Dead Rising Save System Explained

Dead Rising 1 game cover

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The original Dead Rising came out on Xbox 360 in August 2006, but even now people are still having problems with the save system. We'll explain how things work here.

Where Are the Save Points?

Save points are spread throughout the mall in bathrooms and on green couches. The save points are clearly marked on your map, which you can bring up by pressing the Back button during gameplay. You also get to save whenever a new case file starts.

What Happens When Frank Dies

When Frank dies, you are given two options. You can “Load Game” (load your last save) or you can “Save Status And Quit” (restart the game from the beginning but you retain all of your accumulated experience and abilities). This isn’t as clear as it should have been, but you only have to pick the wrong one once to learn your lesson.

How Does It All Work?

The beauty of this save system on the Xbox 360 is that you are expected to die several times when you first start playing. You just keep going back through and gaining prestige points (you can get about 50,000 easy points within the first 10 minutes) so you can level up which makes the game much, much easier with each successive playthrough. You figure out where the save points are, how to defeat bosses, where the good weapons are, where to get lots of points, and so on and so forth so the game gets easier and more fun the longer you play it. The challenge is getting over the initial frustration of dying so much, but once you wrap your head around the save system it seems perfect.

Tips and Tricks

  1. Save often.
  2. You don’t have to try and fight a psychopath if you don’t have the firepower. When a boss fight starts you can just leave and come back later.
  3. There has been a lot of talk about the 72-hour time limit, but you have a TON of free time between cases so it isn’t as if you are constantly having to run from one point to the next. Take your time, and be sure to go the extra little bit out of your way to save when you pass a save point.
  4. If you play the game right and open up the shortcut between Paradise and Wonderland, you will be going through the bathroom about 100 times so there is no reason not to save.

Bottom Line

Dead Rising is a difficult game and you will die a lot. Period. But that is the whole point behind the save system. You die, but you get more powerful. It goes much faster every time you do it and you get to kill thousands of zombies, which sounds pretty good.

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