Granzella and NIS America announced that the role-playing survival game, Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, is heading West for PC, PS4, and the Nintendo Switch. The epic piece of news about the PC release is that it’s going to launch on Steam, which means no timed exclusivity deals that prevent you from buying the game elsewhere.
Fans of the Disaster Report series are probably duly excited for finally getting a release window on the Western release, since Disaster Report 4 was announced. We still don’t have an exact release date, but NIS America has opened up the web portal where you can pre-order the special edition of the game for $89.99 on the PS4 or Nintendo Switch.
Accompanying the news about the pre-orders going live, NIS also dropped a new trailer for the game, showcasing the gameplay, which you can check out below.
The trailer outlines what role the custom player-character will play in the events that unfold around the city, which starts by allowing you to customize the appearance and role your character will play when disaster strikes.
As you can see, the face and hair can be changed, as well as your starting outfit.
Along the way you’ll meet friends and foes alike, as well as have the opportunity to make decisions that will affect the fate of those you meet.
While the general models for the characters look passable, the shaders on the faces and hair are kind of weird. There’s a paucity of rendering passes on the lighting, so instead of multiple layers there appears to be a basic specular highlighting map for the hair, and a second shadow pass.
If you look at the hair, you’ll note that there’s a sheen or glow from the specular emitter on the hair, but there’s no reflection pass from the environment. Without a reflection pass the hair lacks subtle reflective and color changes, creating this weird, plasticity look that makes the characters really stand out… and not in a good way.
On the upside, at least the hair looks better indoors, in darkened areas; and that’s only because it makes the hair look less like plastic.
Anyway, you can look for Disaster Report 4 to launch in early 2020 for the PS4, Nintendo Switch, and on Steam for PC.
Given that the Japanese version of the game, Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 4, reportedly suffered from pacing issues, some graphical issues and some performance issues, I wonder if NIS will address any of those things ahead of release? I guess we’ll find out when 2020 gets here.
(Thanks for the news tip Guardian EvaUnit02)
