As a seasoned gamer who’s been around since the Xbox 360 era, I must say that diving back into the zombie-infested mall of Dead Rising, now remastered, has been an exhilarating blast from the past! The adrenaline rush of Frank’s colossal shoulder checks against hordes of undead never seems to fade, even after two decades.
As a gamer, when the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster (DRDR) was unveiled, I found myself in a bit of a pickle – despite its title, I wasn’t quite sure if it was a remaster or a remake. These days, the distinction has grown hazy, with projects like the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and The Last of Us Part I being labeled as remakes, but they seem more like fancy new coats of paint than substantial changes to the original games.
After spending numerous hours immersed in DRDR, I’ve come to realize that this project bears striking resemblance to those examples you mentioned. It meticulously stays true to its roots in many aspects, and introduces some fantastic improvements to enhance the player experience. However, it also preserves the original game’s shortcomings. Despite these flaws, when I’m engrossed in playing it, I can’t help but perceive it as an unpolished masterpiece.
If you haven’t played the Dead Rising series before, it essentially offers a darkly comical reimagining of George A. Romero’s famous zombie film, Dawn of the Dead. In this game, players find themselves in a mall overrun by zombies, trying to survive among the undead. For the first time, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster has been upgraded to use Capcom’s RE Engine, which gives the game a colorful yet somewhat sepia-tinted appearance, similar to Resident Evil 7.
The game doesn’t lose the quirky atmosphere it has, unlike how Dead Rising 3 alters its setting; instead, it retains a strong sense of being Dead Rising, with locations like the toy store and movie theater in the famous Willamette Mall still maintaining their whimsical and absurd charm. The graphical upgrade over the game’s 2016 remaster is evident, even to those unfamiliar with it, and I don’t think the change in its color scheme will be enough to make this anything less than the best rendition of the game.
Even though I haven’t played Dead Rising for a long time, the layout of the mall was as familiar to me as my hometown shopping center when I was 17. All the stores, water fountains, and even the locations of hidden weapons like a katana, which is great for early combat, remained in place. If you have vivid memories of the 2006 game or can find old guides, you’ll notice that in the initial five to six hours of gameplay, the game looks largely unchanged from how Capcom left it.
The same healing items that were especially useful before, such as the gallon of coffee creamer Frank West cartoonishly chugs in the safe room, are once again tremendous boons. The game’s over-the-top villains return, too, like Adam the Clown with his game-breaking mini-chainsaws. Exploring the mall as the almost impossibly broad-shouldered Frank, racing against the game’s always-on mission timer to the tune of the mall’s once-relaxing Muzak made laughably inappropriate for the zombie apocalypse, and jump-kicking zombies in the face by the thousands is, in 2024, still as fun as it was when the game originally drove me to purchase an Xbox 360 nearly 20 years ago.
As a die-hard fan, I must admit that while I appreciate the remastered version of this game, some persistent problems have resurfaced due to its nature as a remaster rather than a full remake. One of my biggest concerns was addressed in the original post, and that’s the behavior of NPC survivors. By the time you conquer the game, you could save dozens of them. Despite minor adjustments like each NPC having their preferred weapons and healing items, intended to enhance self-reliance, I found that my longstanding issue with the escort missions remains a persistent annoyance.
In a reminiscent echo of the past, I found myself in a grim situation as the infamous convicts, much like characters from my favorite series, barreled into our courtyard in a Humvee. My companions were armed to the teeth with their preferred defense tools, skillfully fending off the zombie horde. However, their efforts were in vain when it came to the unpredictable and ruthless convicts, who wielded mini-guns and excelled at hit-and-run tactics. The courtyard quickly transformed into a deadly battleground, claiming multiple lives under the relentless assault of these roaming criminals.
In the latest Dead Rising game (DRDR), it felt like the characters I was trying to protect were needlessly sacrificed, despite my best efforts to keep them alive. It seemed as though they hadn’t evolved much from their original designs in terms of survival skills. However, as I progressed through the series, I found that saving survivors became a more satisfying experience because the NPC behaviors grew more advanced and realistic in later installments. Unfortunately, compared to these improved versions, DRDR unfortunately falls short when it comes to creating believable and effective NPC characters.
As a seasoned gamer who has been playing video games since the early 2000s, I can confidently say that the latest update to this game is a breath of fresh air. The quality-of-life changes they’ve made have truly elevated my gaming experience, making encounters like the one I just had even more enjoyable.
Even though I pleaded for the game to tackle this prominent NPC problem, which wasn’t fully addressed, I’m still eagerly looking forward to playing Dead Rising once more. Regardless of the flaws that persist or the improvements that have been made, my main sentiment towards Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is that it has solidified the game as a genuine classic, with all its imperfections included.
Exploring a mall teeming with zombies while dressed like Mega Man, carrying a guitar, and mysteriously holding three gallons of orange juice in my pocket remains an enduring scene. I used to criticize the original Dead Rising for problems like the restrictive mission timer, defenseless NPCs, and combat that felt stiff. However, revisiting the game through its remaster has made me realize that I’ve grown more tolerant of some of its flaws as time passed. The Deluxe Remaster of Dead Rising won’t solve all the original’s problems, but it seems to alleviate many of them.
In the upcoming weeks, TopMob plans to publish their comprehensive review of the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster. This assessment will be released prior to the digital version’s launch on September 19, and the physical edition will follow suit on November 8.
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2024-08-13 18:39