Dead Rising 4 - Season Pass (DLC)

My honest take on this season pass is that it hinges almost entirely on how much goodwill you have left for Dead Rising 4 after the credits roll, because none of the three expansions here are going to win over anyone who already checked out. What you get is the Stocking Stuffer Holiday Pack, which tosses in festive weapons, holiday-themed costumes, and seasonal zombie variants that fit the game's Christmas chaos perfectly if you want a little extra silly; Frank Rising, the post-campaign story expansion; and Super Ultra Dead Rising 4 Mini Golf, which is exactly as weird as it sounds. Frank Rising is the contentious centerpiece of the whole package. It picks up directly after DR4's main ending, casting you as a semi-zombified Frank West who has lost access to his full arsenal, combo weapons, EXO suits, and costumes. Instead, you're working with four zombie powers: a pounce to close distance on targets, acid vomit spray, a stunning howl, and basic melee, while feeding on enemies to recover health. The mode also reintroduces a countdown timer, which the base game famously stripped out, creating a real tension that DR4 lacked. The problem is the execution. The entire thing plays out across the same map you already finished, no new areas, and runs somewhere between 90 minutes and two hours on a clean playthrough. Completing trials to power up zombie Frank's abilities can eat a full hour on its own, at which point the timer wipes your progress anyway on replays. The grind versus reward ratio is punishing in the wrong direction. More critically, a lot of reviewers and long-term fans called out that this content effectively locks the game's true ending behind a paywall, a practice that earned real and deserved criticism at launch. Super Ultra Dead Rising 4 Mini Golf is the odd one out, and depending on your personality, it might actually be the most fun per hour in the pass. You play through oversized, neon-lit mini golf courses built from the main game's map geometry, with some holes running genuinely tricky layouts. Ball physics are shaky and bugs do appear, but there is a certain dumb joy to it, especially with other players online. It makes zero logical sense in a zombie action game and that is kind of the point. The Stocking Stuffer pack sits in a third category: purely cosmetic and weapon variety content with no story weight. Holiday zombies, festive combo weapons, and seasonal outfits. Low stakes, mildly charming, and fine as a bonus but you would never buy it solo. The honest calculus here is straightforward. If you genuinely enjoyed DR4's combat sandbox and want the story closed out, Frank Rising delivers that closure, however thin the surrounding content feels. If you bounced off the base game or felt burned by its missing features, nothing in this season pass rehabilitates the experience. The mixed Steam score of 57% lines up exactly with that reality: completionists and franchise loyalists find something worth having, while anyone expecting DLC that expands the world in meaningful ways will be disappointed.

Alex · Scout Team

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