So why is Dead Rising 4 the worst Dead Rising game?

If you've known me for an intermediate length of time, you'll know that i am quite a fan of the Dead Rising series. One very helpful fact enabling this was that they tended to run quite well on potatoes but that all changed with the release of DR4, which would have fried my poor PC had i attempted to launch it. When i (and a friend who knew what they were doing) built an actual good PC some years later, DR4 was one of the first games i played. And the wait was...not worth it. Clues in the title really.

Lets get all the good stuff about DR4 out of the way first. The map is the best of all the Dead Risings, combining the colourful mall aesthetics of the first 2 titles with the wider city layout of DR3. Zombie physics are based on DR3 but improved, with even more bits to dice and slice off of them. The photography mechanic returns, netting you bonus PP (i don't actually know what it stands for but it's the XP system) if you photograph wacky things. This can be an obscene level farm if you know what you're doing, chuck any weighty explosive into a group of zombies and you'll net well over 10,000 PP with a photo. Which is a lot. The framerate isn't capped at 30, so you don't have to poke around in the game files to unlimit it like previous titles. Unfortunately that's about where the positives end. Oh dear.

So to kick things off, the story sucks. Largely due to terrible writing, but underneath all the one-liners there is a sucky skeleton. Previous titles weren't Shakespeare, but 4's story just doesn't really justify its own existence. All the others have some sort of link and impact on each other, but 4 just...gahoy. The dialogue is atrocious, imagine the worst millenial writing you can and you're halfway there. Including 'Well, that just happened' and i'm sure i need mention no more. Most of this garbagio dialogue comes from the mouth of our very own protagonist, OG Dead Rising survivor Frank West - although most diehard fans have taken to calling him Hank East. He's Frank in name and slight appearance only, his character has undergone the most unholy of assassinations. Frank's previous incarnations are wholly different characters, DR1's Frank is an earnest photojournalist hoping for his first big break, DR2 OTR's Frank is a jaded celebrity who can't get over his status as a one-hit wonder. DR4's Frank would be played by Ryan Reynolds. There's a corny one-liner after every SINGLE thing he does, prompting me to turn dialogue down to a minimum after his very first cutscene. Other characters aren't quite as annoying, but they're still written by the same people. Frank hurts the most because he's an existing character and basically the face of the franchise, so it's especially rough to see him like this.

Nextarooni, part of the critical essence of what makes a Dead Rising game has been stripped away - that being the time limited missions. Previous titles had missions pop up and last for a certain amount of time before they'd expire, but DR4 does away with them completely. It's fine if you prefer this way, but it's been a series staple since day one and it stings to get it removed. Also removed are the sidequests? Previous titles would have you locate a survivor and perform some sort of task in order to rescue them, i'm sure you understand what a sidequest is. Combined with the strict deadlines this could make some real clutch moments, when you realise you don't have time to escort a survivor to a saferoom before completing another quest so you have to bring them along on whatever crazy escapades are required. This peaked in DR3, with the addition of the bulletin board system allowing you to bring previously rescued survivors back out into the world with you, letting you form a party of the biggest and best zombie-slayers you can. In DR4, this is replaced with fixed events where you kill the zombies attacking a survivor, and then they run off to a saferoom. They don't even have to survive their trip back to the saferoom for it to count, in my playthrough there was a tragic accident involving a grenade and several cars but they were still saved apparently. i SAW their body go flying. These events also happen in the exact same places each time, which is really boring! Sidequests are a great opportunity for some worldbuilding not found in the main story, and a zombie apocalypse setting is so ripe for this. How are individual characters responding to these events? What might people do if they believe the world is ending? What lengths are people willing to go to in order to survive?

