Dead Rising

Setting

The games in the franchise take place in fictional cities, although real cities are mentioned, the first game takes place in a small Mall in the town of Willamette, Colorado. The prequel expansion for the second game "Case Zero" happens 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 Mall" which was constructed to honor the victims of the first game 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. (Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality) which fight for the rights of the zombies.

Frank West

Voiced by Terence J. Rotolo (Dead Rising, Dead Rising 2: Case West, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3), Victor Nosslo (Dead Rising 4), Peter von Gomm (Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars), Rikiya Koyama (Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Project X Zone) and portrayed by Rob Riggle (Dead Rising: Watchtower).

The protagonist of Dead Rising, 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.

Chuck Greene

Voiced by Peter Flemming and portrayed by Victor Webster (Dead Rising: Endgame). The main protagonist of Dead Rising 2. He is a former motocross champion and an extremely resourceful mechanic, able to repair and construct anything he can imagine. Chuck is frequently under pressure to find the money to buy Zombrex (a daily medication that suppresses the zombification process) for his daughter Katey, who was bitten by her zombified mother during a previous outbreak in Las Vegas. 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.

Nick Ramos

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.

Gameplay

The games work within a 72-hour schedule which happens in in-game time, every event happens within an specific hour, similar to The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The story happens within a city infected by hordes of zombies and various hostile survivors, each subsequent game has allowed for more zombies to be displayed on screen, at the same time.

The melee combat system, consists on using everything as a weapon, most of the items in the game can be used, as a weapons some are very effective, but others are comedically inefficient, 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. (Ex: A lightsaber is made by combining a flashlight and 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. (Ex: A motorcycle with a chainsaw creates the "slicecycle" a motorcycle with 2 chainsaw at the sides.)

Players can Level up by performing mission objectives, which consist on progressing on the main story, rescuing and leading survivors to the 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.

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 feature online 2 player coop multiplayer, although "Dead Rising 4" introduces 4 player co-op.

Customization allows the player to use different clothes, spread all around the mall, whom vary from a sports fan attire, to pajamas, to dresses, to a male stripper outfit, to a Megaman cosplay.

HUD

The game displays the Health bar, the Level, the number of zombies killed, depleting bars telling how much time until each mission becomes unavailable, the current item (which turns red when the weapon is about to break).

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.

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, survivors A.I. was also improved. The Main story can be played in 2 player online co-op, where the second player controlling a second Chuck. Players can earn money by playing the online multiplayer mode "Terror is Reality".

Two standalone downloadable expansions were released for the game, exclusively for Xbox 360. Since March 2017, both are retro compatible with Xbox One, although unlike the main game, none of the expansions was remastered.:

It was released a month before, the main game. The download serves as a prologue, set a few years before Dead Rising 2, Chuck Greene is stranded in a small town named Still Creek and has to fight his way out with his daughter Katey.

The download serves as an epilogue for Dead Rising 2, Chuck with the help of Frank West, go to a Phenotrans facility to get evidence to clear Chuck's name.

Dead Rising 3 (2013)

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, 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 the second player controls a character named Dick.

There are 5 downloadable content packs, the fifth expansion is the non-canon Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha. It focuses on beat'em up action with four-player co-op, players can control Frank West, Chuck Greene, Katey "Annie" Greene and Nick Ramos, it also features exclusive costumes whom serve as an homage to other Capcom franchises. While the previous 4 are canonical to the game story-line and collectively known as The Untold Stories of Los Perdidos each focuses on exploring the zombie outbreak in Los Perdidos depicted in the main story, from the point of view of a different survivor Nick met during the main story. The player controls those survivors instead of Nick.

Dead Rising 4 (2016)

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 Mall" has fallen under another zombie outbreak. "Combo weapons" and "Combo Vehicles" return, Camera mechanics from "Dead Rising 2: Off the Record" also return improved. The game will introduce an exo-suit. Unlike previous games, the "72 hour" timer system has been dropped, in order to encourage exploration. The main story doesn't 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, 5 new Street Fighter themed costumes were also included within the update.

There is four player cooperative play, but it does not feature Frank West, as it features 4 characters from the main story and the cooperative mode is separate of the story in such that you play through "4 episodes" and if you survive those episodes you finish that cooperative play session. The cooperative has you completing various tasks in the Willamette Memorial Megaplex (shopping mall) and you work as a team, but yet you also earn a score as you do various tasks (e.g. kill zombies, plant bombs, etc.). You must survive until 9pm that night and then make it back to the safe room.

Three downloadable contents were confirmed within the game's season pass the Stocking Stuffer Holiday Pack only added holiday themed weapons, while the Super Ultra Dead Rising 4 Mini Golf added a mini golf multiplayer mode. With a third DLC expected to continue from the story after the end of the main game.

Dead Rising 5 (TBA) and future sequels

While no formal announcement of a sequel has been made the development of a fifth game. Bryce Cochrane the executive producer of Dead Rising 4, while discussing the decision about the removal of the timer, said the decision was about strengthening the format to survive as a franchise, while stating “One of our goals is to really make a product that means we can make Dead Rising 5, 6, 7. That involves expanding and changing the franchise, and therefore sometimes we need to take risks. That means some people will be upset with what you did. The only way to truly tell if we made the right choices is to play the game."

Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop (2009)

A remake of the original Dead Rising for the Nintendo Wii. Many things were cut from the original game because of the Wii's limited console capabilities. It features motion controls.

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record (2011)

A non-canonical remake of Dead Rising 2, which replaces protagonist Chuck Greene, with Frank West (the protagonist of the original game), and also features a "new" plot with some slight 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 1 also returned improved. Both the main story and the sandbox mode can be played in 2 player Co-op Online Mode, with the second player controlling Chuck.

Dead Rising Mobile (2010)

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

Dead Rising Collection (2014)

Dead Rising Collection is a compilation for Xbox 360 containing all the games from the Dead Rising franchise released on Xbox 360: Dead Rising, Dead Rising 2 and its downloadable content Case Zero & Case West, and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record. It was released on March 7, 2014 exclusively 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 first two games were released on September 13, 2016 and September 27, 2016 (North America Only) respectively. The ports themselves were praised; but the collection was criticized for not in including Dead Rising 2 expansions Case Zero and Case West. Each game includes all of its DLC costumes.

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 Dead Rising: Watchtower directed by Zach Lipovsky. Crackle conserved the initial US 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 Paunovich 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, Dead Rising: Endgame was released on Crackle in Spring 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, that would be in real time action, in the style of 24, but with zombie drama like The Walking Dead.

Playable

Easter eggs

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.