Current day Surge here, I’m back from my September break and NOT doing an Inktober this year, feels good man. I’ll play Space Marine 2 eventually, but for now let’s talk about the game I decided to pick instead of turbo fascist bug-killing title that’s NOT locked to PS5 home consoles: Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster! As a near-Day 1 fan of this series, I was ecstatic to see this game’s reveal, even more so after they revealed it was releasing relatively soon after the first trailer. It’s been a long time since a Dead Rising title came out, hard to believe it has been 11 years since Dead Rising 3 released; I thought we’d never get another title in this series!

So how is it?

STORY

The deluxe remaster leaves the core story completely intact; freelance photojournalist Frank West is taken to the town of Willamette via helicopter to investigate strange reports coming from the area. With the National Guard setting up barricades to halt anyone entering or leaving the town, it’s clear that something is afoot there. After a flyover of the town Frank decides to begin his investigation at the Parkview Shopping Mall, after a brief and foreboding chat with a man named Carlito, our protagonist continues his way into the mall. He sees a mysterious woman, an old man hurling accusations of entrapment, and a horde of the undead just outside the mall doors. They don’t remain out there for long.

That’s as much as I’ll talk about the story, it’s meant to be a narrative of crime, conspiracy, and calories. The only changes made to the story are the updated visuals in the cutscenes, but even those use all the original camera work and mo-cap/animation data.

DELUXE GRAFIX

The facial animations have received the most substantial upgrade on the character models, they are very emotive and can accurately convey more subtle expressions. I immediately think of the conversation Frank and Brad have after the first boss fight; Frank, in an attempt to get Brad to fill him in on what’s going on in Willamette, uses the photos on his camera as leverage. He lifts it up and away from Brad when he goes to reach for it, Frank raises his eyebrows as if to say, “Uh-uh-uh, no deal, no pictures.” The scene plays out the same in the original, it’s just that the touch-ups in the remaster add a bit more personality to the character interactions.

The designs of the characters are incredibly loyal to the original, for the most part. Everyone sees a marked improvement in detail, from geometry, to skin texture, to material of their outfit. The second most changed character is Frank himself, he looks a but closer to his Off the Record/Case West design, just a bit more cartoony. Something about his face is a bit off, it doesn’t look bad at all though; whatever it is just makes him look more stylized while everyone else looks a bit more realistic. I do appreciate that Frank looks older now, the times he’s called “old man” don’t feel so out of place anymore. As far as I know he’s not aged up in the remaster, which is fine, the developers don’t need to justify their desire to have his design align more with the Off the Record appearance. 

There seems to be an entirely new cast of voice actors, they all do a pretty great job. Frank may be the most jarring at first, no one will ever replace T.J Rotolo, but I really grew to like the actor; he nails Frank’s original inflections without sounding like he’s trying to be a T.J soundalike. I heard someone say, “All the female VAs killed it, the men are 80% of the way there,” and I agree with that sentiment. This mostly applies to the main cast, there’s too many survivor lines to try and recall for a comparison like this.

The most changed character is Larry, the butcher psychopath that appears at the end of the game. I’m not nostalgic for racist caricatures so the change doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I have more to say about this change a bit later.

The mall has received a visual upgrade as well, nothing that’ll blow your mind, but everything has been touched up and looks as detailed as you thought it did during the game’s original release. The only area that has changed substantially is the Paradise Plaza, it’s now a sort of ocean theme ,rather than just being the neutral-looking section you run through to get to the safe room. A streamer I watched mentioned that the new Paradise Plaza is way too nice looking for such a rural town, which I laughed and agreed with, until I remembered Wonderland Plaza has an entire roller coaster inside. 

Zombie models are markedly improved as well, it’s all the same ol’ faces just given the RE Engine treatment. The zombie from the intro that attacks the driving mother is also in the mall as well now, he used to be only in that one cutscene. There seems to be a bit more variation in their generation now, there’s not as many twins shambling around as the original from what I can recall. Clearly the same variations will be in relatively close proximity, but the crowds just feel less copy-and-paste with the same exact models.

Speaking of the dead, let’s talk about killing them now.

