Because Capcom cares about the PC Master Race, earlier this month they brought the latest entry in their zany zombie-infested sandbox series to PC with the Dead Rising 3 Apocalypse Edition. Like a good friend coming over for a slumber party, it brought all its toys with it. That alone should make it the best version of what many consider to be a great time, except for the fact that much of its potential for greatness is still being held back by a number of issues that could have — should have — been fixed with this edition.

Don’t get me wrong. I really like this game. It’s incredibly addictive, sporadically charming, has one of the best arsenals in gaming and is, for better and for worse, decidedly Dead Rising in its flavor.

I spent enough time with the Xbox One version and all but one of its DLC expansions to max out my character and I had no problem returning to Los Perdidos for another go on PC. It was almost like reuniting with a friend I hadn’t spent any time with in nearly a year.

Almost.

I would normally welcome the chance to see how many thousands of zombies that my PC is capable of displaying at once so I could use my arsenal to bring it to its knees by freeing as much gore and viscera as possible. The Apocalypse Edition comes with the unspoken promise that it will let you paint the city’s streets red with the coagulated blood of your enemies, and if that’s all you want then you may as well stop reading now because nothing I say in the following paragraphs is going to deter you.

If it’s praise or a more in-depth examination of its mechanics you seek, there’s plenty of both in our review of the Xbox One version.

It also promised a joyous reunion with an old friend who I haven’t seen in some time, but looks to have changed for the better. Only this friend hasn’t changed, and where I thought I saw the result of ten months of improvement, I only see those same flaws, those frustrating quirks and many of the overarching problems that have permeated Dead Rising since the beginning.

If you haven’t played Dead Rising 3 yet, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a gritty reboot. It isn’t, and that’s a very good thing. We have lots of gritty zombie games to pick from right now with more on the way, so a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously is refreshing. While it may look different, this sequel is just as silly as its predecessors, only where they fully embraced their wackiness, Dead Rising 3 seems to aspire for more.

What it wants to be is a question best left to Capcom. What it is is a conflict of style and substance. Stylistically, and sometimes tonally, this game wants to be taken seriously. Its visuals lean toward realism and much effort went into making its world and its ghoulish population look and feel real. Its core cast was designed to be relatable in an attempt to inspire us to invest emotionally in them and almost everyone else was intentionally exaggerated because that’s how Dead Rising does it.

The flaw in this approach is we’re never given enough substance to make us care about the serious stuff, and I’m not just saying that because I was running around dressed as Uma Thurman from Kill Bill, dropping zeds with teddy bears I armed with machine guns not five minutes before you used a rapidly deplenishing timer to get me to sit down long enough to watch that emotional cinematic. It doesn’t work that way. If you’re going for serious, be serious. If you’re going for comedy, be funny.

Rather than pick a side and pursue it, Dead Rising 3 tries to mix the two in an effort I wouldn’t even call admirable, since both sides were left underrealized and half-assed in their execution. That gritty style might help this game appeal to that Call of Duty audience Capcom so desperately wants to attract, but all it did was make this series’ most glaring issue even more obvious.

Scouring every bloody foot of a big open world that’s brimming with the undead for blueprints to craft insane weapons and vehicles to unleash on those unsuspecting ghouls isn’t likely to ever grow old. Dead Rising has gotten that part right since the beginning and done a fine job at introducing steady refinements to that winning formula with each new game.

What will grow old is having to quit all that fun to make room for what feels like work.

It’s like if your parents gave you an hour to play, made sure you never forgot how much playtime you had left, then forced you to do a chore before you could resume playing. That’s what the campaign feels like to me. I’m having a ridiculous amount of fun until that timer comes perilously close to running out. I’ve made a game out of seeing how much aimless fun I can cram into my limited amount of playtime before I need to progress the story or risk failure.

Even if the tonal inconsistencies don’t bother you, the tiresome dialogue, repetitive quests that rely too heavily on insubstantial filler (or, as I sometimes call it, MMO quest design) and the occasional breaks it takes to let its psychopaths (boss fights, essentially) poke fun at certain types of people. It’s meant to be funny, but it comes off as mean-spirited.

As good as Dead Rising 3 can get — and believe me, it can get good — it has some quirks that can leave a lingering bitterness where there should be childlike glee. Los Perdidos may not have the personality of say, Fortune City, but it’s a fine sandbox to play in and we’ve been given more than enough toys to make ridding it of its undead inhabitants fun for a long time.

This is why I can’t help but look at the Apocalypse Edition as a missed opportunity. Capcom had a lot of time to take the negative feedback the original version received and use it as a foundation for improvement. If using ridiculous weapons to mow down hordes of zombies was all of it, then this review would have an entirely different tone to it.

When the thrill of using a new weapon combo or hunting for every single collectible I could find — I do this, because I’m that guy — start showing signs of turning monotonous, the story should offer a brief a palate cleanse, not something I reluctantly partake in just so I can continue having fun.

Since one of the major draws to getting the Apocalypse Edition is that it comes with all four of the Untold Stories of Los Perdidos expansions, it’d be irresponsible of me to touch on that in this review. I’ve already gone into great detail regarding the many mistakes Capcom made with Dead Rising 3’s DLC, so the gist of it is not one of the expansions is worth your time.

Seriously. Not even one. None raise the level cap, they can’t be played in co-op, they’re short (a couple hours long each), shallow (the quests are copy/pasted from previous expansions or the main game) and add nothing to the story.

The positive score I’m about to give this game may fly in the face of pretty much everything I just wrote. Just know that I’m only critical because I’m a fan of this franchise and I want it to succeed so I can continue using its creative arsenal to eviscerate each and every ghoul that’s dumb enough to get in my way. It’s worth mentioning that Dead Rising is still a relatively new franchise, and that fact comes with a certain amount of leniency for mistakes.

The Dead Rising series has definite potential, a talented developer behind it and plenty of room to grow. If Dead Rising 4 is as much of a step forward as this game was, this series has a very bright future ahead of it.

The Final Word: The Dead Rising 3 Apocalypse Edition may be a missed opportunity for some much-needed improvement, but that doesn’t change the fact that a great time can be had, assuming your PC is up to the task. Just make sure you go in fully aware of its many frustrating quirks.