UPDATE (10 p.m. Pacific time): We were able to get a late co-op session and have updated the review text with our thoughts. The co-op’s smooth connectivity and improvements to the side objectives raise our score to 85/100.

Editor’s note: We were unable to play any of Dead Rising 3’s co-op campaign prior to the review embargo due to technical difficulties. We are attempting to resolve the issue with Microsoft, but this review and its score does not reflect co-op.

Los Perdidos is bigger than anything Dead Rising has seen before.

The city in this Xbox One launch game from Microsoft Games Studio and Capcom Vancouver is gigantic, bigger than every area in the first two games put together — and it’s teeming with zombies. It’s full of side missions and weapon-crafting, all of which makes Dead Rising 3 an ambitious evolution of the cult-favorite hack-and-slash action franchise.

While the difficulty curve is shot and a city this big should never lack a fast travel system, Dead Rising 3 stands out among Xbox One launch titles as a solid adventure with the potential for hours of gameplay.

What you’ll like

The tale of Nick Ramos and his survivor pals can be amusingly bizarre

The move to a more open world brings with it a surprisingly cutscene-heavy story that’s on a much grander scale than earlier Dead Rising games. Nick Ramos, mechanic extraordinaire, is part of a small group of survivors in the fictional Californian city of Los Perdidos. The urban sprawl is three days into a zombie outbreak, with hastily mounted quarantine zones falling apart at the seams. It’s not too long before the military announces a scorched earth fail-safe plan of bombing Los Perdidos, leaving a ticking clock over Nick and the survivors as they search for a way out of the city.

The story of Dead Rising 3, outside of its achingly routine premise and progression of events, is at times bizarre and idiotic. But it’s almost always amusing. Nick himself is more a plot device than interesting character, but the multiple groups of other survivors he encounters are a more amiable lot. Boss characters in particular are a distinctive and ridiculous bunch, each equipped with their own batch of histrionics.

Source: venturebeat.com