Dead Rising 3 Review

Dead Rising 3 is the first of the next-generation timed console exclusives to make its way to PC, which will shortly be joined by Ryse: Son of Rome next month. Historically, Capcom have not translated their zombie survival series very well to PC, the first game not ever making the jump from the Xbox 360 and the second being weighed down by Games for Windows Live. So initially I was quite excited when I heard that this game would be making the jump, and would only be booting through Steam.  

 Unfortunately the port itself is poor. The game is locked at 30fps and due to poor optimisation it is difficult to keep it running at that, even with a PC that should be able to keep pace with the latest consoles. I had to do a fair bit of graphical tweaking to get the game running well at 30fps, having to go as far as running it at 720p (like the console version). It is possible to unlock the frame rate but you are going to need a very powerful rig to get it anywhere near 60fps. If you cannot play a game that runs at less than 60fps comfortably I would steer clear here. Apart from the performance issues most of my other impressions have been fairly positive. The graphics, despite having to be tweaked down, were quite good, and if you can run it well at higher setting it would be a very noticeable improvement over the previous title. The game however is no longer as colourful as the first and especially Dead Rising 2. This is sad to see as the brown-greycolour palette has been hugely overused in many modern games, and trying to be realistic kind of feels out of place in this series.

The criticism many levelled at Dead Rising 2 was that it detracted too far from the survival roots of the first game and made that character far more powerful from the offset. This game goes even further in this direction, while it does not quite abandon the original formula of levelling up your character and needing multiple playthroughs and simplifies it. It replaces the idea of there being a failure state if you miss certain time slots and instead just gives you a time limit to complete the story and as many side missions as you can within it. As a particularly unpunctual person I preferred this approach and the flexibility it granted. It meant that if I got in to the some of the side quests (which themselves are timed) I did not have to abandon them when a story quest came up and as long as I managed my time I could keep up to date with everything. Those of you who prefer the old approach will be disappointed in this regard.

The game also goes about simplifying in many other respects, such as the weapon combination system. You can now combine weapons wherever you like as long as you have the blueprint, which can be found throughout the world and are often placed at strategic locations around quests. They have also included the ability to combine vehicles to make new combat vehicles such as a motorcycle with a cement roller front and flamethrowers (it is every bit as cool as it sounds). I think the lack of challenge might come from the ready availability of such powerful weapons and vehicles, however I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much if I did not have such easy access to the cooler weapons. There is an element of a it being a power fantasy, and tearing through hordes of zombies with a katana stapled to the end of a scythe while wearing a mariachi outfit and a gimp mask has always been my favourite aspect of Dead Rising. So I like that it has gone more in that direction. Those looking for a challenge will probably want to play it on a harder difficulty.

There are also now a greater variety of side quests and they have mostly done away with the idea of having to escort survivors to get the best ending. You can complete quests by helping various survivors around the city but mostly you will not have to escort them after completing the quest. They will just go their own way after you clear the zombies from around them. Those who you can escort can be taken to safe houses of which there are various around the city. Once saved you can then call on them to follow you around and are meant to help you. I found myself ignoring this feature as the NPCs still kind of felt a bit useless, but I was glad not to be penalised for letting them get eaten.

The story itself is a sort of surreal Japanese re-imagining of the zombie genre set in a fictional Californian city. It is in the same style as the previous games and if you were a fan of it then, you will probably like it here. They have continued the standard zombie game trope of the city being after a certain time and you needing to escape with your friends. The campaign can be done in around seven hours if you do not do any of the side quests. But will take you much longer if you want complete it 100%.

The game has really been a mixed bag for me, while I have enjoyed most aspects of the game it has really been soured by how poorly it runs. I personally have enjoyed the ways in which the game has been simplified, more hardcore fans of the series will likely be put off. If you have not previously played a Dead Rising game I would still recommend starting with this one, as it is probably the most accessible and not knowing the previous stories does not really get in the way. I am still going to mark the game down in its score for how poorly it ran but I would still recommend giving it a go if you are a fan of zombie games and have a PC capable of powering though the poor optimization.