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Xbox One

'Dead Rising 3' Is the Fastest Way to Battle Zombies

Much faster than 'Dead Rising 2' and presumably less dangerous than in real life.

Dead Rising 3 sees one of the Xbox 360’s favourite exclusives upgrade to the Xbox One, taking the zombie-slaying thrills and dark comedy licks of 2006’s first game and dialling everything up to insane levels of intensity.

Developer Capcom Vancouver’s survival-horror adventure is an open-world (larger than the previous two games combined) experience that sees the player-protagonist, Nick Ramos, battle against an oncoming zombie apocalypse with seamless loading – no cuts to "please wait" screens here – and a save-anywhere set-up that means toilet visits are no longer essential, as was the case with 2010's Dead Rising 2. Although, what you need to do in your own home after (or during) playing this is beyond anyone else’s control…

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Something carried over from Dead Rising 2, though, is its awesome array of weapons. There are hundreds of them here. In Dead Rising 3, anything and everything can be used to keep the zombie horde at bay, and many items can be combined for greater power. Attach a sledgehammer to a circular saw and you’ve made yourself a sledgesaw. Easy. As a mechanic by trade, Ramos is pretty useful with his hands, and weapons can be created on the fly without the need for a workbench.

The Dead Rising series has gone west for its third instalment, with events set ten years after Dead Rising 2 in the fictional Californian town of Los Perdidos. But this isn’t a sunshine-and-smiles sort of deal – the undead, as with previous Dead Rising games, is making itself into something of a nuisance, to say the least. And someone has to clean up the mess they’re making. Might as well be you.

But it’s a responsibility you needn’t face alone – Dead Rising 3 features new co-op functionality, which enables players to drop in and out of multiplayer, earning experience points that they can carry across into their own solo campaigns. Then again, maybe you think this zombie-splattering lark is pretty simple. In which case, there’s Nightmare Mode. Here, Nick’s against the clock and the enemies come at him in significantly nastier moods. Best make every bullet count.

Although Dead Rising 3 retains the series’ trademark sense of humour – where else can you slaughter slavering brain-munchers while wearing a skimpy summer dress? – this is a darker game than what’s come before, with more scares and vivid scenes of chilling horror. Shadows move and groans grow closer, and the skin tingles. Did you actually feel that, or was it just your imagination?

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Adding to the atmosphere is the Xbox One’s Kinect sensor, which reads how you’re playing the game and responds accordingly. Make a lot of noise on your side of the screen and you’ll alert zombies to Nick’s position. Alternatively, yell at the Kinect and you might have an enemy backing down from confrontation. If a zombie gets hold of Nick, shake your own body to help him escape. Act the fool and the odds will quickly become overwhelming.

You’ll need to use your wits to meet every objective – there are thousands of zombies between Nick’s starting point and where he needs to end up, and there’s no way even the toughest grease monkey in all of Los Perdidos can take on every moaning, lurching cadaver-come-"alive" out there. So, distractions are your eternal ally – send the horde’s attentions elsewhere and make a break for it. But, if the situation turns really bad… Then, you turn to your SmartGlass-enabled device and order an airstrike to clear the path. Using a compatible smartphone or tablet will also unlock exclusive missions and weapons, so if you’ve got the relevant technology to hand, flaunt it. Capcom Vancouver wants you to – and hell, so does Nick Ramos. That wrench isn’t going to shatter too many more zombie skulls.

Be sure that the end of the world takes a rain check by surviving Dead Rising 3 on Xbox One. And if you really need a comfort break, go, please… that’s what pause is for.

Find out everything else you need to know about Dead Rising 3 on the official website.

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