Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster Review – One Foot Out the Grave

Until not too long ago, few could have predicted that Dead Rising would ever see the light of day again. The slapstick zombie-slaying franchise was nothing short of a juggernaut in its early years, but a steady decline in quality with later instalments led to a shelving of the series by Capcom that felt so thorough, so final, it was hard to imagine a future where the company would ever return to it. And yet, here we are- Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster brings the series legendary debut back to the limelight in enhanced and upgraded form, and it does so with blessedly impeccable results, grabbing hold of the Dead Rising franchise’s corpse and dragging it out from under the ground for a new chance at life.

Capcom has established itself as the premier developer in the industry when it comes to remakes, and though Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster isn’t technically a remake, it’s not a simple, straightforward remaster either. Though not the sort of comprehensive reimagining that recent Resident Evil remakes have been, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster brings over the original as is, while completely overhauling its visuals, adding a bevy of quality-of-life improvements, applying about a dozen layers of polish, and introducing a number of gameplay tweaks. The end result is an incredibly faithful recreation of the original Dead Rising, but made more gorgeous and accessible than ever before.

"Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster brings the series legendary debut back to the limelight in enhanced and upgraded form, and it does so with blessedly impeccable results, grabbing hold of the Dead Rising franchise’s corpse and dragging it out from under the ground for a new chance at life."

The core action remaining as compelling as it has ever been is obviously a huge point in the game’s favour. You play as Frank West, a freelance photojournalist who heads to a small town in Colorado chasing a hot tip on a story, and quickly finding himself trapped in a large shopping mall that’s teeming with what looks like an ocean of zombies. Frank’s task is to find a way to survive 72 hours, which is when his chopper out of the town will be arriving on the mall’s rooftop, while also using that three-day window to uncover the mysteries surrounding this abrupt zombie outbreak.

Even close to two decades on from its release, the sandbox structure that this sets up for Dead Rising is an utterly engaging one. Putting player freedom front and center, the game puts you in an open world zombie-slaying sandbox and lets you engage with it however you see fit, whether that entails sticking to the story missions, heading out and seeking out survivors to bring back, or simply running around the Willamette Parkview Mall and slaughtering zombies with whatever weapon you can lay your hands on.

Thanks to the sheer variety of the weapons that you can find and use and how riotously fun the vast majority of them are to use, the moment-to-moment action also never loses its charm. Sledgehammers, knives, baseball bats, lead pipes, benches, potted plants, parasols, chainsaws, hedge trimmers, cash registers, and even a small amount of firearms- there’s a ridiculous amount of different kinds of weapons scattered everywhere for players to find and let loose with.

Each weapon feels meaningfully different to use, and comes with unique benefits- like the baseball bat being effective if you want to attack multiple enemies at once, or the baton being a better choice if you’re fighting in close quarters. And of course, this is also where the bulk of Dead Rising’s classic slapstick humour shines through as well; as such, finding and experimenting with different objects and weapons always remains a hugely enjoyable part of the experience. Dead Rising’s approach to the undead has always been decidedly more humorous and slapstick than Resident Evil, Capcom’s primary zombie franchise, and that shines through better than ever when you’re chopping down enemies in the dozens with an actual lawn mower. The variety of weapons on offer, the 72-hour clock, sandbox gameplay elements that encourage players to play around with its systems- all of it comes together to concoct an incredibly addictive loop that has lost none of its charm with age. 

"Thanks to the sheer variety of the weapons that you can find and use and how riotously fun the vast majority of them are to use, the moment-to-moment action never loses its charm."

That core gameplay loop and Dead Rising’s inherently strong design are, in fact, able to shine brighter in the Deluxe Remaster thanks to its many gameplay tweaks and quality-of-life improvements. From weapons having plainly visible durability meters to being able to move while aiming and shooting, from having the ability to fast forward time to introducing autosaves, from dodging being much easier and snappier to the UI being much more informative and readable, from survivor AI being significantly less braindead and frustrating than it used to be to even having new photography options, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is brimming with abundant tweaks and improvements that successfully sand off a lot of the original’s undeniable rough edges.

At the same time, in its bid to modernize the original experience with its many QoL upgrades, there’s perhaps an argument to be made that the game has also lost some of its edge. The original Dead Rising could be quite a punishing game in its own way, but a lot of that friction has been removed in the remasters. Weapons are more durable, firearms are stronger, companion AI is more competent, autosaves make death less punishing, and progression has been noticeably sped up- all of that, combined with the many other similar changes, add up to the extent where the game feels like a much more breezy experience than veteran fans might perhaps want it to.

Nonetheless, even if the noticeably lower level of difficulty does make Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster a relatively less challenging experience, it’s still the sort of game where it’s hard not to have a blast just running around and mowing down waves upon waves of zombies. What also helps is the massive visual and technical upgrade on display here. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster rebuilds the entirety of the game in Capcom’s RE Engine, and does so with impressive results. Parkview Mall and its many locations have never looked as vibrant and full of detail, while there are noticeable enhancements elsewhere as well, from the characters and their more expressive faces and the improved animations to the gorgeous lighting, how delightfully disgusting the abundant gore looks, and more.

"Parkview Mall and its many locations have never looked as vibrant and full of detail, while there are noticeable enhancements elsewhere as well, from the characters and their more expressive faces and the improved animations to the gorgeous lighting, how delightfully disgusting the abundant gore looks, and more."

On top of the visual enhancements, the remaster also features new voice overs for virtually the entire cast, and though there will understandably be many who will prefer the original, the new cast does an undeniably good job, including Jas Patrick as the new voice of Frank West, who does an admirable job of filling the boots of the fan-favourite Terence J. Rotolo. It is, all in all, a comprehensive upgrade that goes far beyond what we’ve come to expect from the vast majority of remasters, to the extent that calling this a remaster almost feels like it isn’t quite doing it justice.

Capcom has put an incredible amount of effort into Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, and that, combined with the impressive results, does make you wonder if there’s hope for this franchise after all. If nothing else, this remaster proves that there absolutely should be a future for Dead Rising, because when it is at its best, it’s unbelievably good. The 2006 original’s core gameplay remains as strong and compelling as it has ever been, with a laundry list of quality-of-life changes polishing and improving it further, even if that does come at the cost of some of the original’s sense of challenge. In the end, Dead Rising’s unexpected comeback is as much of a blast as anyone could have hoped for.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.