God Of War

In gruff moments of fatherly instruction, Kratos repeats the phrase “be better” to his son, Atreus. This happens in different contexts, but the lesson remains consistent: Your decisions are not bound by precedent, and the choices of others are not examples to follow – they only set standards you can strive to exceed. In developing the latest God of War, Sony’s Santa Monica studio apparently took this message to heart. While previous games in this series established a successful formula of stylish action and epic setpieces, the team used this opportunity to be better; with surprising changes on every front, God of War forges a new identity and surpasses even its most acclaimed predecessors.

As a longtime fan of the series, this entry captivated me for completely different reasons. The narrative is one of them, despite its simple premise: Kratos and Atreus need to reach the top of the highest mountain in the Norse domain. They encounter detours and surprises along the way, but the precise story beats are less important than how they are conveyed. God of War brilliantly presents a desolate journey in a gorgeous world, all through the lens of the relationship between a distant father and his eager son.

The interactions of Kratos and Atreus range from adversarial to compassionate, and these exchanges have ample room to breathe and draw players in. Atreus wonders what he might say to his departed mother if given the chance – an exercise Kratos finds pointless. When Kratos artlessly paraphrases the fable of the tortoise and the hare, Atreus mocks his lack of storytelling prowess. These quiet moments are interesting, slowly and believably closing the distance between two characters – a focus that contrasts sharply with previous games. In terse responses and long silences, Kratos conveys more than he ever did cursing Olympus at the top of his lungs.

That isn’t to say God of War has sacrificed its ability to deliver incredible spectacle. An early encounter (against a mysterious enemy called the Stranger) sets the bar absurdly high, and a cathartic sequence later on stands out as my favorite moment in the series to date. Between those points and beyond, the adventure is punctuated by a steady flow of enormous beasts, ancient architecture, and intense boss fights. The environments and characters look fantastic, and a new cinematic camera angle brings you close the action and never cuts away – a decision that proves immensely rewarding during big moments by giving you an intimate view. Despite this more grounded approach to presentation, the action’s scope and ambition is stunning in cutscenes and combat alike.

The Greek world may be gone, but Kratos is still a god of war, and his skill on the battlefield is appropriately divine. He fires off magic attacks and performs brutal executions in his attempts to defeat a clever assortment of foes from Norse myth. The ice-infused axe Leviathan is a drastic departure from the iconic Blades of Chaos Kratos once wielded, but it is a well-balanced and entertaining tool of destruction. I like how it emphasizes a more calculated style of combat; instead of zoomed-out, combo-driven encounters, Leviathan makes you a tactician. You can’t cut through huge swaths of enemies with it, so you need to consider how to manage your foes. You can freeze one from afar by throwing your axe, then use your fists to stun and grab another, then recall Leviathan for an area-of-effect ice burst. This kind of strategy gives many fights – especially one-on-one bosses – an engaging duel-like quality. Plus, the “thunk” of Leviathan magically flying back into Kratos’ hand is satisfying every time.

During the first few hours, I had doubts about the axe-and-shield emphasis. In those opening segments, crowded melees are difficult to navigate due to off-screen attacks, which encouraged me to keep my distance – at least until I got more comfortable with key mechanics like parrying. After that, I quickly came around; the combat system’s gradual unfolding in God of War is a joy. Though it may feel restrictive at first, before long you are rapidly alternating between all the tools and skills at your disposal, including your fists, Spartan Rage, Leviathan, and more. Cooldown-regulated runic attacks provide a diverse and unique array of special moves, like a freezing beam or a stunning blast, and I had fun experimenting with them and seeing which ones I wanted to cycle into my regular rotation.

You spend experience to unlock cool new techniques, and they aren’t just damage or range improvements; several have a significant impact on your options, like Kratos assuming a secondary stance from which additional attacks are possible. I also leaned on Atreus for assistance, since his arrows are crucial for incapacitating many creatures. Some of these concepts are introduced too slowly, but on the other hand, I relished how God of War’s battles avoid stagnation through constant evolution.

Underlying all of your combat endeavors is a surprisingly involved gear system that gives you an avenue to customize your arsenal, but also dangles aspirational goals in front of you. Many of your deeds provide materials and equipment as rewards, and like an RPG, you see the numbers next to your stats increase as you build and equip new items. You also see materials you don’t have for pieces of gear you want to craft, which adds to the excitement when that item finally drops after finishing a sidequest or beating a tough foe. This layer of upgrading may be less exciting than learning new moves to chop up monsters, but it still provides a powerful incentive to explore.

