This is a review coupled with a video review. You can watch the video review above, or read a transcript of the video below.

Today I’ll be discussing the Dead Rising Triple Pack, originally developed by these guys: Capcom, Blue Castle Games, Capcom Vancouver, and published by these guys: Capcom, Microsoft. All three titles have now been ported to the Playstation 4, Xbox One, with the release of the original Dead Rising on PC for the first time ever. So if you guys are in the mood for some zombie killing action, just sit back and enjoy.

I have to say that going back to play Dead Rising for the first time in almost a decade has been a trip for me, but if I’m going to talk about this game, we can’t do this without the proper music to really drag you back to 2007, hit it (Editor’s Note: Music plays in video).

Yeah, that’s much better. The Dead Rising Triple back is another example of Capcom’s desire to re-release every one of their popular titles onto modern platforms, and this time around they have chosen to release HD versions of the first three titles in the Dead Rising franchise: Dead Rising, Dead Rising 2, and it’s spin-off Dead Rising: Off the Record.

The stories to the Dead Rising game are simple but have an extra layer of thriller movie. I guess you could call it depth to them. The main character is an average Joe, whether he’s a freelance photographer, a devoted father, or just a young mechanic.

Something that I really enjoy about the Dead Rising protagonists is that each character has their flaws and strengths, and while every character isn’t perfect, their imperfections are unique to each character. However, their strengths are universal. This is without getting into too much detail because if I were to sit here and explain each game’s story, that might take a while.

In Dead Rising, Frank West travels into Willamette Colorado, and the city is cut off from the outside world. No one knows what’s going on, and nobody is allowed in, Frank lands on the roof of the Willamette Mall and tells his hired pilot that he needs three days to figure out what’s going on.

In Dead Rising 2, our new Protagonist Chuck Greene is a participant in a morally ambiguous reality game show called “Terror Is Reality” where contestants must kill as many zombies as possible in a short time limit. The winner of the event is the contestant who has the most points when the buzzer goes off. After he wins his event, Chuck Greene receives his pay and goes to collect his daughter when an explosion rocks the Fortune City Mall, releasing zombies en masse into the populated areas.

Finally, Off the Record is a retelling of Dead Rising 2‘s story, but tailored to be a sequel to Frank West’s story. Frank West is now an overweight washed up has-been who agrees to come onto Terror Is Reality to attempt to restart his career. Just like in Dead Rising 2, after he finishes his event, a bomb goes off in the mall, and Frank has three days to discover who is behind the bombing. While it is non-canon, it was nice to see Capcom Vancouver listen to fan feedback and give Frank West a fun sequel.

Each story is similar in structure but is different enough that that don’t feel like they are repeating the same formula, even when they are. But if you’re into thriller movie-styled zombie stories, Dead Rising has you covered.

While no individual piece of the Dead Rising games is bad, where they really shine is the gameplay. When the original Dead Rising released on Xbox 360, it was an entirely unique concept, at least as a game to have a sandbox mall filled to the brim with zombies: tons of stores, weapons, unlockable skills and special moves to gained. Dead Rising has always had a massive amount of content for the player to explore fully, so much so that it’s guaranteed that you’ll need multiple playthroughs to get/see/or save everything.

Nearly everything in the game is a weapon that can be used to fight back the shambling corpses that fill your screen, from katanas or stacks of CD’s, to lawnmowers, and even a real Mega Buster. There are a ton of ways for you to defend yourself as you traverse the world of Dead Rising.

The primary goal of Dead Rising is the uncover the mystery behind the accidents that our protagonists find themselves in, but you also receive radio messages that alert you to side missions as you explore the map. These side objectives either requests to rescue another survivor and bring them back to the safe house, or a request to go and deal with a more unhinged survivor.

These mentally unstable characters are called psychos, as each of them is a boss that you must defeat. Some of them are bosses that will stand in your way of completing the story, others are entirely optional and won’t stop you from finishing the game.

