I’ve often wondered: if Dead Rising had released a few years later, would it have done as well? Releasing in 2006, it was at a time when people were just getting acquainted with the Xbox 360 and the new generation of hardware. Games released in that window often get a bump, both critically and sales-wise.
Don’t get me wrong. I have a massive soft spot for the original Dead Rising, partially because I played it during the 360’s honeymoon period. It was a convincing display of what would be possible in the new console generation with its hordes of zombies. However, I had my frustrations with it. Enough that my attempts to return to it years later never went very far. Well, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster addresses almost all of those complaints.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster (PC [Reviewed], PS5, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released: September 18, 2024
MSRP: $49.99
If you haven’t played Dead Rising in the past 18 years, I’m going to remind you that it has a ridiculously dark opening cutscene before the game even starts. After that, it introduces Frank West, and less than an hour later, you might be dropping Servbot heads onto zombies or driving a lawnmower over them. It feels like one of the designers really hated the writer and wanted to undermine them at every turn. As such, Frank West has a character arc where he goes from seedy paparazzi to determined hero while also chugging back entire jugs of creamer.
The story involves said seedy paparazzi arriving in Willamette, Colorado, pursuing a story about strange happenings in the town. Upon arriving, he finds it infested with zombies. He clearly exists in a world where zombie movies exist, so either he’s never seen one, or he has terrible eyesight, because he drops onto the roof of a mall for closer inspection.
Despite having no idea what the situation is, he asks the helicopter pilot to pick him up in exactly 72 hours. Then, as he watches the helicopter pilot get chased off by the military, he just assumes that the guy will totally be back at the promised time.
Anyway, the mall gets filled with zombies, and Frank West searches for answers among the tide of undead. Weirdly, despite Willamette being a town of over 50,000 people, the answers are located exclusively in the mall.
The mall itself is a sandbox. With rare restrictions, you can roam and explore it as much as you want. The whole town has shown up, so it’s packed wall-to-wall with walking carcasses, but with society temporarily suspended, you can help yourself to whatever you want to wield as a weapon.
It’s fun. The freedom the sandbox provides was always the best part. It leaves lots of room to experiment with the many, many things you can find. Frank West’s camera providing extra experience points for certain compositions just gives more incentive for screwing around. You will also no doubt learn where all the best stuff is, going back whenever you need more wine to chug.
What got stuck in the craw of many, back in 2006, is the fact that you’re on the clock. Frank West is expecting his ride out 72 hours after he arrives, and there is an in-game day/night system constantly ticking. The main story objectives have to be done within a certain time and within a certain window. If you miss them, you’re lining yourself up for the bad ending.
On top of that, people will occasionally materialize. These take the form of survivors and psychopaths. The survivors are hapless people who have taken shelter in the mall. You can, optionally, save them and take them to the security room where everyone is holed up. The psychopaths, you can’t reason with. They’re also optional (for the most part) and take the form of boss battles. Your ending doesn’t depend on them, but there are bonuses you can get for taking care of them.
What annoyed me most about the original version of Dead Rising wasn’t the time limit. In fact, I think the timer is a great mechanic that adds a sense of urgency. No, it was trying to get the survivors to safety that vexed me greatest. Eventually, I just stopped trying to save them at all.
The survivors in Deluxe Remaster are not a whole lot brighter, but they’re much better at, well, surviving. I’m not entirely clear on what entirely changed with them. They will still follow you directly into a zombie horde, but they’ve got a Teflon coat on. Zombies don’t seem as eager to attack them, and they can easily slip through even tight packs. The result is that saving survivors is actually an enjoyable experience. Instead of avoiding them, I would plan my route through the mall to grab as many as I could to take back to the security room.
Speaking of the security room, the second most annoying problem I found with Dead Rising 2006 was Otis. This is largely because I originally played it on an SDTV where it had the notorious problem of having an unreadably small font for subtitles and Otis did not have a voice-over. He’d call constantly about survivors and mall locations, and I couldn’t even read what he was saying. Now, not only can I read the subtitles, but Otis talks. He’s no longer a nuisance, but a friend.
Deluxe Remaster is a much better experience overall. The big graphical glow-up manages to make things look a lot more modern without losing the overall feel of the original, but the subtle tweaks are what really make it so much more enjoyable.
There are some changes that got highlighted by others that didn’t really bother me. The voice actors, for example, have changed. TJ Rotolo was replaced by Jas Patrick as the voice of Frank West, which doesn’t sit well with some. I understand why some fans would be disappointed, but I barely noticed the difference. Likewise, one character was changed from what could be interpreted as an offensive stereotype into something more generic, and another had their lines replaced with something subtler. Personally, I don’t think these are big, upsetting changes, even if I don’t really think they’re necessary. It all depends on where you’re coming from.
One place that I did have an issue was with performance. While playing on the PC version, I found that things ran very well for the most part, except it would hitch and stutter frequently. Usually, if a camera angle changed, it was accompanied with a visual pause. I’ve read some possible fixes online, but have yet to try them. There’s also a good chance you won’t see these at all, considering that PC environments vary substantially. It wasn’t even a deal-breaker for me, but it was intrusive.
For me, the benefits of Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster’s modernization far outweigh the problems. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I was fondly lukewarm of the original version. Deluxe Remaster makes enough changes that I can say without reservation that I enjoyed it. A lot.
When Dead Rising launched in 2006, it was an inventive game. It felt like a game that was informed by the new possibilities afforded to it by the new generation of hardware. But it had a lot of problems that were easier to overlook through the lens of the time period. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster retains the things that made it great while addressing everything that held it back. The graphical upgrade just helps it shine brighter.
[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]
Published: Sep 23, 2024 02:23 pm