While not strictly open-world, the game has a large lake with various shores and islands available for free exploration. I loved systematically checking out new locations and acquiring crafting materials, enchantments, and other rewards. These excursions are largely optional, but they are the best way to ensure that you have everything you need for equipment upkeep. As a bonus, these diversions flesh out the world with some interesting NPCs, in addition to offering some fun (but not too challenging) puzzle-like scenarios. They can provide a nice break from the main story, but they’re always available, so you don’t need to invest in them at the expense of the narrative pacing.

God of War’s momentum rarely falters, and when it does, the inconvenience is brief. For example, you have the freedom to explore, but the map isn’t especially helpful for tracking your position relative to the things you are interested in, and the fast-travel system is weirdly cumbersome and opens up too late. This is more frustrating if you plan on being thorough with collectibles and post-game objectives (no new game+ this time around), but that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm for climbing cliffs and delving into ruins long after the 30 hours I spent finishing the main story.

Years ago, Kratos killed the deities of Mount Olympus in a gory rampage. Now, in the Norse realm, he has remade himself into a different kind of god. He is quieter and more deliberate, affected by his history but not constrained by it. Kratos’ reinvention serves as a narrative hook, but it also parallels the series’ evolution as a whole; where God of War once relied on bombast and bloodlust, now it leaves space for strategy and nuance. It still has superb action and plenty of jaw-dropping moments, but it supports them with a new level of depth and maturity. God of War learns from its past while clearing an exciting path for the future, and emerges as one of the best games of this generation.

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Building Prey’s Interconnected World

Setting matters. With few exceptions, the most memorable contemporary games are set in interesting locations with their own sense of history. Would BioShock have worked if Rapture hadn’t been so exquisitely crafted? The Elders Scrolls games have each built rich and lore-filled worlds that flesh out the day-to-day lives of its inhabitants. And even if we wouldn’t want to live there, Grand Theft Auto V’s Los Santos presents a vision of a west-coast city/nightmare that’s oftentimes uncomfortably close to reality. Arkane Studios’ upcoming sci-fi game Prey features a meticulously designed and researched space station, Talos I, which provides a plausible backdrop for a bizarre new threat.

Prey is set in an alternate history, in which the Russian and United States governments put their differences aside following an encounter with an alien foe. You can watch this video to get a better sense of where our timelines split (big change: the aliens). The station evolved over several decades, depending on its purpose at the time. Initially, it was merely a prison to contain these new aliens, the Typhon. From there, the U.S. government took over fully, building a research station around the core. Nothing came of those early efforts, aside from another deadly incident between scientists and the Typhon. At that point, the government decided to cut its losses, and shuttered the project.

Years later, a corporation called TranStar was founded. It took over the station, which was idly orbiting the moon. Thanks to advances in neuroscience, the company was able to finally harness the Typhon, taking advantage of the aliens’ unique body and brain composition. (For a more in-depth look at these creatures, take a look at our feature). Eventually, TranStar developed a product called Neuromods, which restructure a person’s brain to enable them to do things that they couldn’t before – such as learning to play a musical instrument or speak a foreign language, or even have greater strength or endurance. 

These Neuromods are a big business back on Earth, and the corporation has reaped in the rewards. Our adventure in Prey is centered around Talos I, but thanks to the work of Arkane’s art and design teams, players can pick up a variety of clues about TranStar’s place in the greater world, as well as what life was like on the station before yet another catastrophe struck. 

You invariably have to suspend some amount of disbelief when you’re playing a game with aliens in it. Still, Prey’s designers felt that it was important for players to feel as though they were exploring a place that felt real and adhered to its own internal logic. That meant that Arkane put a lot of effort into designing Talos I with an eye toward believability and functionality – even as players battled aliens that could shapeshift into garbage cans.

“[We] spend a lot of time thinking about, ‘Hey guys it doesn’t make any sense that someone has to walk this far to do this,’” says lead designer Ricardo Bare. "'There would be an elevator here or a staircase here. It sounds dumb, but this place doesn’t have a bathroom. Where do these people pee? They have to hold it for 12 hours and then ride an elevator back down to the bottom of the space station?'" Bare says that Arkane did its homework in making sure that the place felt like a fully staffed location, and that the people didn’t just teleport away once their shift was over. “We know where everybody’s sleeping quarters are, where they eat, where they work.”

