Dead Rising 4

Does Dead Rising 4 make a comeback from its predecessor on Xbox One? Dead Rising 4 is an open-world zombie game taking place in a well-known place by the name of Willamette. A photographer/journalist by the name of Frank West goes back in order to get another big scoop. Based on the original Dead Rising released in 2006.

Dead Rising 4 does lose some of what made it special but delivers some of the best zombie killing action of the entire series while also managing to present an enjoyable storyline that doesn’t take itself too serious but still tells a tale.

Dead Rising 4 has the best core gameplay the series has ever seen. Its inventive and humorous ways to put down the dead are something I still haven’t tired of, and its surprisingly interesting plot is more than just a zombie-killing delivery system. Despite the technical blemishes that come with the series, its lack of co-op story mode play, and the fun-yet-unreliable multiplayer, Frank West’s return brings the series some fresh ideas, a ton of bloody mayhem, and a whole lot of cracking wise. Here’s hoping he sticks around for a while.

What do you get when you combine Dead Rising 1 with Dead Rising 3? (let me just check my calculator…) The answer is Dead Rising 4. No, this wasn’t just some simple math problem, this is how I believe Capcom Vancouver approached this latest Dead Rising game. They took the protagonist and location from the first Dead Rising, the open world structure of the third Dead Rising, and churned out Frank West’s latest zombie-filled adventure in the town of Willamette, Colorado. It’s an excellent combination and provides one hell of a fun game!

When Dead Rising first came out in 2006, we were hit with a bizarre hardcore hack 'n' slasher set in a mall filled with deadly zombies and murderous psychopaths.

At times it feels like a reanimated corpse itself, but as mindless and predictable as it may be Dead Rising 4 is as much fun as the series has ever been.

Even then, Frank West manages to be the smart-ass anti-hero that fans have been longing to see resurface, with the zany means of dispatching enemies making for a wondrous distraction from some of the other issues present in the game. Dead Rising 4 is certainly good, but it's still not as good as it could have been.

Dead Rising 4 is a fun game, the Christmas theme is fantastic and the online multiplayer is pretty fun as well, however being a good game does NOT make this a good Dead Rising game.

Dead Rising 4 is the best at what it does and what it does is zombie killing. The presentation is strong and there are plenty of ways to kill zombies. Unfortunately, the game as a whole feels as worn-down and routine as West himself, from its side-quests to its way-point hunting and overall combat. Worth a look only if you're not fussy about exploring this mostly typical sandbox.

I persevered through the issues on PC because I genuinely found things to like in Dead Rising 4. The silly, if somewhat hackneyed plot was light-hearted in tone and Frank is just as likeable as ever. Investigations are a nice way to break up the action, which is just as insane as it ever has been. However, it’s a ridiculously easy game thanks to a liberal slathering of healing items, and the diabolically bad PC port is frankly embarrassing to see in 2016. A reasonably solid game that sadly on PC is just out of frame.

Dead Rising 4 lacks both the conviction to truly strike out on its own and the features and mechanics that will please franchise fans. As is, it's a game that is bland at its best and downright contemptuous at its worst.

Technical addendum: Dead Rising 4 has a few issues, the most frustrating one being that several of its cutscenes cause it to crash to desktop. The only way to avoid this was to skip the cutscenes, which I was able to do with zero regret. It also has a number of bugs, such as clipping errors, disappearing items and friendly NPCs which spawned half a dozen duplicates of themselves who then spoke in a terrifying chorus. Bar the crashing, none of these things meaningfully interrupted the experience, but it could definitely use a patch or two.