Dead Rising 4

Review

It’s now fifteen years since the city of Willamette suffered its first outbreak of Zombism, courtesy of Dr Barnaby. Well, a new outbreak was reported six weeks ago and the famous journalist Frank West, armed with his camera, is ready for this new challenge. But this time someone is a step ahead of him . . . his own student, Vick Chu, is already on the ground. What is she up to? It is time to find out, Mr. Frank West.

Dead Rising 4 is a third person/ action game set in an open world full of zombies; welcome to the charming city of Willamette.

I have been a fan of this franchise for quite some time. In this sequel, Frank West will have to resolve seven cases around the peaceful city of Willamette. He will start case number one at the city Memorial Megaplex after his and Brad Park’s helicopter was shot down by the Obscuris military units. From here on end, he will have to navigate throughout the city to solve each of the cases. 

There are plenty of collectables to find in this game: blueprints (which will show Frank which items to combine to create powerful weapons and deadly vehicles), newspapers and cell phones (these are secondary cases; resolve them and Frank will receive additional prestige points) and podcasts (they are Vick Chu recordings which give you additional information in relation to the story). With his camera, make sure to take picture of the zombie graffiti’s, give a smile with selfies when hordes of zombies are about to leap over Franck, the choice is yours!

Make sure Frank searches bags and drawers, as they have coins and items (mostly weapons) which can be very helpful if he is running low on weapons, and he will. His arsenal will be a combination of melee, long range and throwing weapons. Look around for those Exo crates, open them and Frank will be pretty much untouchable in the Exo suit! Each zombie kill will give Frank prestige points which will go towards levelling up. As he reaches a level, he will be receiving a skill point which can be used on four skill trees, which are: Brawling, Fortitude, Shooting and Survival. With the coins, you can purchase new weapons, food, and clothing at the shelters.

New zombies are featured in this game: the Fresh zombies (who are very fast, annoying little pests and can be identified by their red eyes) and Evolve zombies (which have green veins and can take a large number of hits; they, too, are quick). Apart from the zombies, Frank will also have interesting encounters with some survival groups, such as the maniacs and the military units.

Find a mirror and Frank can change his looks, from clothing to tattoos and more. It’s great!

The gameplay is what you would expect if you already played the previous games in this series and it is a lot of fun, let me tell you. The animation is great and the graphics are splendid. The soundtrack is great too, especially when you have been killing hordes after hordes of Zombies; switch to the skill trees with a cool jazzy music, which just makes you smile! From the controls point of view, I preferred to play with the mouse and keyboard but I did not mind the gamepad at all. One point I did not like is the camera angle when you jump into a vehicle. Sure, you can adjust it, but I personally do not like it.