Dead Risen: reanimated

 How did they not use 'Reanimated'?

I will forever lament everything we didn't get out of the Dead Rising franchise, but from the space of what was possible, rather than the reality of how it would have actually ended up- you get me? For example, that original idea for a follow-up to Chucks story where we played a co-op kind of Souls-like guiding Katey through Mexico? How different, how unique, how interesting! People would've hated that! The people love knowing exactly what they're going to play, they hate not recognising setting, or gameplay styles or even environments sometimes. And yet- they hate things getting to familiar too. Dead Rising 4 I think did itself no favours returning to the exact same mall from the first game, regardless of improvements and expansions upon that map. And being bad certainly wasn't a major sales driver I guess...

Dead Rising is a franchise I'm pretty sure has been dead for a while now- uhh, that pun slipped out of nowhere, I meant to say that it's 'inactive'... you get what I mean! No one at Capcom really saw the point of hyping up the corpse of what Dead Rising 4 turned into. There were no big pick-up DLCs beyond that one where Frank turns into a zombie or something. No references in connected Capcom properties over the years, and this has been the only game to escape their voracious remaking wrath- at least until now- kind off. Because yes, after all these years waiting and totally forgetting about what this franchise did to make us so wary of it- finally we have ourselves a brand new Dead Rising game coming our way and it is... a semi-remake kinda? (Capcom have been bizarrely vague on the matter.)

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster comes to a world that has already endured a console remake of the original Dead Rising, a more-current generation remaster and a direct spiritual successor or two- now what we have appears to be some sort of... 'visual remake', so to speak. Which is to say that Capcom are only touching what the game looks like, and for some reason the voice talent involved- removing the iconic voice of Frank for those who care. (Personally I always thought this franchise clung too desperately to the character of Frank for no reason but that's neither here nor there.) But it appears that beneath the hood all the gameplay aspects are untouched, making this yet another re-release of the exact same game to a new console generation- but with enough bits flipped around they can internally justify charging full price for it? Is that about right?

Now as far as the headspace that Capcom are at is concerned, they see the original Dead Rising as a point within video game history from which experiences blossomed. They see the experience of the original supermarket zombie-slaying game as a cornerstone moment of that console generation, and that every release since has visited that moment to a new generation. And to be fair- I do think Dead Rising was pretty influential back when it launched, pretty much setting a standard for Zombie games that hasn't really been upended to this day. I just played through Dead Island 2 over the past month and that game owes so much to this franchise... and yet- to be honest I think it was Dead Rising 2 that deserves most of the plaudits.

Dead Rising brought us the concept of 'chop till you drop', living the life of dancing circles around hoards of zombies as you lazed about and survived- casually ignoring the many dying survivors as you watch their timers tick down. (Just me?) Capturing the spirit of that one five minute scene in the middle of Dawn of the Dead where the group enjoyed having all those stores entirely to themselves- yeah, that makes for some fun gaming. But what about the actual surviving, the glorification of zombie murdering the creativity now inherent to zombie games? That was really sharpened to a point with the coming of Dead Rising 2 and their combo weapons when you really think about it. Dead Rising's contributions are noteworthy, but 2 really hit it home!

Instead we're headed back to Willamette with all the individual gameplay elements largely untouched? It just seems bizarre living in a world where we've seen Zombie games pushed beyond the wildest dreams of their original. Resident Evil 2 Remake has to be one of the best Zombie games ever released even now! Couldn't they have taken a better look at the movement of the original? The combat? The Ai? (God, please don't let them ship with the same AI from the original!) They don't need to totally plunge the game into the modern realm, but just apply a layer of modern development standards on what originally worked in order to know them up to snuff- then you can call this a remake. Although come to think of it- that does sound like a lot of work, no?

Dead Rising has been a property that has lost Capcom money most recently, and given we live in the industry of 'what have you done for me lately?' maybe the powers that be aren't willing to reinvest their money into a proven shaky franchise despite the years of separation inherent. Seeing that there are already versions of Dead Rising available on this generation of console, I can't help but wonder if Capcom aren't pushing themselves into something of a self-fulfilling prophecy- half-assing a remaster literally designed to poach their own players without offering a substantial reason to switch- the name alone will push units but how many are going to see the much more cost-effective 'triple pack' and just stick with what they know? I wonder...

Due out for this year Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster seems like a canary dropped into a well to judge whether or not we're due for more from this franchise and I have to be honest- I'm really not sure that we are. What Dead Rising brought to our screens is unforgettable, but also played out- as proved by the franchise which couldn't even reignite that spark by going back to the place that started it all for 4. Dead Island has trounced this franchise in creativity- Resident Evil has surpassed it in sheer gameplay- Far Cry is set to do a typical Ubisoft move and steal their classic timed-game formula- Dead Rising gave so much of itself away I'm not sure there's anything left all of it's own to carry forward onto the future anymore. But hey, maybe if this does well we'll get a Dead Rising 2 'Deluxe Remaster'. That might be fun at least.