I’d almost forgotten that Dead Rising 4 was due for release this year. Since it’s official announcement at E3 this year I’ve not seen much in terms of news or advertisement about it. So when I was reminded that it was coming during December I was quite surprised. That being said, I think Microsoft did the same with ReCore, a console exclusive that I’d forgotten about when it was released due to the lack of build up to the release. It is an odd decision from Microsoft to not want to give their exclusives a push, especially when they are as fun as Dead Rising 4.
Now I wasn’t a big fan of Dead Rising 1 or 2, I didn’t give them much attention when they were first released, and felt that the re-released on current gen was sloppy and felt very dated. I also missed out on DR3. But having played Dead Rising 4 to completion I have to say that Capcom have done a great job at making a game that is just pure simple fun.
There is an argument to be made here, that Dead Rising 4 is a bit too easy. But I feel sometimes games are allowed to be made to be a bit silly, not take themselves too seriously, and let the gamer just enjoy mindless fun. In a world where a lot more scrutiny is being put on games stories, presentation, depth, and now given the success of Dark Souls, there is some expectation that a certain level of challenge should be expected from a game. But personally I welcome a game like this, that throws those expectations out of the window, and remembers a time when games were allowed to be just a silly past time.
Dead Rising 4 sees the game return to the location of the original – Willamette, with original protagonist Frank West. The old mall has gone, and in it’s place is the new memorial mall’ which suffers the same fate as the original - an influx of those pesky zombies. Frank, now a professor goes back to where it all began to solve another mystery, which leads you to the town of Willamette itself, to find out just what is going on this time.
Unsurprisingly, killing zombies is the main focus here, using any means necessary – melee and thrown weapons are present along with projectile. Anything you can pick up can be used, and it is possible to assemble combinations of different items to create even more bizarre and funky ways to kill. A personal favourite of mine is the Blam Bow – a combination of a crossbow and fireworks leading to colourful explosive death. Particularly effective in large groups of enemies. The combinations also extend to vehicles, which are fairly effective at downing the undead without added extras.
There is some variety in the enemy types in the game aswell, standard zombies and some variations of that, along with armed militants, hostile survivors and ‘maniacs’ which are like mini boss battles across the map. The enemy variation is certainly welcome, and helps stop the game becoming too stale, which is a risk with its relative simplicity. But I found that the straightforward control and ease of killing enemies to actually be the games strongest point. Along with its ability to handle the amount of zombies on screen at any one times, it’s impressive that the frame rate holds up as well as it does. A game like this that can have direct comparisons with the original game also allows us to see how far gaming visuals have come since the start of the last generation. This is not a game that is going to win any awards, but graphically it is much stronger than I expected.
Dead Rising 4 is not a game you’re going to buy if you want a strong story with well developed characters (thought I find Frank’s humour to be very entertaining, complementing the games tone very well), but I would certainly recommend this game just for its ability to not take itself seriously, and allow you to embrace gaming silliness, it even has a nice Christmas theme! Of my 18-20 hours with the game, I enjoyed the majority, and there aren’t actually many games that I can say that about.
**Thank you to XCN for providing the review copy of the game**