Ever since I started with the sequel at a far too young age, ’s other zombie series has been one of my most beloved. As much as I love combo weapons, Fortune City, and Chuck Greene, the classic that☂ started it all still stands as the absolute peak, and among my🍨 all-time favourite games.
, eight years of being six feet under, and the renewed 𒉰suꦜccess of Resident Evil taking up all of Capcom’s time, I honestly never expected to see the series again in my lifetime. That all cha🐓nged a few months ago when Capcom announced Dead Rising Delux🧸e Remaster, a confusingly-titled remake of the first game that aims to stay true to its vision while improving its core gameplay mechaဣni𒈔cs for a new audience.
Being Able To Fast Forward ൲Time In Dead Rising Is Pure Genius 🍬
Capcom is changing the timing mechanic in a massive way𝔍 with the Deluxe🅰 Remaster.
I’ve been dreaming of a Dead Rising remake for close to a decade now, but considering how complicated and detailed the original was (), as well as how the , I was nervous at how it might be handled. Fortunately, just a few hours with Deluxe Remaster has made me confident that it's going to more than live up to my lofty expectations.
Capcom's Most Faithful Remake
One of the biggest questions everyone has had is whether DRDR is a remake or a polished re-release. The name might make things more compꦺlicated than they need to be, but the truth is that Deluxe Remaster is closer to a remake than even any of the recent Resident Evil games, which a𓂃re more reimaginings in the grand scheme of things.
From the few hours that I played, is surprisingly and mercifully faithful to the 2006 classic, . Frying pans can still be heated up to kill zombies, paint cans still blind enemies, and the old faithful katꦆana is still waiting for Frank on an awning in Paradise Plaza.
If you’ve played Dead Rising before, then you’ll know what to expect here with endless hordes of zombies, memorable Psychopath boss battles, and a constantly ticking clock, but there are a number of changes making it worthy of the “remake” moniker. The visuals, which have seen a massive RE Eng💧ine overhaul that makes Frank and Willamette Mall look more detailed than ever.
Willamette's Never Looked Better, Even If Frank Has
Frank’s ten mi♔llionth redesign was a little offputting at first, but his and everyone else’s new range of emotions and facial expressions eventually won me over. Willamette’s redesign is a marked improvement that’s even more packed with charm and character. Every area in the mall has been updated to both be more realistic and have mor🌌e going on visually, such as Paradise Plaza now having a nautical theme and the Food Court’s Western influence being more pronounced.
Another great change is that there are more mall announcements than the𝕴 original game, with some ev🍃en notifying the player when things are about to go dark.
While I’m not quite as sold on the new voice actors that have been brought in for what seems to be every character, Frank not being voiced by TJ Rotolo didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. The new actor isn’t quite as charming as the original Frank, but it&𓆉rsquo;s nowhere near as bad as what Dead Rising 4 did to our boy. Everyone else does a decent enough job, although they don’t have the pizazz of the original cast from what I’ve seen so far.
Killing Zombies With Benches Has Never Felt So Good
You’d expect a remake like Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster to look better, but the real game-changers come from the expansive number of quality-of-life improvements. Small things like Frank being able to move while aiming, auto-saves being plentiful, skill moves 🍸no longer being tied to the same command, and time being fast-forwardable at certain locations all help Dead Rising feel more accessible and its design a lot less archaic.
Combine all of those changes with the survivor AI seeing a big reworking (including each character having preferred items and food that heals them fully) and Deluxe Remaster is already shaping up to be the best way to play Dead Rising, even when compared to l💧ater entries in the seri𝓰es.
We can all thank god that a staircase has been added outside of the security room, which plays a big part inꦇ survivors being so much easier to rescue.
☂All of DRDR’s quality of life improvements have somewhat inevitably r🤪esulted in a noticeable difficulty decrease, though. It doesn’t help that I know the game back-to-front and have played it through a million times, but I didn’t struggle once during my preview and only died to the gun-toting Psychopath Cletus after getting cocky and careless.
Dead Rising, But Without The Pain
It was inevitable that skill moves being easier to access and survivors no longer making you want to tear your hair out would res💫ult in an easier experience, but I also noticed that levelling up is a ton faster this time around. I was already at Level 8 by the time I’d rescued the game’s first two survivors, and had barely done anything else to increase my level save from taking a few photos.
Th꧟e sped-up rate of PP and increased durability of pretty much every weapon (most noticeably the chainsaw) make it clear that Capcom has intentionally made Deluxe Remaster a lot easier, even outside of just improving how it plays. Considering how big a part of the first game’s identity the challenge is, the big remaining question is whether this is a step too far from the vision of the original.
Still, even if some of Dead Rising’s classically rough edges have been s𒉰anded off a little more than I would have liked in Deluxe Remaster, it’s still a dream come true to see one of my all-time favourites get such a loving and faithful reimagining. If the rest of the game has been treated with as much respect, then Deluxe Remaster could easily be the best the series has ever been.
Pinball Is Incredible These Days, And You're All Missing Out
Modern pinball is a lot closer to video gam𒈔es than you might expect.
