Dead Rising: the full game (spoilers)

[jeffd]

I've restarted a bunch. It's not that bad really; when you know what you're doing you can knock off the first day's casefiles in maybe 15-20 minutes. More if you are rescuing people.

Get books too Gary - they are 100% worth it. The Engineering book in the second paradise bookstore (the one in the main part of Paradise, not the bookstore right across from the Warehouse) is awesome for chainsaws and lead pipes and 2x4s. Especially chainsaws.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, I am definitely planning on grabbing books. Seems like they're even more useful once you have a lot of inventory slots so you can (a) carry multiples and (b) not have to worry about the books eating up your handul of primary food/weapon slots.

Can you restart simply by selecting "new game" from the start menu, or do you have to die and then select the restart option when the game over menu pops up?

[Moore]

Originally Posted by forgeforsaken

I tend to get stun guns and frozen vegetables.

no no, on the roof, not inside near the elvator.

[RepoMan]

Is it just me, or do Burt and Aaron refuse to take hardware store chainsaws? I can give them lead pipes (actually, I leave Burt with his baseball bat) but I don't get a "B" tutorial popup when I try to give them a chainsaw....

[Lunch of Kong]

I dont think you can give any of the oversized weapons to escorts. If you can't put it in your pocket, you can't give it to an escort. That's my experience, at least. I could be wrong. Park benches, lawnmowers, and hardware store chainsaws are all oversized.

[jeffd]

Roger is right. You cannot give them chainsaws.

I've had good luck arming civilians with knives. They hit and kill multiple zombies that way.

Gary just selecting "new game" will start you anew.

[Gary Whitta]

Originally Posted by jeffd

Roger is right. You cannot give them chainsaws.

I've had good luck arming civilians with knives. They hit and kill multiple zombies that way.

Gary just selecting "new game" will start you anew.

But with the stats I've accrued so far, yes?

[jeffd]

Oh yeah. At least I'm pretty sure it will.

[Moore]

Originally Posted by jeffd

Roger is right. You cannot give them chainsaws.

I've had good luck arming civilians with knives. They hit and kill multiple zombies that way.

Gary just selecting "new game" will start you anew.

You CAN give them Adam's saw's though.

Gary, you get MASSIVE points to level up for resucing people, I led 4 in last play session and got like 200,000 in one shot.

Photos I've not gotten more than 14k from, I dont think, but anytime you see the PP over someones head, snap a shot, especially the crazies.

You can get a ton from photos of the huge initial cult crowd after that cutscene, it's only 1k, but you can repeat it over and over until the battery dies, then go get it recharged. It's 30k total each time.

[slantz]

Originally Posted by jeffd

Gary: Restart. You can get about 30kPP in the first five minutes

Actually, I think it's 40k just for that couple.
-5k x2 for join bonuses
-5k x2 for hug picture
-10k x2 for rescue

Then, if you go straight to the Roastmasters, you can pick up the frying pan on the floor and set it on the stove for a 2k bonus. Once it turns red (2 or 3 seconds), you can pick it up, and attack zombies with it for a 100pp bonus *PER KILL*. The trick is, you just need to hold down the attack button
(as opposed to tapping it), and you will fry their faces off. This really adds up quickly for low-level characters, and I've used it to push me over level thresholds multiple times. You can also get (and heat) 3 more frying pans in one of the 2 stand-alone food court restaurants.

Other than the one-off bonuses sprinkled around the game, as noted before, rescuing people and killing psychos are the best way to get points. Also, there are many cases where you can get repeat, no/low-threat photos for 500-1000 or more pp each. Your camera has 30 shots on a full battery, so in many cases you can just stand there and take photos, getting ~30k 'free' xp if you have the time to invest.

But note that your camera takes longer to recover between shots as your battery wears down, and it becomes pretty painful to just chain-snap photos when you're down to your last 10 shots.

For what it's worth, I kept restarting, getting a little further each time, until I was level 17 or so. Now I'm kicking ass on what I hope will be a full-ending runthrough, with me being level 30 at the halfway point.

[slantz]

Originally Posted by Gary Whitta

But with the stats I've accrued so far, yes?

Yes, but I think the trick is that when you die, you have to select the option that clearly states it will start you over next time, but with all the levels/pps you've earned. If you don't select that option, I don't know that you get to keep all the stats you accrued.

[Gary Whitta]

So yeah, I don't think just selecting "new game" from the start menu will give me the accrued stats. I think I need to die and then select the restart option.

Oh, one other question. When I get grabbed by a zombie, is it (as it appears) pretty much random how much health they take from you before you break free? Sometimes you get the option to hammer a button or jiggle the stick to get away, other times you don't. Is there nothing you can do in those instances but hope you're not looking at a three or four-bar hit?

[RepoMan]

Stick jiggling always helps me. If I don't jiggle, they chew on me until I'm dead, every time. It seems you only get the "Escape" special button option if more than one of them has got you.

