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When there is no more room in hell, the dead will the earth. Again. But when the Dead Rising games consistently make money, Capcom have no real reason to stop. But they might want to re-evaluate just how they crank these out, as the latest entry in the series is feeling a little tired.
In fact the fifth entry in the Dead Rising series, Dead Rising 4 brings back Frank West, the camera-happy investigative journalist from the first game. He's not quite as he was, voiced by a different actor, which has caused some consternation amongst fans.
But in truth, it didn't bother me one bit. What was offputting was just how the game manages to retain the formula but somehow be less appealing than its predecessors. Once again, you run around. viewing the action from a third person perspective, annihilating zombies with an assortment of weapons.
The previous games were reknowned for letting you just throw anything at zombies, but instead interface has been overhauled to restrict you to using items judged to be weapons. Frank does get to wear an Exo-Suit, which is entertaining, allowing you to smash zombies with great gusto.
The game takes place in the town if Willamette, the setting for the original game, though this time you're no longer restricted to the mall. You can roam around town in cars, mowing down the dead. But despite its size, the town managers to be far less interesting than in previous games. The city locales of Dead Rising 3 were chock-a-block with interesting shops and locations. Wilamette, on the other hands, feels very samey.
Even the zombies themselves are disappointing, clad in generic anoraks which make them very hard to tell apart. Granted, the game is set at Christmas time, but the overall feeling you get from playing the game is that it was rushed. This is underlined by the fact that the game's proper ending has been relegaged to downloadable content.
Ultimately, Dead Rising 4 feels like Dead Rising by the numbers. As if you'd described Dead Rising to someone who'd never played the game, and they went ahead and created what they thought would tick all the boxes. The psychopath encounters, which were so ridiculously over the top in the last few games, have been downgraded to 'maniac encounters', without any accompanying cutscenes.
It's not an awful game, just a rather middling one. If you're a hardcore Dead Rising fan, and have played all the other games, it's worth taking a look when it drops to sub-£20. But as is, it feels like a rather bland actioner, rather than a Dead Rising game. The only real thing it did for me was to go back to Dead Rising 3.
Score: 6/10
In fact the fifth entry in the Dead Rising series, Dead Rising 4 brings back Frank West, the camera-happy investigative journalist from the first game. He's not quite as he was, voiced by a different actor, which has caused some consternation amongst fans.
But in truth, it didn't bother me one bit. What was offputting was just how the game manages to retain the formula but somehow be less appealing than its predecessors. Once again, you run around. viewing the action from a third person perspective, annihilating zombies with an assortment of weapons.
The previous games were reknowned for letting you just throw anything at zombies, but instead interface has been overhauled to restrict you to using items judged to be weapons. Frank does get to wear an Exo-Suit, which is entertaining, allowing you to smash zombies with great gusto.
The game takes place in the town if Willamette, the setting for the original game, though this time you're no longer restricted to the mall. You can roam around town in cars, mowing down the dead. But despite its size, the town managers to be far less interesting than in previous games. The city locales of Dead Rising 3 were chock-a-block with interesting shops and locations. Wilamette, on the other hands, feels very samey.
Even the zombies themselves are disappointing, clad in generic anoraks which make them very hard to tell apart. Granted, the game is set at Christmas time, but the overall feeling you get from playing the game is that it was rushed. This is underlined by the fact that the game's proper ending has been relegaged to downloadable content.
Ultimately, Dead Rising 4 feels like Dead Rising by the numbers. As if you'd described Dead Rising to someone who'd never played the game, and they went ahead and created what they thought would tick all the boxes. The psychopath encounters, which were so ridiculously over the top in the last few games, have been downgraded to 'maniac encounters', without any accompanying cutscenes.
It's not an awful game, just a rather middling one. If you're a hardcore Dead Rising fan, and have played all the other games, it's worth taking a look when it drops to sub-£20. But as is, it feels like a rather bland actioner, rather than a Dead Rising game. The only real thing it did for me was to go back to Dead Rising 3.
