6. A Sequel With Major Gameplay Improvements?!
Sequels are welcome because honestly, it is developers giving us more of what we love. That doesnt change the fact that some sequels sour the experience by visibly putting forth little to no effort in actually improving upon the foundation already in place. There are also sequels that completely misinterpret what made their franchise so awesome in the first place, to the point where they kill the fun. Dead Rising 3 was developed by a new development team within Capcom that basically said Lets finally take what people hate and entirely overhaul it, regardless of how much work or time it will take. The most notable improvement is recognizable from the very beginning; you have no in game time limit for the main story questline! Yes, you can finally explore the zombie apocalypse at your own leisure, without fear that you will miss content or wont be capable of completing an objective on time! If you did like that restriction though, you can choose Nightmare mode from the very beginning, which also eliminates the new save anywhere mechanic. Another drastic improvement is that you are no longer confined to a mall or casino, because Dead Rising 3 is an entirely open world game with absolutely no loading between areas. The map isnt necessarily as huge as something youd see in a Bethesda game, but the design of main quests and side quests feel heavily Western gaming inspired. This may be the generation where Japan finally axes off its more archaic gameplay mechanics that feel so awkward in 2013, especially when jumping from an open world as seen in an Arkham game to something seemingly designed in an air vacuum, ignoring all tried and true methods. Even more improvements are the fact that you can simply jack any working vehicle on the streets. Its a logical evolution from looking up exploitative methods on GameFAQS message boards for earning $2 million, just to pay some random jackass with for the car keys, even though the car will break within 5 minutes of pinballing zombies anyway. Crafting weapons has also been improved with the ability of being able to craft anything possible from your inventory on the fly. No more stopping whatever youre currently doing to backtrack to the nearest bench- as if making electricity shocking wheelchairs was more believable because it was constructed at the aforementioned work bench anyway-. In addition to this you can also purchase upgrades that eliminate harsh restrictions on needing exact weapons to make a combo one. If you put points in Blades for example, you will be able to exchange katanas for machetes. You can also create combo vehicles which are utterly ridiculous and awesome; seriously, combine a steam roller with a motorcycle for ultimate effective zombie genociding. Survivors also work differently this time around and act more as followers from a Fallout game- complete with their own statistics- instead of grating, whining nuisances that you have to babysit on your journey to the nearest safe house. Any survivors that follow you can be stored universally across multiple safe houses and can be called upon at any time. Some survivors dont follow you and reward you with PP- the games experience currency- for helping or assisting them initially. Your inventory management has also undergone some logical tweaks and is overall less forgiving. Quest items no longer hog a spot that could go to another zombies killing death creation, and skill books no longer impede on your weaponry either. You just equip one from the pause menu which feels much more natural. This is just the tip of the iceberg as far major gameplay improvements go, but the collective result is a game that transitions between objectives and content much smoother. One could almost say it feels like an entirely new franchise but