Let’s face it, you’ve probably played Dead Rising before. If you didn’t when it was originally released in 2006, you might have experienced it since then, perhaps even with the HD Remaster in 2016. So it’s fair to say that the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster isn’t exactly anything special. It’s a game that’s not even two decades old, and yet it’s been remastered twice. Twice. For that very reason, I’m not really going to review Dead Rising as a video game this time around. I’ll point out a few things here and there, but for this edition of Deluxe Remaster, I’m mostly going to focus on the parts of this game that are really different, and which are mostly about performance and graphics.
Yes, this time it looks very different. In fact, it is a very beautiful game and one where you can see Capcom testing the limits of what remasters can offer, because the graphics have been completely overhauled and are impressive. Thanks to the RE Engine, this title feels more like Resident Evil 4 and Dragon’s Dogma 2 than the original product, and with such fidelity and evolution in graphical complexity, you have to wonder what stopped Capcom from simply considering this version a complete remake. And that carries over to the performance and technical aspects as well, because the Deluxe Edition runs like a charm, loads quickly and otherwise has few issues. What they are, we’re mostly talking about the occasional texture that jumps or clips across a surface. Otherwise, this version of Dead Rising works wonderfully. Ultimately, that’s what he should do, he’s 18 years old and has had plenty of time to perfect, but it’s still a positive point.
Below are the various quality of life (UX) changes that have been introduced. Some are genuine improvements, such as the more user-friendly, user-friendly user interface (UI) and an updated control scheme that makes bashing a zombie’s skull even more thrilling. Using the RE Engine seems to bring the same aiming issues we see in the Resident Evil games, where it feels like you’re struggling to get the controls accurate. For a survival horror that almost feels thematic, but for a zombie-killing sandbox like Dead Rising, it would have been helpful to have a more responsive and precise aiming system that would allow Frank West to really exploit the game’s brutal mechanical depth.
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In fact, the rigidity of the aiming also raises and is related to another more traditional problem in the Dead Rising experience. The boss fights that the story constantly forces you into are simply abhorrent, and show more clearly than ever why gunfights should be an afterthought rather than the best possible solution for dealing with zombies and enemies. This wouldn’t be a huge problem if they were less frequent, but they aren’t, and they also highlight a glaring and massive problem affecting one of the new quality of life additions: auto-save.
On one hand, it’s great that you don’t have to physically save your progress, but it also means you forget to write down manual save files to refer back to when you need to. Why would you? You could stumble headfirst into a boss encounter without a full health bar and with limited weapons and tools… Yes, that happened to me and the only solution (saving my sanity from being constantly slaughtered by three manic prisoners in a military truck with a machine gun on top) was to either push myself and complete the task at hand or start the game over to make sure I was better prepared for the moment when I got there. Neither was a compelling option…
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So when you add the typical Dead Rising issues (like the weird zombies that often walk through your attacks, or the NPCs that are a nightmare to command and protect) to the new features and improvements specific to the Deluxe Edition, you get a version that’s a bit of a hit or miss. With hugely improved performance and graphics that are practically remake quality, one has to wonder why Capcom didn’t create a full remake of the game and fix the issues that were always there, rather than just partially checking off those tasks and leaving elements like loading screens between smaller gameplay areas intact. Is it fun to have access to the variety of outlandish costumes and outfits? Sure, but at the same time, this is still the Dead Rising we’ve all known for years, just with a much brighter coat of paint.
