"Walkers," "Zombies," "Zeds," 'Z's," call them what you will, the undead are absolutely everywhere, outlasting fad status with the same shambling certainty that sees them overcome so many of their hapless humans foes. Of the many video games series that deal with these pesky gray ghouls, the Dead Rising franchise is among the most well known. Favoring slice n' dice silliness over twisted social commentary, Capcom's much loved maim-em-up returns to action this week, in the form of Xbox One exclusive Dead Rising 3.
Earmarked as an early system shifter for Microsoft, can this flesh-craving carrion successfully court the critics, or will players instead pronounce the game dead on arrival? For a more in-depth appraisal of the title, check out these choice reviews.
IGN (Dan Stapleton):
"Dead Rising 3 doesn’t get by on its looks, but its meaty zombie-slaying combat and nearly endless supply of undead and ridiculous weapons go a long way. Through its lengthy campaign, I was always eager to see what crazy zombie-squishing contraption would come along next. It rarely disappointed, except when navigating its snarled map and waiting out its load times took me out of the fight took too long."
Score: 8.3/10
-
Eurogamer (Tom Bramwell):
"If all you want for a launch title is something passably entertaining to plug away at for a few long evenings, it will suit you fine. Just beware, once you get over the pleasure of the first few combo weapons, Dead Rising 3 is just a solid zombie brawler set in an open world, not the strange game of tender heart that used to be so funny and surprising."
Score: 7/10
-
Destructoid (Chris Carter):
"Although it sacrifices a tad of its loveable camp factor and neon style in favor of a few other advancements, the outcome is a much stronger, more involved Dead Rising game."
Score: 9/10
-
Videogamer (Steven Burns):
"The game relies too heavily on fetch-quests for most of its narrative and side missions, which are lacking any real drama or drive. I get the feeling, though, that you'll be having too much fun to worry about it..."
Score: 8/10
-
Gamespot (Martin Gaston):
"Despite a wonky presentation and obvious technical hiccups, Capcom has successfully made Dead Rising 3 a more welcoming experience than its harsh predecessors. It can be an inconsistent experience, but I choose to ignore the game's peculiarities and play Dead Rising 3 in the spirit that I believe it's intended: running around in shark outfit shooting zombies with deadly dildos fired from a leaf blower."
Score: 7/10
-
Joystiq (David Hinkle):
"despite [its] technical flaws, Dead Rising 3 proves that increasing the size of the sandbox and tossing more toys inside is enough to compensate for the inconsistency in execution. The persistent hiccups are hard to ignore, but they're not so great as to stall the engine for goofy creations that is the heart of the game."
Score: 3.5/5
-
Polygon (Danielle Riendeau):
"Dead Rising 3 gets a lot of things right. It presents a massive open world filled with possibilities and features the first truly impressive use of scale in a game based on a zombie outbreak. But the game's difficulty spikes – due to its control and inventory issues – and boring, stereotype-laden writing can be difficult to swallow. There's a very good game lurking inside of Dead Rising 3 – but it feels a little unsteady on its feet."
Score: 7.5/10
-
EGM (Josh Harmon):
"With its relatively slow combat, Dead Rising has never needed the high, smooth framerate demanded by racing or skill-driven action games, just one competent enough that the controls feel suitably responsive. It’s never needed photorealism, just strong art direction and animation that makes combat easy to read and entertaining to watch. Dead Rising 3 meets those criteria, and that’s good enough for me."
Score: 8/10
-
Gamesradar (Henry Gilbert):
"Dead Rising 3 excels at what it does best, which is mainly killing zombies in deeper ways as your undead-slaying skills grow over the game. And it’s smoother than ever to maximize that quality time of chainsawing a zombie in half. Yet the lack of combat annoyances only amplify the flaws of the writing and the lack of mission variety. Dead Rising is closer than ever to realizing its full potential, but its many mistakes make it clear that it isn’t quite there yet."
Score: 3.5/5
-
CVG (Matt Gilman):
"In some ways Dead Rising 3 doesn't feel like a sequel at all. It's a sloppy, loose and ugly looking game, lacking the finely tuned foundations of most games in their third iterations. Its problems, though many, are somewhat saved by all of the effortless fun had dicing up zombies with bizarre weaponry. Capcom hasn't managed to clean the blood off this flawed diamond. In some ways it may even have tarnished it further. But a diamond it remains."
Score: 7/10
-
What do you make of the reviews? Is the game's graphical performance a minor hindrance or major put-off? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to check in with all of the latest Xbox One news, right here on Game Rant.
___
Dead Rising 3 launches alongside the Xbox One video game console on November 22, 2013.
Follow Sam on Twitter @GamingGoo