Dead Rising 4 falls short of being a Dead Rising game and feels like another sandbox game with zombies. While there are some improvements over the last game, they’ve also replaced lots of things that made the game unique. However, I don’t believe that all the blame can be placed on this game but shared with Dead Rising 3. The timer system and escorting survivors have been removed which are what made Dead Rising unique, however DR3 removed the survivor escorts completely and gave you so much time to complete the game that it was basically nonexistent. There are also less combo weapons to create than in DR3, but that’s not a bad thing, because in DR3 there were hundreds of combo weapons but most of them were basically the same and I honestly forgot about most of them, while in this game they feel like they put more thought into them.
My biggest problem with the game is the story. Dead Rising games aren’t famous for their great stories, but this one feels very lazy. All Frank talks about is “getting the story” and you’re forced to do selfish things in pursuit of it. I thought this was going to be a build up to where Frank finds himself alone because he pushed everyone away to get the story but no, everyone still supports him even after his actions have cause others to die and be injured. The side stories are also lazy because instead of interesting psychopaths or weird survivors, the most you get are a bunch of regular enemies but wearing a silly hat. But the worst part of the entire story is the ending. Frank dies, but it’s not a great sacrifice or because of his selfishness, there’s a short cutscene where he basically misses the evac chopper. Which would have been bad enough, except that they released a DLC where you play as zombie Frank called Frank Rising which continues the story making the ending feel like an excuse for the DLC to exist.
I don’t believe that this is the worst Dead Rising game in the series. To me this feels more like an unfinished Dead Rising game. The story feels more like a first draft than a final product, the exportation feels ok but needs polished, there are lots of new characters introduced but they don’t do anything other than exist (and serve as playable characters in the multiplayer). It’s hard to recommend this game, but I don’t think it’s bad enough to not recommend it. I’d honestly say to wait till it’s really on sale before buying it. It’s fun for a bit but it does not have too much staying power.

Dead Rising 4 falls short of being a Dead Rising game and feels like another sandbox game with zombies. While there are some improvements over the last game, they’ve also replaced lots of things that made the game unique. However, I don’t believe that all the blame can be placed on this game but shared with Dead Rising 3. The timer system and escorting survivors have been removed which are what made Dead Rising unique, however DR3 removed the survivor escorts completely and gave you so much time to complete the game that it was basically nonexistent. There are also less combo weapons to create than in DR3, but that’s not a bad thing, because in DR3 there were hundreds of combo weapons but most of them were basically the same and I honestly forgot about most of them, while in this game they feel like they put more thought into them. My biggest problem with the game is the story. Dead Rising games aren’t famous for their great stories, but this one feels very lazy. All Frank talks about is “getting the story” and you’re forced to do selfish things in pursuit of it. I thought this was going to be a build up to where Frank finds himself alone because he pushed everyone away to get the story but no, everyone still supports him even after his actions have cause others to die and be injured. The side stories are also lazy because instead of interesting psychopaths or weird survivors, the most you get are a bunch of regular enemies but wearing a silly hat. But the worst part of the entire story is the ending. Frank dies, but it’s not a great sacrifice or because of his selfishness, there’s a short cutscene where he basically misses the evac chopper. Which would have been bad enough, except that they released a DLC where you play as zombie Frank called Frank Rising which continues the story making the ending feel like an excuse for the DLC to exist. I don’t believe that this is the worst Dead Rising game in the series. To me this feels more like an unfinished Dead Rising game. The story feels more like a first draft than a final product, the exportation feels ok but needs polished, there are lots of new characters introduced but they don’t do anything other than exist (and serve as playable characters in the multiplayer). It’s hard to recommend this game, but I don’t think it’s bad enough to not recommend it. I’d honestly say to wait till it’s really on sale before buying it. It’s fun for a bit but it does not have too much staying power.