Dead Rising 4 Xbox One Review

I never played a Dead Rising game and jumping into the fourth installment of the series felt intimidating. After completing the first mission these uneasy feelings quickly dissipated. I was excited to start killing hordes of zombies and the story had me hooked from start to finish. I wish the iconic maniacs were more fleshed out as in past games but regardless of this shortcoming Dead Rising 4 is a zombie killing good time.

Dead Rising 4 stars Frank West, once glorified journalist who survived and covered the original zombie outbreak, now attempting to recapture his glory days by uncovering a brand new conspiracy. Returning to Willamette after 16 years with his student Vicky Chu, she explains that a source of hers has a tip on a secret government project going on there. The two investigate before you know it the town is once again infested with zombies. Frank escapes before the quarantine goes into effect but is pulled back into Willamette by the Brad, an agent for the ZDC. Offered a chance at a story that can skyrocket him back to greatness Frank agrees to enter the zombie infested streets of Willamette again.

Each of cases are separated into cases, completing one lets you access the next. This doesn’t mean the open-world of Willamette is closed off, you can explore and go anywhere with the exception of a few story-based locations. 

The main story is great offering exciting twists over the course of its 6-hour campaign. Gone is the timer and now players can explore at their leisure. Most side missions have you securing safe houses, saving survivors, and taking down maniacs, a person driven to insanity. Unlike other Dead Rising games they serve less as a mini-boss and more like a powerful human enemy. They still have unique themes attached to each battle but they rarely offer a challenge. Dead Rising 4 isn’t difficult since you can find healing items pretty much everywhere. Collectables are available for those who which to learn more about the game’s story.

Dead Rising 4’s signature gameplay returns in full effect here. Frank will kill hordes of zombies, craft weapons using the tools around him, and earn experience for better upgrades. At no time did I experience any dips in the frame-rate, considering that hundreds of zombies were on screen this is impressive. Zombies come in one of three types: regular, fresh, and powered. The regular zombies are nothing more than cannon fodder and can be easier killed, the fresh zombies are quicker and have higher defenses, and finally the powered zombies are quicker, stronger, and can summon the horde to your location. Humans are smarter and use guns and melee weapons but still rarely offer much of a challenge. With a powerful arsenal of weapons, you can tackle almost any challenge. 

Weapons are plentiful and readily available. Traditional firearms and explosives are available but the thrill of Dead Rising comes from building your own weapons. By collecting resources around the environment Frank can craft a multitude of weapons on the fly. However, you’ll need to gather blueprints littered around the map to unlock these recipes. The newest addition to Dead Rising 4 is the Exosuit, a robotic armor with a finite power supply. Once equipped Frank is nearly unstoppable and can wield weapons specific to the armor such as Battle-ax or a modified Slushy Machine. 

The player can upgrade Frank further by investing into 4 categories; brawling, fortitude, shooting, and survival. Experience is generosity given through completing missions, side objectives, and killing enemies. By the second chapter, I reached level 36 by just roaming around killing zombies. Due to the large amount of enemies on screen and surprisingly short loading times, you can expect some graphical hiccups. These aren’t common nor are they game breaking but they’re notable such a zombie clipping through the environment.

Frank’s a journalist and one of his most trusted pieces of equipment is his camera. Now upgraded thanks to Vick this device can do more than take photos for bonus experience, it can be used to find clues. During specific segments, Frank will need to analyze a scene to locate clues using his camera’s night vision and spectrum analyzer. They’re mediocre distractions and only serve to progress the story forward but a decent change of pace from zombie slaying.

Dead Rising 4’s multiplayer has 4 players surviving in a series of 4 episodes. Unlike the single-player campaign each of the four characters, you can choose from have special talents such as melee, range, thrown, and healing. The characters come from the campaign, which is better than having random strangers. The timer makes a return in this mode but mostly it only serves as a way to prevent players from farming experience. Compared to other online cooperative missions in games like Resistance 2 and Halo 4 it’s mediocre mode for those looking to play with friends. It doesn’t add much to the story and it plays similar to the campaign since, despite having specialized talents, all characters can use all types of weapons making playing as a team less important.

Dead Rising 4 isn’t a challenging game but it’s a blast to play. The single-player story is exciting and encourages you to move forward while the side missions unlock unique weapons for you to use. The multiplayer is passable but the single-player adventure story is a refreshing take from a beaten genre. Dead Rising 4 isn’t challenging but it’s entertaining and a great adventure worth playing for those new to the franchise and fans alike.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
Twitter | YouTube | Facebook