Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster
This remake absolutely rocked. The quality of life changes and the graphical improvements alone make this the definitive way to experience this game.
I’ve been asking for something like this for years! I wanted a remake of Dead Rising without changing anything except the graphics. The Capcom team that worked on this did an amazing job of preserving everything that made the original so captivating to me as a kid.
The voice acting is a polarizing topic here, but I think the new actors did a solid job. The original dialogue is cheesy as all hell, which is why it was so endearing and the performances elevated it to a ridiculous high on the ridiculousness scale. While some of the performances (Frank and Brad specifically) weren’t as passionate as the originals, I eventually got used to them.
The survivors all have voices too, which was a great change. It gives them so much more personality. Sometimes though, their voices change inexplicably and give a gameplay tip. It unfortunately detracts from the character they built with the addition of the voiced dialogue when this occurs. It seems like an oversight that I hope gets remedied.
Survivor AI is also way smarter. It almost seemed too easy to escort survivors to the security room. The lack of tension with trying to bring a whole posse with you was definitely missed. Holding hands or carrying a survivor makes you almost invincible and I think it detracts from the moments of triumph I had when successfully escorting them to the saferoom in the original.
Bosses are a little bit easier with the modern controls. The final battle with Brock was way more fleshed out and felt more like a climax to the game, which I loved because of how ridiculous it was. Adam, Joe and the multiple Carlito fights were only a slight challenge compared to the original. One enemy, however, killed me so many times that I got a bit frustrated. The special forces soldiers are way too strong in groups. If you don’t have adequate healing and cover, you’ll get stunlocked to death over and over. Otherwise, it’s faithful to the original and I appreciate that. (Down to the convicts respawning!)
The team behind this “deluxe remaster” clearly had a lot of respect for the source material and it shows. Though some changes were questionable (Cliff, voice actors), most were welcome (survivor AI, time speed-up, moving and shooting) and removed some of the tedium associated with the original. Who knows, maybe someone will mod the original voices back in. ;)