Players can see some of that attention to detail themselves, by interacting with security terminals throughout the station. Employees wear tracking devices during their deployment on Talos I, and some of those are still active. If you follow these electronic pings, you might be able to find a survivor or the remains of an unfortunate victim – as well as information that could lead to valuable items.

There are other clues to pick up on as well. Bare says that players can explore the offices of TranStar’s sales and marketing teams, and optionally learn more about how the Neuromods are brought back to Earth. Knowing the security protocols for transporting these valuable items isn’t a huge detail, but Arkane says it’s important that they know how all of it works. (Incidentally, shuttles come every week, and the Neuromods are put in attache cases that are handcuffed to an envoy.)

Having that kind of fictional shuttle schedule lets the team work out other things, too. The Talos I staff grows some of its own food and recycles as much oxygen and water is possible (in treatment areas you can explore), but it’s not a completely closed loop. Other shuttles arrive with supplemental food and additional resources to keep the staff content. TranStar employees are on rotations between 18-24 months, so the company works to ensure that the accommodations are as luxurious as possible. That means creating relaxing spaces such as a plant-filled arboretum, or outfitting the living areas with high-end materials. Those lifelines have been severed by the time you enter the picture, but you can discover records and communications that further outline how things ran before.

TranStar depended on keeping its employees safe, and also keeping the Typhon alive. Without the aliens, after all, it would be out of business. That delicate balance – and a general tendency toward a more grounded reality – affects the weapons that players will be able to use during the game.

“You’re not going to find a dead soldier and find a bazooka,” Bare says. “Instead, there are security officers that have handguns or maybe tasers, and in case of emergencies maybe there’s a security closet with a shotgun. All of those are made by the fabricators on the space station, so they’re not the best constructed things.” These weapons have a disposable quality to them, which is a nice in-universe way to have them break down for gameplay-balance purposes. 

The security teams took a nonlethal approach whenever possible, leading to the use of things such as riot foam and tasers. The foam in particular has other interesting uses, such as sealing up leaking pipes or as a quick handhold for reaching a higher point. You can see how that works in action during this gameplay demo, and also get a look at Talos I in general. The station itself is approximately the size of The Empire State Building, so this is only a small section of it.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2016/12/09/building-preys-interconnected-world.aspx

Free Doom Update Brings New Multiplayer & SnapMap Features

Bethesda has announced a free update (update 5) for Doom available now, and it features a new competitive mode, bots, and SnapMap features.

Check out the update's full details below (text from Bethesda), and also be on the lookout for double multiplayer XP starting tonight through 12 p.m ET on December 12.

Finally, Bethesda has announced that Bloodfall – the third and final DLC featuring three maps – is releasing on December 15.

Multiplayer

• Infernal Run – A new competitive game mode where teams fight for control of the ball and score in the opponent's goal.
• Bots – Available on original multiplayer maps in Team Deathmatch and Deathmatch game modes.
• Multiplayer rank now extends to Echelon 11 – Once you reach the new highest ranking, you'll unlock the signature Doom Marine Armor (Praetor Suit).

SnapMap

• Play as the Doom Marine in the Doom Marine Armor (Praetor Suit).
• More elements from the campaign, allowing you to play and create even more campaign-like experiences.
• Lazarus Lab themed modules and props. 

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2016/12/07/free-doom-update-brings-new-multiplayer-and-snapmap-features.aspx

Why Prey's Aliens Are Different Than Anything You've Encountered

In the late 1950s, man first began to reach for the stars. Unfortunately in Prey’s alternate history, the first thing we grabbed hold of was an alien menace called the Typhon. This one small, shadow-like creature proved so hostile to humanity’s existence that our world’s greatest minds locked the creature away inside an orbital space station. Flash forward nearly 70 years, and that small orbital “prison” has grown into a monolithic research facility owned by the mega-corporation TranStar – and that single Typhon has evolved into an entire race of monstrous creatures that could haunt a generation of nightmares. Join us as we take a deeper look into the abilities and behaviors of Prey’s devious new enemies.

