Dead Rising 4 seems to get a lot of flak. I think I understand why but I also couldn't help but enjoy what was offered here.

Dead Rising 4 is, again, an open-world zombie game. This time it feels less like Dead Rising (no time limits, no lists of survivors, pretty non-descript psychos and sidecases) and more like a general zombie-killing sandbox. That is the reason I believe people shit on this game. However, I found the sandbox-aspect to be pretty fun. It's mindless fun to mow down thousands of zombies while exploring a well-detailed fictional town of Willamette. Yes, the open world gameplay could use unique twists and interesting mechanics but as a chill messing-about-kind-of-experience it works. The game controls well enough, although picking up the right items in a sea of options is again a bit of a chore. Combo weapons and combo vehicles make their return and I found them to be fun tools for carnage like the last time. The process of building these is streamlined yet again, which was a nice touch. Dead Rising 4 also introduces Exosuits that should amp up the destruction a notch but often I could do less with these than with normal weapons. Suits the game's silly tone though.

And yeah... another reason for the hate must be the tone shift into parody and that it stars Frank West who isn't at all like the Frank West from previous games. This I can't deny, seeing Frank be a huge prick felt wrong at first. However, as the game went on, I realised the writing of this game is leaps and bounds above the previous two games. Those games had real trouble even attempting humour. While DR4 has some stupid hamfisted moments, I actually laughed several times. Gone is also the off-putting sex-crazed vibe that both DR2 and DR3 had. Things also make more sense than in DR3 which is a plus. Basically the story is that you are Frank West and you are drawn to uncover a zombie conspiracy and also see how your journalism student is linked to it. The story also has a funny christmas/black friday theme and some knocks on consumerism which I liked.

Frank's background as a journalist is again put into more use in investiogation sections. These are small puzzle diversions from all the combat. Basically you need to take photos and use three different lenses (think of Metroid Prime visors) to find clues to progress the story. These weren't anything impressive but felt like a nice thought at least.

Audiovisually Dead Rising 4 is a huge jump up from the previous games. The game looks really good and especially the new mall, Willamette Memorial Megaplex, is a treat for the eyes. The music in the game was also quite fitting. There's some pumping boss music in high-octane moments and cheesy christmas songs when driving around Willamette or navigating menus. For Capcom fans, the game has lots of costumes and items from different Capcom games. There's even a Capcom Heroes extra mode where you can suit up as different Capcom heroes and gain their powers for a while. They seemed to really put effort in nailing some Capcom fanservice.

The game also doesn't overstay it's welcome. I think I beat it in 15 hours or so. There's a DLC episode that picks up where the main story ends, that I might try later, and also a minigolf DLC. That I can probably live without.

Fun as the game was, I have again hard time justifying a four stars rating for Dead Rising 4. It's a very 7/10 game for me, just like DR3 was. I feel, however, that this was a tiny bit more fun than DR2 and DR3 so non-visible points for that.

Gameplay: 4/5 Story: 3 /5 Presentation: 3/5

Basis:

Story= plot progression, intrigue, characters, world

Gameplay= Mechanics, gameplay options (freedom), repetition, goals, difficulty

Presentation= graphics, animation, environment/character design, Art direction, Script, music

I have never played the games in this series. I have only heard how wild the gameplay is with hundreds of zombies getting beaten up with really anything you can find. The possibilities for insane destruction are limitless. The creativity in the weapons and vehicles you can craft left me having a really good time wanting to craft the next combo. The game had a pretty repetitive design, but having beaten the game with 65% completion and only 11 hours of gameplay it didn't have enough time to grow stale. There were just too many new things to discover.

The story was pretty basic and clearly played off of the previous games or at least the previous title. The ending left me a little surprised, but there wasn't much character building. Frank West is just a jery jokester the whole game so there isn't a ton to develop there. I like how they kind of went with the Grinch approach toward him.

The main negative part of the game I found was that I got stuck on objects sometimes, the game froze on me while driving through a massive horde and when too many enemies were on screen it would lag up even though I have the hardware capable of running it on high settings. Aside from that, it is a great zombie killer game akin to Left 4 Dead and Dead Nation. If you are into those kinds of games I would recommend this game.