GAMEPLAY

The second to second gameplay, much like the rest of the game, remains faithful to the fantastic bones the original 2006 title had and expands upon them. You pick up whatever you can to defend yourself, eat anything off the ground to heal, and read books that will enhance items to better assist in your struggle to uncover the truth in the mall. You can mix food in blenders to get juices that provide unique buffs, there is also a new magazine that allows you to blend *anything* for items; I have not experimented with this yet. The changes made are small and great quality of life alterations:

• The dodge roll has a short cooldown instead of a long recovery animation.
• Special melee attacks have similar inputs that feel more consistent. 
• Special shake-off moves [kick back, judo throw, etc] are bound to mashing face buttons rather than unreliable thumbstick motions.
• The ability to aim items and move (throwing/shooting weapons stops Frank momentarily).
• Improved Survivor AI
• Speeding up time in the safe room/bathrooms

This isn’t a complete list of improvements and changes, just the ones I really appreciate. A great accessibility option I also use is the Hold Input feature that changes the need to button mash to break out of grapples, I no longer have the desire to do it anymore. 

Photography is expanded on quite a bit in the Deluxe Remaster. Throughout the mall there are several photo shops that hold upgrades for the camera; they give the camera a flash, the ability to manually brighten what’s about to be photographed, and the option to focus on your subject, blurring the background. There is also an autofocus button which quickly does the work for you, if you are so inclined. I don’t believe these affect the points earned from photos, but they are nice additions that let you feel like you’re a real photojournalist.

As you save survivors you start building affinity with them, they will begin chatting, giving hints, and pointing stuff out in the environment. They remind me a lot of the Pawns in Dragon’s Dogma 2 in that way, it’s certainly an unexpected addition, but not one I have any opposition to. It’s cool that they’re all fully voiced as well, a lot more work than what was needed or expected.

The zombie AI hasn’t changed much, but it does feel notably less aggressive, even at night. They get a bit more grabby once you start wading through large hordes, but overall they just feel less threatening after a while. I can’t remember if I was *ever* slapped by a zombie that resulted in Frank staggering and getting grabbed— hell, I can safely say I was I NEVER hit the air while jumping-kicking and left defenseless upon landing. Hilariously, the most consistently combative zombies are the cops, who can now fire their guns if they have one in their hand; this was a scrapped mechanic from the original release, by the way! Visit the STiP0 YouTube channel and watch his recent videos about the game, while we’re on the subject of reintroduced content.

Another disappointment with the AI comes from the raincoat cultists that appear midway through the game, they’re quite literally braindead. It honestly feels like they are broken in terms of their aggro range, spawning, and durability. When the cultists spawn in they’re almost always in a large group together, which in the original game would be an issue. At first you’ll probably use a handgun or the uzi to thin their numbers from a distance, I can safely assure that as long as you’re using a sword or bladed weapon, you’ll cleave through them all in seconds with little risk. They only seem to activate after taking a hit, so as long as you finish them before their stun animation ends you have nothing to worry about. It’s pretty disappointing to see such a troublesome enemy type be completely pacified from what appears to be a substantial bug. 

The last point I want to make about the gameplay is the level progression: it’s very fast. In the original game it was optimal to get as far as you can before dying, or until you failed a story case, and then restart the game at a slightly higher level to get through the game more smoothly. The Deluxe Remaster is balanced so that you can get through it in your first attempt, the amount of experience you gain from escorts guarantees it. I understand this was done so newcomers can hop in without feeling intimidated by its difficulty, but the result is that the game loses that unforgiving and stressful element that made DR1 so unique. I never felt too underpowered for any obstacle in the game at any point; Psychopath boss fights were your make or breaks in any given run, to test if you had been keeping up with leveling and staying stocked up with weapons and health. The fights just come and go in the Deluxe Remaster, they aren’t nerfed or easier in any way specifically, you’re just constantly at an appropriate level if you have been doing the optional quests.

AUDIO

[I can never remember my own structure for these reviews when it comes to the categories, so I’ll just do ‘audio’ instead of ‘music’ or ‘sound design.’ Just roll them all together because I usually don’t have a whole lot to say about it.]

Remasters come with the responsibility of including all previous content of the original title, which includes the music, that pesky thing with licenses that expire, which can single-handedly render games unavailable if they aren’t renewed. Capcom has decided to renew all of the licensed music to preserve the original experience of Dead Rising boss fights. A new generation can experience the joy of having their legs run over by convicts as “AND THAT’S 3 SQUARE MEALS IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN” bursts their eardrums. I’m not sure if the original soundtrack was rerecorded or anything, but it’s all in the game and sounds great. 

Frank’s new pseudo theme ‘Beyond Heaven’ is fantastic, it doesn’t fit the vibe of Dead Rising at all, but it’s only used in marketing material that often highlights the silly aspects of Dead Rising. For that reason I see no issue with it, I recall several people expressing concern that its existence in the reveal trailer alluded to the story being handled less seriously. This was thankfully not the case.

