I have to admit that all this zombie craziness is getting a bit outdated. We have had many carnivorous undead scenarios with The Walking Dead, World War Z, Left 4 Dead, even Plants versus Zombies! So when I got a chance to review Ascent of Death 3 for Xbox One, he wasn’t exactly jumping for joy. I mean, I played the first two and enjoyed them, but I’m so tired of the genre. Thankfully, Ascent of Death 3 it was crazy enough to make me forget all the other zombie nonsense out there.
When you start the game for the first time, you will control Nick. He’s pretty much your standard clueless main character. He also has the ability to help almost everyone. Throughout the strange story, Nick and his friends will try to survive this new zombie apocalypse.
To say that the story is confusing is an understatement. Sometimes the plot rushes to you and will leave you scratching your head after a pivotal scene. The game struggles to find its identity throughout the game. Most of the game has wacky characters and comical events, but other times it tries to take itself too seriously. The story of the game would have worked if I had only chosen one. It’s like trying to combine a Wayans brothers comedy with the plot of There will be blood; it’s just a mess.
Of course, no one entered this game thinking that it would bring something to the story table. Fortunately, the best part of the Dead rising The series is, of course, the slaughter of zombies. The third installment is no different. It’s just plain fun. There are a variety of ways you can eliminate undead raiders. You can smash zombies while driving in a vehicle, hit monsters with jugs of orange juice, or make a killing in Mega Man Armor. The game is at its best when it takes you off the leash. Which, fortunately, it is almost all the time.
One of the great features carried over from the previous game is the crafting system. Here you will find blueprints that will combine different weapons and items to decimate the zombie horde. You can even create incredibly original vehicles. Armored truck with a shotgun? I’ll take it! Of course, there are some weapons that feel underdeveloped compared to others, but I had a lot of fun mixing and matching different elements and discovering my personal favorites.
The biggest complaint I had with the game was the world you play in. The way the game locks you in different ways doesn’t make a lot of sense. Take, for example, many times that I tried to reach a goal in the world and I was literally there, but a wall blocked my way. I had to drive through the entire world of the game to get to a place that could have been easily reached if the design was better. It was getting more and more frustrating as it happened quite a bit.
Another negative I had with Dead Rising 3 was the severe lack of difficulty. Of course, after finishing the game, you can replay it in a near impossible environment, but the game in normal conditions didn’t really challenge me as a player. I never really felt in danger during my game. This is saying something since he was surrounded by about 10,000 zombies almost constantly.
Graphically, the game impresses no more than the sheer number of enemies on the screen and the frame rate stuttered a bit throughout the experience. It wasn’t terribly terrible by any means, but it’s very noticeable when you’re fighting a large crowd of infected. It can be even worse when a friend joins Xbox Live and both of you are hacking into a big zombie gathering.
Other aspects of the game include side missions, finding human survivors, and my personal favorite, the human boss-type characters: psychopaths. All encounters with psychopaths are unique and actually made me laugh out loud at how ridiculous they were. My favorite was Darlene, the crazy lunch buffet patron who was attacking you with her electric scooter. These only added more content to the experience and are always a highlight with the Dead Rising series.
The real question of the day is whether you should take a look at the game. The answer is yes, but I think a lot of players will probably change the game after finishing it. There isn’t much content that can be replayed after you’ve won both the game and the harder settings you unlock later. One can only be satisfied for so long beating the zombies with cash registers and RC cars. Multiplayer is limited and some players will be frustrated paying full retail price for a game that they might not hold onto after finishing it. That said, big launch games are rare and for Xbox One this is the best option in terms of top-notch options.