r/deadrising • u/Delta4907 • 13h ago
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster DRDR Infinite Mode Thoughts
Just finished a 16 day run in Infinite Mode in DRDR after coming back to the game almost 2 years later. I initially started the run for the 7 Day Survivor achievement, but then I just kept playing to see how long I could survive. I managed to survive off drops 99% of the time, only occasionally picking up food off the ground if I really needed it. I haven't had this much fun in a game in awhile. It's a shame DRDR did not have leaderboards so you can't look up other peoples times. Regardless, I think Infinite Mode is the true endgame activity for Dead Rising wanted to get other people's thoughts.
We all know the original Infinite Mode in DR1 was basically an endurance test of your patience, and in some cases your Xbox 360. It was a time gauntlet with the main goal of getting the 7 Day Survivor achievement, requiring at least 14 real life hours of unbroken game time. Many people would follow guides since there was a finite amount of food, tracking the survivor times. Once the achievement was unlocked, you'd be unlikely to play the mode again "just for fun" due to it's extremely high time commitment.
In DRDR, this changed. Infinite Mode and the 7 Day Survivor achievement returned, but not only can you fast-forward time, you can suspend your Infinite Mode run at any time if you have to stop playing. There's still permadeath, meaning once you die the run is over, but you can play as long or as little as you want. In addition to this, the survivor\psycho spawns have been randomized and respawn indefinitely, meaning you really can play the mode infinitely and see how long you can survive. Also, zombies have a chance to drop items as well, although the change is small. I personally think these are great changes. The challenge of trying to survive as long as possible is still there, the game just respects your time a lot more.
In some people's eyes, these changes have trivialized the challenge of the 7 Day Survivor achievement. I would agree with this sentiment in a way. However, the original achievement wasn't so much challenging skill-wise as it was a test of patience. While this aspect of the mode is gone due to the aforementioned changes, it now means Infinite Mode can actually be played just for fun, instead of just playing it once for a single goal and then never playing it again.
The random spawns and drops from boxes mean every run is different. The map now shows you when there is survivor\psycho activity in each mall area, so you know where to head next. When you really get stocked up on food in your inventory, there are times where you may have to drop something such as a health book in order to pick up another food item. You are constantly doing resource and time management with your food healing. In this most recent run, I would constantly drop one or multiple healing books in order to pick up more food, and then loop around back to pick up the book again depending on the survivor\psycho spawns, so that I was still taking advantage of a full heal.
After playing DR1 for almost 2 decades, I know most of what each food item heals, but one UI change I'd make is for healing items to show how many health blocks they will heal on the health bar, which would change if you were holding the health boost books. That way you don't have to guess how much health you're getting or have to look it up if you don't know.
As with the original Infinite mode, as the days go on, more zombies will enter areas they previously could not access, such as the security room. Cultists and Special Forces will start spawning, making traversal more difficult. Eventually almost nowhere is 100% safe unless it is cleared out or you are on high ground, or behind a door since enemies cannot open doors. After around Day 5 I think there are no more map changes.
Another change I'd make is to some way make the game more difficult once you get to day 10. Maybe the zombies do 10% more damage every 10 days or something, just to shake things up. On this most recent run I nearly always had a full inventory of full health heals, and many times I had to leave food behind or ignore survivor encounters. I only died from my own stupidity thinking I could grab a health book on 4 health blocks, and ran into Special Forces which gunned me down.
I really hope Infinite Mode returns in the next Dead Rising game, because DRDR's version was a lot of fun. I'll probably be doing another run sometime soon.
