When we hear about a remake of a videogame, we garner excitement about an old classic receiving a modern facelift that can potentially overhaul and evolve the original work into something far greater. Remakes are monolithically ambitious, and the monumental task of elevating their aesthetics while retaining faithfulness to the original vision is a riveting yet daunting one. At the same time, the remakes must be unmistakable; they should not be mistaken for a remaster, and where possible they should not play like a mere enhancement either- remakes should take what’s old and make it brand new again. The following are games that absolutely nail what a remake is, and they set examples for all others.
The first and arguably best videogame remake is Resident Evil 2 from 2019. We know the original 1998 horror classic made our skin crawl every time we could hear gargling zombies but couldn’t see them due to the fixed camera angles. In the remake however, the dread is found in a completely different and arguably far more effective way; the zombies are all around you while the scarily foreboding stomps of Mr X stalk you through the narrow police station hallways. The transition from fixed cameras with a few zombies on screen, to a third-person perspective with undead flesh littering the police station like an overwhelming infestation of rats is what makes Resident Evil 2’s remake so superb.
