Gaming remakes and remasters problems: Where does it go wrong?

Remember when GTA San Andreas came out and everyone went ballistic at how realistic the graphics were, thinking it wouldn’t get better than that? We’d be staring at blocky character models, jagged edges, and foggy draw distances, thinking this is peak gaming. Today, those once “realistic” visuals feel downright ancient. That’s part of why gaming remakes and remasters exist: to let us re-experience those classics with updated visuals, smoother gameplay, and sometimes even brand-new content. If they’re done right, they hit that sweet spot of nostalgia and freshness. But not every attempt sticks the landing. Every great remake has an equal, or worse, bad remake which begs the question: Why are gaming remakes and remasters problems happening today?

Remake vs Remaster: What’s the difference?

Image Source: YouTube (Resero)

• Remaster: Think of it like room renovations. You’re refreshing the rooms, but doing nothing else to your home. The same is for game remasters; the core game remains unchanged, but the resolution is higher, textures are sharper, and some quality-of-life tweaks are added. The Last of Us Remastered on PS4 is worthy of being called an impressive remaster; it’s basically the same game as the PS3 original, just prettier and smoother. At the same time, the recent Skyrim: Oblivion Remaster looks more like a remake, yet Bethesda still markets it as a remaster because the underlying code and structure remain intact.
• Remake: No room renovations, we’re rebuilding the entire house! The Resident Evil game remakes are great examples; they’re still the same story and characters, but the gameplay, visuals, and atmosphere are completely overhauled. And here’s where confusion sets in again: The Last of Us Part I on PS5 is labeled a remake, but many argue it feels more like a remaster given how faithful it is to the original.

So while the lines can blur, the general rule is: remasters are upgrades, remakes are rebuilds.

• See these GTA V cheat codes for the PS5

Modern remakes and remasters: The problems

Remakes and remasters aren’t inherently bad. In fact, some are amazing, showing how powerful retro games can be when handled with care. Unfortunately, due to how the current gaming scene looks like (pointing fingers at you EA), there are some frequent underlying issues:

Cash grabs & over-reliance on nostalgia

You wouldn’t re-paint the Mona Lisa, right? So why are game publishers so insistent on changing Masterpieces with the risk of making them worse? The simplest answer is, as is frequently the case, money. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition is a prime example. The original GTA III, Vice City, and especially San Andreas already had a timeless charm.

They weren’t perfect, but their rough edges were part of their identity, and modders kept those games alive for years with fan-made content and visual upgrades. When Rockstar dropped the “Definitive Edition,” it felt like an unnecessary repackaging of something that was already thriving.

Worse, the remaster launched at full price, which stung even more given how the originals were still perfectly playable and moddable. To Rockstar’s credit, updates eventually fixed most of the issues, and the remastered trilogy today is in a better state.

But the question remains: did these games ever really need to be remastered, or was nostalgia simply leveraged for profit?

• Read also: Best Metroidvania games to play after Silksong

Technical messes & the erasure of originals

Image Source: Steam

When you sell fans on nostalgia, the least you can do is deliver a functional game (and not consistent gaming remakes and remasters problems). Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that, more often than not, these remakes and remasters come out in a worse state than their predecessors ever were – and that’s saying something.

Take Crysis Remastered. The original Crysis was a benchmark title, famous for its “Can it run Crysis?” reputation. All that had to be done was a refresher on the graphics side and perhaps some tweaks to gameplay. But the core of the game should have been the exact same.

Instead, it arrived with optimization problems, graphical inconsistencies, and missing features. A game once celebrated for pushing PCs to their limits ended up underwhelming on modern hardware.

Let’s also put Warcraft III: Reforged under the microscope. Blizzard promised reworked cut-scenes, updated visuals, and modernized features, but what players got was removed content, broken multiplayer, and a complete downgrade from the 2002 original.

Is there a worse way to repay loyal fans than to not only ruin the remaster, but also replace the original version on storefronts, preventing that same loyal fanbase from playing their favourite game. “Oh you have a beautiful Van Gogh painting at home? Sorry, we’re taking it away and giving you this back alley chalk art that vaguely resembles the original.”

But it’s not all doom and gloom, Blizzard (after being bombarded with severe backlash) came to their senses and restored the original, allowing players the (rightful) ability to choose.

Pricing issues & value degradation

Image Source: Amazon

How to sell your product at a higher price without improving it that much compared to the original? Well, throw some word salads at the customers of course!

Let’s put it this way. A publisher may remaster an older game, giving it modern graphics, better UI, improved lighting, and call it a day. Since the game is now much closer in visual quality to recent titles, it feels like a completely new game.

Then, the same publisher will sell this ‘remaster’ for 49.99€ and say ‘hey, you need strong hardware to run it because we modernised the AI, we made this change, that change’, and voilá. Is this fair to players? No, and that’s not the worst of it.

If you already own the original game, the so-called ‘upgraded versions’ often sit behind a paywall, like the Switch 2 enhanced editions or the typical PlayStation remasters that ask you to pay again for features that should’ve been simple upgrades.

• Read also: All Pokémon DS Games in Order: Nintendo Games List

The Last of Us Part I (PS5) stirred controversy for this very reason. While undeniably polished, it was essentially the same story fans had already bought twice before; first on PS3, then again as The Last of Us Remastered on PS4.

Yet it was sold at 70€, raising questions about whether the upgrades justified the price. I mean, would you pay that much for some shiny new textures and lighting?

Final thoughts about gaming remakes and remasters problems

All of what we talked about doesn’t mean that remakes and remasters shouldn’t be made or that every one is bad. After all, they allow us to experience our favourite games from the past, with a modern touch.

Final Fantasy VII Remake nailed this, while the recent Oblivion remaster showed how old RPGs can be revived without losing their soul. Players may argue that the aesthetics of the originals made more of an impact, but the truth is, proper remasters should be commended for both the effort and result.

It’s important to distinguish the two, because remakes don’t just ‘copy’ the feel of the original but they also tend to come with their own personality.

Personally, we’d just like to see a better approach to remakes and remasters. Don’t focus on profit alone, don’t try to reinvent the wheel, just modernise and improve without ruining the foundation.

And after all these gaming remakes and remasters problems, plus one or two superb ‘redos’, we fans just want one thing:

Bloodborne Remastered, when?

Featured Image Credit: Rockstar Games