Capcom Heroes
Since Frank West first donned a Mega Man costume and jammed a Servbot head onto a zombie in the original Dead Rising game, one of the hallmarks of the series has always been the subtle (and not-so-subtle) references to other classic Capcom franchises. From the Resident Evil nod in the mall’s restaurant named Jill’s Sandwiches, to the free Street Fighter costume pack released for Dead Rising 4, it’s clear that a love for Capcom runs deep in the series.
It’s something close to the heart for the Dead Rising design team and when they had the chance to dream up a new game mode for Dead Rising4 , they drew upon the series’ deep ties to classic games and came up with Capcom Heroes; the ultimate love letter to many classic Capcom games.
In Capcom Heroes for Dead Rising 4, Frank West wears over a dozen outfits pulled from the Capcom archives and performs signature special attacks based on some of our greatest heroes. Capcom Heroes is an alternate way to experience the Dead Rising 4 story mode. While progressing through missions and exploring the world, players will discover arcade machines. Interacting with these arcade cabinets lets the player equip a new “Hero Outfit” that gives Frank the powers and abilities of that character.
Frank will now be able to fight through the zombie hordes and uncover what’s behind the latest outbreak in Willamette while wielding Adam’s dual chainsaws, Dante’s Rebellion Sword or X’s signature X-Buster and many more of Capcom’s most powerful weapons.
In addition to using the arcade machines, Frank can purchase some outfits from vendors and unlock others by finding collectibles hidden throughout the world. Players will also want to look for “Hero Training” side missions which award outfit variants and upgrades.
The design team has packed even more Capcom goodness that encourage players to photograph posters in the environment and loot treasures to access interesting game trivia and art.
Fan Requested Improvements
The fans have always been an important part of the Dead Rising series. From video Let’s Plays, to cosplayers becoming Frank West, to the players who share all of their feedback, our fans are a big part of what makes working on the series so much fun. All fans have things they’d like to see improved in their favorite games and we’ve been listening to our loyal Dead Rising 4 fan base and have been making improvements to Dead Rising 4 that will result in the game being even better than before.
One important example was with the difficulty level of the game. The Dead Rising series is associated with a high degree of difficulty and many players felt that we let up on that a little too much in Dead Rising 4. Listening to that feedback, the development team at Capcom Vancouver added two harder difficulty modes as a free update to the game the month after launch.
We’re happy to share many of the new improvements that players now can experience in Dead Rising 4.
Human Enemy Improvements
Maniacs are human enemies that Frank encounters during the course of his investigation into what’s happening in Willamette. The development team has spent time making these encounters feel more meaningful and rewarding. Maniacs will have new weapons that suit their character and Frank’s reward for defeating a Maniac will be wielding the new weapon. The AI that drives the Maniacs is also being improved to provide players with an even greater challenge.
Some of the Maniacs will also have new Maniac Minions who will attack Frank, making these fights more difficult. Human enemy AI is being improved for all types, making them better at using cover, blocking attacks with shields, and countering players who might rely on a single attack.
Distress Calls
While Dead Rising 4 always had human survivors in need of Frank West’s help, the development team is adding six memorable side missions that we’re calling Distress Calls. During Frank’s time in Willamette, he will have the opportunity to answer these Distress Calls and aid a survivor in a newly scripted mission, carrying out a quest for the survivor. Once he’s accomplished the assigned task, Frank will have to protect the survivor from the zombie hordes as they make their way to a safe location.
Each of these six all-new Distress Call missions will give players a unique variation on one of Frank’s outfits as a reward.
Other
The team is also looking at additional ways to improve the overall gameplay experience. These include improved controller responsiveness, faster attack speed, faster zombie horde awareness, more aggressive pursuit, rebalanced weapon distribution, improved zombie AI, mission tuning and more.
All owners of Dead Rising 4 have received Capcom Heroes and these gameplay improvements for free! It’s an update that’s not only going to give you something new to play in Dead Rising 4, but will also improve your experience playing it.
We are exceptionally grateful for all of the support and feedback that our fans have given us since Dead Rising 4 released, and throughout more than a decade zombie smashing action. So grab an orange juice and a Blambow and keep it coming!
