Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster Review: A Picture Perfect Restoration

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster (Digital)

Recommended

Platform reviewed on: PlayStation 5

Pros

An outstanding glow-up
Tone avoids feeling outdated
Zombie culling still just as fun

Cons

Survivor AI can be frustrating
Constant time limits may be stressful for new players

ESRB Age Rating: Mature 17+
ESRB Content Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Use of Alcohol
ESRB Interactive Elements: In-Game Purchases

Review code provided by the publisher.

A survivor hangs from the arm of a statue in Dead Rising's mall — ©Capcom / Restart

In 2006, the promise of a mall full of zombies and everyday improvised weapons was absolute catnip for me. The Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster promises to take you back to those heady days, with graphics that look better than the rose-tinted ones you remember.

It turns out it really is as good as I remember, but not just because it looks better. It reminded me that Dead Rising was a sandbox ahead of its time, with more than just zany combat and zombie bodycounts in its arsenal.

For those unfamiliar: Dead Rising sends you – photojournalist Frank West, who has covered wars – into a zombie-ridden mall in Willamette, Colorado to survive for 72 hours while trying to uncover the truth of what happened there. Or to just bum around trying on new outfits and hitting golf balls at former shoppers in the food court. The choice on how to spend those 72 hours is entirely yours.

A suavely-dressed Frank West investigates a corpse in Dead Rising — ©Capcom / Restart

Frank stands in the security room while on-screen text reads "The Next Case Will Occur At 3 p.m." — ©Capcom / Restart

Time is constantly ticking, while a security guard radios to tell you about survivors and weird stuff he sees on the security monitors. Fail to reach them in time and they die, and if you fail to follow up on a lead for the main storyline by a certain deadline then the truth will vanish. But you’ll get to keep playing in this doomed world, taking photos to score experience points, driving a humvee around a park, and drinking wine by the bottle.

That core is still here in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, but Capcom’s RE Engine gives it a glow-up you won’t find in any of Parkview Mall’s half a dozen cosmetic shops. Chosen over larger, full-blooded remakes like Resident Evil’s original quadrilogy, the Deluxe Remaster is not quite a new game in its own right, but it sure does look like one. The fresh lick of paint provided by character models, zombie density, lighting, and texture upgrades is enough to satisfy old heads and get some new ones turning its way, too.

Frank stands in a mall plaza full of zombies at night — ©Capcom / Restart

Outside of that, the game remains largely untouched, and it is both for the better and the worse. In much the same way that JNCO jeans and frosted tips jump out of the screen at you when watching any early Fast/Furious or Transformers movie, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster bears many hallmarks of the mid-2000s that you might not even have realized are emblematic of the times. From the fashion to the particular perversions of its psychopath boss caricatures, everything screams “the reality TV decade”. Even Frank’s laughably lusty camerawork seems stripped straight out of a real housewives episode. New female character being introduced? Better slowly pan up from her ankles.

Frank relaxes in a chair in the security room — ©Capcom / Restart

Capcom has done some work to try and keep the tone from feeling too outdated to keep up with the modern visuals. One of the rewarding photo categories (Erotic) has been removed entirely, and with new voice lines for survivors, some even directly call out Frank’s lascivious gaze. In skirmishes with human enemies, they will yell insults or taunts at Frank after certain health thresholds. In one fight against Isabela, she yells at Frank to “go stare at someone else’s ass”. It somehow turns the original game’s direction into a more textured world, where characters don’t just leave it unnoticed.

Other survivor voice lines allow members of your temporary tour group to point out PP stickers (photo ops worth large experience point bonuses) they spot while being escorted. They’ll also give you tips on where to find good weapons, or how to mix juices in a blender for different effects. But mostly they just add a bit more dramatic weight to the survivor encounters that don’t get their own cutscenes.

Frank stands in wonderland plaza with balloons in the atrium above him — ©Capcom / Restart

Two snipers aim down their rifles in Dead Rising. One is saying to the other "We're doing this to survive, you know that." — ©Capcom / Restart

An early survivor you can rescue appears hysterical until you talk to her enough times to find out zombies ate her child in front of her. I remember saving her on my original playthrough, but on-screen dialog didn’t have quite the same impact as hearing her devastated wail as she said it. There are moments of quite serious drama to be found, but not at the expense of the game’s overarching black comedy tone. Something between Shaun Of The Dead and Zombieland. It turns out the 2000s were a golden era for the Dawn of the Dead parody.

This is still a game where you can put a Servbot mask on a zombie’s head, or shove a condiment bottle in their mouth, to stop them being able to attack you. It is still a game which allows you to suplex raincoat-wearing psychos into a mall fountain. It will never stop being a game that encourages you to get a strike by sending a bowling ball crashing through the shins of a shambling horde of the undead. It is a very silly game, and it is very fun.

Raincoat-wearing people turn to look at the camera as a man delivers a sermon — ©Capcom / Restart

Dead Rising’s story weaves bombastic, overwrought themes throughout the nonsense in an enjoyably pulp-y way. And the escalation of events inside the mall, as Frank tumbles down the rabbit warrens of conspiracy and madness, gives your repeated journeys through the same corridors a different flavor every few hours. Trash begins to accumulate in some places, and the eeriness of night – when zombies become more aggressive – is now accentuated by moody lighting and atmospheric mist, from somewhere. The mall is smaller than I remember, but the extra detail afforded by a graphical upgrade makes up for it.

Snipers aim just past Frank's camera lens in Dead Rising — ©Capcom / Restart

Mostly, I am surprised by how little anything else has changed. Hidden weapons are still exactly where I remember finding them 18 years ago, and survivors are still as infuriatingly poor at pathfinding. The NPC AI in general is endearingly dumb, which goes for both survivors and psychopaths. Keeping track of a large group of survivors as you attempt to sweep through multiple plazas on your shepherding rounds still requires a nameless skill, anticipating both the random attacks of zombies, and the unpredictable distractions of your flock. But it’s still just as satisfying when you get a run just right.

Even mechanics that felt strange and novel at its first outing have now settled in as familiar concepts. The ability to restart your game but carry Frank’s leveling progress over is – I am only now realizing – an early roguelite system. It is perhaps a little less necessary now, given the generosity of an autosave system and 20 separate save slots, but it’s nice for just being able to fire into the mall and unlock some new wrestling moves without worrying about survivors.

Frank stands triumphant looking back at the body of a psychopath he has just defeated — ©Capcom / Restart

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster has reminded me of all the things I loved about the original – the constantly ticking clock, the playground of the mall, a love-hate relationship with shepherding survivors – while prettying up some of its scuffed edges. Its unique tone might not be for everyone, but it is definitely one worth experiencing for fans of other zombie-based dark comedies. And now you don’t even have to tell people to dig out an Xbox 360 when you’re recommending it.