In 2006, I had a decision to make. Christmas was coming up, and three new gaming consoles were on the market: Sony's super-expensive PS3, the impossible-to-find Nintendo Wii, and the Xbox 360, which came out the year prior and already had an established library of great games. Still, after a decade of only owning PlayStation and Nintendo consoles, I wasn't sold on the Xbox 360. That was, until I read about Dead Rising in a gaming magazine. There had been plenty of zombie video games before, but nothing to its scale, with the promise of hundreds of zombies on-screen at once and all the action taking place in a Dawn of the Dead-esque shopping mall. Dead Rising pushed me to ask for an Xbox 360 for Christmas that year, and I did not regret the decision. Now, an eye-watering 18 years later, Capcom has brought Dead Rising back as Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster. Upgraded for a new generation of consoles, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is in many ways better than the Xbox 360 original, even if it drops the ball in some areas.
One of the first things I noticed when booting up Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster was its graphical pop-in. The game's opening cutscenes and the helicopter photography sequence suffer from distracting pop-in problems where characters, zombies, far-off trees, and chunks of buildings suddenly phase into existence. These opening areas also have some odd flickering textures, which did not leave a good first impression.
Once I was in the mall, though, the graphical issues mostly subsided (except for Leisure Park), and I was hit with a wave of nostalgia. From saving Jeff and Natalie on the mall's rooftop to exploring all the different shops in Paradise Plaza, Dead Rising's opening hours have stuck with me for nearly two decades and getting to revisit the game on modern hardware is a treat.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster Has Major New Quality-of-Life Features
I went with Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster's new control scheme, but those that want even more nostalgia can go with the original controls. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster's new control scheme makes it so the Y button is used to pick up objects, whereas it was B in the original. This change takes some getting used to, but the decision to relegate survivor commands and radio calls to the sticks is a huge improvement. This way, players can answer calls without moving their fingers away from the sticks, which sounds small but is a huge convenience when out exploring the mall.
Players are let loose to explore the mall as much as they'd like fairly early on in Dead Rising, though there's always a time limit hanging over their heads. One reason why the original Dead Rising stands out so much is its time limit, with players needing to manage their time over the 72 hours that they're in the mall to save as many survivors as possible, kill any Psychopaths that get in their way, and ultimately solve the mystery at the core of the main story missions. The time limit adds a great deal of pressure to the proceedings and ensures the stakes are always high. It's a divisive mechanic for sure, but I personally loved it in the original and I love it now. It makes Dead Rising incredibly unique and forces players to think strategically about every move they make in Willamette Mall.
Navigation in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is significantly improved. Whereas the original game used a big ugly arrow at the top of the screen to point players to their next objective, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster uses a far more helpful compass that lets players select multiple objectives at once. These objective markers tell players the exact distance they are from any given task, which in turn makes it easier for players to make decisions about where to go next. If a Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster survivor is relatively close by, players can make the choice to snag them before rushing back to the security room, whereas before they may not have realized where the survivors were and needlessly left them to die.
Old-school Dead Rising fans will greatly appreciate the compass, and those that hated the original's time limit will be happy to learn that they can fast-forward time in the remaster. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster lets players use save points to fast-forward, giving them the freedom to focus strictly on the main story without having to kill time in the mall. Of course, players can also fast-forward to specific side quests if they are trying to do something like kill all the Psychopaths or rescue specific survivors. That being said, I wouldn't touch Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster's fast-forward feature on a first playthrough. It can kill the pacing of the game and players will also miss out on all kinds of interesting things if they fast-forward to all the main story missions. It is hugely appreciated when achievement hunting and makes subsequent playthroughs a lot less tedious than they were in the original, however.
