Dead Rising 4

PEAK CHRISTMAS VIBES. i get it, most people hate this game. and for good reasons. but this is my favorite game in the series because i get to do all the goofy stuff in dead rising without feeling restrained by time. i get to goof off as much as i want without a care in the world. most people have a christmas movie every year. this is my christmas game, and i hope it can be yours too.

For years I avoided playing Dead Rising 4 due to the negative reviews and word of mouth.

I finally decided to give it a try and found that while much of the criticism is valid it’s still a Dead Rising game and one that I had a lot of fun with.

To address the negatives first, yes it’s true that DR4 is lacking the heart and soul of the previous games.

Many staples of the series like the game loop & timer, psychopaths, survivor escort missions and multiple endings have been removed and replaced with more generic gameplay.

Frank West also has a new voice actor and the writing for his character felt out of place. Frank is now an arrogant a-hole who quips one-liners nonstop and will screw over anybody and everybody to get the scoop, contrasting the previous games.

There is a new “investigate the clues” mechanic that I see people complain about but honestly didn’t mind it, I felt it helped to connect to the story better and flesh out the details.

As for the story, it was pretty weak and uninspired. No spoilers but there is a lead into a big reveal that ended up being underwhelming. The final boss fight was the worst in the entire series by far.

The ending itself was just OK, it felt a bit anti-climactic. I found out later there is only 1 ending instead of multiple like the previous games. If you want the “better” ending you need to buy the Frank Rising DLC. Weak.

For the positives, it’s still a Dead Rising game, so you have an unlimited amount of zombies to kill in a myriad of different ways along with an impressive list of weapons.

Also present are the crazy weapon and vehicle combinations, a detailed map to explore with lots of collect-a-thon type gameplay, hundreds of different outfits to try on.

There are survivors to rescue, the catch being the survivors always spawn in the same spots which felt weak. You don’t escort them back to the safehouse either, it’s no escorting at all or only a short distance until they are “safe”.

For a game of this size the load times are impressive, from first boot to playing the open map its quick and seamless.

While Dead Rising 4 is without a doubt the weakest entry in the series its still a lot of fun, especially if you go into the game with tempered expectations.

Go into this knowing its Dead Rising lite and you’ll have a good time.

i can recommend this game to those who just want dumb fun and to just kill zombies, get to wrack up huge combos and play with really fun toys

On the other hand there is a huge downside, if you are a fan of the previous titles this game is incredibly rough to play, Frank has been bastardized and ripped apart from what he once was, there is no combo weapons from the original games, the combo feature is cool but removes the dumbfun mechanics with weapons from previous games, Co-op has been ripped from the game and been replaced with a weird multiplayer 4 player co-op mode with much more to be desired

Its okay, its not dead rising though. Its fun for some mindless gameplay.

If you have a zombie killing itch. This game can scratch it... However, it is bottom of the barrel. Highly recommend Dead Rising 2 and 3. Unfortunately for me the new engine they used on this one was just not good. Feels suuuuper clunky compared to 2 and 3. It just feels like a husk of a Dead Rising game. They used all the same pieces but something was not fitting quite right.

A lot has been said about Dead Rising 4, and the critics weren't kind to it. Although some of it is fair, at the end of the day it's still more Dead Rising for the fans. From there, it will be about managing your expectations.
Let's also get something out of the way right off the bat : the impression I got after a a few hours was "This is just bad Dead Rising 3". 80 hours later, that impression hasn't changed.
Now, the previous entry wasn't gorgeous by any means, but it looked fine. Dead Rising 4 is just... ugly. Between constant pop-up, screen tearing and missing shadows, it's clear that something went wrong. The zombies all look alike, glass reflections and texture details are poor... It's pretty much Dead Rising 3 on low settings, unexplainably.
At least the game offers quite an extensive map, with the Willamette Mall and the surrounding city making up a locale that is pleasant to explore. Tons of places to discover, items and collectibles to find, while trying out the new combo weapons on large crowds of zombies that still look impressive on screen.
Those combo weapons however, are a disappointment. And it's really unfortunate, because they are at the heart of Dead Rising and will usually dictate how much fun you're having.
With fewer than 50 combo weapons, most of which we've seen before, they needed to be great. They're not. There is only a handful of weapons that are actually powerful, so you'll go back to those very often. Otherwise, you run the risk of the "Fish Launcher situation" : Look everywhere for a rare component to craft a fancy new weapon, notice that the ammo is limited and deduce it must be devastating, line some zombies up... And realize that it takes two shots to kill a single zombie. Now that's just sad.
The same goes for the combo vehicles : they don't last very long, and are mostly reserved to certain areas. Nowhere near as powerful or entertaining as they used to be.
Then you have the big, shiny novelty : the Exo Suit. It is powerful, and has a few sets of weapons exclusive to it, but it makes Frank even clunkier and heavier than usual... I ended up using it only when the story made it mandatory.
Speaking of Frank being clumsy, he has a new voice actor, but it's for the worse. Admittedly the guy is doing a decent job, the real problem comes from cringy dialogues, jokes that all fall flat and a story that just isn't interesting. I didn't even mind the lack of a timer which could have allowed more time for side quests, but they're the same three missions randomly generated over and over. Lame !
Another thing comes to mind when I say lame, it's the Psychopaths, or as they're called now, the Maniacs. No more cutscenes, no more personality, just random enemies with more health than the others. Dead Rising 4 deserved better than those.
You also can't play the story in co-op anymore, the multiplayer being limited to timed missions instead. While the concept is an interesting idea, it is unfortunately extremely buggy. Even more so than the single-player, because it's often game-breaking : Disconnections, 5 minute delays everytime someone joins or activates something, crashes... When it works it's pretty fun, but you'll get into a playable game one time out of ten. Rough.
A quick word on the three Dlcs ?
The first one, Frank Rising, lets you play the epilogue of the game as Zombie Frank. A 90-minute timed story mission with a new but very repetitive gameplay that is at best "all right". And it sucks to have to buy a Dlc to see the actual ending...
Capcom Heroes is a new mode that has you play the story with iconic Capcom costumes and their associated powers. Every costume only lasts 5 minutes and you beat challenges scattered all over the map to unlock new, stronger ones. I've never found those costumes fun for very long, so I wouldn't recommend that one.
Finally you have... Minigolf ! Why ? ... Your guess is as good as mine. Frank in his Exo Suit hitting the ball on 24 holes, while unlocking upgrades and new skins, timing his shots to use vents, and aiming at explosive barrels for zombie kills or lucky bounces ! Really unexpected, but... I've actually really enjoyed this one. It's just fun and satisfying, for a few hours.
Now, all of those Dlcs have one thing in common : If you aren't buying Frank's Big Package, they're probably not worth buying on their own.
As you can see, there's a lot to do in Dead Rising 4, especially if you own the Dlcs.
It may be a bad Dead Rising, but it's definitely not a bad game, despite all that was mentioned previously. Had some of the resources been allocated to more important things than the ability to take selfies (Why can I take selfies ? I don't want to take selfies), and had the game not been rushed for a release at Christmas, it could have turned out better.
I'll give it a 6, because it's still more Dead Rising, and I'll never say no to that. Even if it's a pretty gloomy Christmas.

i love taking my time and trying to get a 100% on everything and this game allows me to do it best. i love the story, frank west is silly, and there are so many locations and combos. overall such a fun game that you could get lost in for hours. who doesn't love zombies