The videogame remaster is an inescapable trend within the industry, even as it feels as though there are more and more major games and indie developers vying for our attention. Whether you love them or you hate them, they’re here to stay, and they do actually serve an important role, to allow people to catch up on games they might have missed and preserve a game’s legacy.
The cult classic, The Longest Journey, was revived on iOS, for example, while Grim Fandango was rescued from the clutches of obsolete versions of Windows with a remaster, and the same could be said of Homeworld, a true classic of the real time strategy genre. There are also the more recent releases, such as God of War 3, DmC: Devil May Cry, Zombi and… Deadpool?
I guess it takes all sorts, and our winner sits quite happily in that latter category, beating the comprehensive retrospective of Rare Replay into second place.
Game remasters are quite vital for Sony at the moment, with floods of new and returning customers to the PlayStation family who could easily have missed out on some of the highlights from the PlayStation 3. With Uncharted 4 poised to be the flagship title, there’s millions out there who might want to catch up or revisit Nathan Drake’s previous adventures.
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection does more than simply increase the resolution and frame rate. Bluepoint Games are a safe set of hands when it comes to doing a remaster – they helped remaster The Last of Us, for example – and went above and beyond to unify the three games. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune had the controls and certain combat moves from later games rolled back to it, Uncharted 3’s increased input latency was neutralised, and so on.
They also added a new, even harder difficulty level, photo mode and speed running mode, but there was a twinge of disappointment that the competitive and co-operative multiplayer was axed. That points forgiveable, given how close Uncharted 4 is, and with that in mind, those looking forward to the sequel have the option of picking up a simply outstanding remaster to get them up to speed.
Runners up in alphabetical order:
- DmC: Devil May Cry
- Gears of War Ultimate Edition
- Grim Fandango Remastered
- Rare Replay
Avenger
Liking the tagline. That there’s a game of the year award for remasters says it all. Should it not be remaster of the year? :P
Jim Hargreaves
Having just started the Nathan Drake Collection I have to agree. Bluepoint have done another stand-up job – loving the visual boost and more subtle effects. The stat-tracking and extra features are also a brilliant touch. Easily one of the best value for money packages available on the system.
beeje13
It outshines many current gen games in the visuals department, and 3 AAA remastered games in one package is great value.
I haven’t bought a new game since this came out, which is food for thought.