Dead rising 4 review

 It's snowing. People fall too. And the Christmas tree doesn't light up, it burns. Christmas carols play in the background, and Santa with a circular saw cuts off the heads of hordes of zombies. This is Dead Rising 4.

The Dead Rising series is a great example of how sometimes you don't need to put too much effort into a sequel to get a decent result. This is the fourth installment based not only on exactly the same mechanics but also having a similar story with a similar ... hmm ... the same main character. Even the location largely agrees.

The main character of the series, Frank West, is a photojournalist. Ever since he first came across the phenomenon of the zombie epidemic, he has become one of the specialists in the case. Not only from the journalistic side, which he proved already in the first installment, surviving in the company of the living dead for several dozen hours. Then he did exactly the same in two more scenes - the clock was ticking, Frank West was trying to survive.

And here is the first of the few changes - Capcom gave up the timer. The clock has been put aside and the specter of temporary failure no longer hangs over us. No more compromises. If you want to explore every corner of the map in peace, you have every right to do so and no numbers at the top of the screen will disturb you. At last! But I belong to that group of players who simply don't digest all sorts of missions on time (well, maybe apart from single escape sequences).

However, the main location of the game, i.e. a shopping center filled to the brim with attractions, has not changed. And although it is a secondary idea and quite exploited, the game surprises with its scale and locations surrounding the commercial heart of the city, which we will also visit during the game.

First, however, a short introduction awaits us, which will present scraps of the script, here called the plot. Humanly speaking - he will try to convince us that going from marker to marker has some sense beyond the extremely pleasant fun of fancy breaking through successive hordes of rotten opponents. In short - our protégée decides to conduct an investigation on her own about a secret military facility where people and zombies are experimented on. As you can guess - it quickly disappears under mysterious circumstances. So we follow her footsteps equipped with the necessary camera and everything we find on the way. Literally.

The hallmark of the Dead Rising series, apart from the location, are also sophisticated tools of more or less mass destruction. This trend also persists in the "four", also experiencing a certain "casualization". Creating the most powerful connections still requires finding the right plan, but its implementation comes down to pressing one contextual button when we are near the ingredients to execute it. This significantly speeds up the production of the best equipment and does not force us to memorize what goes with what, so that something else comes out.

A large open space, no timer and no crafting facilities - all this together makes Dead Rising 4 show almost all cards from the very beginning. A double-edged sword, because we have a lot of fun from the very beginning, but on the other hand, we limit the number of potential surprises. Among these, the exoskeleton stands out, created a bit like the power armor from Fallout 4. It will not protect us from radiation, but it will add a lot of strength and a bit of speed, opening up completely new possibilities for fun. Just by using much heavier weapons - large poles or minigun. However, we must use it carefully, because, just like in its Fallout counterpart, Frank West's exoskeleton also consumes energy that we have to recharge. So it is worth using it wisely, helping yourself in the most difficult moments.

And the weapon itself? Here, we start with the standards of baseball bats, pistols and Molotov cocktails to smoothly move to toilet plungers, rocket launchers and axe-shurikens. Or something like that. We will quickly construct an explosive hammer, attaching grenades to its end, an electric decorative wreath, or a go-kart that electrocutes everyone around. And dozens of more or less twisted combinations are waiting to be discovered, with the swordfish crossbow at the forefront.

So we go from point to point and kill another horde of the undead. Something else? And yes. As befits an open world game, there is a lot of optional work waiting for us around. Mainly related to saving survivors who show their gratitude with items and experience. For the most skilled explorers, the creators have prepared quite a lot of more or less hidden items and information on the map.

Occasionally, we also recapture shelters that were built after the first invasions. After cleaning them, not only will we be able to search them, but NPCs willing to trade with us will find their way there. From weapons, through maps, to vehicles - with the right amount of money, we can buy literally anything.

It is a pity that there is nothing more to the shelters, such as the possibility of expanding them, or the need to occasionally defend against bandits, but on the other hand, I do not know if it would not distract us too much.

There's still a camera. A tool that will serve us in two ways. The obvious function is to take photos (you can shoot selfies!). What for? For extra experience points. If we manage to take a photo of a horde of zombies, a few corpses and some other interesting fact, we'll get a whole bag of expeks for it. The closer, more and more dangerous, the more experience. You can also forget about it completely.

However, we will also use the camera to push the plot forward. Occasionally we will find ourselves in places where we need to look for clues. We collect them by taking photos of them. Sometimes we also need to use alternative display modes to find information invisible to the naked eye. Importantly, following the clues is not irritating, because everything is basically in one place, and on the other hand, it engages us in the story, thanks to which, even after two hours of fun, we will remember what we are doing and why.

What Dead Rising 4 impressed me the most was the atmosphere of fun. The biting humor of elderly Frank and the literal presentation of pre-Christmas zombie-consumerism to the rhythm of classic American Christmas carols are something that makes it worth giving this game a chance, even if we have avoided similar productions so far. Dead Rising 4 doesn't lie to us that it's trying to be more than a fun game to unwind.

After 15 hours, 20,000 undead exterminated, dozens of locations searched and over a hundred weapons crafted, I don't regret the time spent. I will say more - I regret that after the end of the game you can't go back to the game in free exploration mode. There is New Game+, but it means having to go through everything again.

I deliberately omitted technical issues in this text to leave them for the end. I have mixed feelings towards them. On the one hand, hundreds of quite smoothly animated zombies appear on the screen, on the other ... the graphics look average. The textures are not sharp, there are not many effects, and there are occasional fps drops anyway. So if you're looking for a feast for the eye, Dead Rising 4 is definitely not for you. There are also occasional glitches. Vehicles can get stuck on small objects, sometimes the camera is annoying, and the detection of hits in melee combat leaves much to be desired.

In the end, we are dealing with a successful sequel that does not bring anything new, but is an extremely pleasant piece of code. If you want to turn off your thinking while playing the game and have fun, I recommend it.