Summary

  • Dead Rising is back, baby! The Deluxe Remaster was announced a few days ago and is, on paper, everything I've wanted from the series' return.
  • That being said, the trailer and general direction of the series has me concerned about the first game being made too goofy.
  • While it had its silly moments, the first Dead Rising is much more about horror than people give it credit for, and more focused than the rest of the series.

For almost as long as I’ve been playing video games, has been one of my all-time favourites. It doesn’t quite measure up to the best that has to offer in its legendary library thanks to and , but mowing down endless hordes of zombies with bowling balls, katanas, and frying pans has always b𝄹een more my vibe.

As much as I love Dead Rising and 168澳洲幸🦄运5开奖网:h🐼ave missed it dearly over the past seven years, I also accepted long ago that we . That made it all the more surprising when Capc🥃om randomly announced in the middle of an ordinary week that the first and best game is getting a Deluxe Remaster (which basically seems like a remake) at 𝄹some point in 2024.

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, but it was enough for a Frank-West-loving nerd like me to get misty eyed over the thought of hearing Gone Guru blast from my speakers while I try and herd idiotic survivors with a death wish to a safe room. A remake of Dead Rising has been one of my most-requested games for years now and as happy as I am to finally be getting it, the trailer did have me raising my eyebrows at more than Frank West’s even uglier reꦛmastered mug.

A Dead-Set Tone That Needs To Be Kept

Dead Rising Screenshot Of Frank West in the Mall

I have my concerns about Frank’s new voice actor and how some of the specific Dead Rising quirks like the timer are goingꦬ to be translat🌞ed to a remake, but ꩲmy biggest concern from the trailer is that it’s not going to keep the first game’s more grounded and serious tone. The trailer for the Deluxe Remaster features a heroic and colourful splash screen when introducing the cartoonishly overdesigned Frank, and then plays some circus-esque celebration music when he’s jumping🤡 out of the helicopter whooping, unaware of the hellhole he’s stumbling into.

That, combined with how unnaturally happy Frank sounds compared to TJ Rotolo’s performance, makes it seem like the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is retroactively trying to make the first game more whimsical and silly than it actually was. Don’t get me wrong, any game that lets you run around in your pants using teddy bears as surprisingly helpful battering rams is inherently tongue-in-cheek, but the first Dead Rising in particular juxtaposed the player’s goofy zo🌱mbie shenanigans with real terror, blood, and gore.

The first game in the series is the only one with a masterful blend of humour and horror. The main story is played completely straight and shines a spotlight on how tragic 🔯the outbreak has been on the survivors and those who it has driven to a breaking point. There are no quips or banter about how easy it is to kill zombies, and even the somewhat silly bosses like Adam the clown and Steven the supermarket worker are dangerous people who Frank is rightfully terrified of.

Frank West in the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster.

Even Frank isn’t the character that later Dead Rising games make him out to be. The first game paints him as🤡 a total jerk who is more interested in telling a story and getting famous than being a down-and-out zombie-killing anti-hero with more jokes than Ash Williams. I don’t get that same vibe from the excited sounding Frank we see in the remaster’s trailer, which is just another reason why TJ Rotolo is essential to the series.

Dead Rising 3 actually feels like it nails the original game's tone better than 2 and Off The Record did. Just

Dead Rising’s dark and serious story was matched by its tough-as-nails gameplay, which had Frank constantly struggling to fend off hordes of zombies that could prove deadly even to players at max level. Sure, there were some wrestling moves and silly weapons chucked in there which added a bit of humour to things, but it was still more about survival than taking out zombies in whacky ways. It was perfectly balanced and always scary, evꦛen if you were running around chugg♚ing orange juice to counter a zombie bite.

Dead Rising 2 Changed The Series Forever

Chuck Greene in Dead Rising 2 using a paddle with chainsaws attached to stab a zombie

As the series progressed, that balance stopped being a priority and the series lean𒆙ed heavily into the silliness, especially with its combo weapons. While Frank ran around Willamette Mall desperately fending off hordes with a baseball bat, Chuck Greene taped some chainsaws to𒈔 a paddle and laughed in the face of danger, unaware that his game’s mechanic would change the series’ focus forever.

I loved Dead Rising 2 and nearly every other game in the series that followed, but Fortune City’s larger-than-life characters and even whackier weapons took Dead Rising in a new direction that it never came back from.ඣ There was still some horror🌄 to be found, but by the time Frank West was running around in a mech suit with a slushie machine strapped on to it that could make ice tornados, it was impossible to take it seriously.

Combo Weapons do feel like a core part of Dead Rising and I'd be happy to see them in the first game, but only if they were reasonably grounded.

We’ve only seen less than a minute of the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster so far and it seems to mostly be sticking to the original game’s recipe, but the more jovial tone and proud cries that 🌼it’s a “zombie paradise” already h𒐪ave me a little concerned. Capcom likely wants to make a clear distinction between the silliness of Dead Rising and the seriousness of its other zombie-focused series, Resident Evil, but the first game isn’t the place to do that.

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