Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is a better, more grown-up version of a quirky zombie classic

Even as Resident Evil has risen from the dead, Capcom’s other zombie franchise, Dead Rising, has been in a state of decay since 2016. But a new version of the original Dead Rising promises to breathe new life into the series — and might indicate that Capcom is ready to take its sillier zombie brand seriously again.

The new version, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, is sharper in some ways and softened in others, based on a handful of hours with a preview build. The quirky bones of the original are still strong, but Capcom and developer NeoBards Entertainment used the remaster to address a long list of complaints levied at Dead Rising, from its restrictive save system and stark presentation to the ineptitude of its AI-controlled zombie apocalypse survivors.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster sends the player, as oafish photojournalist Frank West, to the town of Willamette, Colorado to investigate a mysterious military quarantine. After witnessing multiple violent incidents on a helicopter ride into town, Frank and pilot Ed DeLuca touch down on the helipad of Willamette Parkview Mall, which serves as an open-world playground filled with survivors of a mass infection, zombies, and hundreds of weapons and tools with which to battle the undead. Frank has 72 hours to uncover the mystery of Willamette and survive its zombie infestation.

Key to Frank’s survival is the sheer amount of stuff scattered throughout Dead Rising’s mall: food, weapons, vehicles, clothing, and more. Frank can use almost anything he finds as a weapon, from store signage to gas-powered chainsaws to motorcycles. Much of the fun — and Dead Rising’s brand of slapstick survival horror comedy — comes from experimenting with the game’s weapons, which range from deadly to hilariously useless. The game also has great visual gags, like how Frank can plop toy helmets onto zombie heads, effectively blinding them and turning them into non-threats.

One of the biggest changes in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is its complete visual overhaul of the game. Running on Capcom’s RE Engine, the remaster runs at 4K resolution and up to 60 frames per second, and comes close to matching the graphical dazzle of the publisher’s recent Resident Evil games. The new Dead Rising doesn’t attempt to match the near-photorealism of the Resident Evil 2 remake, but everything looks much more detailed than the original, from characters’ facial animations to the gorgeously redesigned Willamette mall.

Due to these various upgrades, the characters you meet and interact with in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster feel much more alive than their counterparts from the 2006 game. Characters like Otis the janitor are now fully voiced, and non-player characters that need saving throughout the mall more realistically follow Frank and overcome obstacles during rescue attempts. In my first few hours of playtime, I’ve felt a lot less frustrated by trying to guide survivors through the flesh-eating zombie hordes.

That hasn’t made Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster overly easy by any means; I’ve lost my fair share of survivors, but largely through carelessness. What has made playing Dead Rising technically easier are actual gameplay changes, including the ability to move while shooting — Dead Rising 2 added that much-needed feature to the franchise — and the ability to use in-game objects as shields. Capcom has also addressed annoyances with the original game’s transceiver, which Frank would use to communicate with Otis, but which would also interrupt gameplay. Frank can now freely move and fight off zombies while receiving radio calls from Otis.

There are other welcome quality-of-life features, including a more streamlined (and now dynamic) UI with a more readable, compass-style directional indicator that points toward objectives, and the option to fast-forward time by looking at Frank’s wristwatch. All of these tweaks serve to sand down the original Dead Rising’s rougher edges, largely in ways that improve the experience and don’t detract from its unique quirks.

Capcom has made more sensitive changes elsewhere, removing the “Erotica” scoring system from photos that would reward players for taking lecherous snapshots of female characters. The company has also renamed the “Frank the Pimp” achievement, awarded when escorting a certain number of female survivors simultaneously, to remove the trophy’s unsavory implication. The psychopath — yes, the human boss characters are still called that — Larry Chiang has also gotten a makeover that makes him no longer an offensive stereotype.

Much of what makes Dead Rising so interesting, unique, and frequently goofy is still intact in Capcom’s Deluxe Remaster. It’s just been made more player-friendly, integrating nearly two decades’ worth of gameplay improvements and modern expectations into a now-ancient-feeling game. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster feels like a small step forward for the franchise, and hopefully a bellwether of more Dead Rising games to come.

Dead Rising: Deluxe Remaster will be released on Sept. 19 on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game was previewed on Windows PC using pre-release preview code provided by Capcom. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.