Lifeless Rising was launched in 2006 solely on the Xbox 360. It was a brand new IP from Capcom, an organization that already proved its mettle with zombies in Resident Evil. However the place Resident Evil was like a horror B-movie humorous via its self-seriousness, Lifeless Rising had a far more gross-out comical tone, and a singular deal with improvised weaponry, escorting survivors, and harsh closing dates.
Being an Xbox unique did not decelerate Lifeless Rising’s success, however because the sequence progressed, this exclusivity wormed round. A number of sequels, a comic book ebook, films, and a cell sport prompted Lifeless Rising to grow to be Capcom’s sixth highest-grossing franchise.
So why is it that the franchise feels useless and buried?
The final sport was Lifeless Rising 4, which launched for Xbox One in 2016 and completed its DLCs and PS4 port in 2017. Lengthy-time followers like me do not precisely have a lot reward for it, as many tried-and-true mechanics have been gone and Frank devolved as a personality to an enormous douche canoe, however trying up the opinions, the sport did do fairly effectively. It was gross sales that have been a special story; Capcom anticipated 2 million and did not even break 1 million. This failure shut down Capcom Vancouver.
Kind of explains the story, proper? Properly, it could do Frank a disservice to depart this story with out discovering all of the info. I discussed films and there have been three of them, although none of them made it to theaters. The primary was launched in episodes over Xbox Stay Market, whereas the next two got here out on trashy free-to-watch streaming platform Crackle. Apparently, Crackle was debating making a 3rd movie or a TV sequence, however this was again in a 2016 interview wi with actor Jesse Metcalfe (by way of Digital Spy), not Crackle’s CEO, so that appears useless within the water too.
The comedian and cell sport are one-note tales. The comedian, Highway To Fortune, was simply there to fill story gaps between 1 and a pair of, whereas Lifeless Rising Cellular acquired poor opinions, which seemingly killed curiosity in additional installments.
If you wish to play Lifeless Rising on fashionable {hardware}, your luck relies on your console. Lifeless Rising 3 by no means got here to Ps, PC missed out on the Case: Zero and Case: West DLCs, whereas on Xbox you’ll be able to play all entries within the sequence aside from the Wii port of the primary sport, Lifeless Rising: Chop Until You Drop.
The porting job simply feels unusual. Contemplating Lifeless Rising began as an Xbox unique, I kind of perceive why solely the Xbox has all of the canon video games, however since it is not true exclusivity, it looks like a uncooked deal that PlayStation homeowners must miss 3 earlier than taking part in 4. Additionally, Case: West misplaced its signature mechanic of giving DR 2 followers early objects and stage expertise as much as stage 5, because it would not sync with the remastered model. Leaving these video games as simply a part of the backward compatibility applications works, however feels incomplete on the identical time.
As for the Wii port, that dangers being misplaced to time until it will get ported once more. If there was an exclusivity contract concerned with this model, it ought to nonetheless be doable for a Change port like we noticed with the Wii model of Star Wars The Power Unleashed.
What occurred? How did such a profitable moneymaker flip into one thing with no future? Properly, the poor gross sales of Lifeless Rising 4 and subsequent closure of Capcom Vancouver have been clearly an enormous issue, however there was an enormous drawback because of Lifeless Rising 3. No, not as a result of it was an Xbox One unique (it is the best-selling entry), however as a result of DR 3’s ending determined to treatment zombification, which Lifeless Rising 4 acknowledged in its opening.
Capcom wrote themselves right into a nook with that. I like closure and suppose having it is not an inherently unhealthy thought, but it surely did imply shifting ahead wanted to not step on that, and Lifeless Rising 4 tried to do that by having a brand new variant of the outbreak happen. Followers have been divided on this, principally as a result of the reason did make sense and referred to as again to causes being the unique outbreak and even the identical lead scientist, however an enormous criticism was that the sport did not dive deep sufficient because the tone for 4 was much more comedic than the opposite numbered entries.
Then there was the ‘Frank’ drawback. When Capcom put Frank in Marvel Vs. Capcom and particularly once they remade 2 simply to have Frank be the principle character, it felt like Capcom was too in love with their earlier lead. Capcom would at all times declare it was American followers demanding Frank, however I feel they overestimated his attract, especifically in the course of the launch of Off The Document. Whereas Off The Document will get love now for including many quality-of-life enhancements to Lifeless Rising 2, the sport’s unique launch was topic to criticism over feeling like pointless Frank West fan-service.
Though even that stated, there’s one thing from Off The Document that carried over to Lifeless Rising 4 that hasn’t sat proper with followers: Frank West’s character.
Frank West had his comedic moments within the unique Lifeless Rising, and was tough across the edges, however his character was a photojournalist right here for the info and never happy till he acquired all of them. Gruff and awkward, however he actually did care. In Off The Document, they portrayed him as a fallen star who acquired stuffed with himself and solely needs to make use of a report on the outbreak to be well-known once more. Since it is not canon, this was effective, however someway this was the model of Frank’s character we noticed in 4, together with a recast that introduced a very totally different line supply.
In one other controversial transfer, T.J. Rotolo was changed as Frank West’s voice actor. Rotolo says Capcom by no means even approached him with a suggestion. This recast by no means actually labored because the supply and character writing have been so removed from established Frank that it solely raised questions why he was the protagonist this time. Many followers have questioned why Vick Chu wasn’t granted foremost character standing as a substitute, who desperately wanted extra display screen time for what they tried however did not do together with her.
The form of humorous factor is, Capcom has confronted these issues earlier than. Resident Evil 6 killed the franchise, however then Resident Evil 7 resurrected the franchise, and it is arguably stronger now than it ever was earlier than. Avenue Fighter 5 launched damaged and with no story mode, however now Avenue Fighter 6 has introduced again all of the naysayers. We’re in a world the place Megaman 11 exists. Franchises ebb and circulate, but Capcom did not appear ready to work previous the ebb of Lifeless Rising.
We coated the leaked gameplay of the canceled Lifeless Rising 5, and looky there, Chuck was going to be the lead! It truly looks as if the sport may’ve been heading in the right direction, and but. Lifeless Rising does appear useless, but when handled proper, Capcom may wow us once more.
