Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered: Series S suffers, while PS5 and Series

Today we return to the zombie-infested mall of Capcom’s Dead Rising via the Deluxe Remaster – a brand new take on the 2006 original, built on RE Engine. The visual devastation is as dramatic as you’d expect, but the original framework of the game is faithfully intact – right down to every mission objective, the layout of every segment of the mall, and even the framework of the cutscenes. Yet, looking at the PS5, Series to shoot.

So it’s an extensive remaser, but how does it compare to the 2006 original as played on Xbox 360 hardware? And perhaps most importantly for players new to the game, what does the transition to the Modern RE engine mean in terms of performance on each of the three target platforms?

To set the tone, it’s worth taking a look back at the Xbox 360 original. Despite being a game of its time in terms of character and environment representation, that first game still managed to impress thanks to its hundreds of strong zombie hordes and physics-based interactions, all rendered at or near 30fps for much of the game. dropping the 20s with screen tearing at worst.

Two console generations later, the Deluxe Remaster retains the original Willamette Parkview Mall, even down to the segmented design and fade-to-black loading screens. Cutscenes sync impeccably and use the same body movement capture data as the 2006 original. However, the facial animations have received a much-needed update and each character has received a huge boost in geometric detail. Where the RE engine makes a particularly big impact is in the material rendering, with the skin and fabrics in particular showing enormous improvements and reacting more realistically with light. Of course, the nostalgic might prefer the original 360 designs – which are arguably a better fit for Dead Rising’s satirical tone. However, in terms of level of detail, it is immensely satisfying to see such an upgrade presented so many years later with the same captured data.

Looking at the environments it’s a similar story. Advertisements, billboards and store signs are getting new textures on PS5 and Series Outdoor spaces are also filled with real tufts of grass, while the dynamic shade system of the original is retained. Water features now also show space reflections on the screen, instead of the simple and non-interactive cube maps used in the original. For a modern console release, it hardly pushes the envelope, but it’s still a satisfying visual upgrade.

When optimizing for current-gen machines, the bottom line is that PS5 and Series X will run at a native 4K resolution target and aim for 60fps. That’s a 9x upgrade over the original 360 game at double the frame rate, without even taking into account the many other visual upgrades. There’s little to visually split PS5 and Series

First, the obvious news: the Series S runs at a less impressive native 1080p, with a 1080p HUD to match. What’s even more surprising is that the settings have also been dropped compared to the two premium consoles, starting with the texture quality. Every board, surface, and item of clothing is done with lower quality assets on Series S, which can be quite a noticeable downgrade considering the frequent close-ups of cutscenes. Items like chain link fences have been changed almost beyond recognition, and that’s a huge disappointment.

Anisotropic filtering (AF) is also reduced, making textures appear blurry at oblique angles. The shadow quality is also reduced, making the shadow contours in the shopping center heavily obstructed and noisy. Finally, the quality of outdoor grass also drops significantly, with the papery blocks looking nothing like the foliage on the Series X and PS5.

For a game aimed at PS5, Series The first playable zombie encounter sets the tone for Series The game doesn’t seem to rely on dynamic resolution scaling, so there’s no flexibility for Series X to adjust here. Moments like this are unusual, but it could be an early sign that the gameplay will drop to its limits in later missions as well. Oddly enough, testing the PS5 in the exact same spot shows a clear performance lead over Sony’s machine, dipping below 50 at worst.

There are rare moments on PS5 and Series Otherwise, it’s the extreme number of zombies that is most likely to drop framerates, with the PS5 having a clear performance lead overall.

Looking at the situation on the Series S, despite all the drawbacks in visual settings – the 1080p resolution and lower textures, shadows and foliage details – the console holds at least 60 fps for the most part. Series S even runs some segments, like the problematic helicopter flyover, at a lower 60fps than Series the Series

Overall, the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is a surprisingly faithful revival of an 18-year-old game – at least in terms of world design – and the modern controls come highly recommended as well. The main criticism here is the massive drop in visual quality on the Series S compared to the other consoles, and the fact that performance on all three consoles is occasionally prone to sub-60fps drops. The RE Engine-powered upgrades, especially in character model details, are satisfying to see by comparison, but ultimately this is a game that we expect to be stuck on the performance target. Despite the action taking place inside, this suggests that the push for 4K resolution on PS5 and Series X is a step too far, and that DRS is needed to ensure reliable performance. This is still the tastiest way to enjoy Dead Rising today, but beware of the rough edges.