Pros: Replayable, addictive, simple gameplay, great graphics and sound
Cons: Buggy AI sometimes, save system might upset a few people
The bottom line: If you own a 360, this game is a must-have, there's nothing else like it out there. If you don't, you might want to buy one for this game.
This game is one of the first of many killer aps for the Xbox 360, no doubt.

It is a third-person action game where you play photojournalist Frank West, on his way to the city of Williamette to investigate a scoop. Playing a photojournalist adds an unusual aspect to the game, as experience points can be earned through taking interesting pictures. As Frank gains experience, he gets stronger and learns more moves, but unfortunately the stats increased each level are not chosen by the player, neither are moves gained.

The game takes place almost entirely inside a mall and in the mall's courtyard. The mall itself is pretty huge with tons of places to go, including the parking garages and security/maintenance tunnels. Frank's mission is to get to the bottom of his scoop, and learn what's going on in the mall.

You can also find survivors and do many sidemissions along the way.

Did I mention almost everyone in the mall and the surrounding area is a zombie?

My favorite part of this game is definitely the way with which the creators approach the zombie infestation. Gone are the days of tiptoeing around the word zombie, in fact the characters outright call them zombies almost right away. Too many zombie movies avoid the word, almost painfully, and this game goes right at the subject matter.

Gameplay
The gameplay is fairly straightforward. Run around the mall, pick up various weapons with the "b" button, use the weapon to kill zombies with "x". Many weapons have multiple attack modes, you can tap "x" or hold it down for a stronger attack.

The variety of weapons is really what makes it fun. Zombies during the daytime go down easy, but at night they are harder, providing a challenge to the untrained zombieslayer. The worst enemies of all are other humans. Just like in zombie movies, humans provide the most threat to the other survivors, and these "psychopathic" humans try to thwart your progress the entire game.

Gameplay itself is cut up into sections by cutscenes, and boy are there a lot of cutscenes. This is not necessarily bad, as each one is usually pretty short, interesting, and has pretty good voice acting, and best of all all of them are skippable.

If you get tired of running through the mall killing zombies you can always stop by a store and try on clothes. Clothing (or lack of clothing in some cases) carry into the cutscenes as well, so if you are running around with a dress on, Frank will wear a dress in the cutscenes. There are tons of items to customize yourself with, ranging from sunglasses to boots to clothes and hats. Everyone starts out the same, though, and there are free downloadable costumes on Xbox live.

Zombie AI is dumb, but then again zombies are stupid. They wander aimlessly, forget what they were doing sometimes, chew another zombies arm, stumble down stairs, and sometimes lunge aimlessly towards you. This is not necessarily bad AI, this is good zombie AI.

Human AI is sometimes good, sometimes bad, depending on how you look at it. Some bosses can get stuck on corners and other glitches like that, but sometimes the glitches almost make sense. One time I was escorting some survivors through a field of zombies at nighttime, when they were more active and aggressive. Instead of following me, when I ran too far ahead the survivors went into a store and jumped over the counter to hide behind it. Sure, it was a little annoying to have to go back and get them again, but at least they were smart enough to hide.

Atmosphere
The atmosphere begins like any other zombie game, kind of serious. It is all about survival, how can that not be serious?

As you start to play the game, you realize there are many funny things going on. For example, in-jokes for Capcom's other games are EVERYWHERE, as well as others. Reference to Resident Evil, Megaman, even Child's Play the movie are in here.

There are also funny things you can do TO the zombies. Find a pie? Throw it at a zombie. Sometimes it sticks to their face. Then you can kill them, knock the pie off, and eat it.

You can take a fallen zombie hand and jam it through the face of another zombie. You can cut zombies in half, or run them down with a lawnmower. You can try on dresses and hats while zombies kill your friends.

The game might start serious, but it keeps a relaxed and chill tone with its humor.

Graphics
The graphics are pretty nice. The lighting is really well done, since nothing has that sickening shine effect that many games have these days. Clothing is not supposed to shimmer in light, and this game does not do that either. I was very impressed.

More impressive than the graphics themselves is the technological achievements that are pulled off. Over 800 zombies can be on screen at once with little, if any, slowdown of the 360. Each zombie has its own AI as well, and it is incredible when seen in motion.

Sound
The man who did the sound deserves an award. Zombies moans permeate the entire mall, where applicable. Even on the roof you can hear the distant faded moans of the zombies at the street level. Muzak plays throughout the mall, mall-wide announcements are periodically made, rock music plays in some areas, and more. Weapon hits are particularly gruesome, especially weapons like the katana and the sledgehammer. It sounds pretty much exactly how one would expect a sledgehammer to smash into human flesh to sound.

Bugs and Complaints
Human AI has already been mentioned, so I will add on that there is at least one major bug in the game. One particular set of human enemies that is difficult to kill respawns for no reason when you leave the area. The only way I know of to kill them permanently requires some game trickery, and it is untested and unconfirmed.

The save system has, and probably will be, mentioned many times. In my opinion it is not that bad. The system works where you can only save 1 game per account. If you have a brother, sister, significant other, roommate, whatever that wants to play as well, make him or her a separate account for the 360 and you can both play. However, in game it's a bit harder.

When you die you are given the choice to reload a saved game, or to save your character at the time of death and start over with that character. If you die at level 12, for example, you can start again at the beginning at level 12 instead of level 1. This makes repeating the game both easier and more interesting, since you can actually do all the side content on your third or fourth playthrough.

Multiplayer/Online content

No multiplayer. None, sorry guys. No coop, online mode, nothing.

Online content, though, does exist. You can download additional costumes for Frank, and keep track of scores on a leaderboard.

Additional modes of play
Is it replayable? Heck yeah.

The first mode is 72-hour mode, which gives you 72 ingame hours to complete all the missions. If you do this and do something I won't spoil, you unlock an additional mode that extends the game to day 4 and 5. There's also an unlockable "Infinite mode", which I think will hold the most replayability.

In Infinite mode, food no longer respawns. If you don't eat for too long, you starve to death. Other survivors are now competition instead of friends. You last as long as possible in the mall before starving, getting killed by other humans, or getting killed by zombies. This score can be tracked on Xbox live as well.