Dead Rising is the only game where I care what happens to NPCs

Recently I’ve been playing the new Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, and as a long-time fan of the series I couldn’t be happier with the work Capcom have put into this revisit of Willamette.

Frank West is a character near and dear to my heart, as playing the original Dead Rising and Dead Rising: Off The Record back in 2011 was what initially sparked my interest in journalism and writing as a profession.

Check out the new Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster below

During my tour of the Willamette Shopping Mall and while hacking and slashing at the zombie hordes in my way, I was hit with a familiar but daunting in-game display, “Leah Stein has died.”

Now I know all about the survivors in Dead Rising games, they’re essential for levelling up your character and unlocking new abilities. They’re also important for getting the best End Result screen, so learning who you can save, when and how to save them is vital for the best possible result. It’s easier said than done unfortunately, as many survivors act as mini-puzzles to solve in order to get them to come with you. Then you’ve got to escort them past the undead horde and deliver them safely to the Security Room. You can escort more than one survivor at a time but then you’ve got more people to manage, so it quickly becomes a high-risk but high-reward strategy.

Capcom

That being said, you don’t need to save anyone. There are loads of playthroughs where the player doesn’t even speak to a survivor, and during a speedrun they’re more like an obstacle than anything else.

I always save who I can, not just because of the XP, but because Dead Rising games are in my opinion excellent at making you care about the survivors.

Every survivor has a name and personality, and the game doesn’t hesitate to rub your failure in your face when one of them bites the dust, sometimes in the form of a cutscene where they’re getting ripped apart by a zombie.

So why do I care more about these NPCs than ones in any other game? I think it has something to do with how real they come across in a game that regularly throws realism out of the window.

Capcom

Dead Rising is a game where you can stick a bunch of teddy bear heads onto zombies, watch them bump into walls for a bit before shredding them with a mini chainsaw you got off a homicidal clown. Frank is a middle-aged goofball who can hit a suplex on a zombie just because he read how to do it in a book, there’s nothing realistic about this game.

Yet mowing down a horde of zombies only to be met with a woman who’d just lost her baby to the undead mob immediately rips you away from your fantasy and says “no no, this is a terrible situation and people are dying, don’t forget that.”

It’s quite a daunting juxtaposition, and I think it’s an essential part of the game when you consider Frank’s side the story as well.

Frank is there as a freelance photojournalist to get the big scoop on what’s happening in the town. Once he realises what’s going on he quickly decides it’s time to leave, but is roped into helping solve the mystery of the outbreak in the hope he can cover the aftermath. With this in mind of course he’d want to save everyone he could, after all those people are stories waiting to be told, shown through the split-second photos you can capture of survivors reuniting or reacting to their surroundings.

Of course there's also the fact that Frank is at heart a good guy, he’s a bit selfish sure but he quickly becomes the unlikely hero and does wha's needed to help his fellow survivors.

Capcom

Put it all together and players are given a mall of living, breathing people in need of help, and a ticking clock for each and every one of them. On your first playthrough you’re unlikely to save everyone, and it’s gut-wrenching when you just briefly miss out on saving some unfortunate soul, either by missing the encounter entirely or seeing them get ran over by some wacky criminals who stole a military jeep.

Dead Rising is one of the few games where I truly care what happens to the NPCs, and for a game that rewards you greatly for getting people out alive, that’s a great bit of motivation for replaying games and saving as many people as I can.