Dead Rising 3

I’ve never been a fan of the Dead Rising series, there just never seemed to be much life in the games, but there was something about the trailer for Dead Rising 3 that made me want to give the series another chance, and I’m glad I did. Once you get past the intro mission, that sees you stumbling around the dark expanses of a blocked off tunnel, trying to find a way out of the city, and walk out into the sunshine, to witness a massive airplane crash into the freeway, the game really kicks off. After recovering from the awesome airborne destruction you’ll notice something. The freeway stretching out before you – you way back to the relative safety of your home base – is filled with hundreds of zombies. They haven’t noticed you yet, but you have to make you way through them so they soon will.

And when one does notice you, it soon become apparent that these zombies are acting like, well, zombies. When one notices you, others round it will notice that it has seen something, and then see you, then it’s mob mentality and a number of zombies start shambling towards you.

And this is the beauty of this next gen zombie game, not that Capcom have created a photo realistic city teaming with zombies, because they haven’t. The graphics are definitely next gen, but unlike Turn 10 how have cut back on content to deliver truly awe inspiring visuals, Capcom has put just enough juice in the visuals and put the majority of next gen processing into the important thing: the zombies.

And it’s not just the sheer, mind blowing number of zombies, or they way they behave. It’s also how you can kill them. In some early exploration I found a shop that had samurai swords, so naturally I grabbed one and walked outside, quietly approached a group of innocent zombies and started to slash away at them. My favourite kill was when I sliced a zombie in half, vertically. Both sides of the body just peeled away like a banana.

But you have to be careful killing zombies – and not just because they can easily overwhelm you, but because sometimes you will just cut their legs off and they will still crawl towards you. These crawlers are the hardest to kill, because for some reason, hitting things on the ground is a heck of a lot harder than it should be.

Under the skin, Dead Rising 3 is essentially the same game as the previous two games. I’ve already said that I wasn’t a fan of the previous two, so what is it about this installment that has me all excited? I think it’s the sheer scope of the game, and how all the crazy shit is given room to breath. The making of hybrid weapons no longer requires you to find a work bench, because your character is a mechanic and can do such things on the fly, making the construction and use of such weapons more accessible and essentially, a lot more fun.

Another neat aspect of Dead Rising 3 is that you have a time limit. Side missions will expire after a while, and if you spend too much time on side missions, you may just run out of time to complete the main mission. This makes everything feel more real, and gives the game great replay value.

Originality isn’t part of Capcom’s plans for Dead Rising 3, it borrows from the best of zombie lore. Other survivors can be worse enemies than the zombies themselves (some being the focus of big boss side missions), night time is a scarier place to be, food is scarce and weapons don’t last forever.

But there is a certain kind of insanity that makes the whole game so much fun, absurd weapon combinations, the ability to drive some of the vehicles (around town, but more importantly, through hordes of zombies) or to combine vehicles to make even better, or outlandish vehicles. Damn it’s good being a mechanic.

Dead Rising 3 is a visually impressive game, but one that relies on gameplay over visuals to wow it’s intended audience. It’s a formula that works well and makes it a solid must have game for those wise players who chose the XBox One.

What’s more, with the recent rumours of another Fallout game in the works, Dead Rising 3 only makes me salivate over the possibilities of a much bigger, living wasteland to explore if these rumuors come true.

Rating: R18 Graphic violence.

Available on: Xbox One Reviewed on: Xbox One

GAMEGUIDE rating:


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