Dead Rising 4, Xbox One Review
YOU JUST HAD THANKSGIVING DINNER. ALL THE FOOTBALL GAMES ARE FINISHED. YOU TOOK YOUR TURKEY COMA NAP. WHAT’S NEXT TO DO? LINE UP AT THE MOTHA TRUCKIN MALL FOR BLACK FRIDAY SALES! THAT’S WHAT YOU DO IN DEAD RISING 4!
Frank West is back, and he returns where it all started with Dead Rising 4! Welcome to Willamette Colorado, and its Black Friday at the grand reopening of the Willamette shopping mall. What could possibly go wrong? Apparently, a lot.
Dead Rising 4 takes place in the year 2022, (Holy Shit, I’m redoing this article in 2022, I’m disappointed, no zombie outbreaks.) 16 years after the original incident. Frank gets drawn back in by a ZDC (Zombie Defense and Control) agent Brad Park, looking for one of Frank’s ex students, Vicky Chu. A few years earlier Vicky tricked Frank into investigating a secret military test facility for zombie research. After a stealthy investigation, Vicky and Frank are discovered by what seems to be a rogue military unit. Vicky takes off on Frank, and leaves him on his own to escape.
All images courtesy of CAPCOM
Some time later Frank is convinced to join Brad on a military chopper and whisked away to the new Willamette Mega Plex shopping mall. For some reason they rebuilt the mall even bigger than before. (Its 2016 and I cant find a mall that has less than 20 closed stores anchored by a Bon Ton and a Sears, but Willamette is jammed full of any kind of store you can think of. Hang on 1980’s malls the future looks bright for you!) The chopper crash lands smack dab into the food court and away we go!
First thing I want to say is way to go Capcom! No longer are we plagued with a “gotta get there now timer or you’re Greg Fockered scenario”. Dead Rising 4 plays out pretty much how you’ve wanted to play the series since it started. You can take your time through every section of the mall until you are ready to leave. Each new section is opened up by reaching a checkpoint of sorts. But feel free to go back to any section any time and just do your thing.
There are weapons and power ups in every nook and cranny that would make an English Muffin cry in shame. Plenty of craft-able special items to make. Feel free to earn xp to level your character up to your playing style with special perks. Take that unique photo, or selfie with the new camera system! Multiple amounts of vehicles to drive and get your Deathrace on in any part of the game!
The graphics are beautiful for the setting. I cant remember being bogged down too much even with what seemed like a thousand enemies on screen at any given time. The sound is over the top squishy and crunchy with that special Christmas elevator music playing in the background. Everything just fits extremely well together.
There are minor flaws I found that can be slightly irritating. Sometimes you can see through some of the walls when the camera pans around. The way point on the compass can be hard to follow and you just end up on the wrong side of the mall even though you know in your head your traveling in the right direction. Sometimes when you’re crafting items, and need to break away from an incoming attack the blue print can stay on the screen an annoying amount of time.
The multiplayer is hordes of zombie fun! Players need to work together to achieve several different tasks to move on to the next challenge. Defuse the bombs, take pictures of a group of objects, or Focker up that boss blocking your way to the next section of the mall.
Overall, I really have to give this 5 beers out of a six pack. Ever since watching Dawn of Dead I’ve always wanted to be trapped in a mall with zombies. Call me “crazy”, saying that, but the joke’s on you. I’m pretty drunk.
This has been Drunken Spidey. Until next time, throw me a beer!
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