Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster review: Back from the dead

A shopping mall, an army of zombies, and 72 hours to kill. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster revives a ‘00s classic, bringing a much-needed makeover to modern horror fans.

While its older cousins Resident Evil and House of the Dead utilized police and military characters, Dead Rising’s emphasis on average Joes using everyday items as weapons placed it at the center of the zombie genre back in 2006.

The idea of being able to hit zombies with a baseball bat, knock them down with bowling balls, or ram them with a shopping cart was the kind of idea that felt inevitable with the advancing technology of the time. Capcom proved it with intuitive, yet fun gameplay. 

While Dead Rising became a cult classic among horror fans, it ultimately came with design and technical flaws. Deluxe Remaster aims to fix this and overhaul the game for the new generation.

Key details

• Price: $49.99 USD (Standard) | $59.99 USD (Deluxe)
• Developer: Capcom
• Release date: September 19, 2024
• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Revived and refreshed

You know the scoop. You play as Frank West, a journalist trapped inside a zombie-ridden shopping mall for three days. How you use those three days to get the story is up to you. You can choose to rescue survivors, or simply goof off with the most creative zombie kills you can think up.

For all intents and purposes, this game is a remake rather than a remaster. The entire game has been rebuilt in Capcom’s proprietary RE Engine, featuring brand new visuals and voice acting, alongside improved gameplay mechanics, controls, and interface.

The ‘remaster’ naming scheme is to differentiate it from Capcom’s Resident Evil remakes, which take the main plot beats, characters, and locations but reimagine them in entirely new contexts. Here, most of Dead Rising’s original story, levels, and gameplay remain on par with the version we’re all used to playing. 

As such, think of it as existing in the middle of the spectrum between Dead Rising’s 2016 remaster and the recent Resident Evil reboots.

RE Engine is a powerhouse

Deluxe Remaster is a great showcase of RE Engine’s capabilities. Character models are incredibly detailed, with facial animations containing a lot more nuances in the performances when compared to the original. This also complements the updated visuals, with features like bloom, volumetric lighting, and screen-space reflections enhancing the overall look of Willamette Parkview Mall.

As a veteran of the series, I was mesmerized by how much time I took to just stop and stare at something that caught my eye. This is a game I’ve played countless times in the last 18 years, and these bold improvements to the graphics threw me into an uncanny valley. This was the same game, but it also wasn’t.

Higher quality

Capcom recognizes Dead Rising’s status as a cult classic and seeks to keep the experience as close as possible. However, there are plenty of quality-of-life changes that help make the game a little more approachable to newcomers. 

Survivor AI is now a lot more manageable. Characters you recruit are no longer going to be stuck running into walls or unable to kill a single zombie. With that said, you can’t just leave them completely alone either. They’ll still become overwhelmed if surrounded by a horde, and you’ll need to ensure they’re topped up with healing items and the best weapons for them to use.

You can now use autosaves too, which vastly improves upon the original’s time-consuming manual saves. And with added multiple save slots, you’re able to have a lot more control over how your playthrough goes. Dead Rising veterans who prefer the older save system can easily ignore it though, if that’s their wish.

But among all the changes to the gameplay, my favorite is easily the new Infinity Mode. It’s similar to the original’s mechanics where you’re basically dropped into the mall and have to scavenge for food to survive against a hunger meter. Capcom has retained this feature, but has added new enemies and a randomized order for bosses to appear in to keep you more on your toes.

Being able to save your Infinity Mode run also works wonders. Now, you can truly play at a casual pace to see how long you can last, suspending your game when you need a break and being able to pick it up at a later date. It’s a massive change as opposed to the original, where quitting or powering down your console would reset your run. Now it becomes less of an endurance test of your console’s hardware, and more about your actual skills as a zombie survivor.

New voice, same old Frank

Deluxe Remaster’s version of Frank remains faithful to the original performance. Original Frank voice actor Terence J. Rotolo doesn’t return to the role, with the character instead being voiced by Jas Patrick. 

