Review by Gianluca “DottorKillex” Arena
Frank West was, without a doubt, one of the most charismatic and empathic protagonists of the last generation of consoles, who almost inaugurated, in 2006, with Dead Rising: it is therefore not senseless the intuition of Capcom Vancouver, which, on the occasion of the ten years of one of the brands that most characterized the Xbox brand, proposes not only the boastful freelance photographer, but also the dear, gloomy Willamette, symbol of the deepest American province, fertile ground for government experiments, large-scale epidemics and ... huge shopping centers , real cathedrals in the desert.
The ingredients are the same: thousands of zombies, hundreds of weapons, a handful of survivors more disturbing than the monsters themselves, but Capcom Vancouver has put his own, flavoring the final dish both by addition and by subtraction.
Welcome to Willamette, Colorado. Again.
Epidemics… epidemics never change
Destroyed by what in Italy we would call "strong powers", for having made heavy accusations against the government without sufficient evidence, Frank West is no longer Willamette's star, even if people still have a very pleasant memory of him, despite the past sixteen years from the events told in the first Dead Rising.
Now he appears as a middle-aged gentleman, just entered the twenties, who leads a quiet life and teaches journalism in a provincial college.
A good professor, evidently, because he manages to instill the seed of doubt and the taste for the scoop in his students, one of whom, Vick, pulls him out of bed in the middle of the night to propose a story.
Initially annoyed at having been woken up at night (moreover with an outfit of his own), Frank ends up giving in to the irresistible charm of the scoop, gets in the car and gets involved in a story that will soon prove to be much bigger than he thought.
Arriving at a reservist base, where only a handful of soldiers should be stationed, the two stick their fingers too deeply into the jam, set off the alarm and find themselves facing a heavily armed paramilitary force, which was protecting a pool of scientists conducting zombie experiments.
The mystery deepens, as the zombie infection vaccine is now in the public domain, and things get worse when Frank gets stuck in the base while his ungrateful (and idealistic) student flees by car.
Months later, further degraded to work in a night school, Frank sets off on the trail of Vick, who in the meantime has completely devoted himself to investigative journalism, and, following the crumbs, takes the Colorado road again, towards Willamette.
As for the previous titles, the strength of the narrative sector of Dead Rising 4 lies not in the quality of the plot or in the twists, but in the excellent characterization of the protagonist, who leads a "one man show" from the opening credits up to those in the queue, doing their utmost in selfies, memorable jokes, loud comments and curtains that will not fail to make you laugh out loud.
The Capcom franchise has never taken itself too seriously and precisely in this creeping humor one of the keys to its success must be sought: this last chapter not only does not betray expectations, but takes the concept to its extreme consequences, with a satire that does not it spares consumerism, the military and today's way of doing journalism, just to name a few.
With his braggart, stubborn, irreverent and heedless of danger, Frank West is a candidate to make his mark in the history of Xbox One just as he did for the previous Microsoft console.
Tradition and novelty
Although it can be safely said that the beating heart of the series has remained almost unchanged, there is no shortage of substantial news, first of all the elimination of the timer, which, inexorably, characterized the original episode.
Capcom Vancouver has taken a good risk, and, like all courageous choices, this will prove polarizing, because so many players appreciated the stringent passage of time, while many others would have preferred to explore the game world more calmly.
The developer has listened to the latter, eliminating all constraints and leaving the player free to move around the various areas of Willamette at will, leaving aside the main one to devote himself to secondary events or, simply, loitering.
We, in principle, liked the gimmick: the map is full of activities to be carried out, points of interest that reveal the background of the plot and secondary stories, and often test the new weapon just created on hordes of zombies, without caring about the he progression of the plot is almost cathartic, as is wandering around the fictional metropolises of any Grand Theft Auto.
On the other hand, however, Dead Rising is a franchise that has never been reported for the depth of the optional assignments or for the characterization of the NPCs, and therefore, spending many hours around Willamette, there is a certain sense of tiredness, due to quests that are very similar to each other, practically devoid of context and additional dialogues, and with standardized objectives that add only a few extra weapons and a few coins to the overall gaming experience.
The timid steps that Dead Rising 4 takes in the direction of role-playing games, also evident from the renewed skill tree, which includes 107 skills divided into four categories, will also have to extend to the quality of writing and the variety of subquests if Capcom wants to continue on this. street, which we believe is appropriate for the franchise.
