Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster preview: Re-risen (again)

It's immediately noticeable when you load up Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster that we've come a long way since 2006, and I mean that in the best way possible.

As dated as Dead Rising can sometimes feel with its B-Movie plot and over-the-top cartoony antics, the 'Deluxe Remaster' feels like a modern-day love letter to that original game. Well, at least from the first three hours. 

He's been in wars, you know

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is essentially a remake in all but name; its borderline parody title is so long because a remastered Dead Rising already exists. Thankfully, this isn't just another version to add to a pile, and although they won't call it a remake, I won't do it the disservice of calling it a remaster. 

The game has been thrust into the RE Engine and now looks just as good as Capcom's modern library of games. At its brightest moments, it stands toe-to-toe with Resident Evil Village and Dragon's Dogma. But if you've played any title from Capcom in the past few years, you'll know what I'm talking about, and, importantly, Dead Rising looks like it was made in 2024.

For the uninitiated, Dead Rising is about Frank West, a photojournalist who comes to Willamette, Colorado, to get the scoop on the mysterious city. He's dropped off at the Parkview Mall, where a horde of zombies are just waiting to burst through the doors like a Black Friday sale at an Asda in Hull.

Frank finds out he's got 72 hours until the army arrives, and he has to do three things in that time. Figure out why the zombie outbreak is happening, save as many people in the mall as he can, and most importantly, kill as many zombies as physically possible. So much so that the game constantly displays a kill counter at the bottom right of the screen.

The game's story is broken up into "cases", each with different mysteries related to the outbreak, and along the way, you'll run into boss enemies the game refers to as "psychopaths". Storywise, everything appears to be playing out exactly as it did back in 2006, but it's the rest of the game where you'll see the most significant changes.

Every inch of the Parkview Mall shines in the RE Engine. New lighting effects give a glisten to shop signs and creepily illuminate dark corridors full of the undead. The game feels gorier than ever, with detailed blood splatter and seemingly new zombie physics. Character models all look amazing (bar one in particular that I'll get to later), and psychopaths especially benefit from this makeover.

Combat has been overhauled with better aiming, and not just with guns either. You can now precisely aim where you want to throw plates or where to whack golf balls into a crowd. It feels genuinely good to use weapons that can be utilised for their exact purpose, and the game doesn't now have to be a sprint to find special items that are overpowered. 

Saving time

The most drastic gameplay change, though, is a mechanic that has been around for 25 years: auto-saving. As soon as I started using auto-saving I was shocked at how this hadn't been in from the start back in 2006.

The original saw you sprinting between toilets inside the mall just to save the game, and while that feature is still present here, it’s by no means as vital. When you enter a new section of the mall, step outside or enter a boss area, the game will autosave.

For a game like Dead Rising, where literally every second counts, this can be a blessing in disguise. No longer do I have to replay the last 30 minutes of my game just to get back to a psychopath battle; I can simply restart from outside the door. Toilets are used exclusively for manual saves now, and if you are a purist, you can always restart the game from that save point, ignoring the autosave altogether.

Dead Rising can be very punishing, and unpredictable AI can cause many surprise deaths. So, I found myself using that autosave a lot while I got back to grips with the game. It's just one of many quality-of-life features this new version has that will hopefully make replaying the story a joy. 

One of Dead Rising's franchise staples is saving survivors out in the wild and bringing them back to the safe house. Of course, all the time-related survivors are back, but this time, they don't act like mindless zombies themselves. Survivors move like modern NPCs, listening to your commands and following where you want to go. You can now press markers down to send survivors in specific directions and even equip them with multiple items.

Survivors also have an affinity meter with you, where if you give them certain items they already like, they'll work harder and deal more damage. It doesn't change any of the core systems from the main game, but it does make it more fun to have a group of useful people follow you around and take out some of the hordes.

I'll admit that I am a Dead Rising timer lover, which is a controversial statement in the community, but it’s worth noting that the timer is back and just as brutal. The game runs over 72 hours (thankfully not in real-time), and finding those survivors is all about being in the right place at just the right moment.

You'll be rushing around the sprawling mall to try and save everyone, and with a precise amount of planning, you can pull off that feat. Dead Rising is a race against the clock, and I feel like the franchise lost a lot of its charm when that got taken away.

There's a feeling of urgency to everything you do, making the world ironically feel more alive. I couldn't be happier checking my watch every 10 minutes to make sure I had enough time to pull off the impossible, and hopefully, newcomers will feel that, too. 

Look at how they massacred my boy

I've already mentioned how beautiful the lighting and graphics are now the game has shifted to the RE Engine, and while almost everything looks better, it's hard not to overlook one glaring change: Frank's new face.

It's not just a case of us not seeing him since 2006 either; there was a perfectly well-designed model of Frank West in 2016 that looked great. New Frank doesn't look like any previous version of the character, and there’s seemingly no explanation as to why.

He looks dramatically older than before, and admittedly, his hairline isn't doing him any favours. Frank proudly exclaims in the game's opening, "I've been in wars, you know," and from the look of him now, you can tell. Frank also has a fresh voice, which seems a little unnecessary when it appears that no one else does. Frank's new voice isn't too noticeable, though, most likely because I was distracted by his obscure facial expressions.

Luckily, the game hasn't removed the wacky costume element, and I can dress him up to distract myself during cutscenes.   

Final Thoughts 

Everything you loved about the 2006 Dead Rising is still here, down to the exact weapon placement on the shop floor. The changes are here to make your life easier, but they are just as optional as they are useful. Whether you are a franchise purist or new to the Dead Rising universe, there's plenty to be excited about in this new "remake". I just hope that the rest of the game maintains that early quality. 

Previewed on PS5. Preview access provided by the publisher.