Ever since I startedDead Risingwith the sequel at a far too young age,Capcom’sotherzombie series has been one of my most beloved. As much as I love combo weapons, Fortune City, and Chuck Greene, the classic that started it all still stands as the absolute peak, and among my all-time favourite games.
After the unbelievable fumble that was Dead Rising 4, eight years of being six feet under, and therenewed success of Resident Evil taking up all of Capcom’s time, I honestly never expected to see the series again in my lifetime.That all changed a few months ago when Capcom announced Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, a confusingly-titled remake of the first game that aims to stay true to its visionwhile improving its core gameplay mechanics for a new audience.
I’ve been dreaming of a Dead Rising remake for close to a decade now, but considering how complicated and detailed the original was (just ask Crowbcat), as well as how theseries shifted to a more basic and sillier approach over time, I was nervous at how it might be handled. Fortunately, just a few hours with Deluxe Remaster has made me confident that it’s going to more than live up to my lofty expectations.
Capcom’s Most Faithful Remake
One of the biggest questions everyone has had is whether DRDR is a remake or a polished re-release. The name might make things more complicated than they need to be, but the truth is that Deluxe Remaster is closer to a remake than even any of the recent Resident Evil games, which are more reimaginings in the grand scheme of things.
From the few hours that I played,Dead Rising Deluxe Remasteris surprisingly and mercifully faithful to the 2006 classic,which includes all of the small details that made me fall in love with it in the first place. Frying pans can still be heated up to kill zombies, paint cans still blind enemies, and the old faithful katana is still waiting for Frank on an awning in Paradise Plaza.
If you’ve played Dead Rising before, then you’ll know what to expect here with endless hordes of zombies, memorable Psychopath boss battles, and a constantly ticking clock, but there are a number of changes making it worthy of the “remake” moniker. The visuals, which have seen a massive RE Engine overhaul that makes Frank and Willamette Mall look more detailed than ever.
Willamette’s Never Looked Better, Even If Frank Has
Frank’s ten millionth redesign was a little offputting at first, but his and everyone else’s new range of emotions and facial expressions eventually won me over. Willamette’s redesign is a marked improvement that’s even more packed with charm and character. Every area in the mall has been updated to both be more realistic and have more going on visually, such as Paradise Plaza now having a nautical theme and the Food Court’s Western influence being more pronounced.
Another great change is that there are more mall announcements than the original game, with some even notifying the player when things are about to go dark.
While I’m not quite as sold on the new voice actors that have been brought in for what seems to be every character, Frank not being voiced by TJ Rotolo didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. The new actor isn’t quite as charming as the original Frank, but it’s nowhere near as bad as what Dead Rising 4 did to our boy. Everyone else does a decent enough job, although they don’t have the pizazz of the original cast from what I’ve seen so far.
Killing Zombies With Benches Has Never Felt So Good
You’d expect a remake like Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster to look better, but the real game-changers come from the expansive number of quality-of-life improvements. Small things like Frank being able to move while aiming, auto-saves being plentiful, skill moves no longer being tied to the same command, and time being fast-forwardable at certain locations all help Dead Rising feel more accessible and its design a lot less archaic.
Combine all of those changes with the survivor AI seeing a big reworking (including each character having preferred items and food that heals them fully) and Deluxe Remaster is already shaping up to be the best way to play Dead Rising, even when compared to later entries in the series.
We can all thank god that a staircase has been added outside of the security room, which plays a big part in survivors being so much easier to rescue.
All of DRDR’s quality of life improvements have somewhat inevitably resulted in a noticeable difficulty decrease, though. It doesn’t help that I know the game back-to-front and have played it through a million times, but I didn’t struggle once during my preview and only died to the gun-toting Psychopath Cletus after getting cocky and careless.
It was inevitable that skill moves being easier to access and survivors no longer making you want to tear your hair out would result in an easier experience, but I also noticed that levelling up is a ton faster this time around. I was already at Level 8 by the time I’d rescued the game’s first two survivors, and had barely done anything else to increase my level save from taking a few photos.
The sped-up rate of PP and increased durability of pretty much every weapon (most noticeably the chainsaw) make it clear that Capcom has intentionally made Deluxe Remaster a lot easier, even outside of just improving how it plays. Considering how big a part of the first game’s identity the challenge is, the big remaining question is whether this is a step too far from the vision of the original.
Still, even if some of Dead Rising’s classically rough edges have been sanded off a little more than I would have liked in Deluxe Remaster, it’s still a dream come true to see one of my all-time favourites get such a loving and faithful reimagining. If the rest of the game has been treated with as much respect, then Deluxe Remaster could easily be the best the series has ever been.