The elimination of the time limit, in fact, allows you to dwell much more on level design, on the search for assorted newspapers and collectibles, of projects for the construction of new, devastating weapons, and, above all, it helps the player to immerse themselves more in the world. game, very well characterized as per the tradition of the series.
Another apparently insignificant introduction, and which instead has a significant impact on game rhythms, is represented by the possibility of combining materials to give life to new weapons wherever you are, freeing the player from the workbenches seen in the previous chapters. .
Indeed, by unlocking a skill that can be obtained already in the first hours of the game, it is also possible to combine objects that are not currently present in our inventory, but found around, so as not to have to free the slots, very limited in number at the beginning of the adventure.
Even the interface has enjoyed a general restyling that has improved its usability and intuitiveness: with a combination of d-pad and triggers it is possible to move easily between the three main types of weapons (throwing, firing and melee), while by pressing the right analog it is possible to activate Frank's legendary camera, this time equipped with a night mode, essential for seeing in the dark, and a spectrum analyzer, useful for unlocking closed doors with numeric keypads.
Otherwise, the core of the gameplay is unchanged, and whether this is good or bad is up to the reader: the indiscriminate slaughter of zombies hasn't changed that much, and melee weapons still work better on average than firearms, plagued by an aiming system that is sometimes imprecise, so much so as to push the developers to insert a mode of aiming assistance, priceless for clashes against hostile humans.
Also noteworthy are two new types of undead: some, similar to those seen in films as 28 days later, have just been infected, and as such they move with the speed and coordination typical of a human, while the others can control hordes of basic zombies, moving an abnormal amount of rotten flesh against the player.
The increased power of Xbox One and greater confidence with the hardware compared to the debut have then allowed maps generally more extensive than those of Dead Rising 3, with all the strategic variables that follow.
Hordes on the screen
A few words on the technical sector before dwelling on the multiplayer one: unlike the third chapter, the launch title of the current Microsoft flagship, Dead Rising 4 struggles much less to keep hundreds of zombies on screen at the same time, and we only ran into drops in Episodic and very short framerates, far from ruining the gaming experience.
This greater effort to which the engine is subjected is paid for with a fluctuating texture definition, with some bugs on the physics of the bodies (several times we have deadened a zombie only to see it remain standing, motionless and impassive, even if no longer harmful to Frank ) and on delayed loading of surface textures after reloading a save and opening cutscenes.
Overall, the work done is good and the glance of the hordes is remarkable, and basically this is what counts in a title that has always made the masses of the undead one of its reasons for pride.
In addition to a long-lived single player campaign, the product offers an online co-op for up to four players, which proved to be fun and frenetic, thanks to the reintroduction of the time limit: through matchmaking and long missions divided into two days, players will be able to impersonate one of the many characters met along the main storyline, challenging each other based on scores.
The scores improve if you are able to complete the missions during the given time window, without dying (death generates penalties in terms of points), and by winning the various tests you have access to high-level loot, as well as to a skill tree all new, detached from the single player campaign and focused on multiplayer skills.
On the other hand, the unlocked skills are shared among all the interpretable characters, so as to always guarantee a sense of progression even to the defeated players: at the end of the two days in-game, you face a decidedly challenging boss (which can generally be recalled by playing a gong).
Although we found the gameplay of the main offline mode to be more balanced and enjoyable, the multiplayer enriches the game offer and will certainly extend the life of the product in the months following the launch.
Final comment
Capcom Vancouver took a good risk by eliminating the stringent timer that characterized the previous episodes of the franchise, but, apart from that, it played it safe, offering the very essence of Dead Rising elevated to the nth degree.
In our opinion, in the absence of a timer, you can enjoy Dead Rising 4 in a more integral and relaxed way, marking the rhythms of the adventure according to your tastes and sifting through the huge map at will.
For the rest, the intent of this episode is the same as the three predecessors: to offer the player a huge playground full of rotting walkers, while providing him with all the tools to give himself to the slaughter with style, perhaps dressed in the most unlikely possible.
If you are still looking for this formula, you have found your Christmas title: the return of Frank West will not disappoint his fans and will offer a consistently longer experience than in the past.
On the other hand, those who have never loved the franchise will hardly change their minds after this latest release.
