Dead Rising 4

DEAD RISING 4 review

I am a big Dead Rising or at least I think I am, my first DR game was Dead Rising 2 I played the hell out of that game on my PS3, it was fun it was hard and to this day I remember all the characters maybe not the names but that is something I forget even in real life… Anyway, then I played number 3 and it changed few things, like adding vehicles and adding more of an open world but it still felt like a sequel that was worthty of DEAD RISING name despite being developed by a different studio, it changed just enough without changing the whole game, and the best part was the game had tons of great references to previous titles in story and easter eggs.

Sadly I have not played the 1^st game or the DLC, I grew up with a PS3 and the time I couldn’t play DR1 or any of the DLC, while I do own DR1 I haven’t had time to play (don’t judge). But I know the basics of plot of the game is so I knew what DR4 meant, I knew that Frank was coming back to the where it all began, and I could imagine all the problems he would have to face coming back there, so I was excited.

But when I got the game I notices big changes straight away, I didn’t have the feel for the controls, something felt different, but I thought I haven’t played any DEAD RISING in while so I’m just rusty. The I picked up for food and didn’t know where it went because I clearly remember that you could see what food you had in your inventory I thought maybe my memory is just playing tricks on me, then I picked up a weapon and I couldn’t throw it, I was like I’m, pretty sure I was able to do that before, maybe they just moved it to a different button, but after doing some research they just removed it.

The only question I have on my mind now is, is the weapon throwing code still in the game somewhere but it’s just not mapped to any of the button, because it looks like the game is running on the same engine as DR3 did so a safe bet is that it is, but I can’t access the files to find out… Maybe someone will hack the pc version and prove me right but at the moment I’m just a nerd who think he know better.

Back to my experience with the game, so I’m playing and I haven’t notice anyone mentioning that I have to do something before something. I didn’t think anything of it, but now I know they’ve got rid of the time countdown but in their defense the story they’ve provided here just didn’t ask for a timer but upon finishing the I also noticed there was no multiple endings, I mean now I think they just pulled of a big “who gives a fuck” judging by how many people unlocked the trophy/achievement for unlocking all the ending only a very small percentage of people actually did, so why bother right? That is just dumb by the way, but I’m not the game developer so what do I know about making another in a long running series.

What also stuck out to me during my gameplay was how linear the story was, and how there was no crazy mini bosses, well there was a few enemies that we apparently maniacs but there was no cutscene that introduced their reasons for being weird and loosing their mind, neither did they provide any challenge since all I had to do was use BLAMBOW a few times and he/she was dead.

The only change that I liked was being able to craft combined weapons on the fly, that made sense to me all the other changes don’t.

It seems that the developers opened their inbox after making DEAD RISING 3 and have read all the emails from little boys/kids who wanted GTA out of Dead Rising, and have read their complaints and said “hey you know what, they are right these addition will make the game more accessible” so here are some examples of letter I managed to steal from Capcom (this is just a joke):

“hey dear Dead Rising Developers, I love your games but if there is one thing that I don’t like in the series is that the game has time countdown, I can never collect everything in one, forcing me to replay the game multiple times for fun, please change that, yours biggest fan Michael age 12”

-he is right, let’s remove the countdown so people can explore city at their own pace and find all the secrets, let’s ignore the fact that having a timer made think and choose a path and stick to it, so it feels like you’re trying to survive a zombie apocalypse and don’t have time for everything. And let’s not forget that the timer was driven by the story.

“hello Capcom, I hate how in your game I have to choose between carrying food or cool weapons, what is this game about? A zombie apocalypse or something, I just hate how I have to make decisions I just wish I could carry it all at once, in cod you have a separate slot for grenades and shooting weapons maybe you should do that, Johnny age 16”

-Ok that makes sense let’s make separate inventory slots for every type of weapon and food so now you no longer have to worry that you have to get rid of a baseball bat to make room for food or some orange juice, but let’s ignore the fact that having a limited inventory is more relatable and making a tough choice of which weapons and what food to carry with you so that you survive longer is important.

“Hey Capcom I’ve hear your game is not selling so well, I think it’s because there is lack of guns in the game, just look at GTA and COD they sell well and they have a lot of guns so I think you should do that. Sammy age 15

-He has good point, I mean we won’t get rid of the melee weapons but we’ll switch focus to guns we’ll make sure there is a gun around every corner and hopefully this will boost the sales.

