Dead Rising 4

Dead Rising 4 is an action-adventure game with a goal to explore the environment and battle against hordes of the undead. Unlike its predecessors, the game does not feature a timer system or story co-op gameplay. As with the other games in the series, the game features an open world setting.

The controls were designed to be more streamlined, with separate buttons for shooting and melee attacks. Any item can be picked up and used as a weapon, some being more efficient than others. Frank can level up with an experience system named Prestige Points (PP). Taking photographs from Dead Rising returns, with an added selfie and night vision mode. The camera is also used for finding clues during the missions.

In September 2021, Frank West, a former photojournalist now working as a college professor, is approached by one of his students, Vicky "Vick" Chu, who convinces him to help her investigate a military compound, situated on the outskirts of Willamette, Colorado — the site of the second zombie outbreak. Once inside, they find out the compound is being used for zombie research, but are discovered and forced to flee, with Frank labelled a fugitive after he is falsely accused by the government.

Four months later in 2022, after Christmas, Frank is found by Brad Park, an agent of the ZDC, who convinces him to help investigate a new zombie outbreak in Willamette during the Black Friday sales, in exchange for the means to clear his name and having exclusive rights to the story, revealing Vick has already left to investigate the matter herself.

In 2014, Dead Rising 4 was originally conceived as a reboot of the Dead Rising series, which was being developed at Capcom Vancouver in partnership with Microsoft. The game, codenamed Climber, was intended to be an Xbox One exclusive that was inspired by The Last of Us. This original version of the game was scrapped by Capcom Japan in Summer 2014, leading to the project being rebooted with Frank West as the main character.

In January 2016, Capcom Vancouver announced it was working on two new open world projects. Dead Rising 4 was announced at the Microsoft E3 2016 conference with a trailer and 12 minutes of gameplay.

Dead Rising 4 received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.

IGN's Brandin Tyrrel liked the new Frank West and the game's take on Christmas consumerism, as well as the "detailed presentation and careful consideration that went into both the world and the story." Tyrrel felt Capcom had balanced the absurdity of the gameplay with intelligence and feeling, but specifically found the safehouses too simple and underwhelming, writing he "would've loved to see some sort of shelter defense system come into play." Game Informer's Jeff Cork similarly praised the gameplay, writing that Capcom Vancouver "infused the series with fresh ideas and some of the best action that it's had in a decade." Cork felt the storyline was a little rote, and was disappointed with the new and original but bland and generic "maniacs" (which serve as the game's bosses and replace the previous games' psychopaths) and lack of campaign co-op, but praised the new gameplay features such as the camera enhancements and the exo-suit, as well as the improvements to the map compared to Dead Rising 3's map.