![]() ![]() "The game does a good job of throwing challenges at you. It’s not full-on campy nor is it Dawn of the Dead reborn. ![]() Am I meant to laugh or be depressed? It’s all probably meant to make you feel heavily drugged and/or hallucinogenic like a zombie-fueled fever dream. Yes, they have cool weapons but it’s just…weird at times. While the general game is meant to be taken seriously, you have moments like racing in a go-kart around a track full of zombies or taking on various Maniacs with different gimmicks like demented Santa and his elves or Lady Sandra and her knights. Heading to the menus will have this upbeat soundtrack blaring as well. The next minute, a helpful little pop-up with joyous Holiday music informs me of Panic Rooms and Safehouses. One minute I’m knee-deep in a nightmarish scenario, being questioned about Frank’s morals as a journalist, human being and overall jerk. The entire motif of the game can be very strange. Other characters like stern government agent who clicks hot selfies of himself and stern military woman who has something to do with the outbreak pop up and they’re decent side-attractions when they’re around. ![]() Vick is a more complex character, coming off as indignant and annoying at first but generally righteous overall. ![]() This improves a bit later on but there are plenty of occasions where Frank’s wise-cracking feels odd (TJ Rotolo’s replacement does an alright job though). Leaps in logic aren’t anything new for this franchise but Frank seems to lack a lot of the endearably jerkish traits that, well, endearing jerks are supposed to have, at least in the beginning. I’m not going to lie – it was really weird to see such a vivid nightmare of Frank’s demons to start the game off with only to see budget Bruce Campbell gleefully chopping up zombies and being “professional” a few minutes later. West is now being recruited to crack the story wide open and hopefully before Vick, already on the scene and several steps ahead of him, can be even further out of her depth. Spooky experiments are afoot involving zombies but why? When West tries to stick to his reporting guns and Chu abandons him, it’s fast-forward to four months later when the entire town has become overrun by zombies. West is now a professor but still infiltrates a “Reservationist Training Facility” at the behest of Chu. In Dead Rising 4, Frank West is on his way back to Willamette with Vick Chu, his student. "Am I meant to laugh or be depressed? It’s all probably meant to make you feel heavily drugged and/or hallucinogenic like a zombie-fueled fever dream." Unfortunately in terms of narrative and gameplay mechanics, Dead Rising 4 does very little to innovate on a franchise that – when it was first introduced – was quite unlike anything we’d seen at the time. The tension of survival is still ever present thanks to a much more heavy handed narrative than the previous game and it actually feels more in line with the first Dead Rising. How many survivors can you find? How much of the game can you complete and discover before the bomb drops or evacuation is required? What blueprints will you craft and which weapons will you discover to fend off hordes of zombies? There was a sense of purpose to it all, even if Dead Rising 3 tried to expand ever further into the open world space with greater elation.ĭead Rising 4 changes that by completely removing the timer in the single player campaign, thus allowing you to explore the town of Willamette without any restrictions. These are hack and slash crowd brawlers that simplify their mechanics to facilitate a timed exploration of the map. Open world titles are complex beasts and it’s always been interesting to look at the Dead Rising series within that context. ![]()
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