Tweet
The first Dead Rising is celebrated and despised in equal measure for its campaign timer, whereby certain events play out independently of the player over the course of the story. It's a system that obliges you to be in exactly the right place at the right time if you want to meet (or save) certain characters, learn the origins of the zombie plague, or simply uncover every amusing quirk the world has to offer. While rather gruelling next to a wholly player-driven open world like that of GTA, the timer limitation lent itself to multiple playthroughs and created an unusual degree of tension, as budding scourges of the undead juggled the demands of the schedule against the temptation to goof around. Many players, however, found it to be an unnecessary pressure that stopped them enjoying everything the game's department store sandbox had to offer.
It's cause for both joy and consternation, then, that the timer is absent from Dead Rising 4's campaign, which sees original protagonist Frank West returning to the Colorado town of Willamette 16 years later to investigate yet another viral outbreak. It does feature in the new game's multiplayer, a four-player co-op escapade with semi-randomly generated missions, but as far as single-player goes, you can goof around as much as you like. The decision has provoked plenty of debate on forums, with some fans arguing that without the timer, Dead Rising lacks a signature touch. At a preview event in London this week, I asked the game's executive producer Bryce Cochrane and Capcom Vancouver studio director Joe Nickolls for a fuller explanation.
Read more…
More...