At E3 2016 I got the opportunity to not only check out Dead Rising 4 in action but also get the chance to have one of the employees from Capcom Vancouver narrate the entire on-floor demonstration. Frank West returns to Willamette Colarado at Christmas time in the Capcom’s latest zombie slaying title, the site of the original outbreak incident outlined in 2006’s Dead Rising 1.
Players checking out Dead Rising 4 were only able to play as Frank in a small section of Willamette but Capcom Vancouver informed us that the total map size in the final game will be about the same size as 2013’s Dead Rising 3. Frank is able to craft together new weapons from blueprints found around the world, similar to how the system worked in Dead Rising 2 forward. These weapons include devastating combination with elemental abilities like the electric sledgehammer that was on display at one point during the demo. Photography will play a role in DR4, Frank hasn’t become rusty with the time off since his last starring role – during the demo we saw one player use Frank’s camera in a selfie mode capturing dozens upon dozens of PP points.
There were some details about Dead Rising 4 that Capcom Vancouver wasn’t ready to discuss such as the exact nature of the zombie outbreak in DR4, who the other playable characters in the four player co-op mode will (unless everyone is just duplicates of Frank West but that doesn’t seem very likely) or how Dead Rising 4 will connect to the other 3 titles (and downloadable DLC episodes) in terms of narrative.
Dead Rising 4 is coming to Windows PC and Xbox One exclusively before the end of this year.