Dead Rising has always played second fiddle to Capcom’s vastly more popular and successful Resident Evil franchise. Yet, while Dead Rising might not be as famous or beloved as Resident Evil, its quirky characters, oddball tone, endless hordes of zombies, and tension-building ticking clock made it feel unique and helped it develop its own fanbase.
It all started with Dead Rising in 2006, which was unlike any other zombie game released before that time. It let people live out the fantasy seen in George Romero’s iconic Dawn of the Dead. Finally, you could explore a zombie-infested mall and test your various strategies. Over time the franchise would evolve and change, in good and bad ways. After Dead Rising 4 in 2016, the series went dormant for a bit.
But good news: The franchise is returning later this year, though not with a new sequel. Instead, in September, nearly 20 years after the first game came out, Capcom is set to release a remake of Dead Rising. So before people start hopping into this new spin on an Xbox 360 zombie classic, let’s dive into the entire franchise and figure out which games are good, meh, and bad.
While on paper this is meant to be a port of the original Xbox 360 game, in reality, it’s an awful, ugly, and barely playable version of Dead Rising. Remember how the big selling point of Dead Rising was the impressive number of zombies on screen? Well, that’s missing, as is most of what made the original game good.
Porting Dead Rising to the Wii was always going to require some cuts. But unlike the phone port, Chop ‘Till You Drop at least plays, looks, and sounds like Dead Rising. Sure, it’s basically just Capcom’s RE4 Wii port re-skinned as Dead Rising, but it mostly works, even if, like in the mobile version, the amount of zombies on screen is still pretty low.
This might get me in trouble with a bunch of Dead Rising fans, but Case West is a mostly boring adventure through dull warehouses and sterile offices. Sure, it’s cool that Frank West (the protagonist of the first game) meets up with and helps Chuck Greene (the protagonist of Dead Rising 2). I also like the way this tiny standalone DLC moves the franchise’s narrative forward a bit. But beyond that, Case West is a pretty forgettable, but thankfully very short, experience.
When I heard that Dead Rising 4 was going to bring back Frank West and the original town from the first game, I was excited. But sadly, this winter-themed sequel is mostly a flop, and it comes down to the fact that it doesn’t really feel like a Dead Rising game anymore.
What made the older entries great wasn’t just all the zombies. It was the way the worlds felt believable but weird, the photography mechanic, and the challenge of balancing a ticking clock with exploration. Dead Rising 4 strips away the clock, makes it easier to carry around weapons, and turns the wacky knob past 10 and breaks it off. This leads to an experience that feels disconnected from the best games in the series, even though I was happy that Frank could still take photos of giant zombie hordes using his phone.
Dead Rising 3 is the point in the franchise where things start to go off the rails. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy this installment. Its gritty, open-world city is a perfect setting for a zombie apocalypse, its main character (Nick Ramos) is a likable guy, and the weapon and vehicle crafting (first introduced in DR2) isn’t too outrageous or game-breaking yet. So it’s a better game than DR4, but it also marks the beginning of the end for the franchise as it shows the series shifting focus to wacky weapons while downplaying the ticking clock that added so much tension to the older games.
Sure, it’s not as big as Dead Rising 2 or the original, but Case Zero—a standalone prequel to DR2 released before the game’s launch—is a lot of fun. It was our first introduction to the new and improved mechanics of Dead Rising 2. It also was the first time the series stretched its legs, letting you explore a small western-themed town as you hunt for Zombrex—a medicine that stops an infected person from turning into a zombie—for your daughter. A solid entry in the series, even if most players finished it up in less than two hours.
Capcom’s big sequel to Dead Rising is mostly a better game. It looks better, plays better, and its Vegas-like locale is a perfect place to set a Dead Rising game. But what holds Dead Rising 2 back compared to the other games on our list is mainly a less interesting story, a main character who isn’t as memorable as Frank West, and the removal of the photography mechanic. In DR1 it was such a neat feature that as you survived the zombie invasion of the mall you could take photos of your adventure, both documenting your journey while also earning XP to level up.
Removing the in-game camera was a mistake, but hey, Capcom added co-op and the crafting system—letting you combine weapons to make better zombie-killing tools—in this entry. So in the end, Dead Rising 2 is mostly a win with just a few frustrating flaws.
The original game that started it all is a clunky thing, for sure, and some of its boss fights and missions are extremely annoying. And yet, Dead Rising’s oddball tone, as well as the way it uses the zombie horde and a ticking clock to always pressure you to take risks, is wonderful. Being able to pick up nearly anything in its large, highly detailed mall and use it as a weapon was incredibly fun and impressive at the time. Want to toss plates at a zombie? Go ahead. Wanna use a chair as a weapon? You can!
Sure, a lot of people complained that the ticking clock ruined the game, making it hard to just have fun. (Dead Rising 2: Off the Record would “fix” this by adding a sandbox mode with no clock.) But while I get the frustration of missing a mission because time ran out or you got trapped behind a giant horde with no good weapons, I think that’s part of the game. It’s what makes it work. Besides, you should restart Dead Rising at least once or twice, taking your experience and skills into a new playthrough. In a way, it’s almost a roguelike experience.
What an odd video game! Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is a non-canonical retelling of the events of Dead Rising 2, but this time you play as Frank West. It’s strange to play a spin-off alt-reality sequel, but it works! That’s because Off the Record keeps all the stuff that was good in DR2—the setting, improved controls, more zombies, weapon crafting, etc.—but brings back Frank and his camera.
In a lot of ways Dead Rising 2: Off the Record feels like Capcom let some DR fans mod the hell out of Dead Rising 2 and then sold it to people as a new game and…I love it! And it’s easily the best game in the series.
