Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster Reanimates A Messy Classic

When Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster (DRDR) was revealed, I was confused–despite its name–about whether to consider it a remaster or a remake. The line has become increasingly blurred in recent years, with things like the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and The Last of Us Part I being called remakes even though they seem to be more akin to admittedly extravagant coats of new paint.

After several hours with DRDR, it’s now clear to me that this is a project much like those two examples. It’s inch-by-inch faithful to the original in most ways, and includes some great quality-of-life updates, but also retains the original game’s faults. And yet, when I’m playing it, I can’t shake the feeling that it remains an imperfect classic.

If you’re somehow new to the series, Dead Rising is essentially Capcom’s darkly humorous take on Romero’s legendary film, Dawn of the Dead, in which human survivors are trapped in a mall full of the undead. For the first time, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster brings the series to Capcom’s proprietary RE Engine, which presents some of the game’s more colorful hues in an almost sepia-toned filter reminiscent of Resident Evil 7.

That isn’t to say the game drains the goofy world of its vibrancy in the way Dead Rising 3 does; this still very much feels like Dead Rising and locales like the toy store and the movie theater inside the iconic Willamette Mall remain as charming and as absurd as before. The graphical leap over even the game’s previous half-measure of a remaster in 2016 is apparent, and for the uninitiated, I don’t expect the noticeable change in its palette will prove to be enough to make this less than the best version of the game.

Despite not having played the original Dead Rising in many years, I found I still knew the mall’s layout as well as I knew my own local shopping center when I was 17. Every store, every water fountain, and even the placement of specific weapons, like a hidden katana that makes for an excellent early-game melee option, are intact. If you have similarly detailed memories of the 2006 game, or if you find guides from that era, you’ll find everything–at least in the game’s first five or so hours–appears to be just as Capcom left it.

The same healing items that were especially useful before, such as the gallon of coffee creamer Frank West cartoonishly chugs in the safe room, are once again tremendous boons. The game’s over-the-top villains return, too, like Adam the Clown with his game-breaking mini-chainsaws. Exploring the mall as the almost impossibly broad-shouldered Frank, racing against the game’s always-on mission timer to the tune of the mall’s once-relaxing Muzak made laughably inappropriate for the zombie apocalypse, and jump-kicking zombies in the face by the thousands is, in 2024, still as fun as it was when the game originally drove me to purchase an Xbox 360 nearly 20 years ago.

But because this is a remaster, and not a true remake, some of the game’s issues return, too. Chiefly, this is seen in the behavior of NPC survivors whom you can rescue by the dozens by the time you beat the game. I wrote previously how this issue was my greatest concern for this project, and though NPC behaviors are slightly changed–they now each have preferred weapons and healing items that are meant to unlock greater levels of self-reliance–this tweak didn’t seem to erase my long-standing issue that the game’s escort missions are a nagging pain.

I lost multiple survivors in the courtyard when the infamously annoying convicts in a Humvee rolled up on us just like in the old days. Though my allies were equipped with their preferred defense items and handled the zombies fairly well (they didn’t get grabbed as much as I recall seeing in 2006) they couldn’t adequately help me against the roaming criminals with their mini-gun and penchant for hit-and-runs, and so the courtyard soon became their graveyard.

Their deaths felt cheap; I did all I could to defend them, and in the end, they were familiarly ill-suited for survival as in the original game. Saving survivors became a more enjoyable process in later Dead Rising games, as the NPC behaviors grew more sophisticated. Therefore, in this one but arguably major way, DRDR seems to recede to the worst version of the NPC experience.

The game isn’t short on quality-of-life changes that make both encounters like this and the game as a whole better, though, including auto-saving, an option to advance time, weapon durability meters, the ability to aim and move simultaneously, and an on-screen compass that guides you to both main and side missions. I even felt as though the convicts weren’t as bullet-spongey as before, though it was hard to know how much of that is owed to me just being better at games today than I was in 2006–perusing YouTube videos of this boss fight before writing this preview didn’t clarify this for me either, as they didn’t have health bars back then.

And yet, despite my begging for the game to address this glaring NPC issue and the game largely not doing so, I’m very excited to play Dead Rising again. More than noticing the blemishes that remain or appreciating those that were smoothed over, my primary takeaway with Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is that it’s solidified the game as a true classic, warts and all.

Roaming a zombie-infested mall dressed as Mega Man with a guitar in hand and three gallons of orange juice inexplicably stashed in my pocket is, as it turns out, timeless. I swore I’d never go back to the original Dead Rising because of pain points such as the strict mission timer, helpless NPCs, and some stiffness in its combat. But by playing the remaster, I’ve discovered I’ve actually softened on some of the game’s issues over time, just as the game has addressed some of them itself. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster won’t be a panacea for the original’s ailments, but it seems to curb many of its symptoms.

GameSpot will share its full review of Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster in the coming weeks ahead of the game’s digital launch on September 19, with a physical release following on November 8.