Almost ten years after the first fantastic chapter of the series, The series created by Keijii Inafune: Dead Rising is back in vogue again. After the amazing announcement during the Microsoft conference at E3 2016 in Los Angeles, and above all after having been able to try it, with the arrival of the Christmas holidays here is the awaited under the tree Dead Rising 4; new chapter arrived in exclusive timeline on Xbox One and PC. Between movies, TV series and much more, the Zombies are no longer scary, they will succeed again Capcom Vancovuer to make us feel even just a thrill mixed between anxiety and disorientation? Get comfortable and find out through our review!
Willamette, home "sweet" home!
Dead Rising 4 marks the welcome return, especially for fans of the first chapter, of the famous Frank West: photojournalist who, at the age of fifty, is still looking for the scoop of the century to obtain the much-dreamed Pulitzer Prize. As happened for almost all the chapters of the series, except for the excellent narrative plot of the second chapter, the plot of the game is somewhat marginal and, perhaps, now borders on one of the biggest limits of the brand. Without talking about it in depth, in order to avoid unpleasant spoilers, just know that the plot of Dead Rising 4 will develop through "Cases" (Chapters to be clear), where the main protagonist together with his trusted students and therefore budding reporters, will try again to shed light on a real conviction that for sixteen years has not made good old Frank sleep peacefully: explosion of the zombie epidemic there is the US government.
Returning therefore to Willamette, the historical setting present in the first chapter, Frank will have to make his way through hordes of zombies, madmen and a mysterious organization called Obscuris, intent on recovering something very precious within the town dressed in joyful Christmas lights. Overall, as mentioned previously, the narrative line is somewhat neglected, and honestly you can't understand why: why in such a creative and flourishing period for the “Undead” category, don't you dare to look for a more captivating, and above all engaging, structure than the narrative? Also considering how the protagonist can be perfect for a possible tragicomic story. Another negative note, heavily condemned by the undersigned, is the elimination of the possibility of playing the history of the title in a cooperative, which in the past chapters was one of the most engaging features.
Killer fantasy
If the intention, as previously announced by the Vancouver team, was to clearly redesign the gameplay of the game, in practice everything is serenely denied. Dead Rising 4 may be a definitive "sequel" to the third chapter, released as a launch title for Xbox One, with in terms of gameplay some excellent ideas re-proposed, but also some "innovative" choices that are definitely questionable (and perhaps harshly criticized). Frank will have, as usual, a myriad of possibilities to dismember all the various enemies that will come before him., taking advantage of dozens of melee weapons, throwing weapons and firearms. If, as happened in the past, having fun creating new weapons (combining for example a hammer and a chainsaw, or a crossbow and firecrackers) could make the gaming experience satisfying, in Dead Rising 4 is not enough.
After only a few hours of play and, I am very sorry to say, boredom will take over. The biggest mistake made by Capcom Vancouver is having eliminated the game timer, a component that in the previous chapters constantly made the game experience very stimulating and above all difficult. Having the ability to move forward in the game without any kind of additional difficulty, will make Dead Rising 4 a Western-style “mosou” in the long run, proposing the annoying and repetitive killing of zombies that, together to a somewhat outdated game AI, will make even the most hardened supporters of the series lose their enthusiasm. The introduction of the EXO Suits, even if you like. These are real armor that thanks to their structure will allow Frank to dismember the zombies in one fell swoop, and also have a series of fun features. Unfortunately, however, everything is limited by a battery that will run out in a short time, and which therefore will make one of the few fun components fleeting, which would also work excellently as a variation of the now saturated gameplay.
The combat system of the series will simply offer you the alternation between a light attack, a heavy attack and a special move exclusive to the weapon you will use. Regarding weapons, promoting the usual availability and variety of them, it is evident that in Dead Rising 4 we wanted to make everything much easier for the players, primarily thanks to the extreme durability of the weapons: in this new chapter before breaking your baseball bat you can kill over 100 enemies, in the past all this was just a mere videogame utopia. Last observation, positive this time, is the introduction of Frank's “selfies”; in fact, to resume the fashion of recent years, the protagonist through his own camera will be able to immortalize himself with the zombies and, trust me, the final result will make you smile. You can also use the camera for gameplay purposes through the use of two filters: one for night vision and another with spectrum analyzer, excellent for finding hidden clues.
Fluctuating technical sector
It is not easy to bring to light a product like Dead Rising 4, especially on a graphic level. By now everyone expects the maximum, and it is also fair given the cost of video games, and perhaps trying to compromise sometimes does not lead to the desired result. The graphics of the game are fluctuating, like the rest of the technical sector, if on the one hand, given the extreme amount of moving figures, we do not find obvious drops in frame rate and therefore the gaming experience turns out to be very fluid at a constant 30 FPS, on the other hand we find in some phases a graphic level equal to the first titles for Xbox One or, absurdly, to titles released on Xbox 360.
Leaving aside some small problems deriving from the hit-boxes of the weapons and from some bugs / interaction with the environment, the title on a technical level is more than acceptable overall. The game's sountrack is a constant mix of Christmas songs and old advertising slogans, unfortunately it fails to affect the right point also given the musical genre. To underline also the low level of dubbing in other languages, especially of the secondary characters.
Anonymous multiplayer
Eliminating the possibility of being able to play the single player mode in cooperative Capcom Vancouver has offered users a multiplayer sector, but which unfortunately turned out to be somewhat questionable. Here, for up to four players, through random stages you will have to complete objectives and accumulate points in order to defeat the other participants. The protagonists of this mode will be survivors that we will meet in the single player mode of Dead Rising 4, who like the protagonist, as they accumulate experience will enhance their specific skill set.
Modus Operandi: the review you just read was written based on the version Xbox One of the title, after completing the main storyline, and spending several hours in multiplayer mode.
