Dead Rising 3

Platform(s): PC, Xbox One
Genre: Action
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: Nov. 22, 2013

About Brian Dumlao

After spending several years doing QA for games, I took the next logical step: critiquing them. Even though the Xbox One is my preferred weapon of choice, I'll play and review just about any game from any genre on any system.

Advertising

As an Amazon Associate, we earn commission from qualifying purchases.





Xbox One Review - 'Dead Rising 3' Chaos Rising DLC

by Brian Dumlao on April 10, 2014 @ 2:00 a.m. PDT

Set 10 years after Dead Rising 2, Dead Rising 3 takes place in Los Perdidos amid a zombie outbreak that's about to decimate mankind.

With two released DLC packs thus far, "The Untold Stories of Los Perdidos" has been uneven and consistent. Adam Kane in Operation Broken Eagle was bland and uninteresting while tough girl Angel Quijano in Fallen Angel at least had a decent background. Both of their adventures were far less interesting than people had expected, though, and the only real positive was the introduction of new toys for the main character, Nick. Two weeks removed from the last piece of DLC, and we have another untold story in the form of Chaos Rising. Those who are hoping for an upward swing in quality should be prepared for disappointment.

You play the role of Hunter Thibodeux, a member of the notorious Los Santos biker gang, who was framed for a crime and sent to prison. Before he could be shipped off, the zombie outbreak occurs, giving him a chance to escape. Now free from the confines of a cell, he's out to get the person who sold him out and take back control of his old gang.


Hunter presents something of a missed opportunity for the team. Unlike Adam and Angel, Hunter seems like a perfect fit for the overrun city of Los Perdidos. We could have finally seen what makes a psychopath tick in this new situation, and Hunter could've been a character who displayed some depth despite being unhinged. Instead, we get someone who seems ambivalent to the entire situation and whose personality only comes out in a few quips that fall flat in humor and viciousness.

The main missions offer a little bit of everything. The opening mission has you trying to find a key to open up the garage of the police station before finding the last known location of your gang. Another mission has you trying to find the fallen leader to exact your revenge. There are also some boss fights, and those areas are filled with both zombies and humans to keep the fights interesting. Two of the fights feel like they were ripped from the main game since the attack patterns are eerily similar, but given the lack of boss fights in the other DLC thus far, this is a welcome addition. The same goes for the other two fights, which are more like chase missions than standard fights. Again, they're a change of pace from what has come before, so they're enjoyable.

What aren't so enjoyable are the fetch quest missions, which account for a majority of this DLC pack. When you first meet up with the person who took over the gang, he asks you to get him a bottle of special whiskey. Surprisingly, you comply, a move that makes you question what kind of tough guy Hunter is. After your supposed death, you fetch various bikes and bring them to a bike shop. You have to fetch a special bike and bring it back before going after the bosses; it's labeled as a fetch quest since you need to get their gang rings and bring them back to your new base. You even have to fetch the final vehicle in the game. The fact that several of these vehicle fetch quests exist is frustrating, since they aren't the most enjoyable parts of the game.


Perhaps the most puzzling mission is the one in the middle, where you're told to do nothing. After getting the necessary parts for the super bike, you're simply told to wander around the city and come back later to pick it up. You can make the most of it by taking care of side missions or grinding away to level up if you still haven't reached level 50, but the forced time away from main missions is odd. Going back to see if the bike is done gets you reprimanded, so you're simply forced to wait until Hunter declares that enough time has passed. If there was ever a time where game padding was apparent, this is it.

As for the side missions, Chaos Rising decided to reuse ones from the previous DLC packs and add in some of the least-liked ones. Hunter can travel the city to seek and destroy all of the emergency phone booths. The booths are plentiful but very fragile, so you may accidentally destroy some while battling zombie hordes without realizing it. You can also collect hidden whiskey bottles, making for some very long and thorough treks around the city. The final quest involves finding several custom bikes around the city, and this one is infuriating. The quest asks you to find the bikes and transport them back to the shop. When you consider the fragility of these bikes along with the respawning zombie hordes that are in your way and damaging each bike, this is a very infuriating side-quest that tests how much you really want the related Achievement.


The new items are about the only interesting things in the DLC. The sawed-off shotgun is the regular shotgun but with a wider range, and both the warhammer and chainsaw sword act like reskinned versions of the sledgehammer and broadsword, respectively. You can use the spiked helmet to headbutt enemies and ram through crowds. The helmet is both durable and powerful, making it a melee weapon you'll often use. The hand cannon acts much like a regular pistol but fires incendiary rounds instead of normal bullets. The build weapon combines the chainsaw sword with a shovel, and it can shoot projectiles and be used like a hammer, but it can also split apart zombies from the inside out. The new vehicle, a motorcycle with saw blades, is certainly the best part of the DLC. You can run over zombies with the bladed wheels, clear out crowds with the blades, and fire saw blades, making it a formidable vehicle you'll want for the main game.

Of the three released DLC packs so far, Chaos Rising is the worst of them. The whole campaign and a good chunk of the side missions are composed of fetch quests, and their tedium is highlighted by a mission where you do nothing but wait until a certain amount of time has passed before you can continue with the rest of the game. The boss fights are a nice touch, but with attack patterns reminiscent of some fights in the core game, the novelty quickly wears off. The weapons are nice, and the new vehicle is a blast to ride. As part of the Season Pass, this pack only reinforces one's buyer's remorse. As a stand-alone piece of DLC, Chaos Rising isn't worth the bother.

Score: 4.5/10



More articles about Dead Rising 3
blog comments powered by Disqus