10 Best Video Game Remakes To Play

Being a medium that is always going through change, it is very easy for video games to get “outdated.” One of the ways game publishers deal with these ever-aging games is to remaster them, which if done exceptionally well can make a game look years younger than what it actually is. In other cases, games are simply remade from the ground up, understandably a more time-consuming process.

A remake is technically just a copy of the original, but it is still very much its own thing and can be a great way to usher in new fans to an old series. Over the years many classic games have been remade, with the best standing out due to their improved visuals, enhanced sound, or revised gameplay that make the game as fun and entertaining as it was when it was originally released.

Demon’s Souls (2020)

FromSoftware’s Dark Souls series is infamous for its crazy difficult gameplay and awesome world-building and boss fights. 2005’s Demon’s Souls is the predecessor to the Dark Souls series, and without its commercial success DS possibly wouldn’t be around today.

The recent remake, easily one of the best remakes of 2020, preserves the gameplay that defines the series and also its grim atmosphere, all the while providing much more visually enjoyable graphics. It was one of the few launch titles for the PS5.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

The first Halo game revolutionized co-op gaming forever 20 years ago and is still the highest-rated game in the Halo series. A remake of the original Combat Evolved, Anniversary was first released in 2011 on the Xbox 360 for the game’s 10th anniversary, and then re-released with The Master Chief Collection. 

Graphically speaking, Anniversary is miles ahead of the original CE, with the reworked HD assets and levels providing a much livelier look at the world. Even the multiplayer maps from CE were remade, and additionally, Anniversary also has “terminals” which are short videos that give players insight into the world of Halo.

Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020)

The Final Fantasy franchise is more than 30 years old, and many of the games in the series have been remastered and remade before. Final Fantasy VII Remake is a remake of 1997’s Final Fantasy VII, although not a complete one as the game is being remade in multiple parts and only the first one has been released.

FF VII was a landmark title for the series and introduced many characters like Cloud Strife and Sephiroth, who are all more fleshed out in the remake. The combat system in the original was turn-based, but the remake opted for real-time combat which is much more mainstream nowadays and just one of the numerous changes present in the game.

Mafia: Definitive Edition (2020)

The first Mafia game is undeniably iconic and a classic, but also nearly 20 years old and outdated. Mafia: Definitive Edition is a complete remake of the 2002 game built from scratch. Set in the 1930s, the game explores the underworld of the fictional American city of Lost Heaven. With much of the same plot setting, it features gameplay more suited to modern standards, especially in the driving and shooting department which a good part of the gameplay involves. The game is available as part of the Mafia: Trilogy compilation which also includes remasters of the other two games and is considered one of the best video game compilations around.

Resident Evil 2 (2019)

1998’s Resident Evil 2 marked the first appearances of Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield, two of the most iconic characters in the series. It was through these two characters that the game introduced the mechanism of branching storylines, a first for the series.

A big part of what makes the old Resident Evil games difficult to play now is the controls, so for obvious reasons, it was replaced with something more contemporary in the 2019 remake, not to mention the massive graphical overhaul that made it better than the original Resident Evil 2. The 1998 game had fixed camera angles which made movement nothing but difficult, but the remake uses a much more convenient third-person view, and as an added bonus, it has virtually no loading screens.

Resident Evil (2002)

The very first Resident Evil game was released in 1996 on the PS1, and in 2002, a remake of the game developed by the same group of people who worked on the original was released for GameCube. The remake was definitely an upgrade for its time, but it hasn’t aged well. An HD remastered version was released in 2015 for PC and other platforms, which improves the remake even further.

The iconic mansion is made much scarier and more areas are available to explore in the remake. How the old “tank” controls of RE worked is that the playable character needed to be rotated in a particular direction before they could be moved, which was a hassle for players when being attacked by zombies. The HD remaster comes with a better control scheme that allows for characters to be moved directly and with more precision.

Yakuza Kiwami (2016)

The Yakuza series dates back to the PS2 days of 2005, but it gained popularity worldwide much later. An action-fighting series with crime drama elements set in a culturally rich Asian setting, the Yakuza franchise is not for everybody but boasts of a big fanbase. 2016’s Yakuza Kiwami is a remake of the very first Yakuza game from 2005, with added plot points and better gameplay.

The combat mechanism, one of the game’s integral aspects, was updated to feel more modern, one of the many things that makes it the best Yakuza game to start the series with.

Black Mesa (2020)

Valve’s Half-Life is a critically acclaimed masterpiece and one of the most revered games on the PC platform, and Black Mesa is a remake of it. But what makes Black Mesa special, at least in the context of this list, is the fact that it was developed independently by a third-party group of developers who had no association with the original developer Valve.

The remake began its journey as just a fan-created mod but eventually grew into an extensively updated full game, and took well over a decade to develop. Black Mesa makes tons of modifications to the base Half-Life game, adding new details and such. The most acclaimed of these modifications is the reworked Xen level designs where Black Mesa shines through the best.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (2019)

Link’s Awakening was the first game in the Zelda series to be available on a handheld console, in this case, the ever classic Game Boy. Limited by the technology of its time, the game consisted of only black and white visuals when it was first released. A colored version of the game came out in 1995, and a complete remake was released by Nintendo in 2019.

The graphics in the remake are full 3D but still maintain a top-down view which is a good throwback to its retro classic roots. The new Link’s Awakening features a better map than the original, and most notably a dungeon maker that lets players create their own dungeons with pieces from previously visited locations.

Shadow of the Colossus (2018)

2005’s Shadow of the Colossus is a PS2 classic with great replay value, one that has endured for so long in the hearts of people due to its unique and beautifully crafted world. The player traverses across a mysterious land with the objective of killing 16 massive monster-like beings called The Colossi.

The remake of Shadow of the Colossus was applauded for successfully preserving the atmosphere of the original. It offers two control schemes – a classic version and a more modern one with some quality of life changes. The remake also has two modes: Cinematic, which can render at 4K but is capped at 30 FPS, and Performance mode that gives 60 FPS but no 4K.

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