Once a rare and sought after breed, nowadays remastered games seem to be springing out of the ground left, right, and centre. A week can’t simply roll on by without mention or rumour of yet another game being re-released on slightly newer tech.
This year alone we’ve seen plenty of remasters come to both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Chief among these are the third instalments of both God of War and Gears of War alongside Devil May Cry 4 and even Resident Evil. There has also been a few notable digital remasters such as Journey and Homeworld, as well as handheld revamps like Xenoblade Chronicles and the sublime Majora’s Mask.
Some five or six years ago, remasters were almost completely unheard of. Although there were definitely cases of video games being optimised and re-released on other platforms, this was a relatively unknown practice, but in today’s climate, it’s not uncommon for studios to eye up their recent string of last-gen hits, and who can blame them?
Not only are they cheaper to make than sequels and new IP, there’s also a healthy demand that has yet to show signs of fatigue. This camp is mainly comprised of those who missed out on playing the original version of a game, and those who adore it enough to consider a re-purchase on newer hardware.
However, one question that continues to float around is this: which games are truly deserving of being remastered? The go-to answer is, of course, the “classics” – landmark games that have dropped jaws around the planet in years gone by. Games like Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid 2, God of War, and Kingdom Hearts.
God of War was in fact that one game to kickstart this recent remaster trend. Prior to the launch of God of War III (a truly seminal game, for anyone asking) Sony Santa Monica e-mailed its fans a survey, quizzing them on upcoming extras they’d like to see in the game’s special edition. The survey seemed innocent at first, touting the usual bits and bobs we like to see, but then something caught our collective eye. A HD remake of the first two God of War games, complete with trophy support.
The rest, as they say, is history and soon demand for the God of War remasters skyrocketed. (Re)developed by the talented folks at Bluepoint Games, they were eventually released on Blu-ray to rave reviews. I remember being so excited that I even imported a copy from the United States just in time for my eighteenth birthday.
Inevitably, more remasters were soon to follow. Under the “HD Classics” label we saw series like Splinter Cell, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Raccoon, and Prince of Persia all go under the knife. They just kept on coming with smaller remasters also cropping up via digital storefronts.
Compared to many of the remasters we see today, these ones actually felt warranted. It seems that, somewhere along the way, this nostalgic edge has been marginalised in order to help publishers bridge the gap between the two most recent console cycles. Games like Hitman and ICO originally launched almost a decade before being spruced up whereas The Last Of Us was out for little more than a year.
Stefan shared his thoughts on the matter a few months ago, with his opinion being that we need a more universal approach:
Just the act of preserving our gaming history through remasters is inherently worthwhile, and shouldn’t really be restricted just to the games that are “good”. Of course, those will be on the frontline, and we’ve seen the vested interests of major companies playing out with remasters after just a year or two.
However, there’s also some rather exciting projects like the recent Mega Man Legacy Collection, with Digital Eclipse porting the games into the Eclipse Engine. This then acts as a middle ground for these games to be run on existing and future platforms with ease. The more games that are recreated in the Eclipse Engine, the more of our gaming history can be preserved for the ages and brought to new platforms in one fell swoop.
When it comes to remasters, there are no right and wrong answers. Even the ones that seem cobbled together and grasping are still enabling a sizeable part of the market to re/experience a catalogue of games they might otherwise pass on. For that reason alone, it’s hard to get mad whenever publishers give their old games a fresh lick of paint.
MadYetHatless
When it comes to remastered releases, I do think they are focussing a little too much on re-releases for so early in the lifespan of a new console generation. We didn’t really start getting remasters on the PS3 until a few years down the line.
In terms of the type of games that deserve remasters/re-releases on the PS4 or PSN, I would say anything from PS2 era or earlier such as Devil May Cry, games that were previously unreleased in Europe (or other areas)such as Persona 2 (still waiting for an EU release of Eternal Punishment), or HD compilations such as Kingdom Hearts 1.5 or the newer Uncharted collection that give you the best possible value for it.
In an ideal world I’d prefer remakes over remasters like the upcoming FF7 and Ratchet and Clank games so that instead of just improving graphics and textures they properly optimised the games themselves to make best possible use of the newer technology, but I’m well aware that’s pretty much a pipe dream.
