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Dead Rising 4

Dead Rising 4 is bloody, chaotic, and downright hilarious. If you’re looking to turn your brain off this holiday season, and destress with gratuitous violence, this is the game for you.
Dead Rising 4 Game Cover
65%Game Brain Score
story, gameplay
stability, optimization
56% User Score Based on 3,019 reviews
Critic Score 74%Based on 15 reviews

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Dead Rising 4 Game Cover

About

Dead Rising 4 is a single player and multiplayer open world hack and slash game with horror, comedy, violence and erotic themes. It was developed by Capcom Game Studio Vancouver, Inc. and was released on March 13, 2017. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and neutral reviews from players.

It’s the holiday season in Willamette, Colorado and a mysterious outbreak has overrun the Willamette Memorial Megaplex Mall and surrounding town with dangerous and deadly predators. Join Frank West as you explore a vast, open world sandbox filled with dangerous new zombies and a million ways to kill them as you seek to uncover the truth behind the outbreak – or die trying.

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Dead Rising 4 screenshot
Dead Rising 4 screenshot
Dead Rising 4 screenshot
Dead Rising 4 screenshot
Dead Rising 4 screenshot
Dead Rising 4 screenshot
Dead Rising 4 screenshot
Dead Rising 4 screenshot
Dead Rising 4 screenshot
Dead Rising 4 screenshot
Dead Rising 4 screenshot
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56%
Audience ScoreBased on 3,019 reviews
story252 positive mentions
stability200 negative mentions
  • Fun and satisfying core zombie killing gameplay with numerous creative weapon and vehicle combos.
  • Large open-world map including an expanded Willamette mall and surrounding town offering substantial exploration and side missions.
  • The holiday Christmas setting adds unique charm and humor, providing a fresh aesthetic compared to previous games.
  • Removal of key Dead Rising series features such as the time limit, campaign co-op, and iconic psychopath bosses leading to lowered challenge and tension.
  • Frank West's characterization and voice acting drastically differ from previous entries, alienating longtime fans.
  • Technical issues including frequent bugs, glitches, crashes, and optimization problems affecting gameplay experience.
  • story
    1,309 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Dead Rising 4's story received largely negative feedback for its shallow, unengaging plot and poorly developed characters, with many noting the drastic departure from previous entries in tone and narrative depth. Fans criticized the absence of key series elements like meaningful psychopath encounters, timed missions, and co-op story mode, while the protagonist Frank West was often described as unlikeable and lacking the original's spirit. Though some appreciated the removal of time limits for a more relaxed playstyle and found occasional humor in the writing, overall the story was seen as uninspired, short, and riddled with plot inconsistencies, making it the weakest in the series.

    • “Solid 8-hour story with lots of leveling up and side missions!”
    • “The story starts strong: Frank is dragged back into Willamette to investigate another outbreak during the holiday season.”
    • “Strong story, funny Frank West moments, rich dialogue, epic combat, maniacs, side stories, hidden items, you have tons to do.”
    • “Dead Rising 4 has some obvious flaws, like a shallow story, poorly executed co-op, and a nonexistent difficulty level.”
    • “The story is lame, what they did with Frank's character is so bad.”
    • “Frank West's return is marred by a stupid and cringe-worthy story and characterizations that fail to capture the original spirit.”
  • gameplay
    464 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay in Dead Rising 4 is generally seen as fun and engaging, with a strong core focused on zombie-slaying, creative weapon combinations, and exploration. However, many fans criticize the removal of signature mechanics like the time limit, survivor escort missions, and classic psychopath bosses, resulting in a simplified, less challenging experience that may feel repetitive and less satisfying compared to earlier entries. Technical issues, clunky controls, and inconsistent design choices further detract from gameplay enjoyment, though the relaxed pacing and sandbox elements receive some praise.

