It's been a while since the last Dead Rising game. Dead Rising 4 came out in December 2016, a timely release to match the digital Willamette Mall’s own holiday season. Unfortunately, the gradual slide in fan reception hit rock bottom with that entry, and the game proved to be a disappointment in reputation and sales. Within a couple of years, series developer Capcom Vancouver had shut down, and references to Dead Rising have dried up since then. Even Frank West's April 2021 debut in the Teppen card game was barely advertised, with Dead Rising's presence being deemphasized in favor of an Ace Attorney event.
That doesn't mean Dead Rising is gone for good, but it will need a major shot in the arm to come back. Dead Rising 5 was supposedly in development before Capcom Vancouver closed, although development was turbulent. The pitch was for a game set between Dead Rising 2 and 3 featuring Chuck Greene and his daughter Katey as playable characters. The game sounded like another attempt to return to what made the series good, but there were still conflicting elements like Katey's new control over zombie hordes. Innovation isn't bad for an aging franchise, but it’s vital for a new Dead Rising to re-establish what made it good in the first place.
Dead Rising Has Moved Away From its Best Features
Ever since Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, it feels like Dead Rising has lost sight of itself. Dead Rising 3 still had a lot of what made Dead Rising1, 2, and Off the Record great, although its darker visual style, defanged timer, and diminished Psychopaths were worrying. Dead Rising 4 was advertised as a return to form, featuring Frank West as the player character again and even the first game’s town of Willamette. The loss of Frank West's original voice actor and the series’ iconic time limit were both major blows, but some purists were still willing to give the final game a chance. Tragically, even lowered expectations failed to be met.
Dead Rising 4 was the worst Dead Rising title by a large margin, and seemed caught between trying to pander to old fans while failing to replicate any past strengths. Frank's new voice and appearance would be acceptable if the story hadn’t reframed Frank West as a selfish, washed-up coward. No other characters stand out, and Psychopaths have been fully replaced by cookie cutter, almost fully optional Maniacs. The game's action and environmental interactions were more basic than Dead Rising 1, escorting Survivors was reduced to pointless combat trials, and the game was so easy that patches with new difficulty modes and a restored timer weren’t enough. To top it all off, the game had no campaign co-op or Overtime true ending, with the former being replaced by a survival mode and a lackluster golf DLC, and the latter just being paid DLC. Dead Rising 4 failed, and the franchise fell with it.
There is Much To Learn From Dead Rising 1
If Capcom ever decides to give Dead Rising another chance, it needs to look at Dead Rising 1 and 2 for inspiration. These games and their spin-offs hold true to the core of Dead Rising: a campy-yet-tense trip through a zombie apocalypse that balances player expression with time management. Dead Rising's humor and charm paradoxically come from its dramatic B-movie tone, something that Dead Rising 4 failed to understand with its attempts at relatable comedy. Even Frank West's catchphrase, “I’ve covered wars, you know,” was only said once in an appropriate context at the beginning of DR1.
As seen by Dead Rising 2's success and Dead Rising 4’s failure, Dead Rising 5 does not need to be a clone of Dead Rising 1. It can branch out into new locations, a more seamless world, and even include newer mechanics like Combo Weapons and the skill tree from Dead Rising 3 and 4. However, it must maintain the spirit of Dead Rising with a strict time limit and even harsher difficulty. The notion of zombies becoming more aggressive at night should return, and encounters should feel appropriately lethal.
The pomp and circumstance behind the original game’s Psychopath boss fights ought to be reclaimed, and more should be around. Even if more difficulty toggles for time and damage are included, the feeling of escorting survivors through hordes of zombies while an ever-present clock ticks down to failure is what Dead Rising is all about.
Restoring Dead Rising's Gameplay to its Former Glory
With that said, these games are not about oppressive hopelessness and being forced to ignore sidequests for more time. Failure to keep up with the story’s time limits should prompt the option to keep playing, just like in the original. A tightly-designed set of days that go through the same non-critical events would promote mastery over locales and their hurdles like they were looping through Majora’s Mask.
Dead Rising is meant to be fun and challenging, so players should be encouraged to learn through messing around in the games’ sandbox environment. Bringing back multiple endings to accommodate freedom, as well as the Overtime true ending and co-op to further the player’s antics would be ideal. A great bonus that pushes this fun climb to mastery is the original game’s Survival Mode where Frank's health is the clock and resources are limited. Something like it to truly test both players and the in-game schedule would make for a better Dead Rising 5.
There is one more major aspect that the next Dead Rising should take from its predecessor, and that's combat. There is a surprisingly high skill ceiling in the original Dead Rising as the player gradually unlocks more skills. What looks like an overly-simplified Dynasty Warriors game with zombies gives way to a 3D conversion of Final Fight with in-depth grappling mechanics. The lack of Combo Weapons meant that Frank's barehanded arsenal needed to be powerful, and it rewards players with experience points for skilled use. On top of that, many items had unique movesets in the first Dead Rising, and they were all objects physically integrated into the environment. That most of this was gone in Dead Rising 4 speaks to how far this series has fallen. Dead Rising 5's predecessors hold all the tools it needs.
Dead Rising 4 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
