| Mr Puggsly said: I think the general concensus was the DR3 was pretty good. Frankly, I didn't enjoy the first and I don't think its remembered too fondly. So a remake of it would be fine by me but it shouldn't be called DR4. Dead Rising 2 is probably the best in the series but I had a blast with 3 as well. |
I'm not sure about the general consensus. The gameplay was definitively serviceable, and I guess the open aspect of the map, combined with almost all of it being interactive and explorable gave a nice feeling not achievable by the other two games, which were more limited in these aspects considering the hardware they were produced on. Metacritic-wise (not that it matters much, but just as a reference), the first one edges all other entries with an 85. DR3 scores the lowest not counting spin-offs, one point below DR2 (78 and 79 respectively).
I personally think Dead Rising 1 is still the best game, but I take into account not only the gameplay aspect of it; there's the plot (which was great for zombie standards, and very original), the time-based ludonarrative structure, the OST, the map design and the overall content and replayability of the game. There were also several aspects, like one of the best games that integrated achievements on it (unlocking certain achievements granted you in-game weaponry and outfits), or the extra content (like infinite mode, which isn't present in any other Dead Rising game save for Off the Record, and mechanically speaking they're different).
My main complain about Dead Rising 3 actually goes over all these aspects. The city is huge, but lacks charm. The plot is there, but basically screws up everything we knew about the other two games (and it has the audacity to ditch one interesting villain for the clichéd one, the resolution is absolutely crap and the post-credit sequence is basically the final middle finger to anyone who enjoyed DR1) and has no respect whatsoever for the original sources. Gameplay is ace, probably the strongest point of the game. The time-based structure is thrown out of the window because the developer honestly didn't understand why there was a time-restriction there in the first place (which shows their lack of direction, really). I guess DR3 hit a lot of low notes, and I didn't like any of it. I could have endure things here and there, but it is an amalgam of design problems that shouldn't be on a Dead Rising game. Honestly, Dead Rising 3 shouldn't be called Dead Rising.