Fast-forwarding Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster may make it so players miss out on classic Psychopath encounters if they aren't careful, not to mention they will find themselves underleveled for late-game missions where zombies are more powerful. Dead Rising is balanced in a way where players are expected to die and restart from the beginning with their unlocked abilities and better stats. Now, there's always the option to reload from the latest checkpoint, but the game is a lot better playing as originally intended. Dead Rising hero Frank West gets more powerful with each subsequent run, with players able to get farther in the story and do more in the mall.
I find Dead Rising's progression to be highly rewarding. Leveling up Frank yields exciting rewards like stat boosts and new skills that can drastically change how one tackles the game's challenges and explores the mall. Early abilities like Zombie Ride are a game-changer for navigating crowded areas, while some of the later skills vastly improve Frank's ability to kill hordes of the undead. Players level up by completing quests, killing enemies, and taking photographs. Photographs are split up into different categories, with players able to earn bonus points for getting high-quality photos of specific characters, locations, and in-game events.
With the new fast-forward feature, it's possible to blow through Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster's main story missions in a handful of hours, but that's definitely not the ideal way to experience the game.
Capcom has made the decision to remove one of the photography categories from Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster. The original game encouraged players to take sexually suggestive photos for bonus points, including an instance where they could get points for snapping a photo up Jessie's skirt. The Erotic photos were always weird anyway, so I'm not sad to see them go, but some of the other changes made to make the game more palpable for modern audiences are a little disappointing. For example, Cliff's backstory has been toned down to remove mention of Communists and the Vietnam War, which makes him a less interesting character.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster's Endgame is a Big Step Up
There are certainly controversial changes made to Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, but some tweaks will be universally loved. I don't want to go into details because that would be venturing into spoiler territory for those who haven't played the original, but a particularly annoying mission in Dead Rising's Overtime mode has been made a lot easier in the Deluxe Remaster. Players will also greatly appreciate how Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster survivors are way smarter than their 2006 counterparts. They still sometimes get stuck behind when loading from one area to the next, which is annoying, but their survivability has been greatly improved, and they also call out helpful items and points of interest while traveling through the mall with Frank.
Not all the flaws from the original game have been fixed in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, though. Fans of the original will recall the boss fight in Leisure Park where a trio of escaped convicts are terrorizing survivors in a machinegun-mounted jeep. In the original game, players could kill the convicts but their jeep and gun would sometimes disappear. Not only that, but the convicts would respawn later, for reasons unexplained. I assumed that these issues would be rectified in the remaster, but they are not. It's possible that letting the convicts respawn is a deliberate choice, but it's a puzzling one, especially since none of the other Psychopaths do.
Psychopaths are also found in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster's Infinity Mode, which is massively improved when compared to the original. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster Infinity Mode lets players save and quit in the middle of a run, which makes getting the achievement for surviving seven days straight a lot more reasonable. Not only that, but players no longer have to deal with limited supplies. Weapons and healing items can be earned by killing zombies, which encourages players to actually have fun instead of hoarding healing items and cowering in place.
When it comes to the changes in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, I would say the majority of them are for the better. However, the big change that I think actually makes the game worse is how the graphics go for a more realistic approach. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster's zombies, environments, characters, and everything else shoot for a realistic vibe, whereas the original was more colorful, and in some ways, cartoon-y. I like the original Dead Rising's art direction a lot more than the Deluxe Remaster, which at times can feel soulless by comparison.
Some of Dead Rising's morbid charm is lost in translation, but for the most part, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is a solid re-do of the 2006 original. The quality-of-life improvements will be greatly appreciated by all and revisiting Willamette Mall is a nostalgic time for old-school 360 fans. Here's hoping that we don't have to wait long to see another entry in the series.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 79 /100 Critics Rec: 77%
WHERE TO PLAY
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
- Game-changing quality-of-life features
- Keeping survivors alive no longer feels like a chore
- Successfully brings the Dead Rising experience to modern standards
- Significantly improved endgame modes
- Not all changes are for the better
- Greater focus on realism makes graphics lose some charm
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster launches September 19 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. The Best War Games was provided with an Xbox Series X code for this review.