Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster review - A masterclass that turns an Xbox 360 classic into a 2024 game of the year contender

When Dead Rising was released back in 2006, Americans consumed 28.1 billion pounds of meat. By the end of 2022, this figure rose slightly to 28.2 billion pounds. 18 years later, the core message of Capcom's beloved zombie action game - and scathing critique of unchecked consumerism - remains just as important. The Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is an excellent re-release of a classic. One I'd argue is important for everyone to experience.

For those who don't know, Dead Rising was this excellent love letter to Dawn of the Dead and other classic zombie media. You play Frank West, a photojournalist who drops down into Willamette mall during the midst of a zombie outbreak. There, he's got to fight to stay alive, while trying to figure out the truth behind the undead plague suddenly striking the heart of America.

It's a dramatic, funny, and harrowing game, paired with a well-written plot that links to classic zombie fiction with its critique of over-consumption, particularly of American consumer culture. All of this remains present in the remaster, thankfully untouched, while more material aspects of the game have been raised to a modern bar.

This remaster is immediately striking in its quality. Capcom has managed to take an iconic game in its catalogue and modernise it brilliantly, an artisinal restoration of a great portrait trapped in rotting framing. The original game still stands up, sure, but it's not a controversial opinion to state it's showing its age. Thanks to the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster though, I see little reason to head back to the original aside from nostalgic escapades.

Let me explain why. The Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster contains everything present in the original. Everything. Every challenge, every survivor, every magazine. Playing through the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster felt like strolling through the set of your favourite movie. Just like I did when I was 13, I saved all the survivors in the order I remember. The katana is still on the Paradise Plaza awning near the infinite source of orange juice. The Wonderland Plaza shortcut is still so good as to encroach on mandatory, and mini-chainsaws paired with appropriate magazines remain superb.

What was amazing about the original Dead Rising has been transitioned perfectly and without needless change in this remaster. Very little is altered in terms of balance and difficulty; I noticed only a few tweaks here and there. The Adam boss fight remains an early-game challenge and a perfect example of Capcom's approach, as OG players will remember that baiting out his balloon attack for quick and easy damage was the best approach back in the day. This has been fixed. Adam only does this very rarely, forcing players to actually rush in close to get damage in. A small change that goes a long way, in my book.

Perhaps the most important improvement comes from a renovation of the survivor AI. In the past, the process of hauling one survivor found in the mall could prove a bit annoying, and leading five or six at once was an act of masochism. Now, you still need to keep an eye on your homies, but they're less hopeless running past zombies. At the same time, players who manage to track down magazines that improve survivor AI will still be rewarded for doing so - another example of the remaster updating something without taking away from the original vision.

This improvement also impacts the boss fights: everyone's favourite gaggle of escaped prisoners no longer crash into trees and get stuck, but instead weave around the park and prove genuinely problematic to deal with. This is wonderful, and replaces the frustration left behind with genuine intentional challenge you can dig your teeth into. Bosses will still get stuck inside shops or hopelessly throw knives into walls on occasion, but it's not anything too distracting and stands out as only an occasional blemish. A feature, more than a bug.

And the graphics. They're wonderful. This was a component of the remaster I was a little worried about, honestly. Seeing Frank's new look in initial reveal trailers didn't sell me at first. But having played through the game those fears have been put to rest. Every character looks fantastic, the zombies look genuinely horrid (especially in cinematics).

But what stands out to me are the psycho boss fights. In the original game, these characters stand apart from regular survivors. They were caricatures, some looking more normal than others, and all moving and emoting in an off putting exaggerating fashion. I mean that as a positive - this added to the haunting tone of the game.

I'm happy to report that this remains not just intact, but enhanced in the remaster. You get so much more emotion from characters in this game compared to the original. Adam is perhaps the most memorable boss from the original and it's true that he especially benefits from this visual upgrade - but so do Paul, Cletus, and others. This may not sound like a lot, but it adds another layer to the tone of these climactic moments.

Visual improvements have also impacted the mall itself, but something about it bugs me - and I'm not so proud as to strike off nostalgia as a culprit here. Maybe it's some of the colour being replaced with more realistic looking environments... I can't say. It's objectively a better-looking game, and I had a great time ohh-ing and ahh-ing over little landmarks I remembered and the new coat of paint they have. But some of that orignal style has been lost. Your reaction and mileage with this change may vary, oof course.

The things that stay with me, though, are the little quality-of-life touches. Ones that feel like special presents for original players. Some of you won't realise how big a gift the small staircase next to the safe room vent entrance is. Nor will you drool over being able to move slightly while aiming with firearms; a massive buff to those weapons.

The motorbike being able to traverse through doors into different parts of the mall is a big boon for an otherwise underwhelming vehicle, and survivors you carry through these doorways remain carried when you load into the next zone. These are small things that all add up to make the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster a compelling, pleasant experience.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster's story remains as striking as it did when the game first released almost two decades ago. This is terrible news. If you're new, you're in for a story of anti-consumerism, government conspiracy, and American culture all seen through the eyes of an occasionally ethically-dubious journalist. So you're fine.

It's only terrible news because nothing much has changed in regards to the endless hunger rife in modern Western society since the initial release of Dead Rising. Governments and corporations still abuse and destroy communities around the world for the sake of product. It was only in June that Banana producer and distributor Chiquita Brands International was ordered by American courts to pay $38 million dollars to Columbian families after the company paid death squads while doing business in the region. Globally, the food and agriculture sector is a hotbed for human rights abuses. Towns like Santa Cabeza might not be destroyed due to zombie outbreaks - like in the game - but the sort of havoc done in the name of food production the original game was critiquing is still present today.

The result of playing this remaster over a decade since I played the original was an eye-opening moment where you realise not much has changed in all that time, making the whole narrative hit even harder, somehow, than it did in 2019.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster stands is a prime example of how to do remasters right. It doesn't cut or alter hastily. What Capcom has added, and what it has improved, only enhances the original experience. For Dead Rising fans, this is like a re-opening of your favourite childhood fast food spot, a brand-new un-torn version of your favourite t-shirt, or returning to a beloved holiday destination and finding all the places you've missed are still there and with a fresh coat of paint.

For new players, you're getting one of the best zombie games of all time made better still. A game that raised the bar, that's come back years later to raise it again.

---

Dead Rising: Deluxe Remaster launches September 19, and is releasing on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. This game was reviewed courtesy of a code from Capcom, and played on the PlayStation 5.