Platforms: Xbox One (reviewed), PS4
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
MSRP: $59.99
Introduction
It's been 10 years since the original Dead Rising launched back in 2006, and the franchise has carried on with multiple games and DLC due to its original take on zombie kills. We hadn't seen that many zombies on screen at once before, let alone the copious amounts of blood, and it immediately caught everyone's attention. The gameplay of weapons customization, zombie photographs, and mobile zombie slaying vehicles have made Dead Rising the most unique zombie survival series to date. The Dead Rising Triple Pack includes the first two games along with Dead Rising 2: Off the Record and gives us a few new features not included in the originals. Upgraded graphics and framerate help the games flow and play better, but it also makes some of the flaws stand out. We break down all three below in our review
Dead Rising
Frank West, the acclaimed photojournalist, heads out to Willamette mall in Colorado to try and investigate some "interesting" activity. In case you don't remember the first game, a zombie outbreak takes place in the mall, trapping Frank inside where he has three days to find out what happens. You have to rescue other civilians while taking out zombies in the most creative way possible. Clothing mannequins, makeup cases, sporting equipment or whatever else you can find is all fair game to eliminate the zombies.
Dead Rising didn't really show any issues where framerate was concerned. Often times upgrading older games to a faster framerate in a remaster causes it to run at a pace faster than originally intended. This causes some stuttering as the game attempts to catch up to itself. This surprisingly didn't happen for me, even though it's the oldest of three games. Scenes with mobs of zombies occupying the screen only gave me one very brief issue and functioned quite well the rest of the game.
Graphics wise Dead Rising was a bit different. Upgrading to 1080P made everything pop with brighter colors and more realistic zombie blood. The flaws were also upgraded and this made them stand out more prominently. By no means were they major flaws, in fact quite the opposite, but they were noticeable. Minor graphical issues were enhanced as the images were stretched to a higher pixel count, making some appear very blurry. No new features or mechanics were really introduced due to dated restrictions, but this remaster held up quite well with only minor flaws. Although flaws were more visible, the improvements were proportionally increased which resulted in simply a nicer looking version of the first game.
Dead Rising 2
This was my least favorite of the three games. It had nothing to do with the overall gameplay, but more with the game's character Chuck Greene. You see, Frank West is an outgoing, flamboyant personality. Chuck is the opposite and a lot of the game's character was lost in switching over to him. Even though it added in multiplayer, I liked the originality of the first Dead Rising better. Just as in the original DR2, there is no photography since Frank isn't in the game. We do still have the crafting, which is a nice change from the original game as it enhances the ability to eviscerate zombies. Combining different items to makes weapons, drinks, drugs etc all helps Chuck increase in level faster with the increased XP.
The performance in DR2 holds up great. There were never any framerate issues, and no stutters occurred as in the first game. Although it's been a while since I last played the original Dead Rising 2, I still remember the increased zombie count on top of Willamette Mall. There are even more zombies in this remastered version, which makes the performance even that much more impressive.
The multiplayer in DR2 was a major advantage over the original Dead Rising. It had both co-op and online multiplayer with a round based mode. Called Terror is Reality, it's a timed round mode where you need to see how many points you can get by decapitating zombies in the most creative way possible. The online co-op is similar to Dead Rising 3 on Xbox One where other players can seamlessly jump in and out of your levels, or you into theirs, and help each other complete various missions. I mean, as much fun as wiping zombies off the map is, it is even more fun with an online friend. At one point, I was able to join up with a random and we ended up ricocheting zombies back and forth into each other's weapons. We ended up forgetting about the mission and just let our imagination takes over, which is a testament to how well the game holds up being six years from original release.
Overall, Dead Rising 2 was an excellent remaster as we didn't have any of the performance flaws seen in the original game. Also, Case Zero and Case West add-on DLC was not included with this version, unfortunately.
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record
My favorite of the three games, DR2:OTR expands on the creativity of Dead Rising 2 and its multiplayer/crafting by bringing back Frank West. It's essentially the same game with Frank's storyline, but his personality thrown into this version makes it that much more enjoyable. Photography is back as in the original game and you still need to find Zombrex to prevent Frank from going native. Unfortunately, we still don't know how Frank become inflicted because it was never truly explained or showed how he was bitten by a zombie.
This adds a timed element to the game and really makes it complete. Frank's personality, taking photographs and multiplayer all wrapped up in a timed component makes DR2:OTR the most well rounded of the three games. After all, Frank's personality + zombie weapon crafting = amazing fun. You also may remember it was people's main complaint when Dead Rising 3 launched on Xbox One with Nick Ramos as fans missed Frank's classic one-liners. Of course, the newly added Uranus Zone is the best part. Its name notwithstanding, seeing Frank take out zombies with different carnival type rides is literally laugh out loud fun.
Just as in Dead Rising 2, Off the Record adds even more zombies than its original version and the performance never waivers. Colors are bright, object edges are crisp and backgrounds are well defined. The most noticeable improvement I found was the main foreground environment. All of the focus was on the blood and zombie deaths in the original games, and rightfully so. Therefore the environment was missing out on some detail with various objects appearing flat and lacking substance. In all three of these remasters, all of the environments stand out and are digitized in a way that makes them interact more with Frank and Chuck. Other than some image stretching in the first Dead Rising, there wasn't a single issue that I found performance wise with any of the three games.
Verdict:
Of course, it is Dead Rising so the story is a bit lacking. Even with the crafting added into Dead Rising 2 and Off the Record, the single player does get a bit repetitive. After all, there is only so many ways you can kill a zombie before you get that button mashing feeling. I wouldn't go out of my way to play this remaster, but fans of Dead Rising should absolutely play as well as anyone else who likes some laugh out loud, blood splatter fun (Yes, I know how that sounds).
The Dead Rising Triple Pack Collection holds up well vs. the test of time with little performance issues but unfortunately gets a bit tiresome due to the lack of variety.
