Dead Rising 4

- Reviewed on PS4 -

Dead Rising 4 released on December 6th, 2016.

Frank West returns to star in the fourth, official installment in the Dead Rising series, named Dead Rising 4. 

With a huge open world to explore, hundreds of zombies spawned in at a time to take down, and Frank's humor at a all time high, Dead Rising 4 is / was set up perfectly in my taste (even with the few flaws as well). 

This review WILL have Major Spoilers so keep that in mind before continuing...

The overall gist of the story surrounding Dead Rising 4 has to do with main protagonist Frank West and his student Vicky Chu. 

In the beginning of the story / game, (SPOILER) Vicky convinces Frank (with the promise of mini golf) to help her investigate a military base / compound of its suspicious activities. 

As expected, this "suspicious activity" has something to do with zombies and another historic zombie outbreak in the world of Dead Rising. 

With plenty of twists and turns surrounding Vicky and a main antagonist, a mutated zombie / human named Calder, Dead Rising 4 offered a generic, yet fun and easy story to pursue. 

However, myself and a lot of other players (I'm guessing) found the most enjoyment from exploring the Willamette mall and the open world outside the mall. 

Everyone has their own opinions about the time limit for missions.

Dead Rising is known for these throughout its series, and for me personally I was not a fan of these time limits. 

I just found it so relaxing / less stressful about completing missions in Dead Rising 4 due to there not being any time limit anymore. 

Some might hate this and some might love this, me, I loved it and it made this game much more enjoyable. 

I believe getting rid of these time limits also provides players more time to explore the open world Capcom made for Frank to visit and kill zombies in. 

Speaking of zombies, it was also very cool to see the sheer amount of zombies loaded into the world at once, especially comparing this to the first two Dead Risings is astonishing and impressive. 

One major gripe I have with Dead Rising 4 however, which (especially in the beginning) made it harder for me to enjoy the game with, is the controls. 

Exploring the military base in the very beginning with these hard controls, kind of dampened my relationship with this game and it made me feel as if I was going to just hate this game already. 

You do eventually get used to the controls (at least I did), but if your alternating between video games, then it might be hard to jump back into Dead Rising 4 with the controls it has. 

One game mechanic I really enjoyed was the Exo Suit mechanic. 

Finding one of these suits grants you more health, more power, and crazy powerful weapons / strategies to kill enemies (both dead and undead). 

These suits were often rewards (I noticed) for completing the many side activities / quests throughout the open world. 

The skill tree for Dead Rising 4 is amazing as well and the maximum level cap is now 100 instead of 50!

Original mechanics from previous games, make their returns such as maniacs, combining weapons, saving survivors, etc. 

Voice acting is great for Frank but I did feel like little effort was given for other characters, even Vicky who played a major role in Dead Rising 4. 

Dead Rising 4 kind of felt like a reboot of the series and if your a fan of the Dead Rising series like I am, giving Dead Rising 4 a shot is definitely worth your time and money. 

Pros: 

    - Fun Dialogue 

    - Good Story

    - Lots of Zombies at Once

    - Crazy Amount of Weapons, Healing, Combos, Vehicles, etc.

    - No Time Limit on Missions 

Cons:

    - Bad Controls

    - Input Delay (for Menu Items) 

My Rating for Dead Rising 4 (on PS4):

4 / 5

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Disclaimer

All Reviews, Ratings, Pros, Cons, and Opinions Shared on this Blog (Press A Reviews) are my (Connor Butler) own Thoughts and Feelings.