The Dark art of Video Game Resurrection

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A long time ago I was somewhat excited about HD Remakes of games for multiple reasons, the biggest two reasons were that I would be able to get games that I hadn't been able to get before, and games that I did have but couldn't play would be made available.

But after picking up a handful of them, I came to a realisation that they weren't putting in any effort into it.  Take Splinter Cell for example.  It's a good game in it's own right.  But the FMV's were literally torn from the original game and put in the remake.  No buffering, not even an upscale on resolution.  It looked like crap.  Even in-game, one could tell that little effort was put into it except for reskinning various awkward polygons.

Same with the Halo Anniversary Edition.  They advertised that the only thing that would be changed about the game is the environment details would be significantly updated.  And yes, they granted that, but I felt it was a bit dumbed down by the experience of fighting an AI that was about 10 years old.

It was disheartening to say the least.

Mind you, there were a few remakes that I haven't been disappointed in.  One of which is Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together.  It was rebuffed in style, fixed in a few areas and provided a few extras here and there.  Subsequently, I've spent over 150 hours on it.  Probably another 10 on top if you include the times that I deleted the save file to start again after a few months time.

But it's what you would want from a remade game.  It's like a sequel, it's cleverer, it's cleaner, it's smoother, and it's a more entertaining experience.  And remakes like that are few and far between.

One of which that came out sometime in the last month was Black Mesa.  It was a fan made remake of the first Half Life game, and they look to have done a fantastic job re-imagining the game with an up to date game engine.

And they admitted to performing a few tweaks to the game itself, and they were based on the changes made for Half Life 2.  That gets a massive Thumbs up in my opinion.  Rather than just buffering the visuals, empower the entire thing.

Returning to Halo Anniversary Edition, I voiced my opinion on how different the game would be like if the enemies reacted the same way as they do in Halo Reach, the last addition to the series, and how nice it would have been to simply have the option to go into the game thinking "I'm playing a game that started an era.  But not as I know it."

I had the same perverted thought with Borderlands.  When I started playing Borderlands 2, I picked up on all the little things they did to improve the game.  Like certain enemies zig-zagging around as they approached you; the Rock-Paper-Scissors effect of weapon elements and enemy types are more significant; the need to actually take cover because you're not as effective of a bullet sponge as you were in the first game.

The thought occurred that the developers of Borderlands could release a patch, an update with some of these changes, for the first game.  I for one would happily return back to the game and start playing again  Especially if they rehashed the Skill Trees.

But the point remains the same: Question whether the remake is worth it.  Because you could just be suckered into buying disappointment, rather than what you want: A steadier, cleaner reintroduction into familiar territory.