The king of the Remake

 

The word 'remake' is something of an expletive in some circles. Such people take it as an insult, or an attack upon the very definable virtue of their chosen property of fandom to be told it's 'no longer good' and thus must be remade. It's a sentiment heightened by the fact that the people in charge of these 'remakes' often have no idea what it was that made the original great and merely use these recreations as a stepping stone for their own interests. Just take a look at the Robo-cop movie, a decent attempt at an adaptation of the same kind of themes for a more dramatic interpretation, but one that bizarrely forgoes all the clearly defined iconography of the original, sometimes callously mocking the original in the process, resulting in a forgettable smudge of a film. There's so much artistry and respect that one would have to employ in order to create a good remake, it's bizarre to think so many consider it the 'easy option' to success.

Of course in the gaming world we have an actual easy route to success that lies on a turn-off halfway along the highway to a Remake. The ever humble Remaster an example of wanting to perform a re-release for the hype but also thirsting over those re-purchases from existing fans. And it's a fine grift when you break it down. Why try to sell the same thing to a new audience when there's already a fanbase who clearly liked the original enough to buy it once- how much do you really need to spruce things up in order to make them buy it again? It's in considering the value of the well-pitched Remaster that one has to give it up for the absolute insanity that is the full blown Remake. When pulled to it's fullest potential, as perhaps one of the riskiest and potentially profitable moves that modern gaming can make. Even if it is kind of killing the originality of the industry.

There have been a few contenders over the years that have thrown their moth-eaten hat into the proverbial ring, but I think few can deny that Capcom are the kings of the Remake. Ever since they wowed with the stellar reimaging of Resident Evil 2 which took that original and threw it screaming into the best horror game of it's release year, Capcom have been thundering along their catalogue of games renewing each and every one to shattering success after success. And now they're made all of their original classics, brace yourselves because Capcom have confirmed that the Remake train isn't stopping here. Now I pray beyond prayer that this means they're going to do Code Veronica, Resident Evil 0 or, heck, maybe even Resident Evil 1; (Can you believe they still haven't gotten back to that?) but for all we know this means Boulder-punching Chris and questionably attired Sheva are next in line for the Remake treatment. Even a maligned title like Resident Evil 5 would bring the crowds from a Remake announcement- that is the power of modern Capcom!

Whilst on the other end of the spectrum you've got the likes of the coming Naughty Dog developed 'Last of Us Part 2' Remake which seems to have earned universal rolled eyes. Literally the only good response I've heard is a begrudging praising of the fact that those who own the original can follow a $10 upgrade path, something which the Part 1 Remake should have offered. But no one is approaching those titles with the wide-eyed whimsy of the RER franchise- which demonstrates the bizarre divide between what the gaming world know as a remake and what the film world consider one. And I guess the TV world, remembering the American Broadchurch, or the all American Fawlty Towers or the mostly-American Red Dwarf or the American Spaced or the American Office or the American- hang on, why is it always America making other people's shows? (You think that perhaps says a little something about their culture?)

Now the threat of making a Remake is contending with the monolith of that which was. Starting from scratch and facing up against the success of the original, telling roughly the same narrative, even with newer technology, carries significant risk of failure. It's hard enough trying to make a game that's good, now you have to make a direct improvement upon the original! It's such a daunting prospect that one famous Remake, the Final Fantasy VII Remake, even geared it's narrative additions specifically to mimic the idea of rewriting the original tale, characterising purists who gatekeeped the original as metatextual antagonists to the wants of Tetsuya Nomura. On the otherhand, The Last of Us Part 2 is going to be a depressingly safe Remake that only wants to update the visuals and little bits of gameplay. It's not even being sold as a Remake, but a Remaster, despite it following TLOU Part 1 onto Steam as it's companion game.

Of course it's not hard to see the overarching threat that the success and critical applause poses over the AAA games industry. Afterall, it's already a challenge to get a new idea or any idea any distance in the modern world of game design where every single failure costs millions, scaring executives into chasing trends that ultimately sinks their projects anyway. (But at least that failure can't be blamed on the horror that is 'being creative'.) If the terror of executives already locks most of the AAA landscape into endless cycles of sequels, what sort of damage is the coming rise of Remakes going to cause? When Callisto Protocol flubs but Dead Space Remake is a roaring success, what sort of message does that send to the clueless investor? At this rate, the amount of new IPs on the major AAA level is going to shrivel up even further until gaming  past a certain point is nothing but lifeless amalgam games that all play identically to one another all wrestling to be the one 'meta game' that does 'everything'. And that's a pretty sucky dystopia.

But it's not all sunshine and roses when it comes to the world of Remakes. Afterall one of the slamdunks that should have rocked the world ended up being thrown in the trash- The KOTOR Remake. At least from the story of KOTOR's demise we can deduce that not every project with a 'Remake' on the end of it's tag is getting thrown into production at top speed. We haven't quite devolved into 'old Netflix' levels of insanity. But then Metal Gear Solid Delta is finding it's way slowly onto our shelves even though it's being handled by a publishing team that can't even quality control a Silent Hill TV show- so maybe the Remake crash is headed our way sooner then we thought. (I certainly hope not. I really want MGS D to be a good game. Lord knows I've waited long enough to play as my man Naked Snake again.)

It is to the throne of Capcom we lay thanks for this age we find ourselves in, where Resident Evil is once again at the top of the pack of the games industry. And I think it's also thanks to Capcom that we find ourselves smothered in a landfill of shiny new games that wear the rotted faces of our old. FF7R was more seen as a labour of love driven by an absolute mad man who dedicated his entire directorial life towards preparing for this one series of remakes- Resident Evil 2 Remake was a demonstration to everyone that this sort of trick can be pulled on any game so long as you've got a shiny looking engine and a development team to run it. At the very least lets hope the stopper doesn't get pulled out of this drain before the remake we've all been waiting for gets released- 'Big Rigs Returns: You're (still) Winner!'.