‘Chaos Rising’ is the latest piece of downloadable content from Capcom Vancouver for their Xbox One exclusive Dead Rising 3. Sadly, much like the previous two installments of the ‘The Untold Stories of Los Perdidos’ DLC, ‘Operation Broken Eagle’ and ‘Fallen Angel’, ‘Chaos Rising’ slips into mediocrity more than majesty. At $30, or £24 for those of us on the other side of the pond, the season pass to these tales may well be leaving a sour taste in the mouths of gamers.
Dead Rising 3 was arguably the best launch title from the underwhelming line-up that greeted the next generation of consoles. While Killzone: Shadow Fall and Ryse offered next generation visuals, the third installment to Capcom’s Zombie stomping trilogy gives gamers the opportunity to slay thousands of the undead on-screen at once in one visceral, zombilicious experience. Both previous Dead Rising games were brilliant, but the third one takes it to a new level with crazier weaponry, beautiful visuals and a few million gallons of blood. What a shame it is then that the downloadable content continues to tarnish the good work the original game has done.
Now, Dead Rising 3 wasn’t exactly a storyteller’s dream but then again that was never the purpose of the game. The drive behind the experience was fun, to have a laugh in the most over-the-top way possible. Nevertheless, while the story may not have been the focus, it is unforgivable for the DLC to rid itself of story entirely. Quite simply, the ‘Untold Stories of Los Perdidos’ is a poorly constructed collection of glorified fetch missions, weapon blue-prints and a new ‘skin’ to chop up zombies in. Is it fun to mow down zombies with a minigun? Well yes, the sky is still blue isn’t it? The question is are all these micro additions justification for the steep asking price of the downloads, not to mention the hefty 13GB patch needed as well? No, and the poor quality of these attempts does nothing but bring down the good ship Dead Rising to a level it shouldn’t have to dwell at. We aren’t talking about the unholy abomination that was the full priced season pass to Aliens: Colonial Marines, that game just sucked from points A to Z, but for an otherwise great game to cheapen itself in the eyes of gamers over lazy DLC is disappointing. Then again, this isn’t exactly a new trend.
Cast your thoughts back to 2006, when Bethesda Game Studios decided to take a hammer to their superb work on The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. For ‘only’ a few bucks you could be the proud owner of useless, but admittedly pretty, horse armor. That’s right, horse armor. No matter which spin you put on it, that is just wrong. A horse sized pile of wrong. Dead Space 3 developers Visceral Games clearly didn’t get the memo from Bethesda because they thought micro-transactions would be a wonderful way to erase the good memories of the previous two installments. These are example of poor DLC being remembered as much as the brilliant game it was designed to serve.This is not to say DLC is always bad, The Last of Us: Left Behind DLC is great, adding depth to an already enthralling game. Bioshock Infinite barely got away with it with ‘Burial at Sea: Episode 1’ but looks on far more stable ground with the second episode.
We return then to the problem called Dead Rising 3. With the foul smell of ‘The Untold Stories of Los Perdidos’ DLC still lingering in the air, and one final installment on the way, has Dead Rising 3 been left for dead? Its strengths are probably worthy enough to save it from the dustbin but Capcom Vancouver sure did a good job of trying to throw it in there.
How about for you? Does poor DLC cheapen the experience of an otherwise good game and if so, can it ever be forgiven?