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Imagine this. It’s 2006. Dawn of the Dead (the remake with Ving Rhames) came out 2 years ago. The Xbox 360 just launched the year before…and you’re starved for games to show off the potential of Microsoft’s newest. Then the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster appeared on the scene.
Oh wait, it’s just the regular Dead Rising. Silly me.
For 2006, Capcom’s tongue-in-cheek action game was just what you needed to show off the power of the Xbox 360. Behold the numerous undead hordes! Behold the mall wherein you can create your own playground to murder zombies! Behold…the next generation!
Now fast forward to 2024.
Does the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster conjure the same excitement?
What is the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster?
The Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is a single player third person action game developed and published by Capcom. It’s now available on the PC, Playstation and Xbox platforms.
Our copy was graciously given to us by Capcom! Thanks so much for the game!
So…remember I mentioned Dawn of the Dead? Well, if you’ve never heard of Dead Rising before, that movie pretty much defines the setting of the game. You’re a journalist set loose in a shopping mall full of zombies and can use anything you can lay your hands on as weapons.
The journalism concept means that Frank West (he’s the dude you play) can also snap pictures to earn PP (basically XP). The photo snapping isn’t super essential to gameplay (apart from a single optional quest), but it does contribute to leveling so there’s really no reason to not have fun and snap a few pics while you’re running around.
Photos are graded into multiple categories (Capcom’s sadly removed the Erotica category from the original) and you gain PP depending on a number of factors. It’s fun if you’re interested in that kind of thing.
Frank gets stronger, more inventory slots and other benefits as he gains PP, so leveling Frank up is essential to survive.
The original Dead Rising was the first game I managed a 1000/1000 Gamerscore. This was before trophies and achievements became passe so it was a great feeling. The achievements were fun to get, and games still haven’t embraced DLC fully yet, which meant that it had tons of unlocks!
Unfortunately, Dead Rising wasn’t perfect. I loved it but I wasn’t blind to its flaws. Otis’ calls were unskippable (and they made you vulnerable), the promised zombie hordes didn’t really exist (outside of the under parking area) and the story felt rushed because you didn’t get to explore it at your own pace.
The latter part is still true for Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster.
You’re forced to budget your time in Dead Rising and that’s something I never really enjoyed. Take too long, somebody dies. Time always marches on and everybody’s clock is ticking. Even the main story missions can be failed if you’re not at the trigger area when their timer expires.
It’s frankly (pun intended) a major annoyance and one of the biggest issues I have with the game then and now.
Stepping back into the shoes of Frank West wasn’t that hard for me. At least not for Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster. Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed that Capcom didn’t subject the game to the Resident Evil remake treatment.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster being a remaster means that this is essentially the same game from 2006, just with some quality of life improvements. Otis’ calls can be fast forwarded, Frank can move and shoot, zombie quantities in most areas are bumped up. That sort of thing.
Problem is, you can only gussy up a game so much.
The main issue for Dead Rising that Capcom forgot to address was how the game felt super rushed. You’re basically forced to play to the game’s demands if you ever want to complete the story mode (which you do).
Unless you stick to a strict and specific playstyle, there is zero way to do the main missions and rescue every survivor and defeat every psychopath. It’s a really sore point for fans. Yet, here we are again. Nearly 2 decades later, yet still with the same feeling of being shackled.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster isn’t bad exactly. It’s Dead Rising, just running on the new RE Engine….but it’s not a perfect remaster. There’s definitely something wrong with the port. Nothing major mind you, but I had issues running the game on both my laptop and the ROG Ally X.
What issues? Glad you asked.
Slowdown’s especially prevalent.
Whenever I load into a new area, the framerate always thanks to the low twenties. Doesn’t matter if it’s a crowded area like the underground garage or just a regular area like any of the mall sections. The framerate will tank for a second, before recovering.
Why? I have no idea.
I’ve never had this issue with any RE Engine game before, which leads me to suspect this is a Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster issue.
Another problem is the sound cutting in and out during cutscenes. It’s only on my ROG Ally X that I encounter this issue. The cutscene would play fine, but the sound would go in and out with a pop preceding each instance.
It’s not an issue with my machine either, as outside of cutscenes, the sounds and music play with zero issues.
I still have zero idea why this is (my ROG Ally X has updated drivers) but I’m not particularly bothered by this one as I usually play with the sound muted anyways. If the ROG Ally X is your main gaming platform for this game though, you might want to try out the game first to see if you’re affected by this issue.
Judging from the Steam Discussion Boards, other gamers have encountered this issue too! Except theirs seems to be other Steam Deck.
The other prevalent issue that bugs me are…well, the bugs in the game.
