Dead Rising 3

The Rad

• Impressive amount of zombies.
• Tonnes of weapons and vehicles to maim said zombies with.
• Maintains series penchant for ridiculousness.

The Bad

• It’s a bit too easy.
• That being said human enemies still take too long to kill.

When it was revealed there was a fair amount of outcry over how grim and serious a tone the series was presenting but I can assure you this is still the same ol’ Dead Rising you know and (maybe) love.

You still have your servbot heads and other assorted ridiculous clothing options, your oddball psychopaths and an wide selection of awesomely creative weaponry.

The color palette admittedly is a bit drab compared to what we’re used to, but it doesn’t look bad by any stretch of the imagination. With the power of a next-gen console under its belt, Dead Rising has never looked better.

Might be especially impressive considering how many zombies can fit on a screen at once. I’m not sure any game has packed so many enemies on screen at a time.

And in spite of what you might’ve heard prior to the games release about the game suffering from poor frame rate, this is a problem I’ve never personally experienced. No matter how many zombies there were, no matter how many projectiles and assorted explosives I lobbed around with wild abandon I never personally dipped below 30fps.

At no point was the game unplayable.

The gameplay itself is pretty much what you’d expect.

If you enjoyed yourself with Dead Rising 2 and want more of that, well there’s plenty more to be had. More combo weapons, more combo vehicles, more zombies to kill, more side missions to complete, more overall.

That’s not to say there haven’t been some changes to the formula.

I’d heard prior to release that the story mode has no time limit.

That doesn’t appear to be the case, as days do pass and minor spoiler - bombs are meant to be dropped on the city on the sixth day.

That being said that’s double the amount of time the last game gave you and more than enough time to do every side quest, save every survivor and I suppose if you’re of a mind to you could probably get all the collectibles but I didn’t go out of my way for them. I managed to finish the game with around two and a half days to spare. It wasn’t hard.

Which I suppose is another change from previous Dead Rising games which were quite punishing both with their time limits and just in general.

Dead Rising 3 is a relative cakewalk. Previous games you’d typically spend your first go grinding and then restarting the story with your saved character progress but it’s not necessary here. You can also save wherever you want.

If you want something more akin to the old games Nightmare Mode cuts the time limit in half and only lets you save in bathrooms as it used to be.

I appreciate that purists are being catered too, but personally am thankful for an easier time.

Dead Rising has never been a series I’ve played for the challenge, in spite of being very challenging. I’ve played because it’s always been fun to mindlessly cut your way through swaths of zombies, I’ve played because I enjoyed the narrative and characters - which I still do here And now there’s less of a barrier to entry, I enjoy it all the more.

And if you’re after something just plain fun to play on your brand new Xbox One then I’m not sure you an do better.