Just announced at Microsoft’s Xbox E3 Briefing early this morning, Capcom’s open-world zombie series, Dead Rising will have a fourth addition to the highly successful franchise: Dead Rising 4 – coming this holiday season. Unlike previous iteration of the series, this new game will not feature a new playable character. Instead, fan-favourite and protagonist: Frank West, first appearing the original game, will be returning in Dead Rising 4, seamlessly ending up in another zombie outbreak.
From the trailer shown during the briefing, it appears that the game is set around Christmas time, where Frank returns to Willamette, Colorado – the setting of the first game. Similar to previous games, players will be able to combine items to make ad-hoc weapons and armour to fight and defend against the hordes of zombies. The trailer featured an EXO-suit, a fire-breathing dinosaur head, and a candy-cane crossbow – all used to fend against the waves of zombies. Additionally, the game will feature new zombie variants, such as Fresh – infected individuals who zombify in front of Frank, and Evo – zombies enhanced strength and mobility.
Players can either play the game by themselves or cooperatively. In the past, the Dead Rising series was limited to two-player co-op. But in Dead Rising 4, players can play with up to four friends which they can fight mobs of zombies or complete missions. Alternatively, players can drop in on any available game in progress through the quick match function.
However, if this game is a direct sequel to Dead Rising 3, it begs the question what was the true ending of Dead Rising 3? At the conclusion of the game, it was stated that a cure for the zombie outbreak was found. Maybe this outbreak in Dead Rising 4 is a new zombie virus, or maybe this game takes place alongside Dead Rising 3 – explaining Frank West whereabouts.
Dead Rising 4 will be released this holiday season (Q4 2016) for the Xbox One and Windows 10.