While it’s a little jarring to hear lines you know so intimately spoken by a new actor, Patrick does not phone in his performance. You can sense much of Rotolo’s little inflections and mannerisms in Patrick’s dialogue. He plays the character with the same level of wit and intrigue as the original performance. It pays perfect homage to the character without feeling like a hollow imitation.

The story in Deluxe Remaster is also largely unchanged. All the case files remain the same up to the very end, as well as survivor scoops and boss fights (besides one that is drastically different depending on your actions). If you’re at all familiar with the original game’s missions, you’ll go into this aware of what you need to do and how to do it.

One of the more substantial content changes, seen earlier in pre-release marketing released by Capcom, is the removal of the erotica photography category. It felt weird in the original game for Frank to essentially be taking upskirt photos of traumatized women and reveling in it with his signature “Fantastic!” remark. Omitting this changes very little, and it does remove an aspect of casual sexism that always made me uncomfortable about the original game.

Very approachable for newcomers

One of the most noticeable differences with Deluxe Remaster is it feels significantly easier, at least in the opening hours of the game. The leveling curve is a lot smoother here compared to the original. Before I was even let off the leash following the prologue, I had already hit Level 10 and had access to a bunch of skills and upgrades.

Combined with the new quality-of-life features, this meant I was able to hold my own against the hordes of the undead for a lot of the early game, allowing me to enjoy more of what Willamette Mall had in store for me without worrying about dying repeatedly. 

This doesn’t mean it’s a total cakewalk, however. As the main story progresses, it feels like the difficulty curve increases rather dramatically. By the end of 72-hour mode and in the game’s closing moments, I was gasping for air at any opportunity I could find.

This felt like the right way to approach Dead Rising’s brutal difficulty. The first hour is rather easy, but if you want to complete the story, get the best ending, and do all the side missions and optional content, you’ll need to persevere through some tough challenges.

One such area this applies to is the bosses. Dead Rising has always had a colorful cast of villains satirizing American stereotypes of the time, with bosses ranging from a power-hungry police officer to a fanatical religious zealot. Dubbed in-game as “psychopaths”, these bosses are mean and dangerous, and they’re certainly a lot tougher in Deluxe Remaster. The AI is a lot smarter and they’ve got major buffs to their health pool, meaning you’ll have to be more prepared.

Similarly, Capcom seems to have also rebalanced the zombies themselves. Initially, I was disappointed to see enemy density had taken a hit. The hordes don’t quite feel as large and menacing as they did in the original game. However, they’re also a lot tougher to compensate for their smaller numbers. It meant I had an easier time navigating between crowds, but would still have trouble when fighting large groups.

Weapons that were overpowered in the original game seem to have been nerfed, while underpowered weapons felt buffed. I was less drawn towards an “OP” weapon like the Small Chainsaw (which is still an absolute beast), and could continue enjoying Dead Rising’s premise of “anything is a weapon”. 

Deluxe Remaster’s improved controls also greatly aid its difficulty. Now, skill moves are a lot more viable due to them being properly placed within the control scheme rather than feeling like an afterthought. Gone are the days of accidentally dodge rolling into a crowd of zombies, and performing a specific move has never been easier. It’s extra fun to suplex a zombie onto its back or roundhouse it down a flight of stairs when you can actually reliably perform the move.

Using guns applies here too. Frank can now move and shoot, making the gunplay feel snappier and responsive. It especially shines when fighting bosses, when you need to avoid incoming attacks while still dealing damage. Altogether, these improvements make traversal and combat feel smooth as butter.

Verdict – 5/5

Dead Rising’s gameplay was revolutionary back in 2006 and Deluxe Remaster proves that two generations later, the series still has a leg to stand on. With some modest improvements and an overhaul to the visuals, Capcom has effortlessly revived a cult classic in a way that feels like it never left. It just feels so damn good to be back in Willamette.