The Remakes of the original Resident Evil and Tomb Raider Games

I talk about my experience with the original Resident Evil and Tomb Raider games here.

Currently, I'm playing the remake of the original Resident Evil.  And a few months ago I tried playing the remake of the original Tomb Raider game called Tomb Raider Anniversary, although I only completed the first 3 levels of the latter before I got sick of playing it; a stark contrast to my experience of the original game!

Resident Evil Remake

I have to confess I'm bitterly disappointed with the Resident Evil Remake.  It's just completely lost its atmosphere compared to the original.  Before commenting further I'd just like to quote someone else who is comparing the remake to the original.  Go here.

The original is an ugly game at this stage, looking more like a prototype than anything else. The overall gameplay mechanics are sound, but the effect of some really good scares tends to get lost due to almost laughable graphics, cheesy dialogue and predictable enemies. 

The remake improves on every, repeat, every aspect of the original. It handles better, looks better and is a game that genuinely instills a sense of dread.
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As much as the original game is loved, there are only two real reasons that players should opt to play it over the remake: 

If playing the entire series start to finish, you may want to watch the progression and improvements made between games. 

The hilariously cheesy one-liners, which are unfortunately omitted from the remake in favor of regular cheesy one-liners. The best of these one liners can be found here:Resident Evil One-liners.

This praise for the remake seems pretty much universal.  Virtually no-one prefers the original to the remake.  But I'm one of those few people.

I loved the original to bits.  The atmosphere, the haunting music, just everything.  I played it again and again and again.  With one playthrough as Jill, I only used the knife and successfully completed it.  The remake I just can't be bothered to play.  Why?

First of all the original music has disappeared.  The music was what gave the original game its atmosphere.  It was everything. It's just not the same without that music.  But, apart from the music, the original had you in the mansion, exploring room by room, it created a kind of tension and atmosphere.  The remake has you having to enter a graveyard right at the beginning that is accessed halfway up the stairs to the first floor!   It kinda breaks the atmosphere.

And the remake keeps having you come back to the mansion time and time and time again.  It feels like there's a lack of progression.  I want to continually move into new areas as I progress through the game.

The cheesy one-liners are often mentioned in the context of the original.  To be honest, when I played the original on the PlayStation one, I never noticed anything particularly cheesy about the dialogue (I was around 35 at the time).  It's often the way people speak!  I neither liked nor disliked these "cheesy" one-liners.  And I also don't like the defence items, nor the fact the zombies turn into crimson heads.  The remake is inferior to the original in every way apart from the graphics.

Tomb Raider Anniversary

The remake of the original Tomb Raider is even more of a travesty.  I've only played the first 3 levels of this "remake", but I've had enough.  First of all, it doesn't seem like a remake at all, it seems almost an entirely different game.

The first game had the occasional haunting beautiful music.  It had vast open areas to explore.  It had puzzles.  It made me feel a certain way.  Most importantly I wanted to play it.  It never felt tedious and was something to be savoured.

Compare that to the remake.  Tedious beyond belief!  Most of the time Lara seems to be climbing cliffs and jumping on different ledges etc.  In the original, most of the exploration was on foot.  And the T Rex in level 3 was absolutely awful.  I spent an eternity trying to figure out how to kill it.  By that time I'd had enough.  I would rather play the original game again any day.  And you can buy the original on steam and have it on a high resolution.  I paid a mere 99p! Looks very nice.  The only trouble is it doesn't have the blue diamonds and you can save anywhere.  So that's the main detraction.

Concluding Remark

If only these "remakes" had been real remakes but with enhanced graphics.  But others are not in agreement with me, at least for the resident evil remake.  There does seem more dissatisfaction with the Tomb Raider remake though. 

Computer Games

Back in 1998, before I'd even got my very first computer, I borrowed a PlayStation off someone together with a couple of games, "Resident Evil" and "Tomb Raider".  I hadn't played any computer games since the early 80's when I used to play space invaders, asteroids, pacman etc, both in the arcades and in a simpler form on my Atari 2600 console.

Anyway, I used to love playing those games, although they did get tedious after a while.  I got ridiculously good at all of them e.g watch me play the first Space Invaders here, or Space Invaders 2 here. And then I started playing Resident Evil . .wow . . just wow!  Really it bore absolutely no relationship to the computer games I had hitherto played.  I was in a 3D environment controlling a person called Jill being attacked by zombies and solving puzzles.  I was entranced!  7/03/22 Edited to add.  I've managed to get hold of this original 1996 version!  Played it live as Jill using no saves and just using a knife.  Go here. 

Then I played Tomb Raider, and I was even more blown away!  The haunting music, the satisfaction of figuring out the puzzles, completely exploring a level, only to then start a brand new level with more puzzles and exploring to do.  I loved it!

Those two games, the first two 3D games I ever played, have remained unsurpassed. Tomb Raider 2, Half Life (the 1st one) and Far Cry (the 1st one) were all excellent too, but not as good as those first 2 games.

Now I'm trying to play games such as Far Cry 3 etc (see me play Far Cry 3 here), but these more modern games just don't hold the same magic, and I get sick of playing them.  I don't know why, maybe because I'm older, but I suspect not so much thought has been put into these games to make them so entrancing.