Dead Rising 4 Doubles Down On Social Commentary

Zombies in malls. The two were first paired in George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, where the characters were hole up inside a mall surrounded by zombies, left to muse about the nature of mass consumerism while while defending themselves against mindless drones … hey, wait a second!

Dead Rising followed this structure very closely, but any such social commentary was merely surface level, as the game itself spent very little time exploring it.

But now, with the upcoming Dead Rising 4, Capcom Vancouver is doubling down. Of course, this much was obvious from the "Black Friday" cinematic trailer (shown above). But such commentary actually occurs during the game.

The first time you arrive at the mall, you'll meet a character who talks about how the mall was only open for a day before it became invested with zombies. What day was that? You guessed it – Black Friday. Frank West by remarking on how quickly a place this size could be overrun with so many people who then became zombies.

I don't know for sure – I'd have to play through those levels again – but I think maybe they're drawing some sort of comparison? Beats me … beats me right over the head with that commentary.

Luckily, you will be given no shortage of distractions to literally beat over the head, if you just can't stomach commentary that was just barely fresh in 1979, when Dawn of the Dead came out. You might roll your eyes, but then you'll go back to combining a Go-Kart with an electric shopping cart to make an electrified Go-Kart and you'll forget all about it.