Cystoids
Cystoids are the smallest Typhon creatures that players encounter in Prey, but their size can be deceptively disarming. About the size of a softball, these creatures make up for their diminutive size with some explosive firepower, and these little firecrackers tend to travel in packs and live in Cystoid Nests. Cystoids aren’t deep thinkers, so the second they sense movement, they take off on a Kamikaze mission that ends in a tiny explosion. Fortunately, Cystoids kill themselves when they explode, so as long as players are aware of their surroundings, they can easily deal with these nests by tossing a random object in their 

Arkane’s Take:
“They have the smallest minds,” says lead designer Ricardo Bare. “They’re like a creature – like a fish – they’re very simple. They’re placed in these nests almost like mines, and they’re attracted to motion – anything like a physics object or a player running past them. [Outside of zero g], they roll on the ground like a carpet of soccer balls chasing you.”

Mimics
The Mimic was the first Typhon humans encountered, and they are some of the craftiest. These arachnid-like Typhons have the ability to camouflage themselves by assuming the form of nearly any ordinary object within the environment. We saw Mimics become trash cans, coffee mugs, and musical instruments. Mimics are extremely agile and can bounce around the environment, easily dodging gunfire before wrapping their tendrils around their victim’s throat. Players can dismantle these creatures and learn this mimic ability for themselves.

Arkane’s Take:
“They’re sort of the progenitors of the whole ecology,” Bare says. “One Mimic can start the whole thing all over again, if just one survives. Whenever they duplicate, they’re sort of the scouts. After killing a human or any living thing, they sort of absorb their life force, and then they duplicate. And they repeat that process. Of course, in the game, their main function is to hide and ambush the player.”

Phantoms
Phantoms are crew members whose bodies were corrupted by Typhon energy and turned into alien soldiers. Phantoms are some of the most common enemies players encounter during their tour through Talos I. These soldiers unnerve their foes by emitting a ghostly noise that sounds like they’re parroting real human speech, even though they’re incapable of communicating with anyone. Since Phantoms are so common, they also come in a variety of flavors. Thermal Phantoms are pyromaniacs who can light the environment on fire. The Etheric Phantom creates duplicates of itself and emits toxic clouds that damage normal matter. The Voltaic Phantom shocks your system with a barrage of lightning-based attacks.

Arkane’s Take:
“There are different kinds of Phantoms,” Bare says. “The later into the game you go, you start to see more variations on them. Some of it isn’t predetermined, some of its randomized, so you might have a different kind of Phantom than another player, which means you have different access to powers if you’re scanning aliens for powers.”

Poltergeists
The only known Typhon with the ability to render itself invisible, the Poltergeist is a master at ambushing its victims. Poltergeists are lurkers; they find a place within their environment and haunt it. Sometimes a Poltergeist won’t even be hostile, and you might only notice it when it starts to play with objects in the environment or when throws something across the room. At other times, a Poltergeist might inexplicably choose to attack you with a levitation spell, which sends you floating a few feet off the ground, making you easy prey for other aliens. The Poltergeists blip in and out of the visible spectrum, which makes them a difficult enemy to get a bead on.

Arkane’s Take:
“It’s like a half-malformed, didn’t-quite-bake-long-enough Phantom,” Bare says. “They’re weaker than the more advanced Phantoms but they’re about on the same level as the base Phantoms. They lurk around and sort of haunt an area and mess around with stuff and get in your head a little, and then wait for an opportunity to start throwing things at you and throw you into the air.”

Telepaths
These Beholder-like beasts aren’t super speedy, but they’re plenty deadly. They casually float through the environment and overpower the minds of anyone unfortunate enough to be in their presence. In addition to commanding a horde of mind-slaves, Telepaths can throw out deadly blasts of psychic energy that brings players to the brink of death.

Arkane’s Take:
“We don’t have anything like boss fights in the game, but because of the way the A.I. works, [Telepaths] feel like a miniboss,” Bare says. “He owns an area and typically has a cluster of humans that he’s taken over. The humans are interesting, because they are aware of the fact that they’ve been possessed, so if they see you they’ll say things like, ‘I can’t stop myself. Run, get away. We’re both going to die,’ that kind of thing. That presents the player with an interesting choice. Do I cap this person, but they’re actually a human being, or do I try to find a way to avoid them or take them down nonlethally?”

Nightmare
We don’t know a lot about the Nightmare, but this hulk is the biggest, strongest, and most dangerous of any Typhon. Reminiscent of the Nemesis monster from Resident Evil 3, the Nightmare constantly chases players through the entire Talos I space station. Those who confront the Nightmare must pull out all the stops if they hope to survive the encounter.

