The video game industry has seen a pretty big uptick in remakes this console generation. With new games costing so much to make, studios have been relying on established franchises and quicker development cycles to counter this. While some of these have seemed unnecessary or way too soon to get the remake treatment, many have seen enough improvements to make it seem worth it. A game like Resident Evil 4 saw storyline improvements that improved characters like Ashley Graham. Final Fantasy VII has seen a massive expansion on the story and characters of the game while also shifting the battle system to something more action-oriented. Dead Space, Dark Souls, and Metroid Prime have all gotten the remaster treatment over the past decade with mostly positive results.
There are a ton of games that really could use the remake treatment that many studios could draw from as this trend continues. Which ultimately got me thinking during spooky season about what horror games could benefit from that kind of update. Whether due to dated mechanics, features that fit better in the current video game landscape compared to their original release, or games that deserve a shot to find a new audience, these are the games that should get the remake treatment. Even if it means selling my soul.
Resident Evil Outbreak
Capcom has been remaking Resident Evil games since before the trend really took off. With the first four already done and Resident Evil Code Veronica next, Capcom is starting to run dry on quality Resident Evil games to remake. While Resident Evil Outbreak is not something I’d call good when it released in 2003, this feels like a game worth taking another swing on. Especially after Resident Evil Requiem. In Resident Evil Outbreak, you choose to play as one of eight survivors. Each survivor has their own unique skill that would help you and the other survivors progress through the game’s five different locations. Whether that’s a handman that can make weapons out of random items found throughout the level, the former cop who starts off with a better weapon, or a subway worker that is really good at playing dead.
The other thing that made Resident Evil Outbreak unique in 2003 was the fact the game was developed to play online. You could play the game offline, and the AI would step in to control two other survivors of your choosing. But if you played online you could play with a party of up to four and weren’t at the mercy of 2000s AI. The game wasn’t the deepest (see subway worker that could play dead really well) and on top of that, the online component struggled to find a player base large enough to make the experience consistent and fun. But a lot of those issues could be worked out now to make a deeper, richer online co-op Resident Evil game. Resident Evil is still a hot franchise, with a successful new release and maybe the first good Resident Evil film being released shows the health of the franchise is good. On top of that, Capcom can’t seem to miss with anything it puts out these days. Why not see if that carries over to a remake of Outbreak? Resident Evil Requiem is even loosely connected to this game, thanks to Grace Ashcroft. Grace’s mother Alyssa is a playable survivor in Outbreak and can pick one hell of a lock when asked to. With that connection, online modes being more popular and the ability to really dive deeper into these characters backgrounds and skills it makes a lot of sense. You could even release new stages, scenarios or survivors to play as to keep the game running if it catches on. Take full advantage of the online aspects of the current gaming landscape, for better or worse.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
There are parts of Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem that are still burned into my brain. In this 2002 GameCube release from Silicon Knights, you play as Alexandra as she searches her family’s estate after the unexpected death of her last living relative. That’s when she discovers the Tome of Eternal Darkness, a book made from human skin that tells various stories of people from the past. As Alexandra learns more about these people and learns more about the estate she’s currently occupying, the game starts to do strange things. As Alexandri starts to encounter various creatures it will start to effect your sanity. As your sanity decreases, the game starts to introduce “Sanity Effects” which get worse and worse as you start to lose touch with reality.
These Sanity Effects can be as small as the heads of statues starting to float or seeing blood drip from the walls and ceilings. They aren’t all in game though. Some of the more serious results of low sanity start to break the fourth wall. The game will pretend to shut your TV off by having the screen go black for a few seconds. Sometimes the game will pretend your save data has been erased. Or you might get a random blue screen error message. Because no game had done something like this before, I remember reading posts on message boards or in magazines about how people actually got tricked into believing their game or TV had broken. It was that effective for its time. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem is ripe for a remake with these kinds of ideas to expand on. The controls weren’t great even for its time, something a remake could easily correct. Update the graphics and the combat on top of that, you could have a really improved version of a game that already was good for its time. Eternal Darkness has never been on Virtual Console or any other console since its 2002 release. This game is just too interesting and unique to be stuck on the GameCube for all eternity.
Dino Crisis
If Capcom wants to find another franchise to start remaking, might I recommend Dino Crisis? Dinosaurs had a huge coming out party in the 90s thanks to the highly successful Jurassic Park and this 1999 release definitely tried to take advantage of it, though Shinji Mikami credits The Lost World: Jurassic Park as an influence in development of this game. In Dino Crisis you play as Regina, a member of The Secret Operaion Raid Team, a secret team that is sent on an operation to…raid a remote island. The island hides a facility that’s running experimental technology. This experimental tech leads to the creation of a time rift that brings dinosaurs into the facility and onto the island where they slowly overtake everything, something unknown to The Secret Operation Raid Team at the time it lands on land.
