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Zombies and Psychos? Well… I’m
$%#@*&
With the technical leap, Dead Rising 3 stands out as a game that
reinvigorated the series with an increase in scale, an overwhelming number of
zombies on screen. More zombies means more fun, more blood on the asphalt, and
more unique and interesting ways to slaughter the massive hordes. However,
Capcom Vancouver’s newest iteration to the Dead Rising series comes with its
share of distracting, sometimes game-breaking bugs, and drops in frame rate.
Dead Rising 3 expands the scale of
its open world environments, as the fictitious city of Los Perdidos (Los
Angeles) is the size of both the shopping mall in Willamette, Colorado, and
Fortune City combined. Four city sections are connected by ruinous highways,
and streets that are congested with the ravenous dead. Story Mode extends the
ticking doomsday clock, giving you plenty of time to explore every apartment,
alley, and section of the city, and the option to complete the various side
missions as well. Nightmare mode, however, keeps the series’ traditional
fast-paced, speedier clock, for those who are looking for a realistic, more
tense experience.
Hundreds upon hundreds of zombies
flood the city streets, standing in your way between one objective and the
next. As you encounter a horde, intense, fast-paced music plays, as you rush to
the nearest clearing, or hack away at the masses with a vast array of weaponry.
Weapons are scattered throughout Los Perdidos, and will break after overuse.
From conventional wrenches, lead pipes, to utterly ridiculous massagers,
everything and anything is a weapon to defend yourself. Combo weapons make
their return, with new additions such as the Grim Reaper, which you make from a
katana and a scythe. Light and heavy attacks are now mapped to separate
buttons, giving players more options when a horde is closing in.
Killing more than a hundred zombies
in one spree isn’t uncommon in Dead Rising 3, and is, in fact, rewarding with
PP boosts and prompts to execute the undead in unique and grizzly ways. In
previous entries, if you use up all of your gear in the middle of a fight, you
would have to scatter to find anything to defend yourself with. Dead Rising 3
introduces weapons lockers, located in safe houses, which store common items
that you find throughout Los Perdidos, as well as a wardrobe to store various
clothing and accessories. Even combo weapons can be made on the fly, with the
right items. These improvements make slaying zombies much more fun, and can
also add a little bit of hilarity within the mix (Super Massager… for those of
you who don’t know, look it up.)
Vehicles weren’t as common in Dead
Rising and Dead Rising 2, however, the newest installment introduces a vast
variety of vehicles, and vehicle combinations that produce utterly ridiculous
and yet, cathartic results. From firework launchers on dragon themed vehicles,
to a zombie sweeper that sucks hordes in, spitting out giant zombies head that explode
(My personal favorite.) Occasional framerate stutters slightly dampened this
experience, as the effects, as well as the sheer number of zombies on screen,
sometimes made it difficult to navigate. A co-op buddy can hop in on any
vehicle, and join in on the fun with a secondary weapon, like chucking
dynamite, or just ride shotgun from one destination to another safely
(Certainly beats walking).
The drop-in, drop-out is just as
easy as Dead Rising 2. After completing the prologue, players can join each
other’s games without hassle or restriction. Character progression carries
over, as well as earned weapon combos. Each of the two heroes, Nick (Player
One) and Dick (Player Two) each react differently to situations, making it fun
to try playing as each of the protagonists. Playing with a friend is the most
enjoyable experience, as it makes boss fights, Psychos, and story-mode missions
easier, even though the difficulty is ramped up.
Psycho battles, whether they are
optional are not, are fun, intense, and sometimes a bit bizarre (I won’t go
into too much detail, but this time around, you’re in for an interesting cast
of characters). Each and every one of them gets what’s coming to them,
although, Nick hates to be the one to do it. Killing isn’t his thing.
In Dead Rising, and Dead Rising 2,
players had no control over what stats are increased upon level up. In Dead
Rising 3, that choice is entirely up to you. Being given the freedom to level
up what stat you want is entirely satisfying, and additional stats, such as
mechanic, and agility (grants you the ability to sprint) gives character
progression a lot more depth. This is an entirely welcome change.
Dead Rising 3 is certainly the best
entry in the series, but, although I was impressed with the amount of technical
improvements, these improvements came with problems, and many of these happened
during my co-op playthroughs. Entire waves of zombies would fail to load, and
only my co-op partner would be able to see them. Watching him swing a spiked
bat at nothing was quite hilarious; however, it there was a fair bit of
frustration, and it took me out of the experience. Other problems, such as
items disappearing from my character’s hands, and survivors glitching into
walls, running repeatedly into nothing, caused us to lose out on additional PP
and possible weapon combos. The optional Kinect functions were intuitive...
when they worked. Yelling, “Over here!” to a group of zombies was responsive
about one out of five times, sometimes not at all. The same can be said for the
Psycho battles. These annoyances didn’t stall my progress through the game,
but, I wish the developers had more time to polish their game. It felt a tad
bit rushed.
Capcom Vancouver’s newest Dead
Rising is a zombie lover’s dream. An large, open world, and the freedom to
explore it as you desire. It’s a must play for any fan of the series (and my
personal favorite of the three). It’s a great demonstration of the next-gen
capabilities, and it’s one of the first of its kind. Nick’s journey surviving the
outbreak of Los Perdidos is a great one, but the bugs and glitches are
unwelcome. I hope that the developers are able to fix these problems through a
patch.
VERDICT:
7.5/10 Dead Rising at its highest technical prowess to
date, with fun, new innovations that enhance the zombie survival-horror
experience.
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