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It is rare that I have played a game that fits for a time of year like films do and it is even rarer that I recommend others play it during that time.  Dead Rising 4 is the Christmas game I highly recommend playing during this time of year if possible. While it is taking the piss it still manages to get you in the mood.

After trying to get some news to report by claiming snapshots and a big story in a lab experimenting on people, Frank West of previous Dead Rising fame, finds himself headed to a town where a fresh zombie outbreak has occurred.  The story is what it is, an OK zombie story like the other games, but it is the characters that makes the story fun, most notably Frank.  Frank regularly had me chuckling and cut scenes also had me laughing fairly regularly at silly jokes that just worked, both in regular gameplay and cut scenes.

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This is where Dead Rising 4 is at its strongest, the tone.  Between the silly jokes, the holiday season shopper/zombie jibes and the series usual level of insanity from stupidly over the top weapons to absolutely mowing down zombies at an excessive rate, the games relaxed nature with its frantic gameplay is Dead Rising in its element.  The aforementioned weapons are created using a super easy crafting mechanic where you find a blueprint and then the parts become easy to find in the environment. From here, you are free to make your electric axe as required and they go crazier than that.

Dead Rising 4 itself is quite easy for the most part and the only challenges come via the quantity of zombies at any given time and by the sometimes annoying controls.  Picking up items can be frustrating, especially if there is more than one next to each other as you try to position yourself to get it and if you accidentally throw away a weapon that can take a while to spot, if you are me that is anyway,  but its gameplay difficulty is part of the appeal I found.  Also, the laid back tone helps to make Dead Rising4 more relaxing and fun as opposed to frustrating.

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Aesthetically it is a very pretty game, cut scenes look very good, but sometimes I found the words and mouth actions would be off.  The open world itself looks really good too, though sometimes not so much through the camera lens.  While the camera has been a major part of other entries in the series, I found having to use it to collect information, see in the dark and just to take photo really disrupting to the flow of the game.

Every time I needed to use it I found it took me out of the experience.  One of the camera modes is selfie which I got a chuckle out of seeing Franks cheesy grin in the corner of a photo of a zombie the first couple of times, but then it got old quick.  Admittedly it may make for more laughs to share wacky moments to social media, but that is not me and as such it got old quick.

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Dead Rising 4 in so many ways is an above average game, but in so many others a great one.  Gameplay is simple and fun and the humour is on point.  Added to the Christmas theme that is heavily ingrained throughout the game, Dead Rising 4 is the Christmas game I did not know I wanted, but turned out I needed.

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Dead Rising 4 (Xbox One) Review

Released: December 2016
Rating: M15+
Platforms: Xbox One
Genre: Adventure, Action
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Microsoft Studios

4.0Overall Score
Gameplay
Graphics
Audio
Replayability
Reader Rating 1 Vote