Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster Review - Revitalized and Modernized

Capcom has brought Dead Rising back to life with Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster. Stepping into Willamette's iconic mall feels like revisiting a time capsule—familiar, yet touched up for modern players. While the remastered visuals are easier on the eyes, the game retains both the charm and frustrations that made the original a cult classic.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster demonstrates the key difference between a remake and a remaster, two terms often misused and confused. While remakes overhaul core gameplay and design, remasters offer a visual facelift. Capcom shows they can successfully deliver both, as seen in their work refreshing the Resident Evil series and bringing back classic fighting game titles in Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. With this remaster, it feels like Capcom hasn’t forgotten about Dead Rising entirely, releasing a product that keeps the series within reach of modern audiences without altering the experience to the point of not alienating hardcore fans. It doesn’t make the first game better or worse—just updated, and perhaps more visually tolerable for some.

Frank, is that you?

Frank West, a freelance journalist, jumps into the chaos willingly, becoming the unexpected hero as he navigates a zombie-infested mall, uncovers the outbreak’s cause, and rescues survivors—all within a 72-hour limit. To this day, few games incorporate urgency through a limited-time campaign, making Dead Rising stand out in a crowded zombie genre.

Dead Rising injects humor and chaos into its zombie slaughter. Frank West can fend off zombies by whacking golf balls with a club, take them out by launching a bowling ball, or skate through the undead as if he’s an unstoppable force of nature. The absurdity is a core part of the fun. However, the controls, while functional, can feel clunky, especially when juggling Frank’s more unconventional weapons. Eventually, I found myself choosing weapons based on ease of use rather than effectiveness, though the carnage remained as satisfying as ever.

As you kill a certain amount of zombies and capture key moments in the game on camera (you’re still a photojournalist after all), you’ll earn PP (Prestige Points), the game’s experience system. Frank levels up and gains new skills to make him more capable of handling hordes of zombies. From the ability to roll, to picking up a zombie to throw, or drop-kicking multiple zombies at once, the progression gives players more ways to deal with threats while also providing a bigger life pool, movement speed, and more inventory space for Frank. 

You can’t be in two places at one time

The real difficulty is managing Frank’s time and saving survivors. Certain moments in the game’s main story happen at specific times, and usually coincide with your window to save survivors, so there’s that sense of choice a player has to make, and I’ve always appreciated this in the Dead Rising games. When I eventually decide to spend time saving survivors, unfortunately, the escort system shows its age, as survivors can either breeze through zombies or be endlessly mauled. At times, it feels like you're babysitting them, fighting the outdated system rather than focusing on clearing the path. 

It can be inconsistent, as I can’t tell if the AI will be gliding through a sea of zombies or not. It’s hard to gauge at times, and while I can provide weapons to these survivors for insurance, it can be tiresome at times. Frustration peaks when crossing between areas, as the transition often leaves some stragglers behind, forcing me to backtrack to retrieve them.

Beyond saving survivors, Frank faces off against Psychopaths—the game’s over-the-top boss encounters. These unhinged characters, driven to madness by the outbreak, are set on murder for various bizarre reasons. The remaster’s updated character models make these Psychopaths even more menacing, with cutscenes delivering their introductions in a more impactful way.

Psychopaths still provide memorable, if occasionally maddening, moments. While their cutscenes benefit from the remaster’s visual updates, the actual fights often devolve into a frustrating cat-and-mouse chase, with some constantly keeping their distance. Despite this, their over-the-top personalities and the weird scenarios they create are a core part of the game's unique charm.

Flaws Remain, But Improvements Help

The remaster did receive some quality-of-life improvements. For instance, it’s easier to find the exact photos you need for a quick PP boost. While many argue the AI for both zombies and survivors has been improved, it still leaves room for frustration. It would have been the icing on the cake if the voice acting (as the game is now fully voiced) and the script had been modernized as well, as some lines feel outdated or lost in translation. Longtime fans have also noted that while some lines were changed or removed, the majority of them remain intact.

On the technical side, the remaster ran rather smoothly as transitions between each section of the map were quick on the PS5 with barely any performance drops or technical glitches that could distract from the player’s experience, even during the most demanding moments when there are hordes of zombies on the screen.

A Treat for Fans, a Challenge for Newcomers

It’s really evident that Capcom just wanted to make the original experience available to those that want to either revisit the title, or have not played the series, as its most entertaining qualities and frustrating moments remain the same. It was a treat going around clearing waves of zombies in the most hilarious way possible and experiencing weird Survivor encounters, from reading a Japanese book in order to somewhat communicate with Japanese tourists to saving survivors from cult followers that are apparently more focused on dealing with the living and aren’t bothered by the zombies around them. 

Ultimately, Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered is a fun but flawed revisit to a zombie classic. It stays true in delivering its quirky and chaotic spirit, and was given a fair amount of polish to make it more appealing to modern players. While it’s a treat for longtime fans of the series, newcomers will feel the game’s age through its flaws. If they can look past the jankiness, they might get why many cherish this and love this series.

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Verdict: 3 / 5 (Great)

PROS

• Great visual upgrade for character models, zombies, and setting

• Quality-of-life improvements that make it a more tolerable game for the modern audience

• Still a fun time going around killing zombies in the most unconventional way possible

• Runs smoothly with no glaring technical issues on the PS5 version

CONS

• Some features like the escort system show the game’s age

• AI and awkward controls can still contribute to frustration

• Voice acting and script feel outdated

What I’ve Played 

• Completed the campaign and got the ‘True Ending’, plus two other endings

• Had one run where I saved almost half of the survivors

• Spent a few hours in the game’s endless mode, which becomes available after finishing the game once

*This review is based on a - review copy provided to the reviewer

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