Related to the above point - the psychopaths. Psychopaths are the bosses of Dead Rising, they're stronger people who have either snapped from the stresses of the apocalypse or are using the chaos as cover for their evil doings. Defeating them usually gives access to something valuable, like a particularly strong combo weapon or access to a locked-off area. Like Dead Rising as a series these are colourful and memorable characters - campy and schlocky in the best way possible. Adam is a clown who wields dual chainsaws - who you fight while having to dodge speeding rollercoaster carts. Hunter is a gang leader who rides a motorbike with a steamroller duct-taped to the front. Antoine is a chef whose big interview was ruined by the zombie outbreak, who now makes tasty zombie stew. Are these nuanced characters with depth? No. Are they memorable and slightly disturbing encounters? Absolutely. DR4's psychopaths have been rebranded as 'maniacs' - presumably because they're embarassed to put them on the same level as previous characters. A large part of why these maniacs are such a letdown is the lack of cutscenes, previous 'paths had an introduction cutscene along with a grisly death cutscene upon defeat. These told you why they were psychopath-ing, rather than just being a weird looking model with a big healthbar. Again, these cutscenes aren't cinema but they're a hell of a lot better than nothing. The same goes for the death cutscenes, these perhaps reached their peak in DR3 - whose psychopaths were based on the 7 deadly sins. These had a gloriously cheesy irony to them, Harry (representing Wrath) slices his own head off, Jerri (representing pride) gets crushed by her own trophy cabinet, it's fun stuff. DR4's maniacs are just...there? You kill them and then they're gone? You might get a weapon? All of their fights are also INCREDIBLY similar, you go to an area, fight their minions and then fight them by clicking until they don't move anymore. Even ones with potential to be silly fun like the pirate guy are just THERE. He's exactly the same as all the other enemies you've been fighting, he just looks like a pirate now. It's blatant that they've run out of or didn't have time to think of new ideas for unique mini-bosses, one cult-leader maniac is a reused idea from the first game - only with no cutscene or unique battle mechanics. Ugh!

Related to the above points like some incestuous polycule, the combo weapons. Combo weapons are awesome, there's nothing you can't solve with the unlimited power of duct tape and nails. Combo weapons range from absolutely lethal to silly, this has been a staple in all DR games. Well, the previous 2 that have combo weapons (2 and 3) Consistent among them though, was the idea that this was something that could be made on a workbench. Attaching knives to boxing gloves, an LMG to a robotic bear, a hunk of meat to a stick of dynamite. New combo weapons introduced in DR4 are...too far fetched? i don't look to Dead Rising for realistic zombie immersion, but when you can create an actual magic wand out of a stick and a bauble i've got to put my foot down. They lose the d.i.y survival charm when Frank can make railguns out of laptops and pistols, it just doesn't have the same grungy appeal. Also the split shot has been horrendously nerfed it's made by combining an assault rifle with a lead pipe and in DR3 it was like a long-ranged shotgun with 240 ammo it was so much fun to absolutely mow down a horde but now it does NOTHING.

We'll finish off with what almost was, a couple parts of the game that feel reaaaaaaally close to being fun but just fall short. Capcom Heroes mode lets you play as various iconic Capcom characters, who instead of having an inventory of weapons have cooldown-based skills. A lot of these are cool to mess around with, it's just fun to PSYCHO CRUSHER a group of zombies as M. Bison. Where this falls short is that each Capcom Hero is only available in short bursts, meaning the rest of the time you're just playing regular Dead Rising 4 (which isn't very good). This fault also isn't exclusive to CH mode, but you CAN'T SKIP CUTSCENES FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHAT YEAR IS THIS and so great is my disdain for the game's writing this was a dealbreaker for Capcom Hero-ing further. Also the cooldown for skills is illustrated by a light grey bar on a light grey background which is just awful. The second near miss is exo-suits, these are special military prototypes that give temporary strength and access to big boy weapons. They're kinda boring. You go from being able to freely swap between any weapons you like to being limited to either the default exo-suit punch or a rare big weapon that breaks/runs out of ammo quickly. What's meant to be a temporary HAHA MEGA POWER GO ends up being more of a chore. So why is this a near miss? You can punch cars and they'll go flying.

Perhaps the biggest sign that DR4 is not a good game is that i have not finished it. i like to try and 100% every game i play, but i just couldn't get through DR4 again to give it a full review. The sidequests have been replaced with an OBSCENE amount of collectibles, because ain't no way i was going to carry on with the story as soon as the world was opened up. i played enough that i feel i could write this shockingly bad post about it, and that's enough. i give Dead Rising 4 out of 10 OH FOR FU-