Score: 6/10
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When there is no more room in hell, the dead will the earth. Again. But when the Dead Rising games consistently make money, Capcom have no real reason to stop. But they might want to re-evaluate just how they crank these out, as the latest entry in the series is feeling a little tired.
In fact the fifth entry in the Dead Rising series, Dead Rising 4 brings back Frank West, the camera-happy investigative journalist from the first game. He's not quite as he was, voiced by a different actor, which has caused some consternation amongst fans.
But in truth, it didn't bother me one bit. What was offputting was just how the game manages to retain the formula but somehow be less appealing than its predecessors. Once again, you run around. viewing the action from a third person perspective, annihilating zombies with an assortment of weapons.
The previous games were reknowned for letting you just throw anything at zombies, but instead interface has been overhauled to restrict you to using items judged to be weapons. Frank does get to wear an Exo-Suit, which is entertaining, allowing you to smash zombies with great gusto.
The game takes place in the town if Willamette, the setting for the original game, though this time you're no longer restricted to the mall. You can roam around town in cars, mowing down the dead. But despite its size, the town managers to be far less interesting than in previous games. The city locales of Dead Rising 3 were chock-a-block with interesting shops and locations. Wilamette, on the other hands, feels very samey.
Even the zombies themselves are disappointing, clad in generic anoraks which make them very hard to tell apart. Granted, the game is set at Christmas time, but the overall feeling you get from playing the game is that it was rushed. This is underlined by the fact that the game's proper ending has been relegaged to downloadable content.
Ultimately, Dead Rising 4 feels like Dead Rising by the numbers. As if you'd described Dead Rising to someone who'd never played the game, and they went ahead and created what they thought would tick all the boxes. The psychopath encounters, which were so ridiculously over the top in the last few games, have been downgraded to 'maniac encounters', without any accompanying cutscenes.
It's not an awful game, just a rather middling one. If you're a hardcore Dead Rising fan, and have played all the other games, it's worth taking a look when it drops to sub-£20. But as is, it feels like a rather bland actioner, rather than a Dead Rising game. The only real thing it did for me was to go back to Dead Rising 3.
Score: 6/10
In fact the fifth entry in the Dead Rising series, Dead Rising 4 brings back Frank West, the camera-happy investigative journalist from the first game. He's not quite as he was, voiced by a different actor, which has caused some consternation amongst fans.
But in truth, it didn't bother me one bit. What was offputting was just how the game manages to retain the formula but somehow be less appealing than its predecessors. Once again, you run around. viewing the action from a third person perspective, annihilating zombies with an assortment of weapons.
The previous games were reknowned for letting you just throw anything at zombies, but instead interface has been overhauled to restrict you to using items judged to be weapons. Frank does get to wear an Exo-Suit, which is entertaining, allowing you to smash zombies with great gusto.
The game takes place in the town if Willamette, the setting for the original game, though this time you're no longer restricted to the mall. You can roam around town in cars, mowing down the dead. But despite its size, the town managers to be far less interesting than in previous games. The city locales of Dead Rising 3 were chock-a-block with interesting shops and locations. Wilamette, on the other hands, feels very samey.
Even the zombies themselves are disappointing, clad in generic anoraks which make them very hard to tell apart. Granted, the game is set at Christmas time, but the overall feeling you get from playing the game is that it was rushed. This is underlined by the fact that the game's proper ending has been relegaged to downloadable content.
Ultimately, Dead Rising 4 feels like Dead Rising by the numbers. As if you'd described Dead Rising to someone who'd never played the game, and they went ahead and created what they thought would tick all the boxes. The psychopath encounters, which were so ridiculously over the top in the last few games, have been downgraded to 'maniac encounters', without any accompanying cutscenes.
It's not an awful game, just a rather middling one. If you're a hardcore Dead Rising fan, and have played all the other games, it's worth taking a look when it drops to sub-£20. But as is, it feels like a rather bland actioner, rather than a Dead Rising game. The only real thing it did for me was to go back to Dead Rising 3.
Score: 6/10