Dead Rising 3: Apocalypse Edition (PC) Review

Dead Rising 3. Not the best version of it, but hey, Dead Rising 3!

I wasn’t able to check out Dead Rising 3 when it first released due to not owning an Xbox One, but now that it has finally come to the PC, I was actually very excited. I’m one of the cult fans of the series ever since playing Frank West’s adventure back in 2006. Now, I can see just how well it stacks up against the previous games in the series.

Much like the other Dead Rising games, DR3 is an open world sandbox game full of undead zombies and tons of weapons at the player’s disposal. Nick Ramos is a mechanic who can think up some wild and crazy combinations for everyday items to become zombie killing tools of destruction. On top of that, he’s apparently a big fan of professional wrestling, because he can also utilize multiple moves that would make Stone Cold proud.

Platforms: PC
MSRP: $49.99
Price I’d pay: $30
Multiplayer: 2 player co-op online

Finding new blueprints spread throughout the city will offer up new combinations for Nick to try out, and killing enemies will have Nick gain PP that can allow him to level up and become stronger in attacks, learn new moves, carry more items and run faster and longer. It is all a more refined leveling up system that Dead Rising fans will know almost immediately.

Time is on my side.

The great thing about DR3 is the fact that time, while still important, was not there to hold me back. Too many times in the first three games I found myself having to sacrifice doing something due to running out of time. This included story missions. In DR3, the time mechanic is still here, but it’s not as pressing. This allowed me to do what I wanted and still have enough time to try to save survivors that were trapped or needed help. On top of that, I no longer had to take them back to a safe house in order for them to survive. They can handle it themselves.

The city of Los Perdidos is gigantic. Streets are full of zombies and wrecked cars, along with other typical things people would see in a zombie apocalypse. While navigating wasn’t too difficult, I did find it cumbersome at times when all I wanted to do was go somewhere on my map, and trying to find the correct way was both time consuming and life threatening to Nick. It doesn’t help that the camera seems to be about five feet too close to Nick, so trying the find the best angle to see where to go usually resulted in looking at half of Nick’s back and head.

As far as the game play and story goes, it’s completely Dead Rising. The goofy psychopath boss fights are back, the inane ways to kill zombies are here and the semi-serious, semi-ridiculous story beats are still entertaining. Nick is much more an “every man” than Frank or Chuck was, and he is a rather likeable character.

Nick and Laggy Dick.

There is full online co-op with a friend throughout the story. Players can jump in and out at any time and can learn new combinations, gain PP and overall help out. I did experience some lag in the two sessions I played with a co-op partner, and it was rather annoying especially when surrounded by enemies.

Up, up, and away!

If there’s one gripe I had with the overall experience, it would have to be the optimization on the PC. At first, I thought it was just my PC. It is about three years old and I started to think it was time for an upgrade. Full disclosure – I’m running an Intel Core i5-2550k at 3.4GHz with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 570. On high settings, the game would chug when in highly congested areas, and the cut scenes would skip constantly. When I bumped the settings down to medium, everything ran smooth, but when playing co-op with two separate friends with far newer PCs than I, they would constantly have to game crash on them as well as have major lag issues. Oh, and every single time I quit the game back to the dashboard, it would crash and I would have to close it from the task manager.

Apart from the optimization issues, Dead Rising 3 is still a lot of fun. There are tons of things to see and do, and with the PC version coming with all the DLC minus the crazy Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha, there’s even more to take in. If you haven’t got an Xbox One or don’t plan on getting one anytime soon, this version of the game is serviceable. Still, it may have some issues, just to be clear, and you may have to turn down the settings to get the best performance out of it. Dead Rising fans will get more out of it than someone who hasn’t played the series, but even with the camera and navigation problems, I still had a decent time hacking up some zombies with insane weapons. Just keep in mind; it can be cumbersome at times.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Fun game play, Tons to do
  • Likeable story and characters
  • Time mechanic is more forgiving
Bad
  • Optimization problems
  • Some laggy online play
  • Some camera issues
  • Navigation can be cumbersome
6.5
Decent
Written by
Drew is the Community Manager here at ZTGD and his accent simply woos the ladies. His rage is only surpassed by the great one himself and no one should stand between him and his Twizzlers.