Remakes: You Either Love Them or Hate Them! Or, more likely, you like some of them, aren't very interested in others, and are ambivalent about the rest. Whatever your point of view, it's clear that remakes, beloved by risk-averse publishers across the industry, are here to stay. They offer the perfect swirl of nostalgic lure and brand recognition, meaning they're easier to sell compared to brand new games, and if players love them, why stop now? But not all remakes are created equally; for everyone Resident Evil 2 or Silent Hill 2there is XIII – a remake so bad that its publisher was forced to redo this. The question that arises—you might call it the Big Question—is what makes a great remake?
Remakes have been on my mind this week, thanks recent release of Xbox Series X/S last year excellent remake of Silent Hill 2. I won't repeat myself too much since I have I've written extensively on this topic elsewhere.but when it comes to remakes, I'm a bit (well, very) a purist. My general position is that a remake should essentially play within the confines of the original's creative vision – if it's taken too far, no one will be properly served. And at this point you might as well do something completely different. But conversations on this topic have caused a variety of opinions in the Eurogamer team. So, in the great tradition of the Big Question, we thought we'd mull over a few thoughts before we give you the floor.
Let's start with Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale, whose opinion on this matter largely contradicts mine. Ed believes that the remake can essentially do whatever it wants since the original version is still out there to be played. “Original Final fantasy 7 widely available on several current platforms thanks to various re-releases from Enix Square“, he explains. “So if you want to enjoy an unspoilt version of the original, you can do that. But a remake gives the developer the opportunity to bring something new and different; create a game that feels like you think an original that plays with your expectations.”
And according to Ed, the Final Fantasy 7 remake gets it right. “It’s a retelling of the same story that acts as a complete new interpretation,” he says. “It’s practically a sequel! The combat system is almost completely overhauled, the visuals and sound are brought up to modern standards, and the storytelling feels exciting because you don't necessarily know what's going to happen next, even if you think you do. A good remake turns nostalgia into a surprising, fresh experience, while leaving the original work available for purists to appreciate in its original context.”
Of course, remakes also have a more conservative side; Chris Tapsell compares the approach to “conservation through restoration efforts.” These remakes, he says, “treat the game like an antique with some cosmetic, maybe even minor functional, damage”—and that's just as good a direction. “Great conservators know exactly how to recreate the effect of a certain varnish, or paint a certain shape to give it the effect of a certain wood, or adjust a painting to take into account the sensitivity to light, viewing distance and the artist’s original technique,” he explains. “The goal here is to restore something as close as possible to the original as it was at the time, and so in many ways this is essentially just a remaster rather than a remake. It's about getting it to work correctly today, on monitors with different aspect ratios or with new servers working again, and otherwise saving something that would have been lost.”
According to Connor Makar, a great remake is one that perhaps falls somewhere between these two extremes, “achieving a balance between doing too little and doing too much.” And if you need an example, he believes EA Motive's 2023 remake of Dead Space meets that criterion brilliantly. “He only changes what is necessary,” explains Connor. “It doesn't go overboard, but it twists things up in a way that will appeal to both old and new fans.”
“The new mission structure that allows you to return to old areas is a fun shift in a cool direction,” he explains, “as is the computer-controlled enemy encounter system that throws enemies at you in new and exciting locations. This is one of the few remakes I've played where, while so much was familiar, so much was different. It's like I misremembered the original game and was thrust into something new and scary… Finally, a lovely little bow on top with a new alternate ending, a letter of passion to Dead Space 2 and fans of the series. To me, this is a great example of how to strike a dangerous balance when it comes to remakes.”
Eurogamer's Victoria Kennedy, meanwhile, has good things to say about Tomb Raider: Anniversary, a remake of the original Tomb Raider that still manages to feel authentically connected to the original despite being a fairly radical reimagining from the ground up. “I really like this remake,” she explains. “While it was by no means perfect, I think it did exactly what a remake should do. That is, it revitalized the game without taking away anything from what made the original great. Yes, I knew where things ended up at Anniversary, but I didn't care. I loved the opportunity to replay a game I already liked, but with updated controls and graphics. Instead of ruining everything that came before, Anniversary improved my Tomb Raider experience. And that's all I needed from her.”
So, if these are all examples of good remakes, then what does bad one? This happens, Chris says, when a game fails to interact with the source code properly, “changing it without understanding it, or clumsily fixing it in a way that takes away some of the original magic (think: hidden messages in game code, bugs that have become part of the game's structure). Ultimately, what matters is that you can experience two things at any given time: either the original experience, or the closest experience to it, or something completely new.”
So the big question is: what makes a great remake? And continuing this line of thought, where do remakes go wrong? What are great remakes? What about misses and unfortunate failures? We have said our word, and now the word is yours in the comments.