    • “Dead Rising 4 has the best core gameplay the series has ever seen.”
    • “Gameplay-wise, the game offers a lot of fun and remains faithful to the Dead Rising franchise with absurd weapon combinations, large crowds of zombies, and a vast explorable world.”
    • “Even with some bugs, the core gameplay loop of exploring, finding collectibles, leveling up, and causing zombie chaos is addictive and enjoyable.”
    • “The gameplay is also just a total flop compared to other games in the series, as most things you can find in the world are no longer weapons, and there's an even bigger reliance on combo weapons compared to Dead Rising 3 - which wouldn't be a problem normally, but 4's gameplay loop doesn't feel satisfying enough to make it worth it.”
    • “Many staples of the series like the game loop & timer, psychopaths, survivor escort missions and multiple endings have been removed and replaced with more generic gameplay.”
    • “There's also no time limit outside of Frank Rising, which kills the biggest mechanic behind the Dead Rising games, and bathroom saves don't exist anymore.”
  • humor
    246 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in Dead Rising 4 is divisive, with some players enjoying its inventive, over-the-top, and absurd comedic elements—especially the ridiculous weapons, outfits, and slapstick zombie kills—while others find the jokes forced, repetitive, and cringe-worthy, often criticizing the protagonist Frank West's changed, unfunny, and annoying personality. The game's blend of dark, satirical, and goofy humor adds a unique tone, though it sometimes clashes with the story and character portrayal, leaving humor as a hit-or-miss aspect that can either enhance or detract from the overall experience.

    • “Its inventive and humorous ways to put down the dead are something I still haven’t tired of, and its surprisingly interesting plot is more than just a zombie-killing delivery system.”
    • “The game is an unabashed celebration of carnage, absurdity, and dark humor, wrapped up in a holiday-themed bow.”
    • “The sheer creativity and variety in weapon combinations are still a highlight, and the melee animations are satisfying—brutal, hilarious, and often ridiculous.”
    • “Now they're trying to be funny in the most unfunny way.”
    • “Regardless of one's opinion on the changes to the character, I can't believe the devs (or corporate overlords, who knows) decided to make a protagonist so incredibly annoying and unfunny.”
    • “Cringe one-liners every 5 minutes, every "joke" is painfully unfunny, the story sucks and is all over the place, and worst of all: Frank's voice actor is changed.”
  • stability
    209 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Dead Rising 4 is widely criticized for being extremely buggy, with frequent glitches, freezes, crashes, and clipping issues that often impede gameplay and progression. While some players find the core gameplay fun despite these stability problems, the technical issues significantly detract from the overall experience, making the game frustrating and sometimes unplayable, especially on PC. Stability remains the game's most pervasive and consistent flaw across platforms.

    • “The gameplay is easy, the game is mostly solid and bug free, and the story is great.”
    • “Everything runs super smoothly, no glitches, just fun. This game is one of the best zombie games on Steam, buy it now!”
    • “I had no technical issues, no freezes, no crashes, etc. My 5930k and 980ti seemed decent enough to play it without much trouble.”
    • “The glitches are so bad entire cases have to be replayed from the start because characters get stuck in the void and/or bosses refuse to spawn.”
    • “The game freezes all the time, well done Capcom.”
    • “Sooo, first impression - huge broken mess with tons of bugs that cause crashes, freezes, loss of progress, etc.”
  • graphics
    199 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game receive mixed feedback: while some praise the visuals as improved, polished, and enjoyable with a festive aesthetic, others criticize them as underwhelming, outdated, or clearly inferior to previous entries like Dead Rising 3. Performance issues such as unstable frame rates and glitches are noted by some, but many find the graphics decent or good enough to support engaging gameplay and atmosphere. Overall, the visuals are generally considered adequate but not exceptional, with opinions varying widely depending on expectations and comparisons to earlier titles.

    • “The graphics are incredible, especially when compared to the previous titles, and the amount of zombies in a horde is unbeaten.”
    • “Graphically this is my favorite Dead Rising game; the blood splatter effects are a treat to look at, and them alone are incentive enough to hack, slash, shoot, explode, electrocute, burn, etc. zombies without a care for any story or franchise integrity.”
    • “The visuals are the best I've seen in the series hands down.”
    • “The graphics are terrible compared to Dead Rising 3, the animations look rough.”
    • “Somehow even the graphics are worse than in DR3. Literally washed out dull graphics.”
    • “The graphics are butt ugly, textures are as low res as it gets, even Dead Rising 1 had better textures than this.”
  • music
    103 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's music heavily features Christmas-themed tracks, which creates a unique festive atmosphere that some find fitting and enjoyable, while others find it repetitive and overdone to the point of annoyance. Compared to previous entries with more diverse and memorable soundtracks, this installment's music is viewed as generic and a downgrade by many fans. Although the holiday music adds personality and humor, the lack of variety and inability to disable it, especially in cars, leads to mixed reactions overall.

