Reply #39: Tried out Dead Rising and 99 Nights by renting

[semillama]

I actually returned Dead Rising after one night due to frustration - partly because of the difficulty, partly because of the horrible save system, and partly because I knew I wouldn't have enough time to play it to get through the story. That being said, I'm keeping it on my wish list of games to own, because I think that this is a game that demands to be replayed over and over. You need to replay it just to level up enough so you can actually finish it - what I mean is that there is a save option that will save your characters stats but you start at the beginning of the game. This is helpful in that you keep all the extra health and abilities you've developed; but also frustrating in that I feel that you have to do this in order to get through the whole game, and it gets repetitive and takes you out of the story line. I don't know, maybe I'm not hardcore enough. My other really big complaint has to do with aiming guns - very slow movement, which in certain missions leaves you vulnerable to fire from an opponent while you are trying to aim at him.

Ninety-nine nights is sheer mindless fun. Not much of a plot. But you just need the bare threads of a plot in order to move all the goblin-slaughtering fun along. I'm not finished with it yet - with some characters, you can finish their storylines by playing straight through, but with others, I found that it's best to replay missions and build up the character's level (especially the girl sorceress - wussy at low levels!). This is, in a way, sort of like SW Battlefront in that the main part of the fun is taking out hordes of enemies - this is just in a fantasy setting. The huge amounts of units on screen at once, all engaged in individual combat, is a real treat too. Music is fantastic, but the terrain tends to be monotonous. It's a good renter, I would consider buying it used when the used copies drop under $30, just because it's a good stress relief to see your enemies' bodies fly back from you.