Festive Feature #1 - The Five Best Remakes and Remasters of 2023

Love them or hate them, remakes and remasters of old games aren't going anywhere anytime soon. What's more, you'd be daft to wish them away, especially as 2023 birthed a fair few gems more than worthy of the remaster or remake treatment.

We've more remakes and remasters to look forward to in 2024, of course, but you need to at least make sure you have these under your belt first. Whether or not you played the originals, these are the year's remakes/remasters you owe it to yourself to play.

Without further ado, then, and in no particular order, here are out five best remakes or remasters of the year.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! - As a fan of Yakuza/Like a Dragon, this one's rather special. Originally thought to be too Japanese for a western audience, Ishin failed to make it to this side of the world upon its initial release, in 2014, and for some time it seemed like one of those Yakuza games that would simply never make the jump overseas.

Happily, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio changed its mind, and, buoyed by the relatively recent success of the series in the west, decided to free Like a Dragon: Ishin! from its Japanese exclusivity, with an Unreal Engine 4 remake. While not strictly speaking a pure remake, there are new and noteworthy things in this version of Ishin, including Trooper Card abilities, and the addition of familiar faces from Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. It made a great game better, and finally brought a missing chapter in the series to an audience ready for more.

Not only an engaging samurai epic, but a cracking Like a Dragon game in it's own right, we're eternally grateful that Ishin finally got the love it deserved in the west, and we can only hope that RGG Studio follows suit with Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan at some point.

Dead Space – Of all the games I had on my remake bingo card, Dead Space wasn't exactly up there. After all, how do you improve on one of the most expertly pitched and paced survival horrors of all time? The answer is, like this. Tackling one of 2008's best games was always going to be a tall order, but Motive Studio was up to the task, preserving the oppressive spirit of the original, while going all-in on grisly detail and high-resolution gore.

Motive not only succeeded in retaining the atmosphere and superlative sound design, but also managed to flesh out EA Redwood Shores' game with previously deleted content, EA and DICE's ubiquitous Frostbite Engine lending a 4K sheen to the rusting interior of the USG Ishimura – the hulking planet-cracker vessel where every creak and groan keeps you on edge, and every flickering shadow has been very carefully and deliberately placed to ensure you soil yourself.

A stellar example of how to do a remake properly, expanding upon the original in a meaningful way without stepping on its toes, Dead Space modernises a fifteen-year-old classic, and improves upon it with better boss battles, better zero-G sections... better everything. This is how it's done.

Resident Evil 4 – Actually, this is how it's done. Capcom has an enviable pedigree when it comes to remakes, its RE Engine breathing fetid new life into the company's vintage survival horror series. Having given RE2 and 3 the remake treatment, when it was announced that Resident Evil 4 would be next to undergo an RE Engine makeover, many wondered why. For many, Resident Evil 4 was already perfect upon its launch for GameCube back in 2005, and still held up eighteen years on.

Capcom had other plans, of course, and thank goodness it stuck to its laser-sighted guns, delivering one of the year's most intense survival horror games, and a worthwhile remake that wholly justified its existence. Silencing the naysayers with impeccable gameplay and gorgeously grim visuals, the Resident Evil 4 remake improved upon an ironclad classic, and added a slew of new content, while stripping away certain sequences to tighten up the pace.

The result is something that feels fresh, but which unmistakeably stays true to the Resident Evil game that changed everything almost two decades ago. Capcom had a difficult task on its hands in retreading hallowed ground, but with its 2023 version of Resident Evil 4, it stuck the landing. And then some.

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened – Released in 2007 as a PC-only title, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened was an unusual Sherlock adventure back then, and it's every bit as weird sixteen years hence. Pitting the iconic sleuth against inexplicable eldritch horrors and bizarre ritualistic murders, The Awakened goes in unexpected directions, as Holmes and Watson attempt to get to the bottom of their strangest case yet.

Of all the remakes on this list, The Awakened is a game that benefits most, utilising developer Frogwares' modern Sherlock template, while remixing both the narrative and investigations, as well as completely overhauling every facet of the visuals and presentation. In essence, it's a new Sherlock game, using the framework of the 2007 original to tell a familiar story, albeit one that's been fleshed out in every conceivable area. In its 2023 guise, it also serves as a sequel to Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One.

Opening on a dark and stormy London street, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened only gets darker as its mystery unfolds, and Arthur Conan Doyle's detective begins to lose a grip on his own sanity. By the time you reach the game's grim denouement, you'll feel like you've been put through the wringer. There's a lot of horror on this list, isn't there?

Layers of Fear – So. More horror. It appears that 2023 was the year of the horror remake, and Layers of Fear (or Layers of Fears as it was initially known) was a very interesting prospect indeed. Mashing together the 2016 original Layers of Fear and its soggy 2019 sequel into one compelling whole, with additional stories and creepiness, the new game centres upon the tortured 'Painter' and his unravelling sanity, as well as 'The Writer', who opens the story within the claustrophobic confines of a creaking, leaky old lighthouse.

Developer Bloober Team has been at this horror game malarkey for a while now, and Layers of Fear represents the zenith of its output to date, rendering its psychological terrors in rich Unreal Engine 5 texture. From the outset, your palms will feel sweaty, as you slowly and deliberately explore every dark corner, piecing together the whole macabre story, all neatly tied together by those chilling new chapters.

A proper spine-tingler, Layers of Fear is Bloober Team's most efficient and well-constructed horror game yet, building upon everything the Polish studio has learned from previous endeavours. This emerges as a lean, expertly crafted horror game that demands to be experienced and savoured – every little grisly bit of it.