“Yo, Capcom I hate the whole multiple endings nonsense I just want to play the game once and be done with it, look at all the other games, how many games have different endings only a handful so get rid of it or I won’t buy another game. Badboi97”

-Ok he’s right with this change we also can minimize the amount of time we spend on writing the story, so we no longer have to write all the possible endings, this will ultimately save us time and money, genius.

All of those decisions seem like the right move forward but they take away so much from the actual DEAD RISING experience, with no time countdown I no longer have to make sacrifices and wonder what happens if I choose a certain path, with a huge inventory separated into types I no longer have to worry if I run out of food or ammo plus for some reason I now no longer can throw my weapons at enemies which doesn’t seem like a big deal but when you pick up a cash register or a giant ball you don’t wanna be hitting with that you’d rather throw it at the zombie but no, so you just basically ignore these weapons and since there is such an abundance of the everywhere you don’t really feel like you have to pick it up because you can find it anywhere, and also melee weapons have become useless to a certain degree since combat weapons are more powerful and they are everywhere. The game no longer feels like a survival game it feels like a kids playpen with every toy imaginable. Where is the fun or challenge when everything is within your reach, huh?

And since they removed the time countdown and all the multiple endings you no longer feel the need to play the game again except to collect all the collectibles of which there is no shortage, you’ll be collecting blue prints, cell phones, newspapers, clothes, podcasts, take pictures of tags, keys to panic room then find the actual panic room, I mean there is a ton of content in here but is no actual value to it, the information you get from podcast and cell phones doesn’t add to the story or the overall lore of DEAD RISING, so you’re just collecting for achievements basically. Similar thing with blue prints, you seem to get the best one at start and all the other locked or hidden ones are just not as powerful or exciting not to mention the fact that you’ll be finding crafted weapons everywhere anyway it’s not like they’re hard to come by. Another great thing taken away just to make the game more accessible.

Story in Dead Rising 4 is interesting but ultimately it was very ok, not everything made sense. I don’t wanna post any spoiler but trust me the story was just bland.

The ending is actually pretty good along with the final boss battle. This was definitely my favorite part of the game.

I was expecting the whole Christmas Setting to play a bigger role especially with the maniacs.

Here are some examples of MANIACS I was expecting to run into.

-a person who’s family turned into zombies except for him, so he had killed them, but since he couldn’t cope with the loss he kept them and sat them down to the table and was pretending he’s having a normal Christmas with them, then Frank could come in and try to talk sense into him but he would just lose it and you’d have to kill him because he is trying to kill you.

-A customer who is standing in the store waiting to be served but clearly everything is trashed and there is no one there but dead zombies, a he/she really wanna buy a toy for their kid which after killing him/her, the kid would come in turned into a zombie to his parent and the parent would be in denial so they would come to hug and show the toy but the kid kills his parent.

-a guy lost in the woods looking for a perfect Christmas tree, maybe he finds one and basically loses it and tries to kill all the zombies around thinking they’re still humans and he thinks they’re trying to steal the perfect tree from him.

These are just a few I would have added to the game but I didn’t make the game so yeah. They are just ideas for all you know they maybe wouldn’t have worked.

I think I already mentioned a lot about the gameplay so I’m just going to go into to much detail here, but zombie killing is still fun despite the changes, ofcourse when I’m killing them I wish I could do what I was able to do in previous games.

The camera plays a big part in the game and I actually quite enjoyed using it, I though all the upgrades they’ve made to it were just unnecessary but they did change the gameplay up a bit so I’m not mad, they only thing I didn’t like was that even although I knew that there was false door somewhere I couldn’t open it until I used the spectrum analyzer I thought that was a bit stupid I get why you do have to but I would have been better without it.

Let’s also talk about glitches, this games is definitely the worst in the series in terms of glitches and bugs, the game crashed on me twice, zombies were inside the walls and I could finish rescue missions, the game did block my controls multiple times when trying to search through bags and trying to jump over certain object, I would just get a run around in circle animation or he just stand still. Very annoying. How about the new green eyed zombies which don’t always seem to register your hits or bullets, the amount of times I was swinging my weapons at them and they didn’t get hurt was so annoying, same thing when I was shooting them.

The exo suit is pretty cool if a little to powerful gotta love the Mega Man Zero suit, but the weirdest thing is when you get it during the mission and lose it after entering a door on entering another part of the mission, it just vanishes it doesn’t break or anything that would make sense, just poof and it’s gone, and no one questions it.

