Dead Rising 4

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.

Here's why the ratings are mixed:
This game is different than the previous Dead Rising games:
1) Timer removed. Previously you could not do everything in 1 gameplay. Now you can.
2) Frank West has a different voice actor and personality change. Arguably not the real "Frank West".
3) "Psychopaths" were replaced with "Maniacs"--objectively with the latter being less interesting encounters.
4) Survivor mechanic simplified. Instead of rescuing and escorting them to the shelter, you just have to kill things around them and the objective is complete.
5) More light-hearted and less 'dark' compared to previous DR games. Christmas / Valentine's themes etc...
6) It's less punishing and more "user accessible" compared to previous entries.
7) People attribute it to the 'death of the game' due to the studio shutting down despite DR4 selling reasonably well.
8) Without spoiling things, people feel like the story was ruined at the end, but Capcom did try to make up for it with DLC.
Having said that, this is a fun game. It is easy, but it's infinitely re-playable. The level up mechanics are fun and it was a good felling finally hitting max level. The only thing I don't really like about this game is that the online multiplayer is dead. Sometimes I'll get grouped with people who don't speak English at all but that is rare even. Your online character is separate from your offline character's level and stat points and there's a few to choose from. The overall Christmas theme of the game makes it a really fun game to play around Christmas. Buy it on sale if you're curious, but this game deserves better reviews.

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

Even though it has many negative reviews because of its state before and maybe it is not that good compared to the previous entries, I will say this I have a good time playing with this game. Get it on sale.

Overall it was fun. The main campaign / story was cool with decent action. And the DLC was actually a lot more fun than I expected. I wouldn't say it's worth full price but definitely give it a go if you want some zombie killing action.

It's an ok game, if you get it in a bundle or on sale, it's a funny game that doesn't deserve all of the hate.

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