I started playing it, but eventually gave up because it made me feel bad to play it. The zombies in the shopping mall were obviously just normal people until very recently, killing so many of them so easily and gleefully feels bad. The protagonist is an amoral jerk - taking sexy photos of female zombies in low-cut tops before slaughtering them to help level up is the kind of thing he does. No respect for the dead. But the thing which made me feel worst is that I was supposed to be rescuing someone, they ran too close to me while I was wielding a sledgehammer, and... well, they didn't need rescuing anymore.
Meanwhile, my boyfriend - who doesn't normally like musou games - really enjoyed it. He especially liked it when he could get Frank to pick up a bowling ball, and smash a zombie's head with it. The sound.
"I thought you were a nice person!" :(
But the reason I am thinking of the game again? Read after the break. Warning, minor spoilers and a picture of a freaky insect-bitten hand.
The reason I started thinking about Dead Rising again is that:
I went on holiday here in England, visited a nice woodland reserve featuring a swampy area, and got stung multiple times by insects. They kind of looked mosquito-like to me. It was just an annoyance at first, but after about a week, I scratched one of the bites in my sleep, it swelled up massively and so did the others, and I spent a weekend in agony. I went to a walk-in clinic first thing Sunday morning, was prescribed some antibiotics and antihistamines, and am getting much better.
Here's a photo:
That's from yesterday morning, it's actually better than it was. The skin's going back to human texture instead of all solid. But see how swollen it is? How inhuman my hand looks?
At its worst, all I could think about were these insect bites, and about what I could do to stop the sensation. It was like being on fire from the inside.
Saturday night was the worst. I knew the walk-in clinic would be the place to seek treatment, but I also knew that it was closed until 8am. So I tried various things. One thing I noticed was that if I tensed the muscles in my hands as much as possible, the sensation was not as noticeable. So I searched my house for my old set of weights, and started lifting them. And carried on, because anything to stop my hands being on fire was welcome.
Sunday morning, as I emerged from the walk-in clinic, triumphantly clutching prescription in hand, I walked up into town, found that the pharmacy was closed, walked to one nearer home (which was also closed), and sat and waited for it to open. Holding myself together. While there, I considered: perhaps this is a mild form of what it's like to be a zombie.
* My mind was blanked with all but the pain, and relieving the pain.
* My hands looked disfigured, barely human.
* All of a sudden, I could lift weights, carrying on for far longer than I'd normally be able.
* I was very good at walking distance, without any feeling of tiredness from trekking uphill.
Perhaps, if this were about 1000 times more intense, and the only relief I could get from the pain was eating human flesh, perhaps, yes perhaps this is what it's like to be a zombie.
Now, in Dead Rising, zombie disease is spread by insects. It's that the insects take over the human host, turning them into zombies, though in Dead Rising 2 we collect medicine to slow the turning of someone into a zombie. So, this is why I thought of Dead Rising again.
And now, I feel even more sorry for the poor zombies.
I also considered whether athletes could get themselves deliberately stung to make them train harder, for longer periods without getting fatigued. Whether insect bites are detectable after time, whether they could end up being a banned substance. How you could enforce a rule which happens to other people out of misfortune.
Ah one day, hopefully soon, I will be able to properly concentrate on something other than these insect bites!
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