All the sound design sounds great, most if not all the old sound effects return and sound as crisp as ever. If there are any full-on replacements then I haven’t noticed at all.

CONTROVERSY 

A new category for a Surge review. Exciting, right? 

Let’s start with the first round of pathetic Gamergate 2.0-related discourse: the removal of ’Erotica’. 

The 2006 release of Dead Rising had several photo categories: Normal, Drama, Horror, Outtake, and Erotica. One of these categories was automatically assigned to a photo depending on what was captured in the snapshot. Erotica, obviously, was earned by taking risqué photos of women, and only women, in the game. Some female zombies wore low-cut dresses that exposes their cleavage, which can bank a decent amount of experience points. The most immediate erotica shot you can take is of Jessie’s chest in the safe room, you can also upskirt certain survivors you come across for this category as well. 

The Psychopath, Kent, in the game offers a photo-taking challenge to Frank, it is to take an Erotica photo that’s worth a certain amount of points. This very blatantly incentivizes the player to take these sorts of photos of female survivors and zombies.

In the Deluxe Remaster, the Erotica category is removed, and by extension, Kent’s photo challenge. The rest of it has remained unchanged. You can still creepshot the female survivors and zombies, you just don’t get rewarded for it. Jessie is still stupid hot, and her jugs look even bigger than in the original. Did I need to write that? No. But I sure did.

The latest controversy, and the one these losers swear has genuine legs, has to do with Larry; if you don’t know, Larry is one of the last Psychopaths you encounter in Dead Rising’s story. He is an Asian butcher that means to hack up a survivor because they are the only fresh meat around to sell to customers, it’s safe to say he’s very dedicated to his career. In the remaster his appearance is modified, he wears a stark white butcher’s outfit along with a hat and a pair of glasses.

Larry Chiang is still Asian. It’s no one’s fault but your own if you can’t identify someone as part of that group of people unless they’re depicted as a racist caricature. People who say Larry is white were probably shocked to hear Arabic and Indian populations are also Asian; and if one of them were reading this they’d most likely assume I’m talking about *Native Americans* and not Indian people from India. The Cistopher Cumlumbus mindset.

Anyways, it’s one thing to say, ‘Larry looks different’, it’s an entirely different beast to claim it’s censorship. I’ve seen people argue Larry was changed into a ‘white man’ to not offend the Chinese Communist Party; it’s entirely unhinged and I don’t see how you could ever come to that conclusion without having Super Saiyan 6 level CTE. I suppose I’m not enough of a fucking loser to find drama in fun hobbies that don’t matter. 

This insane CCP censorship theory is also used to explain why Cliff’s voice lines changed. They argue that excluding references to the Viet Cong and Communism were done to capitulate to Chinese censorship to sell the game there, they also put blame on a Hong Hong-based support studio for pushing the ‘censorship’ through. But they don’t blame the co-developer directly, they put the guilt of their actions on the Chinese government. 

Why the fuck would China care about the Viet Cong lines? They’re different countries. I suppose they think China wants to protect Communism at all times, no matter what. You know, I thought they changed it because America made steps in repairing their relationship with Vietnam recently, and the developers thought having a murderous Vietnam veteran displaying horrific war crimes, that he most likely committed on civilians, was pretty tasteless. This is a story critiquing American colonialism and consumerism, the lines ‘about’ communism have nothing to do with the story.

Maybe those who are crying ‘censorship’ are too fucking stupid to understand the obvious themes in the game, or maybe they’re rubes who give money to talentless, fat, moronic Youtubers because they’re susceptible to listening to people who speak confidently about issues they know nothing about. I’d tell them to grow up and that video games aren’t important, but I think gaming would be a better hobby if they just stopped growing permanently. 

CLOSING

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is a great way to get into the series thanks to updated mechanics, easier overall difficulty, and accessibility options. Though I really enjoy the game, it isn’t an easy one to recommend to everyone; the original game is still available and cheaper, and though DRDR is probably the game I’ll replay to get my zombie killing fix, it’s missing some of the charm the original title has. If you’re a big fan of Dead Rising and want to play an updated and slightly modified version of the classic, I say go for it. It won’t blow your mind and it certainly isn’t a must-play kind of title, but I didn’t mind dropping $60 for it because I’m happy this dormant IP is finally getting some love by Capcom. 

410,757,864,630 Dead Zombie Cops/10