Dead Rising 4 (2016) 🧟🎄

“Frank West is dead. Long live… whatever this is.”


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Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

🎮 Trailer

Oh, the trailer sold you a Christmas zombie bloodbath with the return of the one and only Frank West. What it didn’t tell you? They’d gutted his personality, stripped out the charm, and turned him into a Hallmark Channel action hero who occasionally says “zombie.”


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Review

Dead Rising 4 is like if someone wrote Die Hard but decided to replace John McClane with a smug uncle at a barbecue who keeps trying to impress you with “zingers” he found in a joke book.

On paper, this should have been a slam dunk—return to Willamette, make it Christmas-themed, throw in some big open-world fun. Instead, it’s a 3/10 mess that only works if you turn your brain off and focus purely on the zombie killing.


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The Map

I’ll give them this: the world is big. You’ve got the whole mall, plus outside areas—a small town, a suburban neighborhood, a farm, and even a winery. That’s cool. The Christmas lights everywhere add some flair… but they do absolutely nothing for the story. It’s just there so the marketing team could call it “festive.”


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Character Rundown

Frank West (???) – This is not Frank West. This is a guy wearing Frank West’s name tag. In the originals, Frank was sarcastic, resourceful, and had that perfect “I’m in over my head but I’ll handle it” vibe. Here? He’s a machine-gun of bad one-liners. Every single sentence is a forced quip. It’s like they fed his dialogue through a Deadpool filter but forgot the charm.

Vick Chu – Former student of Frank, now investigative journalist. Exists mostly to lecture him.

Brad Park – Federal agent who’s basically your walking exposition machine.

Dr. Barnaby Jr. Knockoff – The mad scientist trope without any of the menace.

Zombie Carter – The final boss who looks like he’s auditioning for Zombies on Ice. Wears a peach suit, talks in philosophy quotes, and can heal himself mid-fight because… reasons. Oh, and he can speak perfectly despite being a zombie. That’s not how this works.



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Frank West: Character Assassination Edition

This isn’t just “Frank’s a little different.” This is full-on identity theft.

In the original Dead Rising, Frank was pragmatic, dry, and had the occasional witty remark. Here, he’s a stand-up comic trapped in an escort mission. Some prime examples of his new “humor”:

1. (When seeing a horde) “Looks like the Black Friday sale at a jorts store!”


2. (When finding a corpse) “Guess he didn’t make the naughty list… he’s just dead.”


3. (During a tense cutscene) “I’m too old for this… nah, I’m still hot.”

Yeah sorry this isnt Frank West, im almost inclined to say this is Frank Wests long lost brother, Tank West. Get it, because his jokes tank.



It’s constant. It kills any tension.

🧟 Zombie Designs: A Step Backwards

One of the biggest disappointments in Dead Rising 4 is how far the zombie designs regressed compared to Dead Rising 3. In 3, the undead were genuinely grotesque — grey, rotting flesh, mangled jaws, missing chunks of skin, and that chilling detail of glowing red eyes at night. They looked monstrous, unsettling, and at times flat-out terrifying.

By contrast, Dead Rising 4 goes back to treating zombies as little more than cannon fodder. Their designs are bland and uniform — pale, slightly bloodied humans with almost no visible decay or individuality. The menace is gone. They look less like horrifying corpses and more like extras in light makeup waiting for the slapstick weapons to land.

The downgrade is jarring: where Dead Rising 3’s zombies gave the night sequences a real sense of dread, Dead Rising 4’s feel like background clutter. Instead of monsters that make you think twice before wading into a crowd, they’re just set dressing for Frank’s one-liners and over-the-top gadgets.

It’s a clear case of the franchise losing its horror edge and leaning too far into parody — and in doing so, it strips away the unsettling bite that made the previous entry stand out.

Also the blood for some reason looks to shiny and in small splatters, it’s like rhey looked at dead rising 3 and said let’s tone this down.



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Mechanics That Make No Sense

Remember in Dead Rising 2 where combining vehicles made sense because Chuck was a mechanic? Here, Frank—who has never been portrayed as mechanically inclined—can suddenly weld cars together into Mad Max death machines like he’s been moonlighting for Monster Garage.

Blood effects are toned down too—zombies look like they’re bleeding shiny red paint.


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Pros ✅

Killing zombies is still fun… when you ignore the story.

Large, explorable map with some fun side areas.

Weapon crafting still has creativity, even if the logic is gone.


Cons ❌

Frank West’s complete personality rewrite.

Pointless Christmas theme.

Unlikable supporting cast.

Final boss fight is immersion-breaking nonsense.

Tonally all over the place.



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Final Thoughts

Dead Rising 4 could have been the triumphant return of Frank West and a proper Willamette sequel. Instead, it’s like someone took the original series bible, spilled eggnog on it, and rewrote it from memory during a holiday office party.

🎯 Rating: 3/10


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Spoilers Ahead! 🚨

The story kicks off with Frank now teaching journalism, which… okay, fine. His student Vick convinces him to investigate a secret government project in Willamette. They find a new outbreak, Frank gets blamed, and months later he’s dragged back by federal agents to investigate again.

Throughout the game, you deal with military cover-ups, a corrupt scientist, and Vick being mad at Frank for being… Frank.

The final boss, Carter, was part of an experiment where the government tried to make “intelligent” zombies. Instead, they made philosopher zombies. Carter retains full speech, tactical thinking, and—because this game stopped caring about rules—can heal himself mid-battle. Oh, and he’s wearing a peach suit like he’s going to Easter brunch.

You kill him, but in a twist ending, Frank doesn’t make it out alive. He sacrifices himself to save Vick, falling into a horde. But in the post-credits scene, you hear his voice, implying… maybe he’s not dead. Or maybe he’s a talking zombie now. Honestly, at this point, would it even matter?