Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $49.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
The Dead Rising franchise has always had a certain level of charm to it, especially in regards to the first couple of entries in the series as their quirky designs and colorful style clashed wonderfully with the morbid zombie-slaying and death contained within. As such it only makes sense that the original Dead Rising is something of a fan favorite and has even been given a bit of a remaster before, with the original releasing eighteen years ago in 2006 and a slightly enhanced version a decade later for modern consoles at that time. This time however with Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster Capcom has taken a fine tooth comb to this zombie-infested mall to work out some bugs, give the game an entire visual overhaul with the RE Engine, and even added quality of life features at the expense of a few minor elements Is this nostalgic title still as enjoyable today or is it just a shambling corpse with a fresh coat of paint?
Story
It is worth noting that, as described in the title, this isn’t a full blown remake but instead a ground up remaster of the original Dead Rising meaning that all of the same main story beats and nearly all of the side content in the game remains the same as it was in the original 2006 release. For those unfamiliar however, players take on the role of Frank West, a photojournalist that’s covered wars and has found that his latest scoop involves a small Colorado town named Willamette. Flying in via helicopter he witnesses that not only is the National Guard blocking every entrance and exit to the town but the entire place is now swarming with undead zombies. Forced to bail out onto the rooftop of the town’s massive mall, Frank finds himself needing to survive for three days for his ride to return and hope that he can uncover the truth behind what has happened here in the meantime.
After a disastrous encounter with zombies that sees the barricaded entrance broken apart and numerous survivors falling to the undead, Frank finds himself mixed in with two agents that seem to know far more than they are willing to let on, a friendly and helpful janitor named Otis that is ready to call in any scoops he sees on the security cams, and a horrific plot meant to doom the country far beyond the once quiet hills of Willamette. Dead Rising‘s original storyline remains as campy and enjoyable as ever with some outlandishly ridiculous motives for the true villain and some more grounded motives for other villains that Frank comes across while Frank himself and his other allies are all handled well storywise. One of the most improved elements to the story however is the fact that everything is now voiced. While cutscenes and main characters did have voice work before, every character talks including survivors as Frank rescues them through the mall. In fact they’ll even chirp up from time to time while they are being escorted if Frank has gotten on their good side.
Now, as mentioned before, we did mention that some elements were done away with and one of them has to do with the way two psychos that Frank encounters are portrayed. One of which, Kent, has only been given a slight adjustment to make up for the fact that a specific photograph category has been removed entirely while the other is far more drastic. Cliff, the Vietnam War veteran, has been given nearly an entirely different set of lines and dialogue when Frank faces off against him, even if his reasons for snapping remain the same. Ironically, the reason for his snapping does reference the original dialogue, making these changes stranger in retrospect. No longer is Cliff portrayed as a veteran with PTSD, instead he simply thinks Frank is a “mole” and an animal. Why Capcom believed that removing the phrases “Viet Cong” and “Filthy Communist” from a traumatized veteran’s character is questionable to say the least and feels like it trivializes mental health especially with regards to the culmination of the fight.
Gameplay
One of the key aspects that always set Dead Rising apart from other games at the time was the 72-hour time limit that players had to work with and the fact that literally every mission in the game runs on a schedule. Time ticks away everywhere except for the pause menu, meaning players will always need to be on the move to try and make it to their next destination, be it making it to a main story scoop or finding a survivor or psycho that Otis has seen on the cameras. Missing out on a survivor call might just end up with the death of those survivors, one of whom has a vital time-saving technique but even then some survivors manage to slip Otis’ sights and players will need to find these themselves or risk losing out on a potential rescue. Missing out on a main story scoop however is far different as it will end the storyline right there with players having no way to recover other than to either reload a save and do their best to reach the location in time or simply continue playing from there, aiming for a less than best ending in order to either focus on saving survivors or boosting their level for the next go around as Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster retains its excellent New Game+ system that has been revamped a little as well as not only will Frank carry over his level but even his challenge progress, meaning tackling the Zombie Genocider achievement is far simpler as it can be achieved in multiple playthroughs.
Anyways, as players make their way with their limited time they will come across countless zombies, queen wasps to kill swathes of zombies, and other dangerous forces that fill up the mall in the latter sections of the game. To deal with this Frank can use literally everything to take zombies down and while most of the combat remains the same it has been given some wonderful quality of life features. Picking up a sword and slashing through swathes of zombies or slamming a toy mask on a zombie head or even grabbing a fish out of the pond outside to use as a weapon remains the same as ever, but this time around players will have a clear indication of how long each weapon will last. Before, weapons would start to flash in Frank’s inventory when they were close to breaking but now everything with durability has a small meter underneath it showing how many hits it has left, whether it is only two or multiple. This is a great quality of life improvement especially for those who want to make sure they are fully geared before an outing into the undead horde. Another quality of life improvement is the fact that Frank can now move and aim at the same time, making firearms a far more useful tool than before as Frank was previously a stationary target when aiming and not blind-firing on the move.