    • “The music is pretty great, with nice jazzy Christmas tunes on car radios and the pause menu.”
    • “The atmosphere, music, and environments are fantastic, especially with how dynamic the music can be.”
    • “The soundtrack did lead to my happiest moment of the whole playthrough, which was 'Firewater' from Off the Record playing in a random bar.”
    • “Christmas music for the menus, generic orchestral music for the gameplay; it's a big downgrade from the memorable synths of Dead Rising 3.”
    • “Soundtrack and audio design: they threw away the cool nu-metal and rap rock soundtracks of the past for country on the radios and generic Christmas music everywhere.”
    • “Music is insufferable (and music while in cars can't be turned off, so you have to suffer that trash while driving the horrible cars).”
  • optimization
    88 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Optimization for this game is highly inconsistent, with many users reporting frequent crashes, stuttering, and significant frame rate drops—often linked to problematic DRM and poor PC porting. While some players experience smooth performance on high-end systems, others find the game unstable and poorly optimized, especially during intense moments. Overall, the PC version struggles with performance issues that detract from the experience, despite occasional praise for its handling of large enemy counts.

    • “Had zero bugs and performance issues, game is running 90-100 fps all maxed out 1080p no problem for hours at a time, great buy if on sale, totally recommend.”
    • “As far as optimization goes, this game has been running like a dream on my i7 6700k + gtx 1080 + 16gb ddr4 3000 ram (full specs in my profile).”
    • “Performance has been excellent without any dips in fps and fast loading times even without ssd.”
    • “Tested by the YouTube channel Digital Foundry in the video 'Resident Evil 4 PC: Is new DRM impacting game performance?', it was found that the Enigma Protector DRM causes an average of 10% framerate drops, with dips of up to 40% in certain scenarios, far worse than the original Denuvo DRM.”
    • “Furthermore, even years after its initial release, the game remains a technical mess, plagued by persistent performance issues.”
    • “On top of that, the optimization is a pile of hot garbage.”
  • grinding
    41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Grinding in the game is widely regarded as tedious, repetitive, and sometimes frustrating, with many players requiring extensive time and effort to level up or unlock upgrades. While some appreciate changes that reduce time pressure, the overall grind is seen as a significant barrier that detracts from enjoyment, especially for achievement hunters and completionists.

    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
    • “A bit grindy sometimes.”
    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
    • “It was already frustrating, tedious, and repetitive after a single hour.”
    • “The game's tutorial is nearly impossible to get through and grinding is near impossible until you get the ion cannon.”
    • “Better cars, better weapons, all that is locked behind hours of grinding.”
  • atmosphere
    24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The atmosphere in the game is divisive, with many criticizing its shift from a dark, tense zombie apocalypse to a more comedic, lighthearted tone that undermines immersion. While some appreciate the holiday-themed charm, dynamic music, and B-movie humor blending tension with absurdity, others feel this approach detracts from the seriousness and depth expected, making the world feel less atmospheric and more superficial. Overall, the game's tone is seen as inconsistent, balancing between frenetic fun and a lack of the original series' grim ambiance.

    • “The atmosphere, music, and environments are fantastic, especially with how dynamic the music can be.”
    • “The atmosphere in this game just worked for me, combining the dreaded tension of a zombie apocalypse with nonsensical comedy bits to create a fun experience worth trying out.”
    • “The juxtaposition of gory zombie dismemberment against a backdrop of twinkling lights and Santa hats creates an absurdly amusing atmosphere that constantly reminds you not to take things too seriously.”
    • “Also starting the player with OP weapons off the bat is completely BS and kills any atmosphere.”
    • “In terms of gameplay, they took a couple steps forward, but in terms of tone, atmosphere and story, they didn't take three steps back, they pole-vaulted all the way back to the starter line with this one.”
    • “It’s a hollow, shallow, superficial game with no atmosphere and a horribly confused tone.”
  • replayability
    21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Replayability in the game receives mixed feedback: some praise the freedom from timed missions and added content like mini-games and side activities for extended play, while others criticize the removal of branching endings, time-management mechanics, and co-op modes as detracting from long-term engagement. Compared to earlier series entries, many feel this installment offers less tension, depth, and motivation for multiple playthroughs. Overall, replay value is seen as weaker, with fun but often repetitive content limiting lasting appeal.