[Ephraim]

This game is truly amongst the great games.

If it weren't for its lack of player choice when it comes to its difficulty-enforcing save system, it would deserve much higher review scores than it's been getting (9+ instead of 8+). And all, I believe, because the game's designers feared it would have probably been perceived as too short if they'd allowed "save anywhere" with multiple save slots.

But they would have been wrong. Because there is so much to do in this game, and there's no lack of timesink already. In reading this thread, I've realized that even at level 21, and somewhere late into the cases (7-2 or so) there is so much I haven't done yet!

I managed to accidentally find a PP sticker once. ONCE. In about 30+ hours of gameplay now. So, once I finish the main storyline (which I've been enjoying), I plan on starting over. And focusing on Survivors and PP stickers. Instead of just picking up survivors if convenient.

Then there's Achievements. Many a run-through ahead, just to open up a ton of Achievements I'm getting through my normal, play as I go-through. The feeling of "ding!" gratification I get when one of those is triggered "accidentally" (i.e. I'm not seeking them out) IS reminiscent of the levelling crack of a game like WoW.

And that infinity mode? It sounds great! I hadn't heard about it. It sounds as if you need to basically consider yourself a "psychopath" and just go, go, go, eat, eat, eat, kill, kill, kill with no friendly thoughts at all. Practically, you are a living zombie. The real enemy... IS MAN! I can't wait to play it.

[Moore]

oh, almost forgot Gary, for points you can do way more than frying pans, if you heat a pan at each stove in the game you get an extra bonus of like 10k, you get lots of busting sandbags + a bonus for all sandbags in the gym, also for using each treadmill to a certain speed for awhile + bonus for using every treadmill, you get a bonus for alinging the kobun head frown/smile in the toyshop etc... these little bonus actions are all over......

[Thomas Wilde]

You also get a bonus for putting an uncooked pizza into one of the ovens, such as in the pizza joint in the food court.

I've found two PP stickers in the Entrance Plaza when you first arrive in the mall. One's behind Lindsay, and the other's somewhere in the crowd of zombies that's milling around behind the front doors of the mall. I have no idea what they look like on their own; I'm just going by the PP indicator on the camera.

[jeffd]

So jesus the chainsaw seems to rock for boss fights.

I dropped the supermarket psycho in about 10 seconds. Just hit him with 4 chainsaw swings and it was over.

[slantz]

Originally Posted by Gary Whitta

Is there nothing you can do in those instances but hope you're not looking at a three or four-bar hit?

As you level up, you get ways to break out of zombie grabs sooner. The kick lets you push the analog stick repeatedly towards them when they grab you in front, and the judo throw (I think) lets you shrug them off by pushing repeatedly down when they grab you from behind.

Using these skills, you can often/usually throw them off before you get hit. Before I got them, I just button mashed, and watched for the reaction buttons in case they popped up.

[BDGE]

Actually both the kick and judo throw only work from getting grabbed in the front, neither work from behind. Judo throw nets you 100PP though, so once you nab it, it's the better bet for an instant kill and a bit of XP...though kick does help with crowd control slightly more if you just want to cruise through a big group since it usually knocks down several other zombies in front.

[jeffd]

Wow, so the game changes dramatically when you get to the mid twenties and have access to some good weapons. Clearing out huge groups of zombies becomes trivial when you are one shotting them with a katana or chainsaw; the escort missions become MUCH more tolerable.

I really think Adam is probably a non-mandatory kill if you are playing the game. The combination of mini chainsaw + secret passage is just too good to pass on.

[Wholly Schmidt]

Originally Posted by curst

Certain DR achievements give you unlockables. I'm sporting some fly pro-wrestling boots, plus a belt, because of the item smasher achievement and, uh, I believe karate champ. I believe GameFAQs has a full list of what achievement corresponds to what unlockable.

An important distinction: The Achievements themselves do not grant you the unlockables. There are several things in the game that will get you both an Achievement and an unlockable reward, but you need to complete current run through of the game in which the Achievement is earned for the unlockable to also be available in the next game. For example, you get the Car Jacker achievement the moment you wipe out the convicts and take their jeep, but the associated unlockable (prisoner uniform) won't be available until you've completed the game.

The things that give you both an achievement and an unlockable are:
5-Day Survivor
7-Day Survivor
Carjacker
Census Taker
Hella Copter
Item Smasher
Karate Champ
Legendary Soldier
Perfect Gunner
PP Collector
Punisher
Saint
Transmissionary
Unbreakable
Zombie Genocide

[Thomas Wilde]

So it's a mandatory kill, then.

[Xemu]

Holy crap, I just got to the mission in the maintenance tunnels. I restarted a lot at the beginning so I'm level 23-ish now, not a noob, but this mission is utterly wtfpwning me...

Yeah, there's a ton of cool stuff there. I really think they shouldn't have unlocked the case files until you completed an initial 24-hour "tour".

