When Dead Rising was released in 2006, Americans consumed 28.1 billion pounds of meat. This figure rises slightly to £28.2 billion by the end of 2022. Eighteen years later, the core message of Capcom’s beloved zombie actioner — and its scathing critique of unfettered consumerism — remains just as relevant. Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered Edition is an excellent remaster of a classic. I think this is important everyone Go and experience it.
For those who don’t know, Dead Rising is a brilliant love letter to Dawn of the Dead and other classic zombie media. You play as Frank West, a photojournalist breaking into the Willamette Mall during a zombie outbreak. There, he must fight for survival while trying to uncover the truth behind an undead plague that has suddenly struck the heart of America.
It’s a dramatic, funny, and harrowing game with a well-written plot that ties in with classic zombie novels and critiques overconsumption, especially American consumer culture. All of this remains in the remaster and thankfully remains untouched, while the more material aspects of the game have been brought up to modern standards.
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The quality of this remaster is immediately stunning. Capcom has managed to take an iconic game and modernize it brilliantly, an artistic restoration of a great icon trapped in a decaying frame. Sure, the original game still holds up, but saying it’s outdated isn’t a controversial point. Thanks to Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered, though, I don’t see any reason to go back to the original, aside from the nostalgic adventure.
Let me explain why. The Deluxe Remastered Edition of Dead Rising includes everything from the original game. everything. Every challenge, every survivor, every magazine. Playing Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered Edition feels like walking on the set of your favorite movie. Just like I did when I was 13, I saved all the survivors in the order I remembered. The katana is still on the awning of Paradise Plaza, near the endless source of orange juice. Wonderland Square’s shortcuts are still good enough to infringe on the mandatory, and the mini chainsaw paired with the appropriate magazine is still great.
What was amazing about the original Dead Rising transitions seamlessly into this remake, with no unnecessary changes. Little has changed in terms of balance and difficulty; there are just a few tweaks here and there that I noticed. The Adam boss fight remains an early game challenge and a perfect example of Capcom’s approach, as OG players will remember that baiting his balloon attack to deal damage quickly and easily was the best method at the time. This has been fixed. Adam rarely does this, forcing players to actually rush in to get damage.
Perhaps the most important improvement comes from improvements to Survivor’s artificial intelligence. In the past, the process of dragging a survivor found in a mall could be a bit annoying, and dragging five or six people at once was an act of masochism. Now, you still have to keep an eye on your brothers, but their chances of outrunning the zombies aren’t as good. Meanwhile, players who manage to find magazines that improve their survivors’ artificial intelligence will still be rewarded for doing so – another example of the remaster updating something without straying from the original vision.
This improvement also affects boss fights: instead of crashing into trees and getting stuck, everyone’s favorite group of fugitives are winding their way around the park and proving to be a real pain in the ass. This is awesome and replaces the frustration left behind with the real thing deliberately A challenge you can grit your teeth into. Bosses will still get stuck in the shop or occasionally throw knives against the wall out of desperation, but it’s nothing too distracting and just an occasional problem. A feature, not a bug.
And graphics. They are great. To be honest, this is one component of the remake that I’m a little worried about. Seeing Frank’s new look in the initial trailer didn’t convince me at first. But after playing this game, these worries disappeared. Every character looks great and the zombies look really scary (especially in the movie).
But the highlight for me was the psychological boss fight. In the original game, these characters were different from the average survivors. They’re all caricatures, some looking more normal than others, and all moving and emoting in an annoyingly exaggerated way. I mean, that’s a positive – it adds to the game’s memorable tone.
I’m happy to report that this has not only remained the same, but has been enhanced in the remaster. You can get more emotion out of the characters in this game than you could in the original. Adam is perhaps the most memorable boss in the original, and indeed, he particularly benefits from this visual upgrade – but so do Paul, Cletus, and the rest. That might not sound like much, but it adds another layer to the tone of these climactic moments.
The visual improvements have also affected the mall itself, but there’s something about it that annoys me – and I’m not so proud to pin nostalgia as the culprit here. Maybe some of the colors were replaced with a more realistic environment… I can’t say. It’s objectively a better-looking game, and I’m happy with the little landmarks I remember and their new paint job. But some of the original style has been lost. Of course, your reaction to this change and your mileage may vary.
However, it’s the small details of quality of life that stay with me. It feels like a special gift to original players. Some of you may not realize what a gift that small staircase next to the safe room vent entrance is. You also won’t be salivating over the ability to move slightly while aiming with a gun; a huge buff to these weapons.
The motorcycle’s ability to pass through doors into different parts of the mall is a big boon for an otherwise bland vehicle, and survivors you carry through those doorways will still be carried as you load into the next area. These are the little things that add up to make Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered an engaging, enjoyable experience.
The story of Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered remains as compelling as it was when the game was first released nearly two decades ago. This is bad information. If you’re new, you’ll be treated to a story about anti-consumerism, government conspiracies, and American culture, all seen through the eyes of an occasionally ethically questionable reporter. So you’re good.
This is only terrible news, because the relentless hunger prevalent in modern Western society hasn’t changed much since Dead Rising was first released. Governments and corporations still abuse and destroy communities around the world for the sake of products. It was not until June that banana producer and distributor Chiquita Brands International was ordered by a U.S. court to pay $38 million to Colombian families after it paid the death squads while operating in the region. Globally, the food and agriculture sector is a hotbed of human rights abuses. Towns like Santa Cabeza may not be destroyed by zombie outbreaks like they are in the game, but the destruction caused in the name of food production that the original game criticized still exists today.
It’s been over a decade since I played the original, and the result of playing this remake again is an eye-opening moment where you realize that not much has changed in that time, and that somehow the whole story is better than it was in 2019 The impact was greater.
The Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered Stand is a prime example of a remaster done right. It doesn’t cut or change in a hurry. The additions and improvements Capcom has made only enhance the original experience. For Dead Rising fans, it’s like reopening your favorite childhood fast food restaurant, a new, untorn version of your favorite T-shirt, or returning to a beloved vacation spot and finding all the places you’ve been What was missed is still there and has a fresh coat of paint.
For new players, you’re getting one of the best zombie games ever made, only made better. This game raised the bar and then raised the bar again a few years later.
Dead Rising: Deluxe Remastered launches on September 19th and will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The game has been reviewed by Capcom Code and runs on PlayStation 5.
