When I finally completed Dead Rising 3

Loading

Army of the Dead

Loading

The Non-Zombies

Loading

Post-Apocalypse Gridlock

Loading

Notice that I didn’t say it was pretty. Dead Rising 3 runs at an upscaled 720p resolution, it doesn’t have amazing textures outside of its cinematics, and it suffers from regular framerate stutters and occasional walls that pop in after you’ve driven into them. It doesn’t look a whole lot better than what you’ve probably played on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.Instead, it’s big on quantity. I have never seen this many zombies on screen at once in any game. Up close, there are enough distinct character models that I didn’t really feel like I was killing the same one 27,000 times, and I love the many ways in which they fall apart. You can chop them in half (horizontally or vertically!) blow off limbs and heads, and even take out chunks of torso. They put on quite a show.They’re fun and easy to kill - easy enough that charging into the horde and bashing away with a sweet new weapon is a great way to build up experience. But you’ve got to know when to quit, because the zombie horde never will. Especially at night, when zombies are at their angriest, fear kicked in whenever I was stuck in the middle of a horde and my health dwindled into the red zone. But, since you can now save anywhere (unless you’re playing in Nightmare mode) the worst part about dying in Dead Rising 3 isn’t losing progress. It’s finger-tapping your way through the 45-second loading times.Combat is a simple system of light and heavy attacks, but it’s the over-the-top animations and different effects of 300-plus weapons that really sustain it over the course of a 30-hour game. I never really got a chance to get sick of any one weapon, since they all break after a short period of use, and that forces you to mix it up. Getting to use something like the Freedom Bear automated machine gun turret takes effort, and that makes them feel special.I love how most of Dead Rising 3’s collectibles are blueprints for crafting new weaponry instead of meaningless achievement padding. The recipes get positively goofy, like turning microwaves into laser beams, strapping a car battery to a mask of Street Fighter’s Blanka to create area-of-effect electricity attacks, and yes, turning a flashlight into a full-on lightsaber. There’s also a character upgrade system that’s extensive and well done, with most options on the menu providing real benefits that you can feel right away instead of minor stat boosts.What’s weird about the story - or weirdest, I should say - is that main character Nick Ramos can’t decide whether he knows he’s in a zombie movie parody or not. One minute he’s lamenting that he had to take human life, the next he’s putting on a sombrero and turning a leaf blower into a gun that launches sex toys at lethal velocity. The inconsistency feels weird if you play it straight, but the big laughs come when you mess with his wardrobe and he attempts to be dramatic while wearing an afro wig and a miniskirt. Beyond that, it’s pretty much zombie cliche all the way (though in a parody that's kind of the point). Oh, and there’s no timed hunt for Zombrex this time, but you do have to push the story along every so often or the town blows up.The acting is respectable, even with minor characters. Each companion has their own sidequest fetch job you have to do, like tracking down lost items or escorting them to a location, but along with their color commentary when they’re on your team, those background stories gives them great context and personality. There's Dwayne, the cop who wants access to the police station's armory, Kelsey, the country girl who needs help finding her family, Troy, the reformed gangster muscle who can't beat you so he joins you, and many more. I didn't even see a third of them, but all are fully voice acted. That character development makes it more memorable when you get them permanently killed.Fortunately, you don’t have to babysit them too much - if you run from a fight, they'll generally run with you - and it’s hilarious to gear them all up with weapons and watch them go to work. But, after many hours of having fun with them, I decided I was better off finishing the campaign solo. Companions get in your way a lot, blocking doors, making items hard to pick up, and standing next to that zombie you're trying to bash. They won't turn on you if you accidentally hit them too many times like Dead Rising 2's companions, at least.The other notable characters are the Psychos, which are optional boss battles. They aren’t all that impressively designed, but they are the most interesting and grotesque villains, like an organ-harvesting doctor or a hideously obese woman in a Rascal scooter who murders anyone who gets close to her buffet.Dead Rising 3’s open-world map is full of interesting and distinctively detailed locations to explore, including tons of shops, homes, tennis courts, a police station, and lots more. In places, it genuinely feels like a world hit by a sudden zombie outbreak. Its biggest problem, though, is that it’s not very large, especially when you’re traveling by car, and it attempts to mask that issue by placing lots of roadblocks everywhere in order to lengthen your route. But the map is often either wrong about whether a route is drivable, or just tough to read. There's no line guiding you to your destination, either, and getting on and off of the freeway in the northern half of the map in particular is a nightmare. I had to spend way too much time in the map screen trying to figure out how to get where I was going, and even more trying to figure out where I went wrong.Everything works the same way in the drop-in co-op, except better because there are two of you. I’ve already had some great moments, like when my partner plowed through a crowd of zombies in a van to save me when I got in too deep, and driving some of the craftable vehicles that come equipped with turrets. (Weirdly, you can't shoot out the passenger-side window of a regular car.) I’m looking forward to playing a lot more of that.