I’ve encountered a ton of them. Zombies getting stuck in walls, zombies clipping through walls (and vanishing), zombies clipping through objects. The usual. The original game had them so I can easily overlook these non-essential bugs.
I can’t overlook a bug that should’ve been nixed years ago though! I’m talking about the respawning convicts bug. This is a known bug that’s been around since the original. Basically, if you kill the convicts psychopaths roaming the middle of mall before the game hits 7pm for the first time, they’ll respawn the next time you’re in the area.
For most people, this is immediately after.
You first encounter of the convicts will likely be in the day, as you’re on your way to rescue some survivors. If you’re like me and killed the convicts in the day, get ready for pure, unadulterated joy rage when you return to the area right after, with the survivors in tow and see all three are back and out to get you again.
It happened to me back in 2006. I sure as hell thought that Capcom would’ve fixed the issue by now. Stupid me. It’s not. Simply shameful.
That’s a weirdly recurring theme too. There are a ton of questionable gameplay elements that were plain frustrating that haven’t been removed or tweaked/
One of them’s the inclusion of the invulnerability frames for enemies.
What this means is that enemies are invulnerable for a few seconds after you land a hit. It’s especially noticeable when you use guns. The first bullet will damage, but if you fire too quickly, the following ones do nothing. Melee weapons sometimes ignore this though psychopaths will pretty much shrug off your hits and counter no matter what you do.
I mean what’s the point?
It’s just frustrating fighting the psychopaths because it’s always better to hit and run due to this. Otherwise, get ready to get hurt.
Why wasn’t this removed and replaced with a regular damage modelling system like other games?
It makes fighting the Special Ops soldiers a chore if you use guns. You shooting them continuously does less damage than if you’d fire a shot, wait a few seconds, then fire another one. So what do you do? You make like Sonic and roll up right next to them, and then lift and throw them to kill them. Boring.
Speaking of guns, I love (that’s sarcasm by the way) how neutered they are in the game. Combined with the invulnerability frames, you’re always better off with melee weapons. Thankfully, this is a carryover from the original, so it doesn’t really come as a surprise.
What is new in the game are the voices. Frank’s gotten a new voice actor (don’t worry the ‘I’ve covered wars’ iconic line is still in) and even Otis is now voiced! Honestly though, I don’t really care. It’s not like the game depended on the voice actors and the original didn’t have superb voice acting in the first place.
A ton of the old tracks return too, including the rocking theme that plays when you encounter the convicts. Better still, you also get all new themes with the DLC costumes, which correspond to the games the costumes are from.
The best is obviously Ken’s Theme that comes with the Ken DLC. I don’t know why there’s no Guile costume though, considering Frank can do a variation of his Flash Kick in the game. Plus Guile’s Theme from Street Fighter II would’ve made a great addition!
For gamers looking to play this on the ROG Ally X, there’s decent news.
The game is playable on 1080p with max settings, and FSR enabled to Balanced. Not 60FPS mind you, but 30FPS and higher is doable. The caveat here is that areas with massive zombie counts (like the central area of the mall or the underground tunnels) will cause slowdown.
You can reduce the settings to enable smoother framerates but I honestly just coped with the slowdown since those areas aren’t super essential most of the times.
The Bottom Line.
I admit, if I had to choose from Capcom’s back catalogue to remaster, Dead Rising wouldn’t have been my first choice. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is a decent enough game but it’s also one with novelty that’s pretty much worn off.
Running around, wreaking havoc in a mall and picking up anything to use as a weapon? That was great in the past. Emphasis on ‘the past’ part.
Apart from its novelty, the game didn’t really have that much depth to it. To see it get a remaster (which means a shiny coat of paint over a dubious body) instead of a remake with modern additions built-in is probably the wrong decision.
Yes, the game is fun…but it’s also severely dated is what I’m saying. There are better games in the series (Dead Rising 2 and 3 to be exact) that could’ve done with a remaster, or better yet, a complete remake.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster rubs salt into the wound by having old issues return unfixed. It also brings with it new bugs that are unwelcome. No amount of fun can make you overlook those without at least sighing in frustration.
If you weren’t able to experience the original back in 2006, then maybe this would interest you. For fans who’ve been with the series since Day One, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is just a reminder that the series has progressed leaps and bounds over the original.
TLDR:
Dated, with questionable novelty value. Fun game but it has aged terribly.
The Good:
- Cool new costumes.
- Lots of zombies onscreen at once.
- Exactly the same as the original.
- Some welcome quality of life improvements.
The Bad:
- Buggy, with old and new bugs.
- Gameplay hasn’t aged well.
- Weak guns.
- Invulnerability frames makes boss fights tedious.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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