There's a clearance sale at Willamette Parkview Mall, and with thousands of zombies descending on the packed shopping center, everything must go.
That simple pitch helped take the world by surprise with Capcom's Dead Rising, which first launched all the way back in 2006. Three sequels, numerous DLC packs, and 18 years later, the franchise is returning to its roots with a comprehensive remaster for the latest gaming hardware.
I recently had the chance to play the opening hours of Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster on Windows PC, exploring the rebuilt mall and checking out some quality-of-life improvements that players will experience when booting up a new game for the first time. From what I've played, this is a great way to go back and explore familiar stomping grounds with impressive new visuals and sorely needed quality-of-life improvements.
Chopping spree
If you've never played it, Dead Rising puts players in the shows of freelance photojournalist Frank West. After getting a tip that something big is going down in a seemingly unassuming Colorado town, Frank is forced to survive and investigate for 72 hours (6 hours of in-game time) while waiting for rescue. That means taking pictures to document what's happening and killing an unending horde of zombies with anything you can get your hands on.
While there's a main storyline with cases to follow that'll allow you to unravel the origins of the zombie outbreak, as well as side quests involving survivors to rescue and psychopaths to slay, you aren't actually required to do anything. Dead Rising is a wide-open sandbox, and if all you want to do is take pictures of shenanigans and kill zombies in increasingly unlikely ways, so be it.
Truthfully, I think this would be considered an outright remake under the standards of many publishers, and they wouldn't be wrong in claiming it as such.
Capcom labels this rework of the original Dead Rising a "remaster," and while I certainly think it's accurate for Capcom — the publisher's remakes of several Resident Evil titles have certainly gone above and beyond what we see here, completely reimagining the games' level design and much more — I also think it sells this game a bit short.
Running on an RTX 3070, the visual reworks here are seriously impressive, with the RE Engine powering better lighting and new textures that hold up in gameplay and cutscenes alike. All of the dialogue has been re-recorded, with some new lines, including giving ever-helpful janitor Otis an actual voice. Truthfully, I think this would be considered an outright remake under the standards of many publishers, and they wouldn't be wrong in claiming it as such.
While much of Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster feels the same as the original experience, there are a few quality-of-life improvements that felt sorely needed and do shake up the flow of the game.
The addition of autosaves is particularly nice, making it so getting unceremoniously killed before reaching a save point isn't quite as frustrating or important as it was before. This also makes rescuing survivors much less of a nerve-wracking process, especially because said survivors are noticeably more competent this time around. They don't get stuck in crowds of zombies anywhere near as easily as they originally did.
You can also see the durability of an item when you pick it up, meaning no more wondering if something is sturdy enough to last fighting against a particular horde or not.
You can also see the durability of an item when you pick it up, meaning no more wondering if something is sturdy enough to last fighting against a particular horde or not. This adds a subtle new tactical layer to the combat, and I found myself throwing something when it was about to break quite frequently.
Hacking apart zombies by the hundreds with pipes, baseball bats, shelves, chairs, chainsaws, and more is still extremely satisfying, especially when you don't need to worry about knowing exactly how long the weapon in your hands will remain intact. Another neat, no-brainer change? Being able to move while shooting a gun. This more than anything else was a sign of the original game's age, and I'm happy to see that archaic restriction removed.
Even with all of these improvements, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster retains some of the rough edges that players will remember. Zombies still respawn at an alarming rate, so if you cleared a hallway, leave, and then return seconds later, they'll be back. The same goes for items, which can certainly be beneficial — thank you, wine bottles — but is still a bit ridiculous to behold. All of this fits the tone of the first game, and Capcom has been correct to keep it all the same.
I did run into some micro stuttering a few times while playing, which was surprising considering this is running on an NVME SSD. It wasn't so common that it completely interrupted my gameplay, but it did happen enough to be noticeable. I also ran into one hard crash, which would've been devastating were it not for the aforementioned welcome addition of autosaves.
Capcom did emphasize that this is a preview build, not the finished game, and that there will be additional improvements before launch, so hopefully these issues won't pop up when the release date arrives in September.
An impending launch
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Since I was only able to go through the first section of the game, I do still have some questions about how well the remaining hours at the mall have been balanced. Even so, my time with Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster showed me that Capcom has made the right choices in preserving the things that made the experience so unique, while still modernizing it and updating it appropriately. Everything I played felt like a mostly healthy balance, and it's one I'm looking forward to continuing very soon.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is slated to launch digitally across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5 on Sep. 19, 2024. Physical copies for Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 are releasing later in the year on November 8.