Something to keep your eye out for are psychos and survivors that you are not alerted to. I mean, the cameras in the malls can’t show you everything, right? Which gives you even more reason to explore.

Also, weapon crafting was introduced in Dead Rising 2 and Off the Record, allowing the player to craft satisfying and sometimes crazy weapons to be used against your undead fodder. You start out with only a few recipes, but you will unlock more as you play through the game. My personal favorite is the electrified Blanka mask.

The most appealing part of Dead Rising‘s gameplay is that so many zombies can be on screen at once. Honestly, when Dead Rising first released back in 2007, it really was a game that showed off just how powerful that generation of consoles was going to be.

Dead Rising has always been a nice looking series. While the graphics were never anything to write home about, they were consistent, and styled in a way to make the show off the game’s strengths, while still minimizing it’s weaknesses. What makes the HD ports good is that Capcom Vancouver opted to take a minimalist approach to the re-release.

This meant 1080P resolution and 60FPS were a given, coupled with some minor touch ups to the textures. Each game looks fantastic in HD. One of the best fixes that has come with and HD re-release of Dead Rising is no longer having to worry about being able to read the text on a standard definition television.

What I will say is that I’ve heard that some players on consoles have had some performance issues with Dead Rising 2 and Off the Record. I played Off the Record on PC and have had no issues with Dead Rising 2 on PS4 so far, so I can’t comment on this. Though for honesty’s sake, I felt compelled to make I stated this publicly, just in case there is some merit to these comments.

Dead Rising is one of the few franchises I can think of that hasn’t really had a bad mainline entry in the series. I say mainline because as much as I want to, I can’t forget that we had Dead Rising; Chop Till You Drop on the Nintendo Wii. However, that did give us Frank West in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Project X Zone, so I suppose that makes up for it.

Now I’ve said just about everything I can about the Dead Rising Triple Pack. So let us know down below: have you played the HD remakes for yourself? Do you enjoy them? Also make to check out Niche Gamer for all your game news, reviews, previews.

Dead Rising Triple Pack was reviewed on PlayStation 4 and PC using digital copies purchased by Niche Gamer. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here.

The Verdict: 8.5

The Good:

• I didn’t realize how good Dead Rising would look with just a slight facelift. There’s no longer an issue with trying to read the text on a standard definition television. Everything looks crisp, clean like a proper HD release should. Though to be honest, that’d to be expected from Capcom by now.
• Dead Rising’s characters and story hold up, and are interesting enough to make you want to catch every story to ensure that you will be able to uncover the secrets behind the Willamette and Fortune City incidents.
• The Crafting system in Dead Rising 2 and Off the Record were little barebones when they first released, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t come with enough blueprints to create the perfect zombie mutilator.
• One thing I never realized during my original playthrough of these games is that this series has one of the best and most consistent soundtracks in all of gaming. From Gone Guru which played during the fight with the convicts to Fly Routine, which played during the battle in the grocery store. Dead Rising‘s soundtrack is one that I’ve found myself listening to almost every week for the last year or so.
• Tons of unlockables and multiple endings give the player plenty of reasons to replay these games.

The Bad:

• If Dead Rising has ever had one weakness that the developers haven’t been properly able to fix: it’s the terrible survivor AI. Trying to lead a pack of survivors through the mall to the safe house can feel downright impossible when they stop to fight every zombie (Or more accurately get grabbed by every zombie). Especially when you walk out into the middle of the park at night, and you hear
• While this collection does come with some of the DLC originally released for Dead Rising 2 and Off The Record, it does not come with Case Zero or Case West, which if you don’t remember where the 15 dollar demos that were released for Dead Rising 2 and Off the Record before the games launched. Each game had unique locations and a decent amount of content which had made them worth the price at the time, but it would have been nice to go back through them before jumping into the main titles.
• While I never had any issues, I have heard of players have some performance problems with the games on PS4 and Xbox One. I don’t know how true these are, but I’m going to put this on the list to ensure that I cover my bases.