Dead Rising 4 is a better-looking game than the Dead Rising 1 remaster. There’s no doubt about that. Dead Rising 1, though, might be the better video game.
YouTube channel CrowbCat pores over both games in a 22-minute comparison video (seen below), and some truly disappointing notions leak out as it unfolds. The world of Dead Rising 4 seems more like an undead facade than what we have with the original, and that’s troubling.
So, what’s different between Dead Rising and Dead Rising 4?
For starters, the blood spatter and grotesque mutilation of zombies is way better in the original game. Corpses react to your meddling, blood spatters in a realistic way.
The differences split further than that, though. The video reveals that in Dead Rising 1, gamers could interact with the world and almost all of its objects. See a chair on the ground? you can pick up and move that chair. You can even use it as a weapon. In Dead Rising 4, all you can do is bump into it.
In Dead Rising 1, pieces of scenery like baseball bats on the wall of a sporting goods store can be removed and actually used by Frank West. In Dead Rising 4, they’re props and can’t be touched.
Dead Rising 4 is somehow less interactive than its predecessor, and the difference is borderline alarming.
At least Dead Rising 4 is fun on its own. I’ve been playing it casually and enjoying myself, and our own Eric Frederiksen positively reviewed the game late last month. It’s fun, it just feels lesser than its original.