Dead Rising 3: Apocalypse Edition Review
We were all a bit surprised when Dead Rising 3: Apocalypse Edition was announced for a PC release, since last year CAPCOM swore the game was going to stay an Xbox One exclusive. Still, many cheered at the news and for good reason; Dead Rising 3 is a very fun game which had been limited to 720P@30FPS because of the hardware, but on PC these shackles would be removed by sheer power.
Unfortunately, CAPCOM Vancouver simply didn’t do a fine job with this port. The game at release is plagued by several issues, starting with excessive performance requirements for the graphics that’s being displayed; my configuration, an i5 2500K with 8GB RAM and 780Ti, should have been able to handle the game at 1080P@60FPS, but in reality I had to put the 30FPS limiter back in order to have a smoother experience. Even at 30FPS, though, the game slows down even further occasionally, and with a top of the line GPU this is simply unacceptable.
That’s not the only technical problem of Dead Rising 3: Apocalypse Edition, though. If you have a monitor with a 16:10 aspect ratio, the game is letterboxed, meaning that you’re forced to have two black bars on the top and bottom of the screen; again, this is extremely annoying for a 2014 game and something that should absolutely be mandatory for a proper PC version of any game. The only way to fix this is by using a third party program, Flawless Widescreen.
This would be enough to discourage buying a game in most cases, but an exception must be made for this one. Dead Rising 3 is an extremely fun game which lets you roam an entire city, the fictional Los Perdidos, obviously filled with hungry zombies (and some mostly crazy humans). The game capitalizes on its predecessors, building upon the successful formula established in Dead Rising 1 & 2; there are literally hundreds of weapons that the main character can take from the environment to use against his enemies, and as usual with Dead Rising they will eventually break (though there is a perk that increases weapons durability).
There’s something for everyone here. Do you like swords? There are katanas, broadswords, double knives, machetes that will slice in two your fellow zombie. Perhaps you prefer blunt weapons? Sledgehammers, bonecrushers (a gigantic hammer with a spike on top), crowbars and many kinds of baseball bats will make you very happy while doing zombie jam. Obviously there are fire-arms, from shotguns to assault rifles, LMGs, handguns and many more, but the really fun ones may just be the least obvious - what do you think about a parking meter or a tennis racquet?
As I’ve just hinted, there are a few perks (found in books) scattered around Los Perdidos which can give you an edge in certain situations, though only one can be active at a time; this is just one of the many ways in which Dead Rising 3 rewards exploration. There are dozens of weapon blueprints to be found and some of them will allow you to create truly mind-boggling means of destruction such as the Sledgesaw (a sledegehammer combined with a cement saw), the Shockblaster (assault rifle coupled with a defibrillator), the Laser Sword (gems+flashlight), the Electric Staff (my personal favorite, using a battery and traffic lights) and many more. Most of these combinations clearly don’t make sense from an engineering point of a view, but then again Dead Rising 3 retains the arcade vibe which has always been CAPCOM’s trademark.
Combat, for instance, isn’t as precise as in games like Batman Arkham, but that doesn’t prevent it from delivering a lot of fun. Nick can sprint, dodge and climb onto most surfaces in order to get away from zombies, and while fighting them he can use either a standard attack or a heavy attack, which generally affects an area instead of a single enemy; after killing ten zombies, a special attack (which is based on the weapon being used) will become available by getting closer to the target and pressing the buttons for standard & heavy attack at the same time. Everything you do will earn you experience points, which can then be redeemed after levelling up into attribute points for various categories, depending on your playstyle.
As pointed out by a loading tip, while a few zombies are not a serious threat, everything changes while facing a zombie swarm and you will have to do so many times as the quests often require a lot of roaming around Los Perdidos. Vehicles are your best friends; you’ll eventually remember their spawn locations, and there’s always the chance to get your favorite one if you stop by a garage. Still, even trucks and tanks are not invulnerable and you will have to be careful if you don’t wish to be forced to get out of your ablaze vehicle just in the middle of a zombie mob. There’s more, as depending on the vehicle you could still be threatened by the zombies: motorcycles are completely exposed and Nick gets direct health damage from their hits, cars protect from direct damage but allow zombies clung to the car door to attempt a grab (via quick time event), while tanks protect from both threats. Armored vehicles also generally have a turret weapon, which is nifty when playing in cooperative mode with a friend, as one of you drives and the other shoots (in single player mode, you’ll have to do both).
Dead Rising 3: Apocalypse Edition has a lot of content, that’s for sure. The main story is fairly long, clocking at about 15-20 hours without considering the side missions and collectibles; exploring the huge city is a joy for fans of open world games, with each nook offering something different, and unlike other games in the genre, it’s actually possible to enter most buildings in the game. The PC version, other than having a higher resolution and some pretty effects (especially at night), includes the DLC “Untold Stories of Los Perdidos”, featuring four additional episodes each one with a new main character and specific subplot. These episodes last about 1-2 hours each and a couple of them will help you understanding the events of Los Perdidos.
Nick’s story isn’t particularly deep even for videogaming standards, which is a shame as I personally don’t believe that the light-hearted nature of a game should get in the way of creating complex and interesting characters and situations.
Still, it wraps up the Dead Rising trilogy quite nicely and eventually, the main events since (and even before) the outbreak at Willamette, Colorado are largely explained; without spoiling too much, CAPCOM will need to make a serious creative effort to justify a new Dead Rising from the storyline point of view.
Enjoy some gameplay we have recorded below (beware of possible spoilers!).