Five Things Dead Rising 4 Does Well (And One Thing It Does Badly)
I just picked up Dead Rising 4 the other day and I haven’t been able to put it down. After the disappointments I experienced with Dead Rising 3, I didn’t have a lot of faith in the franchise. I am extremely happy to be wrong. Ten hours in, Dead Rising 4 appears to be a great game that capitalizes on what works in the series and abandons what doesn’t. Here are the five things the game does well (and the one thing it does badly!).
Frank West is not messing around in Dead Rising 4.
Craft is Easier (Making Everything Easier)
The first few minutes of the original Dead Rising are pretty stressful. You’re thrown into the mall, you know there are thousands of zombies, and you aren’t sure how to defend yourself against the endlessly respawning army. You have to learn to craft special weapons and this involves finding rare items and taking them back to work benches. Not in Dead Rising 4. Here, you get the best weapons quickly, you can build it on the fly, and the items you need to build it are easy to find. Some might find this too easy, but having a solid special weapon in my inventory let me feel free to explore and experiment with other weapons knowing that I’d never get myself stuck without any weapons against the horde. Want to try that weird handheld, bladed-fan thing? Craft away! If it doesn’t work out, you always have your handy backup. Want to explore that weird futuristic food court? Go ahead! If you get into trouble, you can bash your way out. Making the game easier makes me want to try everything, go everywhere, and see everything. So far, it works really, really well.
Well this thing looked good on paper.
No More Psychopaths
Psychopaths were an interesting element in the original Dead Rising. These guys were crazed survivors who became very effective homicidal maniacs after the zombie outbreak. Fighting these guys amidst the hordes of zombies made for some exciting and memorable encounters, I particularly remember the chainsaw wielding clown from the first game. Unfortunately, the psychopaths devolved into self-parody by the third game with cringeworthy sequences introducing each of them. Psychopaths are more subtle in Dead Rising 4. So far, they’re introduced in-game and without bizarre introductory cinematics. I like the use of these mini-bosses but I’m glad not to have to watch some painfully unfunny (and often awkward) sequences that come with them.
From chainsaw clown to morbidly obese senior citizen, psychopaths fell a long way from Dead Rising 1 to Dead Rising 3. This lady does not return in Dead Rising 4.
No Time Limits
The previous Dead Rising games were fun but extremely stressful at times as you juggled several priorities at once. Often if you wanted the best ending in the game, you had to sacrifice some side quests in order to pursue the main quest. The only way to see everything was to learn to how to maximize your schedule to be everywhere you needed to be in time. This often came at the expense of exploring the full environment and seeing all the locations the game offered. Dead Rising 4 wisely abandons this system and lets you move at your own pace. You can explore, track down weapon blueprints, rescue anybody you want to rescue, and power up as much as you want. For myself, I spent lots of time exploring the mall, finding hidden panic rooms and bonuses, and leveling up to a ridiculous extent (no farming necessary, the leveling system is very generous). It’s great to see the whole game without ever feeling like I missed anything I wanted to see.
While it’s important to save the world and everything, it’s good to take time out and just have fun.
The Christmas Theme
There aren’t many games that really provide a sense of seasons generally. Games are usually fairly timeless, though there are a few exceptions. Bully had fun with this by allowing its story to play out over the course of a year and using holiday activities and decorations to reflect the passing of time. Arkham Origins also decorated Gotham in Christmas decorations but kept the holiday largely in the background. Dead Rising 4 embraces the holiday as a celebration of consumerism which fits well with the mall environment where the game begins. The music too is a great mix of Christmas music that provides a great sense of ambiance underlying the entire game. It all works really well and may make Dead Rising 4 my favorite Christmas game ever.
These creepy little elves on the shelves are truly the reason for the season.
The Gradual Map Expansion
I mentioned that the game reminded me of Bully in its Christmas theme decorations; another element that the game echoes is the gradual expansion of the map. In Bully, you begin in Bullworth academy and gradually expand out into the nearby city as your adventures expand. Dead Rising 4 reminds me of this gradual escalation as you move from the Willamette Mall to the surrounding city of Willamette. But both games do a great job in developing your sense of efficacy before moving locations so that the skills you learn in the mall translate well into the more open-world surrounding community. I haven’t seen the whole world yet, but I am very excited to see what else the game has to offer.
You don’t want to spend all your time in the mall. Get out there and explore!
But the One Huge Mistake the Game Makes? No Coop!
Given how well the whole game works, it’s really disappointing that the game doesn’t bring back the cooperative gameplay that worked so well in Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 3. This could potentially be the best cooperative game of the year if I could play with a buddy as I could in previous versions. It would certainly be a game I’d want to return to repeatedly to experiment with items and just enjoy blasting the undead. So – while I continue to bemoan the lack of cooperative titles this year, I’m putting cooperative gameplay in Dead Rising 4 on my wish list for next year. Who knows, maybe Capcom will come through.
