Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsMy favorite Xbox One game so far!
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2013
I realize the Xbox One is new, but I am going out there and saying that this game is my favorite game in a long while. As far as the Xbox One goes, I also have CoD: Ghosts, Forza 5, and NFS Rivals. All of those games look pretty, but this game just works for the next gen console.
Everything about it is well done. I will start with my complaint, and that, like the other Dead Rising games, revolves around the time limit. I don't mind life bars for people you need to save or side quests as that makes sense. However, for a game that rewards exploration, you really don't have the time when you are trying to focus on beating the game.
When this game trailer premiered, I was concerned that they were taking a light hearted zombie game and turning it into something much more serious. This grease monkey dude running through crowds void of humor had me scared. However, once you get in the game and see some of the customer weapons, psychos, dialogue, etc, you quickly realize that they just removed the cartoonish art from the game to make it grittier. I am a fan of that.
The controls in the game are dead on. When you want to jump, you jump. When you want to roll, you roll. So often, games focus on graphics and content but forget that at the core of any game is the functionality of it all. Nothing is worse than looking at something that should be great but having no way to execute it because the controls blow. The camera can go a little askew from time to time when you are in a tight area, but it has never actually created an issue. I expect a certain amount of that with a 3D open world game anyway as you can ever only see 180-degrees of the world anyway.
The combo weapons are great. Be prepared to utilize them frequently if you want to level up. Going on killing sprees with combo weapons is really the only want to level up. A good spree, even late in the levels, can net you almost a full level up in a few minutes. Without giving anything away, you will find some amazing combo weapons that will let you achieve long kill streaks. The special moves are easy (press B+Y when it appears on your screen) and will give you bonus experience (PP) when successful. I urge you to use this on the special zombies in the crowd (fire fighters, police, prisoners, etc) as they are worth extra PP and ALL zombies are one hit kills with special moves. The ability now to make combo weapons on the fly, as well as access any piece, part, prop, or combo weapon you pick up along the way from lockers, is awesome! If you are playing with friends, you can drop your weapons to them and they can pick up to add to their inventory. I also urge you to pick up everything you can as it will make it easier to build some of the combo weapons later in the game when that can of gasoline or battery is nowhere to be found.
The story is fun. It's not great, but it's not bad. It's just a fun story with a few little twists. Nothing here will blow your mind, but it's entertaining enough. The side quests are worth doing as they are worth a lot of PP and generally pretty easy to accomplish. They will unlock new areas, reveal new weapons, and point you towards new safe houses.
When you die, restart, or whatever you need to do... you get to keep everything you've worked so hard for. This is the best feature of Dead Rising 3. Given the fact that there are HUNDREDS of items, weapons, combo weapons, collectibles, and survivors, doing it all in one play through is going to be tough without a guide or prior knowledge.
There are also different difficulty levels, which makes the game replayable.
To sum it up: single player is fun, co-op is AWESOME!
