Dead Rising 3 Lets You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse However You Want

Everyone has a plan for the zombie apocalypse. Some will stockpile supplies and take to the hills. Others will band together and try to rebuild society. And then there are those who will enjoy their last days devising imaginative and entertaining ways to decimate as many of the undead as possible.

In “Dead Rising 3,” Capcom wants to let players have the freedom to live out their own personal zombie survival stories. The game gives you a massive, persistent world to explore, countless zombies that want to devour you, and a plethora of vehicles and tools to destroy them with. How you fight and survive is entirely up to you.

“Dead Rising 3” has a more realistic and gritty visual aesthetic, and some fans will choose to adhere to that and play the game as an authentic, zombie simulator. Stick to conventional weapons, conserve supplies, use light and noise to distract zombies so you can sneak by undetected as you scour the city for survivors and a means of escape.

But “Dead Rising 3” would not be a true “Dead Rising” game without the franchise’s delightful zeal for the absurd. You can don a full set of knight armor and build a laser sword, put on a luchador mask and pile drive zombies, and strip down to a banana hammock while wielding a fireman’s axe. Hours can be spent building insane weapons out of random parts, like a teddy bear with machine guns strapped to its arms, or joy ride in race cars while plowing through crowds of zombies.

The options are endless, limited only by your own creativity and imagination.

“The game has a serious veneer, but you can make ridiculous combo weapons and put on ridiculous outfits,” said Alan Jarvie, Art Director on “Dead Rising 3,” during a panel at Comic Con International: San Diego. “It’s all user choice and it’s so much more powerful when you’re enabled to make the game as quirky as you’d like, rather than us forcing comedy on you and limiting the experience.”

“Dead Rising 3’s” Xbox SmartGlass Companion for your mobile device provides more ways to play the game as well. It can set navigation waypoints that guide you and your co-op partner around the city, locate weapon caches, and call in deadly military airstrikes.

“We wanted gamers to be able to press a button and things would go boom,” said Josh Bridge, Executive Producer on “Dead Rising 3. All the extra support gives you more fun, destructive tools to play with, but the development team has carefully balanced them as well to ensure they’re not overpowered.

The Xbox SmartGlass Companion also adds …read more