    • “Stress free and fun game to play story mode very good and replayable with continuous fun!”
    • “Dr4 is a blast, lots of achievements in-game/Steam and plenty of replay value. I love the mini golf mode and have not yet tried multiplayer, so there is much more in the Dead Rising 4 world for me to explore with more achievements, cases, and hidden things to roam around for.”
    • “The replayability is strong as ever though, especially because according to the in-game stats, I still have about thirty-one percent of the side stuff left to do, which I'll be getting to ASAP because I don't feel ready to be done with Willamette yet.”
    • “Replayability takes a hit due to the removal of branching endings and the loss of the time-management mechanic.”
    • “Same events in same place are good for grind but bad for replayability and fun.”
    • “There is no real replay value here.”
  • emotional
    19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The emotional aspect of the game elicits mixed responses, with some players feeling nostalgic sadness over the series' conclusion and appreciating moments of heartfelt character growth, while others find the narrative lacking in depth, emotional weight, and impactful storytelling compared to earlier entries. Though the game retains a satirical and occasionally touching tone, it often falls short of delivering the strong emotional resonance that long-time fans expected.

    • “But it being the supposed end of one of my all-time favorite series makes me want to cry man.”
    • “The plot is clearly riffing from an old American Christmas classic, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, but the idea of Frank's heart growing three sizes and learning to care for other people again is a good one, and it's a good emotional core to add to a series that has always leaned more toward goofy and weird than grim and dark.”
    • “Their story is quite touching and some of them are more interesting than the main story.”
    • “Truth even tried this year but still has a boring story, weird animations, and probably doesn't have the same adrenaline as the two games before.”
    • “Weird hitbox check, glitched NPCs and boss fight, boring storyline.”
    • “Can't complain more about this stupid game.”
  • monetization
    17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Reviewers commonly criticize the game's monetization as a rushed, cash grab, noting excessive DLC and microtransactions that fragment content, such as locking key story chapters behind paywalls. The misleading marketing, especially around the protagonist's identity, exacerbates disappointment among fans. While some appreciate the absence of aggressive microtransactions, overall, the monetization approach is seen as exploitative and detrimental to the game's value.

    • “(This would have been a very cheap and easy way for the developers to bring in microtransactions, and as such, I respect them a lot for not doing so.)”
    • “None needed except Frank Rising for story continuation if you want the better ending.”
    • “While there are thankfully no microtransactions (unless you consider $2.00 weapons to be such).”
    • “So I am assuming this was a quick cash grab for the holidays.”
    • “Just a shameful cash grab, that had no effort put into it and was extremely rushed.”
    • “The game completely lacks the soul of the series and feels more like a rushed cash grab with a "Dead Rising" paint job.”
  • character development
    12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The character development in the game is widely criticized for being shallow, inconsistent, and poorly executed, with key characters like Frank and Vick showing minimal growth or depth. Many players found the characters unengaging, lacking meaningful arcs, and often feeling like filler rather than fully realized individuals. Overall, the development efforts were seen as inadequate, detracting from the story's impact.

    • “Frank sort of goes through a character development arc, which is good but not really Frank.”
    • “It’s not bad, but you can see it’s missing chunks of character development.”
    • “I had a real issue with Vick in particular (the side protagonist, kind of) and her character development.”
    • “There's zero character development and you won't care for any of the characters, including Frank himself due to the new voice actor and his lack of charisma.”
    • “The characters in this game are utter garbage, no development or even trying was put on the character development.”
    • “Poor character development: with the exception of Frank (not talking about his new voice actor and look, just his new 'I only care about the money' attitude) and Vick being the voice of reason, every character just seemed placed in the game as filler and nothing more.”
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74%Critics’ scoreBased on 16 critic reviews
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8h Median play time
11h Average play time
10h Main story
34h Completionist
3-19h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 33 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Dead Rising 4 is a open world hack and slash game with horror, comedy, violence and erotic themes.

Dead Rising 4 is available on Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and others.

The main story can be completed in around 10 hours, while the entire game is estimated to take about 34 hours to finish. On average players spend around 11 hours playing Dead Rising 4.

Dead Rising 4 was released on March 13, 2017.

Dead Rising 4 was developed by Capcom Game Studio Vancouver, Inc..

Dead Rising 4 has received neutral reviews from players. Most players liked Dead Rising 4 for its story but disliked it for its stability.

Dead Rising 4 is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.

Similar games include Dead Rising 3 Apocalypse Edition, Dead Rising 2, Saints Row, Dead Rising, Dead Space 3 and others.