Dead Rising Triple Pack Review

"Covering Wars, again"

Campaign

The Dead Rising Triple Pack combines the entire zombie slaughtering joy of the series into one complete package. This is of course just in time for Dead Rising 4 and will give players a nice chance to catch up. It's also a great package for those that haven't experienced the games yet or for those looking at getting back into the action.

Things are greatly improved across the collection as each game has been fully ported over for 1080p and 60fps. This makes each game run smooth and absolutely beautifully with bright colors and just a better experience. The games also load much quicker than before making it feel like a regular load time. The first game benefits the most from this with load screens being instant and the other two titles also are just a few second which is incredible.

That aside these games are the exact same as before with no changes and it would have been nice to see some improvements being made. This largely in regards to removing certain loading sections or even giving the first Dead Rising a touch up as it does look a bit dated at this point as it was a Xbox 360 launch title. I also had some frame issues with Dead Rising 2 as it lagged during some cutscenes while being absolutely fine during gameplay.

Dead Rising

The original Dead Rising is a classic, it was an amazing game for its time packing a strong story, hours of gameplay and the face of the series Frank West. As this reporter you head into a zombie infested mall in Colorado and attempt to discover what caused all this to happen.

It helped strongly establish the franchise with weapons you could grab anywhere, survivor collection and dealing with psychopaths. It was also crazy how in-depth this game was from the large spaces filled with weapons to the multiple extended endings. This game hasn't quite aged well over time though it still has a certain charm to it and is definitely worth checking out.

Dead Rising 2

The follow up to Dead Rising builds upon the original game by adding combo weapons you can create, a large new place to explore and a larger quantity of zombies. Following the story of Chuck Greene as cares for his daughter Katey during the events of a new break out.

Katey has been previously bitten and needs daily doses of Zombrex with this becoming a focal point in the title. It's mostly just a bigger and better overall experience with a much larger sandbox to roam around in. It also comes with a multiplayer area called Terror is Reality which is done in the style of a games show. Players compete in a series of wild zombie killing mini games and it's generally a blast, I was quite glad to see that this was brought back as well.

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record

Off the Record takes Dead Rising 2 and remixes it bringing in Frank West this time instead of Chuck Greene. It's largely considered a huge improvement over the sequel with many new combos, features and a generally improved story line featuring Frank.

There's also a new amusement park type area that's space themed and Sandbox mode. Sandbox is incredible as it's just an open space for you to do whatever you want in the world without the annoying time constraints. This was a hugely requested feature for the series with this title have cross-stats between Sandbox and Story modes.

Gameplay

The Dead Rising series is a third person game built around cumbersome movement as you swat away at zombies. There are tons of weapons to collect and in the later games weapons to create. Each world is also filled with things to do such as saving survivors, rushing through the various story lines and dealing with crazy yet hilarious psychopaths.

In this package all the games are running at full HD resolution and 60fps, this clearly shows in performance as it's smooth. Cutting zombies up has never been better and all the games have been give a huge boost in loading which is great.

The Conclusion

The Dead Rising Triple Pack doesn't really do anything to improve the series, but these three games are worth it regardless. They each bring something unique to the series from being iconic titles to just improving on each other with great new arenas to tackle zombies.

Improved with full HD resolution and smooth 60fps they run great with loading times that are now solid. You can also opt to buy the titles individually if you'd like though as a collection this series work well.

It was also nice that they kept the multiplayer from Dead Rising 2 as many collections have been axing their multiplayer aspects. That aside I do wish they would have done some touch up work for the games, but I'm just happy to be playing them and covering the wars again.

Dead Rising Triple Pack Review on Xbox One

Rating Overall: 8.0