My third and final game of the Xbox One preview event goes to Dead Rising 3. This is yet another exclusive title to get a fresh new lick of next-generation paint, but with Dead Rising 3, fans of the zombie killing franchise are going to absolutely love what comes in this third instalment!
The game takes all what fans know and love from the first iterations of the franchise and supercharges it into a something that feels like GTA V with zombies – a very compelling idea I am sure many gamers would die (and turn into a zombie) for.
The control and combat of your character feels very responsive and intuitive, and the world around you is smothered in many zombies (and I mean many, many zombies!) and items you can pick up, eat, throw and combine with other items right where you stand – there is no need to find combo benches any more – yay! You can combine vehicles too. At the beginning of my playthrough I was able to combine a motorcycle and a steamroller to form a contraption that I know Daryl from The Walking Dead would be proud to ride on.
Combining weapons continue to be a key element in the game if you wish to have the best firepower to finally put oncoming zombies to rest. Hidden blueprints line themselves throughout the city you play in, offering designs to combine two separate items together to form a more powerful weapon against the undead. Both weapons and vehicles can take on damage with use. Vehicles will start to smoke or burst into flames to give you that visual clue to swiftly leave your ride.
Racing through the streets unveiled large groups of zombies, doing their very best to block your path or key waypoint. The amount of them drawn on screen was very impressive and is easily achieved with the power of Microsoft’s new console. I didn’t experience any slowdown whilst ploughing thorough wave upon wave of zombies that were littering the path in front of me. Some peopled mentioned there were some texture issues in the game, but in my play-through I didn’t witness any of this happening – I was just having too much fun to notice!
In my short time with Dead Rising 3 I felt encouraged to carry on and explore what else was around the corner or what items I could find and try out on any unexpecting flesh eaters. Tapping on the map button I was show by the developer that I had only sampled a tiny portion of the game’s map – an area barely the size of Dead Rising 1 and Dead Rising 2, combined! This soon raised a smile on my face at the thought of what else is out there. It gave me even more respect to what the development team have achieved in this third and far more exciting instalment of the franchise.
Dead Rising 3 releases alongside the Xbox One console at launch on the 22nd November.