Arkane’s Take:
“The Nightmare was specifically created to kill you, because the Typhons recognize you as some kind of anomaly that’s resisting them and threatening their system,” Bare says. “The more alien powers you install, the more it becomes aware of you and can track you down. That’s a dynamic system. So I can be in the cafeteria somewhere and jam 15 Neuromods into my eye, and all of a sudden hear this huge roar, and the Nightmare is in the level. He’s in the world, hunting you, but he doesn’t know where you are unless you stumble into him or do things like install a bunch of neuromods.”

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2016/12/07/why-preys-aliens-are-different-than-anything-youve-encountered.aspx

Oculus Touch Review

The Oculus Rift launched last March, but unlike the HTC Vive or PSVR, it lacked motion controllers out the gate. Instead, players have interacted with games by using an Xbox One controller. With the recently released Touch controllers, Oculus puts its VR platform on par with the competition. So do these controllers fundamentally change the Rift experience? Sort of.

What You Get:The box includes two Oculus Touch controllers, one for each of your hands, a corresponding sensor you need to use them, and a VR connector used specifically for Rock Band. No games are included with the controllers right now, but Robo Recall (a Time Crisis-like shooting gallery) will be made free to Oculus Touch owners when it releases next year. You can also download a demo for Robo Recall to help tide you over until the full game arrives. This all comes at the relatively steep price of $200, which brings the cost of the whole Oculus Rift package up to $800 – not counting the PC you need to run it.

What Works:The Touch controllers bring a sense of freedom and movement that was lacking with the Rift’s original Xbox One controller scheme. The setup for the controllers is painless, since you only have to plug in an extra sensor into your PC. Most of the games I played required me to be standing in an open space and constantly moving about. In The Unspoken, I swerved out of the way of my opponent’s magic spells before unleashing a deadly fireball in retaliation. The controllers work well enough to simulate your hands, with each button essentially representing a finger or a cluster of fingers. This might sound complicated at first, but within moments of wrapping my hands around the controller, I knew where all the important functions on each controller were and had no problem mastering each game’s individual control scheme.

The controllers themselves are comfortable to the touch and each controller uses a single double AA battery, which lasted the entirety of the six hours I used the controllers. The column has a single button for your middle finger, while three buttons and a small joystick are embedded in the circular space at the top of the column. Like the Wii remote, there are straps to help keep the controllers in your hand and not flying across the room during intense gameplay sessions. Helpfully, the controllers also show up in VR, so you can locate them while wearing the headset.

Games specifically developed with the Touch controllers in mind, like The Unspoken and Superhot VR, are fantastic demonstrations of the extended range of mobility that they add to the Rift’s virtual reality experience. Superhot VR is a particularly enjoyable experience, requiring the player to rip weapons from enemies’ hands and duck beneath enemy fire in slow motion. I emerged from my experience breathing hard, muscles sore, and a huge smile plastered on my face. The Unspoken is a good time too, especially for those who love duels or have ever fancied themselves as a wizard or witch causing havoc in modern New York.

I also felt no nausea or motion sickness during my time with the headset and controllers across several games, though I’ve only had two instances in the past with VR making me feel motion sickness with Adr1ft and Thumper.

What Doesn’t Work:The majority of Touch titles available for the Rift are interesting, but they are few in number. While Superhot VR, The Unspoken, and I Expect You To Die are all a good time, they still feel like expensive tech demos instead of full gaming experiences. Many of them don’t last longer than an hour. A few duds also pad out the library, including a sports minigame collection called VR Sports Challenge that feels like a weak, half-hearted attempt to capture the glory of Wii Sports. A number of previously released Oculus Rift titles have Touch compatibility as well, like Crytek’s The Climb, but the added mobility doesn’t significantly improve the experiences we played.

Setting up the controllers is an easy affair, but maintaining a consistent experience is a different story. They don’t always work the way you need them to. Though I had more than the suggested seven feet of space and had appropriately calibrated the controllers, the sensors still occasionally failed to pick up my movements. These issues didn’t arise often (usually during physically intense games like Superhot VR), but they still disrupted the experience by causing one of my “arms” to stop responding or disappear entirely from view for a few seconds.