[RepoMan]

Originally Posted by jeffd

I really think Adam is definitely a mandatory kill if you are playing the game. The combination of mini chainsaw + secret passage is just too good to pass on.

Fixed that for you.

I posted a page or two ago about being stuck in the fitness studio, level 7, with Burt, Allan, and Leah in tow, with a baseball bat, sports book, Uzi, and pistol. Folks suggested I head back through the central courtyard. I said I thought I might instead go take on Adam, because those fucking convicts piss me off.

Well, I did. After a lot of to-do (I didn't know Untouchable wouldn't protect me against Adam at all), I finally dropped him and rounded up the edged weapon book and the engineering book.

And HELL YEAH BOYEEEE!!!!!!!! Whitta, if you're going to tell me you haven't stacked the engineering book, edged weapon book, and Adam chainsaw yet, I'm going to ask what the fuck have you been doing instead??? I went from level 7 to level 15 in probably under two hours of chewing through zombie and cultist mobs like they were big blood balloon bundles and me a pincushion. Talk about cathartic after all the nail-biting that led up to that point!!!!! Hell, the 500 PP bonus PER CULTIST, times 50 cultists in a mob, times super stacked chainsaw, equals 25,000 PP per cultist mob -- and often there are two big mobs in Paradise every time I go there.....

Plus, being able to avoid the convicts = Teh Win. And I was even able to give Kay (the prisoner of the psycho lesbian bitch cop, and that cop was a big fat target for my happy little chainsaw, let me tell you) a chainsaw of her very own... is Kay the only survivor who can wield a weapon? Escorting definitely becomes waaaaay more fun.

Of course, I blew case 1-4 and got the "The truth has been lost...." message. But I don't care, I'm just going to fuck around and chop up as many goddamn zombies as I can and grind up my character for a while. Might even wind up taking on the courtyard boys with a truck, or something. It's all about MASS ZOMBIE SLAUGHTER now. Up to 1,534 kills or so, after being probably only 200 kills three hours ago, and 90% of them with those lovely, blessed, respawning light chainsaws.

THANK YOU CAPCOM for putting in such a borderline overkill weapon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gary Whitta]

When I restart a top priority of mine will be to kill that fucking clown.

[Wholly Schmidt]

Wow, the Zombie Genocide achievement is going to be a test of endurance. ~10,000 kills so far...

[Rob_Merritt]

I just started playing last night. I love the game but I can see the complaints. Even though I've been following the game through development and reading spoilers here and there, when I started playing, I was at a lost as to what to do. Time moves really fucking fast. The clock, not to zombies seems to be the real enemy. Right now I'm just playing till I die over and over in order to build up my stats

[curst]

Instead of the scythe or heated frying pan, I make heavy use of the "double lariat" move to rack up nice PP bonuses while killing hordes. It does decent damage, especially after you get 4 attack upgrades - I now get guaranteed one-hit kills on everything but cultists during the day, and sometimes I can one-hit zombies even at nighttime! Better yet, it can clear out crowds like WHOA. Each kill you get with this attack nets you 50PP, or 63 if you have a horror book (I found one in Paradise Plaza). IMO it's much more effective than using the scythe or heated frying pan... it's less PP per kill, but you can rack up the kills more quickly.

Plus, if you get 1,000 bare-handed kills, you get the Karate Champ achievement, which in turn gives you either the pro-wrestling boots or pro-wrestling championship belt as an unlockable outfit in the security room. (edit: As Wholly pointed out above, I should say you get this item after you complete your current playthrough and restart.)

[Joel]

The demo was so much better than the real game.

[Erik]

restarts... leveling

My recipe for quick leveling:

1) Skip everything that's skippable as fast as possible until you to the part where the zombies break into the mall.

2) Once the breakin happens, grab a baseball bat for clearing stuff out of your way.

3) There's a standup advertisement with a little foliage around it in the middle of the promenade that leads to the front entrance. Run straight for that and then climb on top of it. You're now safe from zombies.

4) Take 29 pictures. There's a lot going on, and you can pretty easily capture 29 1k - 1.4k shots, which is a quick, say, 35000 pp. You can get images of the front door with 2 mobs of zombies tearing apart 2 different people. I think this is the most valuable shot available from your perch. Make sure you save one picture for later!

5) Run up the stairs to trigger the next cutscene.

6) Climb out onto the roof and reunite whatever their names are. Use the last of your film to take a picture of the reunion, because it's worth about six thousand pp.

7) Drag them back to the security room.

8) Run through the warehouse, into the mall, and over to the toy store that's more or less right across from the warehouse door. There's a big standup monster lego thing with a face painted on it in there. Over the mouth and nose, there're two X's for eyes. When you punch or kick the lego thing, the top part of the head rotates. Rotate the head 180 degrees so that the real eyes are aligned over the mouth, and you get 10000 pp.

9) Run into the mall, get killed, and restart.

The whole thing takes maybe 5 minutes and gives you about a level and a half.