Dead Rising 3!!!!

So, I've wrapped up Dead Rising 3, save for the Prestige Hound achievement, which shouldn't require too much effort to polish off. So, with Wolfenstein still roughly two weeks out, I think I will be starting a Battlefield stream soon to kill some time. There are some single player achievements I'd like to knock out first, that way if I end up being one of the unfortunate who ends up with a deleted single player save, it won't be a tragic loss.

But enough of that, let's talk Dead Rising 3!

I will admit, I missed the first Dead Rising, but having played 2 and now 3, I have to say this series is hands down one of the best (if not the best) zombie franchises I have ever played. Capcom just keeps building it to be a bigger and better game with every installment. The environment of Dead Rising 3 is bigger than the environments of Dead Rising and Dead Rising 2 combined. Set in the fictional California city of Los Perdidos (The Lost), Dead Rising 3 takes place 10 years after the events of Dead Rising 2. We play the game as Nick Ramos, a mechanic with no real background. He's an orphan and handy with tools, that's about all we know initially, but things get crazy when the outbreak hits.

This installment in the series also is the first Dead Rising title to launch exclusively to Xbox One. With the power of the One behind it, this game engine is able to spawn more than three times the number of zombies it's predecessor was capable of spawning. More zombies means more slaughter, and also more danger. Zombies still become more aggressive and strong after dark, making getting caught in a crowd of zombies very dangerous. With the larger environment, vehicles have become a necessity and are much more easily accessible than they were in Dead Rising 2, as you don't need to purchase keys to use the vehicles, just hop in and go. This also has allowed Capcom to add a new weapon to the player's arsenal: combo vehicles.

That's right, now not only can you make a lightsaber from gems and a flashlight; you can also combine a steamroller and a chopper to make the RollerHawg: a motorcycle that can pancake zombies (as well as burn them with the flamethrowers mounted to the steam wheel). That's just one (the most badass one) of 10 unique combo vehicles the player has access too. The combo weapons are great in this game, both maintaining some of the classics and introducing some new (or improved) ones. Since Nick is so handy with tools, the player can now craft combo items without having to find a workbench, a Dead Rising first. The character also now has a skill tree to further enhance the character's stats, and even add certain perks like being able to substitute parts in combos with a part from the same category. So if you spend a perk point on the Firearms category, you could craft a Zombie Assault Rifle (Z.A.R.) from any two guns rather than having to find an assault rifle and a shotgun. Maxing out a skill stat offers an awesome perk that is available at level 50. For example, by maxing out your Mechanic skill you gain Indestructible Vehicles. The player never stops earning Attribute Points, so it is very possible (with time) to max out all available skills/perks with points to spare.

The clock has been extended, allowing the player 6 days to complete the story, rather than the traditional 72 hour clock. Due to the large number of in game challenges, collectibles, side missions, and the massive map this is a necessity for completionists. It also allows the player to save via the in game menu, rather than having to rely on bathrooms and safe houses. However, if you are more of a traditionalist, Dead Rising 3 offers Nightmare Mode where the player has the traditional 72 hour clock and can only save in outhouses and safe houses. The clock still shows 6 days, but the clock counts down twice as fast, thus reducing it to 3 days of traditional in game time. If your goal is to truly finish Nightmare mode (complete "The Facts" and "Overtime"), then you are going to have to focus only on the main story missions, ignoring side missions and collectibles. Combo Cards have been replaced by blueprints, and food combos require one attribute point in the Food Category.

One of the staples of Dead Rising has always been ridiculous zombie kill achievements/trophies. One of the greatest challenges of these achievements/trophies has always been that the player's zombie kills would reset every time they started a new story game. Well, Dead Rising 3 has kept the tradition of zombie kill achievements, extending it from the previous game's 72,000 kills to 100,004 kills. The difference being that this time around, the game keeps track of zombie kills throughout all playthroughs, and the achievements seem to maintain them even if your save doesn't. For example, there were a couple times where I turned my game off and forgot to save beforehand, so while my game shows one number, the achievements are tracking a different number and the difference is about 8,000 kills, the difference between what I've actually killed and what the game shows I've killed. This is really a nice thing, though, as if you choose to complete all challenges in the game, you're looking at a total of about 340,000 zombie kills.

And then there's this:

ServBot's back! You can run around Los Perdidos wearing this ridiculously awesome mask. And why not? It's awesome. You know you want to.

Another traditional aspect of Dead Rising that has continued into Dead Rising 3: Psychopaths. There are seven of them total in Dead Rising 3 and they are all themed after the seven deadly sins: lust, greed, sloth, pride, envy, gluttony, and wrath. Some of them in certain ways did remind me of other psychopaths from previous games. The biggest example being the gluttony psychopath, who is much like the chef psychopath from DR2.

With the new technology available from the Xbox One, a new layer of interactivity has been added to Dead Rising 3. The player can distract zombies with their voice, by shouting at their Kinect camera. The player can also distract/confuse bosses/psychopaths by shouting a specific command (displayed in the upper right corner of the HUD), creating a temporary moment of opportunity to overpower the enemy. For those of you with fancy schmancy smartphones, there is Xbox One SmartGlass, a version of the Microsoft SmartGlass app tailored specifically to the next gen consoles. By accessing SmartGlass, the player can gain access to additional sidequests with special rewards only obtainable via the SmartGlass app. As I don't have a modern enough phone (it requires Android 4.0 or higher, or the latest iOS), I haven't personally experienced the additional features of SmartGlass.

All around, this is hands down the best installment of the Dead Rising series to date, and I highly recommend it. On a ten scale I rate this game a solid 9.5.