These technical hiccups don’t bring the experience to a grinding halt, but they poke holes in the immersion that VR is trying to create. However, all the virtual reality systems I’ve used have had these issues in one way or another and occurred the least with the Oculus Touch controllers, and the Touch controllers are slightly more comfortable than the Vive’s and way more responsive than the PS Move.

It’s worth noting that Oculus recommends having a third sensor for a more accurate room scale. However, we were not sent a third sensor (which can be purchased for $79), so we worked with what consumers will be getting out of the basic box, a single sensor for both controllers, and can’t speak to any playability differences between having the additional sensor or simply having what comes out of the box.

The Final Verdict:If you count yourself among those unenthused or still waiting for virtual reality’s must-play experience, the Oculus’ Touch controllers and the games designed for them are unlikely to get you to jump onboard.

Virtual reality is still an investment at this stage, with little immediate payoff beyond stylish tech demos. The best games for these devices are supposedly coming sometime in the future. The Touch controllers feel like a way for Oculus to play catch-up to the other platforms. However, beyond the Rift controllers feeling slightly easier to hold, there’s nothing here that sets apart the Vive and the Rift bundled with Touch Controllers; they carry same price tag, but the Vive has had time to build up a bigger library of titles with support for motion controls.

For those who have a Rift and want to keep up with the device’s evolution, it’s essential to buy the controllers in preparation for future titles. However, for those still trying figure out if they’re going to go with a Vive or Rift, there’s nothing here that puts Oculus over Vive.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2016/12/06/oculus-touch-controllers-review.aspx

Dead Rising 4

If misery factories like The Walking Dead have taught us anything, it’s that people are crappy and that they’re the real threats in a zombie-infested world. That may be, but some of us would rather experience the end of days like The Last Man on Earth, using the apocalypse as an excuse to ride a tricycle around while wearing a tuxedo jacket and snow pants. Dead Rising has straddled the line between horror and humor since its inception, and that hasn’t changed with the fourth entry – but it’s not shambling in the footsteps of what’s come before. Even though we’re back in Willamette with Frank West, Capcom Vancouver has infused the series with fresh ideas and some of the best action that it’s had in a decade.

Frank can’t seem to stay out of the game, in more ways than one. Capcom has introduced new heroes in the Dead Rising series with each numbered entry, but they don’t have the same staying power as the war photographer. Like a lot of people, I get a kick out of the lovable doofus. Sure, his jokes are enough to make dads nod appreciatively, but there’s something compelling about a hero that’s always just on the edge of failure at any given moment. His return to the scene of the first game is fitting, though he can explore far beyond the mall’s confines this time around.

I’ve personally been less interested in Dead Rising’s storylines than in its settings and characters, and Dead Rising 4 hasn’t changed my opinion. Yet another conspiracy needs investigating, with double crosses and intrigue. Why have the zombies returned, even though the infection was supposed to have been stopped with the Zombrex drug? Is the military involved? Why on earth would you live in Willamette, anyway? Frank gets pulled into the mystery by one of his photography students, and before long his instincts kick back in. Players who have been around for the long haul may recognize a few names here and there, but you can easily start the series here and not feel completely lost.

Even if the campaign’s conspiracy feels a little rote, Willamette is the best playground that’s been offered yet. It has everything you’d expect to find in a small town, from quirky shops to hardware store and homes – and the all-new Willamette Memorial Megaplex mall. Best of all, it’s easy to navigate. Unlike Dead Rising 3’s network of blocked-off freeways, the roads are clear – zombie hordes notwithstanding – and you can circle the map without leaving your car. You want to get out to explore the various shops and interior spaces, though. Dozens of weapon blueprints and other collectibles are hidden within the well-detailed environments, and you can do so at your leisure.

Capcom Vancouver has been streamlining the core of Dead Rising since it took over development duties with Dead Rising 2. Frank has loosened up since the first game, where he (and players) had to keep a close eye on his watch to make sure that time didn’t run out. Each subsequent game in the series has relaxed those timed elements, with DR4 eliminating them altogether. I’m sure there are going to be some people who cry foul at not having a rigid deadline in the background, but I appreciate the decision. Willamette is a big place with a lot to explore, and it’s nice to have the freedom without feeling like the meter is constantly running. You can take things at your own pace, knowing that when you’re done looking for panic rooms to loot or photographing graffiti, the next mission is waiting.

