Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Dead Rising 3 for Xbox One, Zombie slaying fun.
PROS
Lots of replay value, better save system, hours of fun game play.
CONS
Too many Zombies at times, some boring missions, Humans enemies too tough.
REVIEW
With only seven days till an atomic bomb is dropped on the city of Los Perdidos, Nick Ramos must escape from the zombie-infested streets before it’s too late. With every exit out of the city blocked, Nick requires the aid of friends to escape whatever the cost may be. And so begins, Dead Rising 3.
I would first like to say that this is only the second Dead Rising game I have played as I never got around to playing the second game. As a result my comparisons are between the first game and this one. That being said, I can easily say that Dead Rising 3 is the best launch game for the Xbox One.
While it may not be graphically impressive for the system, it makes up for it in its fun to play and highly addictive gameplay. The idea is simple, Zombies roam the streets and you simply
‘kill’ them with any weapon you can find, while finding other survivors and helping them to safety. The weapons range from useless items like shampoo bottles to the powerful battle-axes and swords. The game also boasts a good range of guns with the likes of pistols, shotguns and machine guns.
Without a doubt the biggest selling point of this game is the ‘Blueprint Weapons’. Spread out around the game world are these blue prints that unlock combo weapons that deal more damage and also give higher XP points (PP in this game). One such example is when you combine a lead pipe with a machine gun it creates a four barrel gun. Combing a Chainsaw with a meat cleaver will somehow create two mini chainsaws. These all make no sense in their logic but that just adds to the stupidity of the game which somehow works in its favour. It’s not a game to be taken too seriously nor does it try to be. There also blueprints to create vehicles that are used to travel between the four areas of the map. These are created by combining two types of transport together such as a bike with a steamroller which creates a sort of bike of death with flamethrowers on the front. Two cars will create a Junk Car that can fire acid and then there is stranger ones like combining a forklift with a party van, I won’t spoil that one for you.
As I mentioned, the map is split into four main areas that are connected by two highways. They are all open world but as the game progresses, some the roads have military checkpoints setup to make it more of a challenge to get around. This is a little annoying at first but it is mainly put there to make the gamer explore on foot more and see parts of the map you may have simply drove past. The world contains countless shops, bars, restaurants and other such places where the player can stock up on food and supplies at any time. Some shops also have clothing, which gives you the ability to change the look of Nick. They range from Mexican Wrestler, Fung Fu master and Beach Bum to the even stranger ones such as Women’s Lingerie (O_O) dresses and ‘Cow Girl’ style clothing. While you may not want to wear these (or do, it’s your choice!) it just adds to the humour of the game. Of course there are suits and tuxedos as well if you wish to be sensible.
Touching on the subject of graphics, the game is one of the weaker entries at launch. Textures up close are quite good and the zombies do look amazing but it isn’t anything that couldn’t be done on the last generation consoles. But one thing this game does well though is keep up the frame rate. At one point I was driving a car down the street with at least 200 if not 300 zombies on the screen at once and it played smoothly with no lag. Cut scenes are very good with strong voice acting and believable character
movement.
One small point though is that Nick is always a little bit too surprised every time something happens. For example, while making my way to a location, I chop and smash my way through hundreds of Zombies with no real fear in Nick’s performance. However, in the next cut-scene, he entries a room that has about six zombies and he acts with fear and horror and this scene is about halfway through the game. It’s not too bad to start with but when you havent killed well over 30,000 zombies at this point, it doesn’t match the game. The game does boast some of the strongest violence I have ever seen in a game. You can chop off pretty much any part of the Zombies with some strong graphic detail. At times, the violence is a little too strong but this is why the game is an 18. If you dislike gore then you may not enjoy this game.
Moving on to the sound, all I can say is they are clear and match the items well. Hitting something with wood sounds like wood and the same for metal. As I said the voice acting a truly well done if not a little cheesy. There is music in the game but it acts more of an ambience that does become more excitable when under attack from large groups but apart from that you won’t even notice it half the time.
One last point is the game has a leveling-up system that really does help in the game. Unlike the poor and tacked on leveling up in say GTA5, this game pretty much requires you to do this to increase your health, strength and general speed in completing tasks.
I feel that this is really the only true full retail game that has been made for Xbox One. While all the other games are ports (COD, BF4) or are barely even a shadow of the previous games in its series (Forza 5), this does feel like a full game from start to finish. Nothing feels left out for DLC and there is more content then you could wish for. I do have suspicions that this game might have already been in production for Xbox 360 and at some point was ported over as it is so large for a launch game. But those are just my theories.
Overall, DR3 is a truly fun blood and guts game that has moments of horror and comedy. It may be a little frustrating at times but the overall game is enjoyable you should at the very least try it as a rental.
Best Xbox One launch game.
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