Dead Rising 3: Chaos Rising DLC Review

Continuing on in support of its season pass for Dead Rising 3, Capcom Vancouver has released Chaos Rising, the third episode in the game’s set of DLC-based Untold Stories of Los Perdidos mini-narratives. Released at a $9.99 price point like its two decent but wholly unspectacular predecessors, this add-on marks the debut of yet another playable character and introduces a handful of new items into the fold, in addition to a hefty amount of additional collectibles. In the end, though, it’s simply more of the same formula we’ve become accustomed to from the Canadian developer and its Japanese parent company, and the result is more of the same. The difference this time around, though, is that there’s a shorter run-time to be found, as well as a general lack of overly interesting content.

The star of Chaos Rising‘s brief show is one Hunter Thibodeaux, who begins his career as a video game protagonist from the interior of a jail cell. Luckily (for him), the police officers who were once responsible for watching over him have all turned into shambling zombies. This provides the former biker gang leader an opportunity to dupe a brain-eater and steal his keys, in order to make a quick but dangerous escape, before setting out towards his goal of getting revenge against those who had him imprisoned.

Although things begin with only questions and no answers, we’re quickly led to believe that it was our anti-hero’s former gang members who screwed him over. However, depth in storytelling is not a strong suit of this particular experience. Mr. Thibodeaux isn’t a complex individual, though, so I guess his plot line fits his rather one-dimensional persona. It’s all about being the baddest of them all and reclaiming his place atop the most prestigious chopper, as opposed to providing us gamers with anything to really think about.

The most interesting thing about Chaos Rising is how its events directly influence the main game, which is, of course, the story of mechanic Nick Ramos. I won’t spoil anything for you, though, because I have no interest in being that guy.

So far, Dead Rising 3 hasn’t received an expansion that equals, or even comes close to rivalling its greatness. It’s too bad, but Capcom set the bar so high with the retail product that it’s hard to really chastise them for not reaching those heights again through these bite-sized add-ons. If these weren’t entertaining excuses to jump back into the corpse-filled fold then an argument could be made, but that wasn’t the case with the first two and isn’t the case here, despite its lack of originality. There’s always fun to be found in Los Perdidos, but these add-ons unfortunately lack unforgettable qualities and replay value enticement.

In keeping with the formula that Operation Broken Eagle and Fallen Angel utilized, Chaos Rising presents a mixture of main and secondary missions, the latter of which correlate to its three different types of collectibles. For the most part, it’s a heavy dose of fetch quests, which involve finding and returning motorcycles and attempting to take out fellow gang members for their prestigious rings. Additional bikes can also be hunted for, but you’ll find that they’re temperamental and frustrating to deal with. They take limited damage and explode rather quickly, especially when you’re dealing with streets crowded with zombies that take away vehicular health whenever they’re run over. It’s tough to miss the suckers, though, and the questionable fact is that said motorcycles disappear once they’ve been destroyed, leaving zero room for trial and error. As such, those who want to go for all of the newly-introduced achievements will want to make sure they’re careful and methodical, else they’ll have to try again during a second play through.

The gameplay remains solid, and has been added to through the addition of new items. There’s at least one new weapon to be found, as well as a badass combo motorbike that chews zombies up with its mounted blades. They’re both fine and dandy, but simply add to an already impressive list of base weapons, default vehicles and combo variations – quite a few of which are better than what Dead Rising 3: Chaos Rising incorporates. The same is true of the voice acting and character animations, which aren’t as impressive as they were in previous episodes.

It probably goes without saying, especially since the first two episodes were very similar, but Chaos Rising isn’t something that will make you love Dead Rising 3 if you didn’t love it before. If you were a huge fan to begin with, though, then you’ll probably find some enjoyment here, in what is essentially an excuse to return to the crowded and dangerous streets of Los Perdidos. As the avid zombie slayer that I am, I was relatively entertained by what I received with this package, but cannot wholly recommend going out of one’s way to purchase what is the most lacklustre of the three available expansions.

This review is based on the Xbox One exclusive, which we were provided with.