About a month ago, the remake of The Last of Us, now to be titled The Last of Us Part I, was announced, finally confirming the year long rumours. The conversation surrounding this has been fascinating with some people quite enthusiastic and others much less so. In particular, a discussion has cropped up which is asking whether a remake of The Last of Us is necessary. Taking this into account, I think it might be interesting to share my thoughts on video game remakes and the surrounding controversy.
Before I start sharing these thoughts though, I wish to briefly run over what a video game remake is as opposed to a video game remaster since these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. To quickly summarise, a video game remaster uses the original assets while making changes to UI, improving graphics and audio, increasing the frame rate etc. while a video game remake rebuilds the game from the ground up.
Now the question must be asked, why remake a game? Beyond the obvious answer, money, I want to discuss the artistic side of these remakes. Undoubtedly, the most obvious improvement of a remake over the original is the improving of the graphics. As video game generations pass, technological improvement allows for the development of more detailed graphics. The two remakes that I tend to think of when it comes to this are the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and the Resident Evil remake. While the graphical benefits of remaking the PS1 Crash Bandicoot games for the PS4 is obvious, I want to note that the remake of Resident Evil was produced only six years after the original and for the Nintendo GameCube. Despite that, the graphical difference between the original and the remake are astounding and is an excellent example of the few situations where a graphical improvement dramatically enhances the game, in this case by enhancing the atmosphere. However, in my personal opinion, each video game generation has seen less dramatic graphical improvements than previously. While there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that The Last of Us remake will look graphically superior to the original, the question I have to ask is “Will it be improved enough to justify a remake?” and I honestly think that the answer is “no”.
However, graphics are only one part of the equation when it comes to video game remakes. I consider story and gameplay to be more important than graphics and a remake does allow developers to make changes and (potential) improvements to these aspects. Examples of video game remakes that I consider to have managed to not only achieve an improvement in graphical fidelity but to also enhance their story and gameplay are Yakuza Kiwami and Kiwami 2 as well as Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2.
However, there are also plenty of examples where a remake makes few to no changes to story and gameplay. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing and I’d consider Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy as being good examples of where this loyalty to the original game is a good thing. However, I do admit to a bit of confusion about the upcoming Resident Evil 4 remake. The remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3 transformed the gameplay of the original games into a form very similar to Resident Evil 4. Therefore, I’m quite sceptical about the possibility of major gameplay changes in the remake of Resident Evil 4. Now, I could be proven wrong and I’ll have to see if they ultimately make any significant improvements to the story and gameplay but I can’t help but feel that the remake of Resident Evil 4 is unnecessary.
While there is artistic merit in remaking a game, I still get the feeling that the reason we’re seeing so many remakes of video games is that publishers think it’s a safer investment, similar to how Hollywood loves to remake films. Let me know your thoughts on video game remakes and their controversy, what you think of The Last of Us remake and the Resident Evil 4 remake, which have been your favourite and least favourite video game remakes and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.