Dead Rising 4 (Capcom)
Dead Rising 4 launched last December, offering fans a return to Willamette in the shoes of photojournalist Frank West, both from the original game. However, speaking as a Dead Rising fan, I was frustrated with 4. Consequentially, I summarized in my review that Dead Rising 4’s changes to the series’ templet were not only counterintuitive to Dead Rising’s strengths, they made for an outright bad video game.
I’m not the only person who was let down, evidentially, and Capcom Vancouver has been working on another update for Dead Rising 4 that incorporates recurring pieces of feedback.
DEAD RISING 4 UPDATE DETAILS
Dead Rising 4’s survivors randomly spawned on the map, forcing Frank to clear out a wave of zombies to free them. It was a significant downgrade from how the earlier titles handled this component, and now six special survivors will be added to 4 who are more in line with what longtime fans expect. These missions, called Distress Calls, require Frank to clear more elaborate tasks, one of which appearing to involve photography, upon which the survivor will join him. Afterwards, Frank has to escort his guest back to the nearest safe location. Successfully doing so will grant Frank with some new duds.
The other major bullet point regards the Maniacs, which were pale imitations of the Psychopaths from the prior games. Maniacs, in addition to gaining improved AI, will now yield exclusive weapons for Frank to earn. Select bosses will now have a posse of Maniac Minions, too.
Aside from these enhancements, Capcom Vancouver will also add “improved controller responsiveness, faster attack speed, faster zombie horde awareness, more aggressive pursuit, rebalanced weapon distribution, improved zombie AI, mission tuning and more.” Notably, the trailer showcases more animated zombies, which I feel safe in assuming is a reaction to CrowbCat’s excellent video.
This update will launch for the Xbox One and PC versions of the game on December 5, neatly coinciding with the PlayStation 4 release of Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package. Capcom previously confirmed the game would continue to receive updates, although it’s unknown if this will be the final patch.
Honestly, I believe Dead Rising 4’s fundamental issues render it unsalvageable. (You have to take my word for it, but there was a lot I cut from my review since it was already too wordy.) Moreover, I’m still skeptical of the talent that’s working on this series, as Dead Rising 4 was sloppily programmed. However, I genuinely do appreciate that Capcom Vancouver is trying to improve the experience for latecomers to Dead Rising 4. It even gives me an iota of hope for the next Dead Rising.
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