The map in DR4 is big, there is a lot to explore but not much to do, there is no mini-games or side-mission, you’ll get the occasional maniac or survivor in need of rescue but that’s about it. Here is another thing rescuing survivors couldn’t be easier just kill zombies around them and they’re safe, what happened to bringing them back to safe houses? I think this is another one of the complaint that development team took to the heart…

What was really disappointing was that there is plenty of reused locations like Shelter which are exactly the same in 4 point of the world, with exactly the same NPCs which say exactly the same thing, And how about the toilet in the mall, I get that they would look similar but there are 3 (I think) toilets where a big plant is broken exactly the same way in exactly the same location, they could have atleast make that 1 of them is broken, 2^nd one is fine, and 3^rd one is just not there but no…

The other thing about the shelters is that they are your marketplace but since you can everything on the floor everywhere it just seems pointless, I have never ran out of food or ammo or for that matter any weapons, they are everywhere and in huge numbers. So all the money you collect is useless because you don’t need to spend it. There is vendor that is selling clothes but I have found all of them in one the stores at the beginning of the game, and even all the locked item in the shop say I have purchased them simply because I found them, so what’s the point? That is just stupid. And while we’re talking about clothes, it seems they’ve recycled half of them from previous titles, which is disappointing but not a major flaw.

The only thing worthwhile to purchase from the vendors are maps with collectibles.

Graphically the game is good looking, it looks just as good as 3 did, maybe just a little better but nothing noticeable, there is still tons of zombies on screen and the frame-rate stays solid without any major slowdown.

Music, there is no music besides the all the christmasy music you get when pausing the game but that gets old pretty quick. Sound effects are what they are solid no complaint here.

The Voice acting was very solid I enjoyed it. While I did not remember all the characters as they were lacking well Character, they were very generic.

I have no comment on multiplayer as I haven’t played it nor did I ever play any of the series online. I’ve heard some complaints about the lack of co-op but I can’t comment on that.

Overall Dead Rising 4 is disappointing tittle in the series while the game clearly has a lot of content it is quantity over quality sadly. A lot of your favourite things from the previous entries are gone with the dodo.

But it seems that the game is being accepted by more people now, as I’ve heard a lot of people saying “I hated the countdown, now I can just fuck about without worrying” (even although they’re still not considering purchasing the game... While I totally disagree with that because that was one of the things that got me into the series.

I say you should pick this game up, but not for more than £20! There is quite a lot to do but nothing here justifies the £40 price tag when compared to the previous titles, this feels like a budget title with a AAA amount of content, if that makes sense.

The fact that the game is set during Christmas but doesn’t take full advantage of that besides few weapons and decorations around the mall is very disappointing; I will never say that this is a Christmas game.

GOOD

-Lots of Zombie, and satisfying combat.

-Great variety of weapons.

-Huge map, with lots of collectibles and secrets

-Satisfying ending and final boss battle.

-Good looking game with a solid frame-rate

-Tons of great Capcom references/easter eggs to games like Okami, Mega Man, Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Bionic Commando, Power Stone ect.

-Lots of customization/clothes and costumes for FRANK

-Some funny scenes/weapons/vehicles.

-Solid controls

-Great voice acting.

-Taking photos is fun.

-Get to keep al l the clothes you find.

BAD

-No multiple endings

-No countdown

-Generic story

-Too easy

-Weapons and food are everywhere.

-Huge and separate Inventory for each type of item removes challenge

-All foods have the same amount of healing power.

-Not being able to throw melee weapons or guns…

-More of a shooter than a zombie survival game

-Maniacs are not memorable or even presented in a memorable, let’s not forget to mention how easy they are because guns are everywhere…

-Tons of collectibles but no real purpose/reward for collecting them.

-Collectibles blend with the weapons and it’s hard to tell them apart

-Money is useless

-Shelters all look the same/a lot of re-used locations

-No real reason to replay the game.

-Christmas is not a big part of the game as it could have been.

-Glitches, zombies in the walls, new zombies not registering hits, crashes.

-Exo suit just vanishes during mission for no reason that would make sense.

-Exo suit is too powerful?

-You seem to get best blueprints at the start and the locked/hidden ones are very weak or just not as cool.

-No need for blueprints when all the combined weapons can be easily found in bags and panic rooms.

-Recuing survivors is as simple as killing zombies.

-Very linear

-No mini-games

-Favourite weapons are gone, baseball bats and tennis rackets don’t shoot balls.

-The RPG upgrade system makes you invincible to a certain degree.

-It doesn’t feel like your ever in danger of dying.

-Recycled clothes from DR3?