The game very much played as “Resident Evil but with dinosaurs” but that formula works perfectly for a game like this. The T-Rex introduction in this game was the thing of nightmares during the PS1 graphics era. Given the high quality and success of the Resident Evil remakes a Dino Crisis version has a ton of potential to be scarier, with updated graphics, better presentation, updated controls and better voice acting. This franchise was successful enough to get a second and third game so a successful remake could lead to additional games. But Capcom would be smart to ignore the third and pretend that game never happened.
Parasite Eve
Parasite Eve never really drew my attention when I had the original Playstation but I had always heard of the cult status it had with some. I decided to finally dive in this year to get into the horror spirit and I have been thoroughly surprised so far by a lot of the modern aspects to this game, albeit bare bones version of these aspects. This 1996 Square release about New York police officer Aya Brea as she’s thrown into the deep end after an unfortunate visit to the opera. During the lead actor’s solo performance, some of audience begin to catch on fire, leading to the entire opera house being engulfed in flames. As chaos spreads and people try escaping, Aya confronts the lead actress. She discovers that an entity called Eva has taken the woman over and the cause to everything. Eva hints at Aya having a deeper hidden power before ultimately escaping and sowing chaos through the rest of New York. It’s up to Aya to track Eva down and stop her while also trying to get answers to this supposed hidden powers.
Parasite Eve was Square’s first M-rated title, and it definitely takes advantage of that rating. The creatures you encounter are gross and messed up, you’re constantly stumbling upon bodies as your jump from location to location. The thing that has really surprised me about the game though is the action RPG combat system. It feels very reminiscent to the current action mechanics that we’ve gotten from the Final Fantasy VII remake. You wait for your bar to fill as you’re able to walk and dodge as it progresses. That bar then lets you attack, use special moves, heal and everything else you usually get from an RPG like this. That combat foundation being there, along with the interesting story and the killer soundtrack from Yoko Shimomura would definitely lend to a remake that could be better than the original. Expanding on the equipment upgrade systems while improving the inventory system would also go a long way to making Parasite Eve feel like a major improved upon remake. The game still feels very unique to the rest of Square-Enix’s catalog and leaning harder into some of the horror aspects could really draw more attention with a remake.
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Condemned: Criminal Origins was an incredible experience back in the 360 era. This 2005 release from Monolith Software got lost in the shuffle, coming out less than month after F.E.A.R., Monolith’s other first-person psychological horror game. In Condemned you play as Ethan Thomas, an FBI agent that has the unique ability to sense a killer’s actions. With a rise in serial killers and crime overall, Thomas has been in high demand due to his abilities. His most recent case is hunting down the Match Maker, a killer that stages mannequins at the crime scenes of his victims. One night Ethan realizes the Match Maker is watching them from the very building they are in and pursues him. During the pursuit, the two officers that were with Ethan are killed by the Match Maker using Ethan’s gun. This sets Ethan on a journey to clear his name, find the killer and discover more about the sudden rise in crime.
Condemned‘s combat is very melee focused, so on top of the tense atmosphere and horror elements, you are constantly having to take enemies out in close quarters. The game is also not afraid to use jump scares to really mess with you. Despite being on the 360 and having a release on Steam in 2012, this game isn’t available anymore. It was sadly delisted last year. It’s the perfect opportunity to roll this game out with some updates. The game’s melee mechanics already feature a degradation system, and weapons have their own general stats (weapons like pipes are weaker and will degrade faster than something like an axe but the axe will be slower to use and leave you potentially exposed) but these both could be improved upon and given more depth. The graphics were pretty rough even by 2005 standards so a major improvement there would do wonders to the overall vibe and eerie settings. Improve the sound design to take even more advantage of jump scares and you’d have one hell of a horror game. Monolith Software co-founder Jace Hall currently owns the rights to this game and expressed interest in keeping the franchise going back in 2015. Online speculation also took off last year around the time of the delisting after Night Dive posted an interview with Hall around the time of the delisting, leading to speculation that a remaster was in the works. Sadly that never happened and the game continues to be delisted. Remake, remaster or just putting the original 2005 version back up for sale, something should absolutely happen with Condemned in one way or another.
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