There really needs to be an adage: remasters/remakes are rarely any good. Why?
Making a game, especially a classic that’s worthy of remakes/remaster, took a lot of game designers and visual designers time to get ‘just right’. Even if the tech is old, it was designed to make best usage of what was available at the time. And it worked – that’s why the game is a classic. Remastering an old game often feels to companies like a no-brainer, when in reality, you’ve got to work really, really hard to keep the aesthetics and mechanics just as good while updating them. For example:
- Bioshock remastered brought very minor graphical improvements, while introducing many bugs.
- Full Throttle Remastered didn’t have the budget to fully do justice to the old graphics in hi-res. At least they had access to the original DAT voice recordings.
- Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition introduced many bugs and took years of long-term commitment from the developer to become stable.
- Oddworld: New 'n Tasty: remade Abe’s Oddyssey by moving to real 2.5D. Unfortunately, recreating the unique constraints of the original game was very hard, making this game prettier but mechanically inferior.
Many more examples abound. Making a proper remaster/remake requires long-term dedication to the original vision, which most remasters just don’t have – usually the idea is to invest a little money and get more sales in return.