Five minutes into Dead Rising 4’s

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To make matters worse, he’s confronted inside of the bad dream by a ghastly vision of himself. Ghost Frank spits out taunts that harken back to the silly dialogue and discoveries Frank made back in the first Dead Rising. It’s a self-deprecating intro, but one that still manages to offer a peek at what’s to come. As Frank carves through packs of zombies, his weapons change whenever he catches up with his ghostly tormentor. “We wanted to give people a chance right off the bat to try out some of our combo weapons and just have some fun,” executive producer Bryce Cochrane explains, as we thrash through the pack and dwell deeper into Frank’s tormented subconscious.

Over a span of minutes, we get to try a lot of zombie-killing weapons like the Blast from the Past – a sledgehammer and grenade weapon combo that sends undead flying into the air; the Blambow – a crossbow that fires colorful exploding roman candles; and the Electric Axe – a shocking special weapon the developers first showed at E3 2016; and more. But Cochrane assures us this auto-switch does not happen in the rest of the game. The team wanted players to experience the familiar-yet-satisfying feeling of carving up hundreds of zombies right away.

Bigger, Better, But Still Frank

Dead Rising 4: Frank West Gallery 5 IMAGES

For the 10th anniversary of Dead Rising, the development team decided that going back to Willamette would be an appropriate setting for the next game. But the decision wasn’t based on nostalgia alone; it’s also about bringing closure to Frank’s storyline from the first game. He solved the mystery of the zombie outbreak, but the minute Frank pointed the finger at a government conspiracy no one believed him and he was discredited.

Frank West is now a professor at a community college and surprisingly, he has never looked better in a Dead Rising game. The studio has taken away his ogre-like hunch, thinning hair, and the generally creepy vibe he gave off in the prior games. “We’ve looked at Frank and updated him in all ways” Cochrane said, as he explains the protagonist’s new look. “He’s still a super smart-ass,” Capcom Vancouver studio head Joe Nickolls chimes in, “The humor is still there. He’s still Frank.”

Faster to the Fun...and the Food

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The team behind Dead Rising 4 may be the stewards of Capcom’s campy zombie action series since its first sequel. But for this one, the team developed a mantra of trying to get to the fun quicker than they did before. As a result, Frank’s inventory has been completely reworked in Dead Rising 4. Rather than cycle through a long list of items to find the thing he wants, the team separated his weapons into different slots in the UI, making it much easier to pick between the melee items, throwables, and firing weapons in his arsenal.

“We’ve made [Frank’s inventory] infinitely more accessible in game,” Cochrane said. “If you pull the right trigger, you’re going to shoot. If you want to throw something, you can switch to that as well.” Admittedly, the new system feels like a solid solution for taking down enemies quickly, whether they’re infected zombies or hostile survivors armed with guns. The new UI even has slots dedicated to Frank’s food reserves. If you picked up anything he can eat, tapping down on the D-Pad will quickly recover Frank’s health in the heat of the moment.

PP gained from killing zombies will level up Frank and give him access to 107 unlockable special skills that can speed up his weapon combo time, upgrade his aiming and survival skills, and more.

Tools of Mass Zombie Destruction

The Dead Rising team at Capcom Vancouver has always had a knack for coming up with absolutely-insane-yet-absurdly-satisfying combo weapons, and it looks like they’ve raised the bar for ridiculous undead destruction again. Frank can now build weapon (and vehicle) combos quickly without a workbench. He still needs to find blueprints, but he can start building the minute he has the parts to make it work.

Here’s a quick list of some of the weapons and vehicles we got to use in our hand-on time.

Froztee Penguin – This penguin mask which spits ice that can insta-freeze zombies in their tracks. You can also jump and plank mid-air to land on your stomach and ram packs of zombies.

The Kill-O-Watt – a combo vehicle that combines a go kart with a shipping kart. It can shoot out waves of electricity.

Sling Rot – a combo vehicle you can use on the streets of Willamette that combines a hearse and a snow plow. You can use it to scoop up zombies as shoot them out as live ammunition.

Tread Maker – this combo vehicle is what happens when a Tractor meets a wheelchair.

Creep Frier – a combo vehicle that combines a food truck and a dirt bike.

Magic Wand – a weapon that turns zombies into Christmas decorations.

The biggest, and possibly most fun weapon we got our hands on was the Exosuit. This powerful new upgrade works more like a power-up. It runs on a timer that starts the minute you put it on, but it also lets you interact with special heavy weapons that Frank can’t handle without the suit. Even more surprising, the exosuit can combo with other items in the world. You can pair it with a Slurpee machine to shoot out colorful slush that can freeze zombies, and that’s just one of several combinations.

Fun With Photography

As a photojournalist, Frank’s camera has always been a big part of Dead Rising. And now it’s getting some upgrades. He can still take pictures of the chaos (and supporting evidence) to earn PP points (the currency needed to unlock key survival skills). Now it’s also got night vision, which he can use to explore dark rooms. Or he also can use a spectrum analyzer to track bloody trails, lift fingerprints off of terminals to he can access special keypad-locked rooms, and find other secrets in the world.

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“Obviously, Frank is a photojournalist, so we wanted to go as far as we could with that,” Cochrane explains. He can take selfies, and players have full control over the facial expressions he can make. But our favorite new feature was the Steathlie, a combo selfie photo and silent takedown where Frank quickly poses with his victim before knocking them out.

Bigger Mall, New Threats

The Willamette Mall has gotten some considerable upgrades in Dead Rising 4. This new Megaplex mall has five themed sections, ranging from an Amazon-themed food court set in a rain forest to a neon-lit Japanese shopping area that’s full of callouts to classic Capcom characters like Zero and Morrigan.

You’ll still find plenty of survivors in need of a help too, but now there are also hostile survivors that sling automatic weapons too. These foes wander the mall and, in some instances, we stumbled upon hostiles survivors and zombies duking it out in the middle of the mall. These skirmishes sets up strategic combat situations where you can watch the chaos before tipping the odds in favor of one side or obliterate them both.

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But what would Dead Rising be without new zombies? Capcom Vancouver has introduced several varieties and each one is deadlier than the last. The returning run-of-the-mill zombie leads the pack and is just as docile as ever. But this time players also have to deal with “The Fresh” – a new, faster type of zombie that transforms right on the spot, and its aggressive tactics fit right in with the infected from 28 Days Later or World War Z. And, finally, there’s the Evos, an even deadlier zombie that can summon and control hordes. These are faster and stronger than the Fresh and don’t appear until into several chapters into the campaign.

The updates Capcom Vancouver chose for Dead Rising 4 are satisfying, but this is just the tip of the zombified iceberg. Stay tuned all month long for the reveal of the multiplayer, developer commentaries, and much more.

Jose Otero is an Editor at IGN and host of Nintendo Voice Chat . You can follow him on Twitter