The Dead Rising franchise has been formant for close to a decade, and most of us were expecting that that would continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. Recently, however, Capcom took all of us by surprise with the announcement of Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, an enhanced revival of the series’ original game, set to launch later this year for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Whether you’re a fan of the series who’s been desperately hoping for it to come back or something who’s looking for a chance to finally get into it, this is looking like a promising way to jump in. With Capcom having unveiled a host of new details on what enhancements and improvements the release will bring to the beloved classic, here, we’re going to go over those key points.
REMAKE OR REMASTER?
Even at first glance, it’s clear that Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster isn’t going to be a simple upres, or the sort of remaster you would regularly see. It is, in fact, much closer to a full-blown remake, something that its development team is acknowledging as well, with improvements ranging from visual overhauls to redone controls, among several other things. “Well, actually, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this game a remake considering the work we put into it,” said director Ryosuke Murai during Capcom’s recent presentation on the game.
RE ENGINE
The original Dead Rising was, of course, built on Capcom’s MT Framework engine, but the upcoming Deluxe Remaster won’t stick to the same toolkit. Instead, Capcom is taking this remaster as an opportunity to port the entire game over to the RE Engine. With the remaster, all of Dead Rising’s visuals are being completely overhauled in the new engine, entailing characters, environments, and much more. The gameplay that Capcom has showcased for the remaster has already showed the surprisingly significant visual upgrades that it is making over the original Dead Rising, while the company has offered tidbits on additional enhancements on top of that as well. Speaking of which…
OTHER VISUAL ENHANCEMENTS
Capcom has confirmed that when Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster launches this September, it is going to run at 4K and 60 FPS, while during the game’s recent presentation, art director Satoshi Takamatsu also revealed that the game will also feature real time lighting and shadows, which will allow each area in the game’s setting to take on unique looks and feels based on the time of day. On top of that, players can also expect the remaster’s completely redone graphics to entail improvements to material textures, blood spatter, facial animations, and much more.
UNCHANGED GAMEPLAY CORE
While Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is making more than a few changes to the original experience (more than you would expect from a simple remaster, at the very least), Capcom has also stressed that keeping the original experience intact has been a key goal for the development team. Regardless of all of the technical and visual improvements, gameplay tweaks, quality of life additions, and what have you, the core of the game will remain unchanged. Director Ryosuke Murai said, “If you’ve played the original, rest assured that its core remains unchanged in this Deluxe Remaster. We did our best to respect the direction of the original game. We kept the fundamental gameplay the same, while improving upon the user experience. With this, we believe that both veterans and newcomers alike will be able to enjoy a fresh experience.”
UNCHANGED ANIMATIONS
In addition to the gameplay core being kept intact in the upcoming remaster, Capcom has also ensured to not make too many changes to combat and gameplay animations, hoping to retain the original game’s personality. After all, the hilariously over-the-top and cartoonish gameplay animations of Dead Rising became a big part of its identity, and Capcom is looking to preserve it as best it can. “For character animations, we tried to limit unnecessary changes and use the original data as much as possible, especially during action scenes,” said art director Satoshi Takamatsu. “We could’ve made them more realistic with today’s tools, but we wanted to preserve the unique and comical movements that made the original Dead Rising so special.”
QOL IMPROVEMENTS
In terms of design and content, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is going to be a largely unchanged experience, but it will still make some polishing changes and tweaks to bring the experience up to modern standards and sand out some of its rough edges. Capcom is promising a number of quality of life improvements to that end, including the addition of auto saves, finetuned and improved menus and UI, and more. Another big change will be the ability to move around while you’re aiming a weapon, something that couldn’t be done in the original and should change up the moment-to-moment gameplay in interesting ways. Finally, Capcom says it is also improving NPC behaviour in various ways, though specific details on that front are currently scarce.
FULL VOICE OVERS
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is being touted as the definitive way to play Capcom’s zombie slaying classic for more than a few reasons, whether that’s its enhanced visuals, gameplay tweaks, or what have you. On top of that, in fact, the remaster is also set to feature full voice acting for every single character, something else that the original didn’t boast. Voiceovers will be available in nine different languages, while subtitles will be available in 14. Interestingly enough, it’s also been officially confirmed that Terence J. Rotolo – the voice of Frank West – isn’t coming back to reprise his role in the remaster, though Capcom has yet to reveal who will be replacing him.
PC REQUIREMENTS
If you’re looking to play Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster on PC, you’ll want to make sure that you have more than a halfway decent rig. On minimum settings, requirements aren’t too demanding, with either a GeForce GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 580 needed along with either an i7-6700 or a Ryzen 5 3400G, while on recommended settings, you’ll need either a GeForce GTX 1070Ti or a Radeon RX 5700, along with either an i7-8700 or a Ryzen 5 3600. To play the game at 4K and 60 FPS, however, you’ll need either a GeForce RTX 3080 or a Radeon RX 6900 XT. Meanwhile, regardless of which preset you’re looking at, you’ll also need 16 GB of RAM.
PRICE AND LAUNCH DETAILS
Capcom joined the list of publishers who’ve taken to selling their flagship AAA releases at $70 this console generation with the launch of Dragon’s Dogma 2 earlier this year, but not all releases coming from the company will come with that price tag. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, being a remaster (even if it’s a surprisingly comprehensive one) isn’t going to be a full priced release. When it launches on September 19, it will be available at a price of $49.99, while a $59.99 deluxe edition will also be offered.
PHYSICAL LAUNCH
When it launches this September, Dead Rising Deluxe Edition is only going to be available digitally on all platforms, but that doesn’t mean Capcom has no plans for a physical version whatsoever. The company has said that the game will get an official physical release in November, with further details set to arrive in the coming months.