I was wrong about Dead Rising 3. I thought it couldn’t get much better than the first game in the series I’d played (the second one) – but then I played the next one.
At first, I hated Dead Rising 3. It felt slow, clunky, and unresponsive. The PC version was locked by Capcom at 30 frames per second, and with that, the game was sluggish, and unresponsive. A simple tweak leads to the game’s frame rate becoming unlocked, and by golly gosh hordes of zombies have never looked as fluid as I’ve seen them in this game.
The thing that I like so much about Dead Rising’s survival horror genre of smash, whack, bash, and kill everything that’s a zombie is the fact that the game is simple to play, satisfying, and rewarding.
Dead Rising 3 builds on the gameplay mechanics of the previous game but makes them all thoroughly less annoying. Control are still a tiny bit clunky on PC (even with the framerate unlocked) – but the main annoyances of the prior title are gone as far as I’m concerned.
Money doesn’t mean anything – and this is a world where everything is about the resources you can find, carry, and deliver to people. The safehouse mechanic, and enabling you to rip weapons (and vehicles) out of storage on a whim as you require is so much fun, and the side missions do not feel as … forced as the second title, which felt like a whole bunch of escort quests.
The other benefit to this game is the ability to do things with vehicles. You can take a steam roller on the highway and plow through as many zombies as your heart desires. You won’t level up as quickly, though.
The combo system also feels much better than Dead Rising 2, with your prestige points multiplying with each kill, leading to faster levelling up if you focus on elaborate finisher moves – and the benefits you gain as you level are truly something that makes you want to keep playing and playing.
Its clear that I may be gushing about this game, and that’s a fact – it’s the most fun I’ve had with any sort of open world styled game in a very, very long time.
This owes to the fact that the side quests don’t take you off the beaten path of the story of the game, and they give you a legitimate benefit, a significant amount of experience, and some lackeys that will follow you along your rampaging path of destruction.
You also don’t need to treat Dead Rising 3 as much as one of those clicker or idle style games. Its very much more arcade-style, and if this was only playable in an arcade, then it’s a machine that would make a lot of money along the way.
The game is full of gore, disembodied zombies, and lots of things to see and do. I still haven’t finished the main story, but I will – and I can assure you that this game will remain in a list known as my “favourites” – its delightfully refreshing, and wholly unexpected.
I never thought I’d like a game like this, and I’m certain, no matter what I paid for, whenever I bought it, that I got my value for money.
It’s dangerous to know that there’s a Dead Rising 4 and its not in my Steam Library. I might just have to wait for a sale.