Navigating through the mall and tracking down mission objectives is far easier thanks to a compass with separate indicators for up to three tracked scoops at a time, though they don’t appear to adjust to shortcuts that players have unlocked. As for rescuing the survivors, it must be said that the survivor AI has been given a solid revamp. Yes, they can still find themselves hopelessly stuck on an object or in the middle of a group of zombies standing uselessly, but for the most part the AI is far better than before with better pathing and listening to orders when told where to go. In fact, every survivor now has a trust meter of sorts that increases as players travel with them or give them their favorite food to heal with or weapon to wield. Survivors with their favorite weapon will be more active when fighting through zombies and willing to take risks to save others Frank is traveling with or even Frank himself. At high trust levels survivors can even point out hidden weapons in the mall, PP stickers, or even reference the types of juices players can mix together for powerful benefits. It also must be said that the developers thankfully added stairs to the rooftop vent, no longer must players be forced to drop a survivor they are carrying and wait for each survivor to find their way up the climbable platform.
Now as a photojournalist Frank will always have his camera on him and the best way to earn levels and PP is taking photos. These photos come in a variety of categories and some of which come from aforementioned hidden PP stickers (that are now clearly labeled in a collection menu for easier hunting down), taking photos of moments with survivors, and of course just any photo at all. Players can find various upgrades to Frank’s camera throughout the mall though these are basic at best such as adding a flash or brightness setting but these are also locations he can refill the battery as well. So, the photo element is another area where Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster has unfortunately been censored. Players can still take photos of “horror,” “drama,” “outtakes,” and even “brutality” but the Erotica category has been entirely removed. As mentioned earlier, this alters Kent’s dialogue slightly and also has seen the removal of any PP Frank would receive from erotic tinged photos. Along these same lines, many female survivors have had minor model modifications to remove erotic elements which is incredibly ironic given a late game request that focuses heavily on it that remains in the game.
A few other notable quality of life improvements come in the form of an autosave whenever players travel between locations in the mall, giving players a chance to undo a mistake of letting someone die or dying themselves and missing out on progress if they haven’t used a bathroom to save properly as well as the ability to fast-forward time. At save points Frank can skip ahead in time if players don’t feel like waiting around for the next case or are hunting down specific elements, making what seems like a strange addition an actually useful feature. This even works in the game’s unlockable “Unlimited Mode,” though given that players will always need to monitor Frank’s health in this survival mode, it can be a risk to take. Another helpful feature added into the Unlimited Mode is the ability to create a “suspended save” that allows players to save and quit and return to the mode at any time, something that is far more useful than having to let a console sit and run for hours without stopping. Sadly, this doesn’t mean that the game retains a hidden save in the case of crashing. On more than one occasion a late Unlimited Mode run came to an abrupt end when Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster crashed to Home, annihilating the save and any progress in the process, an issue that even happened in the main game mode once.
Audio & Visuals
Obviously the biggest draw of Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is its graphical overhaul and it must be said that it is quite significant here. While some may be on the fence regarding Frank West’s appearance compared to his old one, the character models overall in the game look absolutely amazing with their new textures and details added to them while still remaining familiar looking. The mall has been given significant revamps in some locations with Paradise Plaza being given a major facelift and other locations also given brand new details to make the mall look wonderful as players slay thousands of zombies within these stores. The gore factor is still quite high with plenty of zombie body parts flying around or blood squirting depending on what weapon is used. As mentioned earlier, some censorship has been done to remove erotic elements in the game but most of the changes are significant upgrades overall.
As far as the voice work goes, it is something of a shame that Capcom could not retain the original voice actor for Frank West from the first game to reprise his role here. The new voice actor does a solid enough job as a replacement but it is quite clear that he’s simply a replacement, not the nostalgic voice fans will remember and doesn’t quite hit the same notes that even newcomers will miss out on. It is nice to note that there is a massive amount of new voiced dialogue in the game as well, as mentioned earlier all survivors are now voiced and every call from Otis is also voiced, making exploring while listening to his calls a far easier endeavor. The soundtrack also has gone untouched thankfully, with all of the signature boss themes remaining the same as before and delivering quite a bit of hype when it comes to facing off against these familiar foes. Even all these years later, hearing “Gone Guru” start playing while outside triggers the fight or flight mechanic of facing down the convicts and is just as thrilling now as it was then.
Overall
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster may have censored and removed some content and still have crashing issues but these problems are a far cry compared to the amount of improvements made to the title as a result. Not only is this the best that Dead Rising has ever looked, but the company has managed to retain all of the same silly and enjoyable elements that made it a classic game in 2006. To top it off, all of the quality of life improvements to the gameplay only enhance the experience while still making sure the unique timer mechanic remains untouched, giving fans and newcomers alike the best possible way to experience the game.
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