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The first of four DLC episodes, Broken Eagle is in theory to Dead Rising 3 what Opposing Force is to Half-Life. As spec ops commander Adam Kane, your mission is to infiltrate Los Perdidos and influence events that took place in the original game, such as kidnapping the US president and generally being a nuisance.
Despite playing as an antagonist, not much has really changed. Special forces Kane may be, but thanks to his chopper – of course – getting shot down in the intro he starts with little more than two knives and a bad attitude. Players are still asked to hop around the city, rescuing (or killing and retrieving the dog tags) of scattered teammates, in between continuing the main story thread and scooping up new weapons (like an excellent minigun) and other items.
As such, Broken Eagle retains the core appeal of Dead Rising, as well as some of its flaws (the city’s roads are still too closed-off, and picking up bunched items is a chore). Sadly, Kane’s assignment is both a) very short and b) quite boring. Capturing the president won’t take much more than an hour of your time, and that includes doing some side quests and dicking about. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem if the mini-missions that make up the central task were unique or even just interesting, but they’re not. Instead, Kane spends most of his time on familiar fetch quests and other errands.
Also disappointing is the omission of co-op mode, which will be the case across all of the episodes. The development team has stated that it has done this to focus on the narrative, which might be one of the worst decisions they’ve made on the whole project. Unless something drastic changes – and it hasn’t here – DR 3’s story is merely an excuse for wanton zombie slaying. Removing co-op to focus on it is madness.
A mixed bag, then. The new weapons and vehicles are cool, but no co-op and a uninvolving, short main campaign hampers enjoyment. Let’s hope for better in episode 2.
Played for 1 1/2 hours.