Crazy_Del
I am bored of remasters of games from last generation or even if it’s just 2 years old. Games like The Last of Us and Tomb Raider were mixed but TLoU MP were so much fun and it was dying out on PS3 and was booming on PS4. I have Gears of War Ultimate and loving the MP especially classic maps. Gears must have been released in 2005 (need to check) that is a remaster. The best remaster for me has to be Resident Evil and I am looking forward to the 2nd one and hopefully the 3rd (Nemesis) I don’t know if Bioshock should follow the same. Others were just cash grab in my opinion such as Dishonored, DMC, Prototype, Payday etc….
Remaster must be 10 or more years old iny opinion.
Who knows in the future we might get a PS5/Xbox 2 and get a remaster of the last gen remaster from the originals of PS3 and Xbox 360
I want games to continue moving forward as I miss Black, Burnout, Split/Second, NFL Street, Condemned, Champions of Norrath, Stranglehold, The Darkness, Dino Crisis, State of Emergency, old WWII games rather than futuristic. I want new games or sequels on new gen consoles not last gen games on new gen!
Starman
Some great games you mentioned there that deserve to be brought back. Split Second, Burnout (pre EA), Stranglehold & Dino Crisis particularly.
Sitorimon
I think I prefer remasters when they are games that you can really see a step improvement on – more than a single generation. Where I draw the line just like what Crazy Del said, is that new things or other IP’s are being moved aside for recycling things that are easier in theory to land. It’s another reason for the gaping divide between AAA’s and indie’s and the vast emptiness that’s now between them that used to be filled with inventive and original titles that had a moderate budget to pull something off.
frostface
I’d like to see a Remaster of Demon’s Souls. Other than that I’m not too bothered.
Ouninpohja
Warhawk. The amount of time I spent online with that game was crazy. Never any good at it,but it was so much fun that it never mattered.
The Lone Steven
Am I fed up of remasters? Yes and No.
The main issue I have with remasters in general that there seems to be more remasters then new games that are released and often, it is the most obvious games. E.g. TLOU, Uncharted(which I understand why as there is UC4 thus new fanbase to be tapped into) etc…
Some Remasters are very questionable and just need clarification or are a joke. DMC4’s Special edition was either Capcom testing the waters with the possibility of another DMC game from them or was a cash grab. It made virtually no different to the PC platform as I suspect they had those features for years via mods or patched in features. Sleeping Dogs was just rereleased despite it’s mixed reception and I think, failed to address it’s flaws. Prototype was a damn joke and no doubt, Activision will come out with some BS about there not being a demand for it based on the poor sales of the rerelease.
But remasters should always improve on the original and add some features when possible along with all DLC. TLOU is one of the remasters done well as Naughty Dog knew how popular it was and whilst they could have half arsed it, they didn’t. They just took everything they did, fed it into the PS4 and looked at what else they could do. But whilst I would like to see more remasters done well, I would prefer to see more games being released instead of remasters.
The remasters that are cash grabs will always exist due to the nature of certain publishers and some are just questionable. E.g. GOW3. I mean, seriously? the ending of Kratos’s story? Really?
And then there’s Prototype remasters. These are piles of crap that somehow and I mean, somehow have quality that is worse then the original. I mean, just how did Activision mess up a remaster so badly that it’s performance is worse then the original? P1&2 were good, not excellent but good. But the remaster is just there with framerate issues. Hell, Silent Hill suffered the same fate but at least it’s issues were semi-fixed.
stueeeee
I really enjoyed the re masters on ps3, mainly because ps2 games looked pretty bad on LCD TV IMO and the addition of trophies added new elements to old games.
And I got to play gems like the ratchet and clank trilogy on ps3 that if never touched on ps2 (I know!) And replay things like MGS and Hitman that looked nicer.
Now with the differences of ps3 and ps4 being a little less and already having trophies etc I can’t see much value in re buying them. I did get LoU but I’m not so sure about others.
I think it perhaps is for migrating Xbox players and yes, to preserve some last gen gems. If we had backwards compatibility with ps3 I’m not sure we’d be seeing as many!