People have disliked the time limits in Capcom’s Dead Rising series since the very beginning. With the fourth main series title, Dead Rising 4, those pesky time limits shall no longer be a problem.
Time limits in video games can be extremely frustrating or inconsequential, depending on developers craft the experience. The time limits within Dead Rising are extremely crushing for multiple reasons (and not just the game’s infamous achievements). Not only does failing to abide by the time limits result in hours of lost progress (game over/screwing up the good endings), but players have to micromanage numerous missions with their own time limit meter.
Players who want to get a meaningful playthrough for any of the Dead Rising titles become caught up in a stressful web of time restraints. With the clock no longer acting as a looming dark cloud of stress, players can finally take their time and explore Dead Rising 4‘s open environments.
Thanks to Gamespot, additional information was present when Joe Nickolls, head of Capcom Vancouver Studio, was questioned on why time limits were removed from Dead Rising 4.
“We did a ton of user research on it, and the majority of the people said they didn’t really love the timer–they wanted to explore. There’s so much hidden side content that when we did it with a timer, people were just getting pissed off because they couldn’t finish half of what they wanted to finish.”
Because of the focus on exploration in Dead Rising 4, even the choice for an optional time limit doesn’t quite make sense.
“The world has been designed with multiple levels of exploration,” he said. “It’s so dense this time. There are stores, there are apartments above the stores, there are hidden areas and rooms.”
With time limits out of the way and a more newcomer friendly mindset being used to develop Dead Rising 4, Capcom might just be able to bring in some new people.
Dead Rising 4 launches on December 6th for Xbox One and PC. Remastered versions of Dead Rising, Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising: Off The Record are currently available on home consoles.
Source: Gamespot