Frank’s new exosuit is one of the game’s back-of-the-box selling points, and it’s a nice addition to his arsenal. These military suits let him hit harder and run faster, providing a brief-but-satisfying feeling of near-invincibility. Battery life is woefully short on these things, however, making them more of a temporary power-up than anything else. You can also upgrade them in silly ways, such as combining the suit with a frozen-drink dispenser, which allows you to hurl tornadoes that turn vast multitudes of zombies into undead popsicles. I get a kick out of these fleeting moments of raw power – getting a 3,000-hit combo in the exosuit is easily within reach – but finding them and a suitable upgrade opportunity is disappointingly rare. For a game that’s otherwise so generous with giving players opportunities to feel powerful, it felt oddly restrictive.

The new combo weapons are fantastic. I rarely bothered to pick up mundane tools of destruction like RPGs or shotguns – you can use those in most shooters, after all. Few games give you the ability to turn enemies into piles of Christmas decorations with the wave of a wand or summon a legion of explosive garden gnomes. Improvised weapons and combo-weapon components are piled all over the world, and I rarely found myself unarmed. Something is almost always within reach, even if you have to resort to swinging a vacuum cleaner around for a little while.

More familiar tools are also given an upgrade in Dead Rising 4. Frank’s camera has been tricked out with a couple of new lenses, including night-vision and a spectrum analyzer. They’re both used to great effect in new investigation-oriented gameplay, where you have to do a little bit of detective work. These sections pop up in regular intervals throughout the story, challenging the player to find a series of hidden clues in a highlighted area. You might need to get a password for a laptop, which you can find by using a special lens on a notebook and snapping a photo. They’re a fun change of pace, though had a tough time lining up the correct shot on a few occasions. 

The most significant tweak to the series is in how different weapon types are slotted to specific buttons rather than being dumped into a common inventory. Before now, players could keep one item in their hands at a time, whether it was a shotgun, mannequin limb, or hand grenade. Now ranged, melee, and thrown weapons have dedicated buttons. It’s a big change to how you play, and works nicely. When you’re picking off some renegade soldiers at a distance and are swarmed by a few zombies, you can instantly knock them away with a spiked bat, then resume your shooting without having to cycle through your inventory. It comes at the cost of a little item flexibility – you can’t swing a cash register at zombies and then hurl it when you’re done – but I think it’s a small tradeoff. Killing hordes of the undead is still a visceral thrill, whether you’re doing it with a spiked bat or plowing through crowds in a hybrid tractor/wheelchair.

Capcom Vancouver has diligently iterated on the franchise, revisiting and tweaking elements that haven’t quite worked. That makes one of Dead Rising 4’s prominent stumbles stand out even more. Previous games have featured memorable encounters with special deranged survivors, which served as bosses. They’re called maniacs here (so long, psychopaths), and they all are disappointments. Before, these challenging fights were bracketed with cutscenes, showing why a clown may have lost his mind, and then paying off the fight with a gory climax. They were surprisingly poignant at times, conveying some of the damage that people endured during the zombie outbreaks. The maniacs in Dead Rising 4 have no fanfare; they don’t drop any exclusive weapons, and have no memorable qualities, aside from the fact that they might be wearing matching outfits. I always looked forward to meeting the next weirdo in the previous games, but dispatching each new maniac felt more like ticking a checklist once I realized how little they added to the world.

Players also can’t play through the campaign with a co-op buddy, which is something the last few games have supported. It makes sense from a storytelling perspective, but I can understand why some fans might be disappointed. A new dedicated multiplayer mode is set exclusively in the mall; you have to level up a new character there, but the campaign and multiplayer mode have some crossover. Your blueprints carry over to multiplayer, and there you can unlock longer-lasting weapon variants that migrate back to single-player. It’s a fun diversion, but the real meat of the game is still in the single-player experience.

I’ve been a fan of Dead Rising since the first one, and my enthusiasm has only grown over the years. I enjoyed getting dirty in Dead Rising 4’s madcap sandbox, and I’d expect that people who have kept up with the series will also have a great time wreaking havoc in Willamette. Players who wanted to get into it before but were put off by the time constraints should definitely give it a shot, too. In many ways, this is the game that people who just wanted to be a one-man zombie wrecking crew were probably hoping for all along.

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/dead_rising_4/b/xboxone/archive/2016/12/05/dead-rising-4-review-home-for-the-holidays.aspx