Resident Evil 4 (2023)

[Keyblade]

Interesting negative review. Somewhat ranty, but makes some good points about modern game design and journalism:

 

[Chindie]

I don't agree with that much. It's basically a fanboy of the original refusing to accept anything about the original is bad/has aged and moaning about the state of journalism in the games industry and trends in the industry he doesn't like. I daresay it'll be good for views, the contrairian take.

When you start saying things like the original is better looking game, you've lost all sense of balance. The remakes art, both in the design stakes and obviously the technical stakes, is much better. You might like the style of the original more, but that's like saying a classic pixel art game is better looking - solely a taste thing.

The original game is a classic, deservedly so. But it's not perfect, and in the modern day games moved away from it's style - I never got on with it's style and had to make a conscious effort to commit to it and to finish it. I get why it plays like it does, but I don't like it. The remake takes that concept and bolts it onto a modernised control scheme and style, it doesn't play like just another 3rd person shooter, even though it's pulled lots of the lessons learned from 20 years of them.

This new game is really very good. It's not perfect, it does a few cheap things, it's balance isn't quite bang on in some respects, it suffers from things the original does like the final third on the island being a step down. But its a really great game.

[Keyblade]

18 hours ago, Chindie said:

I don't agree with that much. It's basically a fanboy of the original refusing to accept anything about the original is bad/has aged and moaning about the state of journalism in the games industry and trends in the industry he doesn't like. I daresay it'll be good for views, the contrairian take.

When you start saying things like the original is better looking game, you've lost all sense of balance. The remakes art, both in the design stakes and obviously the technical stakes, is much better. You might like the style of the original more, but that's like saying a classic pixel art game is better looking - solely a taste thing.

The original game is a classic, deservedly so. But it's not perfect, and in the modern day games moved away from it's style - I never got on with it's style and had to make a conscious effort to commit to it and to finish it. I get why it plays like it does, but I don't like it. The remake takes that concept and bolts it onto a modernised control scheme and style, it doesn't play like just another 3rd person shooter, even though it's pulled lots of the lessons learned from 20 years of them.

This new game is really very good. It's not perfect, it does a few cheap things, it's balance isn't quite bang on in some respects, it suffers from things the original does like the final third on the island being a step down. But its a really great game.

One thing I agree with him on is the games that are chosen for remakes. It's never the flawed or obscure games from big franchises (relevant examples, RE6, Code Veronica), it's always the ones that already have a huge fanbase and are already classics in their own right. It's more of a gripe with capitalism really as you can't really blame these companies for taking the more financially lucrative route. It's not just with games either, most of the popular consumed media seem to be either reboots, sequels or remakes. 

[Daweii]

I think it's too early to say how it's going to go with remakes. Of course the recent crop of remakes have been from popular IP, but that's how you get enough people on board to start remaking stuff that won't sell 10 million copies. Resident Evil 2 Remake is walking so the RE: Outbreak Remake can run at some point (hopefully).

Square Enix put their best foot forward by remaking FF7. Capcom have put their best foot forward remaking RE2, 3, and 4. Capcom have also only skipped Code Veronica so far, so the assumption is that RE5 and RE6 Remake are coming at some point between now and 2030. EA started their remake journey with Dead Space to revive that very dead IP. I think it's only natural to do that and then go off the beaten path once customers are firstly used to remakes, and secondly know that they aren't just mindless cash grabs. You need to remake games that people are going to play or they won't know that many of these remakes are actually better than the originals. 

That said we do have companies making remakes to lesser known stuff. Destroy All Humans 1 and 2 have been remade. System Shock 2 has a remake this year (May 30th). Like A Dragon: Ishin! was a remake of a Japan-exclusive release from 2014. GOTHIC the cult-classic eurojank RPG from the early-2000's is getting a remake. So, there are less popular games (from a mainstream perspective) getting remakes as well, but all the marketing is on the bigger remakes because those cost a lot of money and have to sell 10+ million units.

I think with regards to remakes, I think we have a good balance right now. We have a decent amount of high profile remakes, but also a good amount of lower profile remakes. I think as the industry moves forward, I think the number of lower profile remakes will start to massively outweigh the number of high profile remakes. Companies both big and small just need to know if remakes have an audience and then I think the floodgates will open.