and asks Isabela to come with him to the helipad; she refuses. Frank makes his way back to the helipad to meet Ed; Unfortunately, a zombie finds its way onto the helicopter and attacks Ed, causing him to crash the helicopter into the middle of the mall's Leisure Park. The game seemingly ends as Frank slumps to his knees in defeat, doing nothing to avoid the small group of zombies approaching him.

Overtime Mode
Overtime mode is unlocked by completing all key cases in the game and achieving the "A" ending, and picks up where 72 Hour Mode ends.

Still on the helipad, Frank is narrowly saved by Isabela, who shoots and kills a zombie as it is about to bite him. Frank then passes out, and later regains consciousness in Carlito's hideout, where Isabela tells him that he has been infected. Frank has just 24 hours before he becomes a zombie; however, Isabela believes she may be able to manufacture a cure from various items found in the mall, prompting Frank to scavenge for them. With the items Frank finds, Isabela is unable to manufacture a cure, but instead comes up with a symptomatic treatment which temporarily prevents Frank from becoming a zombie. While Frank was looking for the items Isabela asked him to find, Isabela was accessing Carlito's laptop, and she eventually discovers documents that says Carlito had placed 50 similarly treated, larvae-infected children with foster parents across the country.

Turning towards efforts to escape, Frank discovers a tunnel underneath the park, uncovered by Ed's helicopter crash. The tunnel is packed with zombies, but Isabela is able to create a pheromone which repels them. Frank overpowers two Special Forces soldiers guarding the end of the tunnel and commandeers their vehicle to escape. They are intercepted by a tank, which overturns their vehicle. The Special Forces leader, Brock Mason, emerges and reveals he was behind the original cleanup in Santa Cabeza. Frank jumps on top of the tank, and engages Brock in hand-to-hand combat which eventually knocks him into a mob of zombies surrounding the tank. After Brock is defeated, Frank drops to his knees as he sees Isabela on the overturned vehicle struggling to remain out of reach of the zombies. Frank then screams into the sky as the game ends.

A text epilogue reveals that Frank and Isabela were able to leave Willamette with credible information about the story, forcing the U.S. Government to accept at least partial responsibility for the Santa Cabeza incident, though they denied connections to the Willamette outbreak. While the Willamette incident was widely reported, the American public eventually let it fade from their minds. No further information on Carlito's additional plan involving infected, symptom-suppressed orphans (mentioned in his laptop) was uncovered or verified, leaving its status uncertain.

The game ends with the text, "And yet he complained that his belly was not full.", which is a slight misquotation from the English nursery rhyme "Robin the Bobbin", a poem about a glutton who eats people.

Dead Rising Beta
There is some information known about the beta version of Dead Rising:
 * Jessie McCarney can be seen running through the Maintenance Tunnels, presumably being chased by zombies. Then it shows a bloody Jessie sitting against a wall as Frank takes a picture of her.
 * Apparently, the doors open automatically at 10am, allowing the zombies in the Entrance Plaza
 * Isabela Keyes is armed with a Barret M82 sniper rifle shooting at zombies in the Entrance Plaza
 * There was a scoop called A Woman With Secrets, featuring Rachel and Alan, two survivors holed up in McHandy's Hardware in the Entrance Plaza. The scoop has been removed, the store has been relocated to Al Fresca Plaza and both survivors appear in different places.
 * A blonde female survivor can be seen being escorted in the supermarket, though in the current version she does not appear and the supermarket has a different layout. The only two survivors in the store are Steven Chapman and Isabela Keyes instead.
 * Jo Slade holds Sophie Richards hostage instead of Kay. Sophie also has a different appearance.
 * Jeff and Natalie Meyer appear in the Entrance Plaza instead of the roof.
 * Zombies appear on the Rooftop.
 * David Bailey is named David Garrison
 * The life bar was gray instead of yellow and psychopathes had their health displayed on the bottom of the screen instead of above their heads.

Trivia

 * Screw Attack called Dead Rising "Number One" on it's "Top 10 Zombie Games". According to them, not only do you kill zombies, you "Frank West" them.
 * Dead Rising resembles the popular zombie movie Dawn of the Dead, taking place in a mall with survivors trying to stay alive. See this article for more details.