5 Games That Need to be Made - Unreal Engine 5 Remasters
Unreal Engine 5 is a very impressive engine. From the outside perspective, as a gamer, the games that are coming out of Unreal 5 have been some of the most visually impressive titles I have ever seen in my gaming career. Indirectly, from the inside perspective of the many developers that I know who have worked with it, they have said it is the easiest and most powerful engine they have ever worked with. It is allowing solo and indie developers to create more visually powerful games than what was previously possible. We are seeing better photo realism on character models and environments. We are seeing 1:1 visuals on environments that can fool a side by side image of IRL. In my series of 5 Games, I typically pitch 5 games that I was to see made in a particular franchise or universe or theme, and in this installment, I want to pitch 5 games that I would like to see remade or remastered in Unreal Engine 5. These 5 games I think could really shine, if they were built today. But before we get to my 5 game ideas, here are a few examples of just how powerful Unreal Engine 5 can be...
First let's talk about Unreal 5...
UNRECORD - New Photorealistic Body Cam Game
Unrecord, took over the news cycle as one of the most visually impressive games I have ever seen...if not THE most visually impressive? I always say one of...but honestly...I think this IS? It was so realistic, that it almost flew under the radar of how viral this SHOULD have been, because alot of people just see this as a random body cam footage of a guy in a building. Some people don't realize what they are looking at. This is almost scary...but cool. We have the ability to create life like worlds that are immediately undetectable to the human eye.
This short video really showcases just how amazing Unreal 5 can be with environments. It takes you on a journey of so many amazing 1:1 locations across a variety of settings.
Building environments to be 1:1 to IRL is impressive enough...but the human face is another story. The human face is probably the most difficult thing to "Get right" because of the Uncanny Valley. The human mind has the ability to detect human faces in a way that makes it able to detect false versions. This is why a cartoon or hyper stylized version of a human is fine, but a CGI "near perfect" one can feel unsettling or creepy. Pushing through this valley to get to a face that the human mind no longer thinks is "fake" is a bit of a gold rush for games. Meta Human from Unreal 5 is the closest developers have gotten to that destination and it is impressive. In its current state, it feels like Meta Human can deliver the 1:1 like...97% of the way there. If you picture the Uncanny Valley like a literal valley on a graph, it is just near the top of the upward skew toward the goal of 1:1.
Going for true 1:1 of the human face is so hard because of the human minds ability to detect the human face. It is a more human limit of the mind to be deceived, making it a technological limit. In less than a year, Unreal 5 has pushed even closer to 1:1, with this latest demo being the most visually impressive so far. I think this character could easily be the most visually impressive character we have seen so far?
5 Games that need to be Made: Unreal 5 Remasters/Remakes...
Now after that quick hype of just how impressive Unreal 5 is, and why it inspired me to write this installment of 5 Games, here are 5 games that I would like to see get Unreal 5 Remaster / Remakes. My list of games ignores largely any technical difficulties that may be in actually doing these games. Some games might be far easier than others. I am not a developer, and I am not here to talk much about the technical feasibility of these games coming to UE5. I don't take into account much their original engine or how hard it would be. This is a wishlist. That is all.
Honorable Mention - Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning.
(The trailer doesn't really lean into what made KOA so special. It leans too into what other popular RPG's offered. From the trailer you could believe this was another drab, dark, fantasy RPG from the 2010's. But many parts of the world were so bright and colorful, that made this game more unique than the trailer sells. The magic powers and environments were better than this trailer)
I had a few games on this list that I would like to see remade in Unreal 5...but their inclusion felt a little greedy and ungrateful as they have recently received remasters. One game I left off this list because honestly it felt incredibly greedy to include. One of my all time favorite fantasy RPG's is a super underrated game, Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning. If you have never heard of it, you would not be alone. While everyone and their cousin was busy playing Skyrim, me and what feels like 4 other people played Kingdoms of Amalur. People tease the Horizon series for its bad luck always releasing next to major titles like Elden Ring or Zelda, but KOA really had a Titanfall 2 level error when releasing about three months after Skyrim. Skyrim obviously became one of the biggest, if not the biggest Fantasy RPG in gaming, and there was no way this new ip from an unknown studio could compete. However, to this day it is just such a beautiful visually stunning game. One of the things that makes me love it this day, is just how bright and colorful it was. The commercial failure of this game even lead to the closer of the studio who made it, 38 studios.
The reason, I felt it would have been to greedy to include it on the main list is because it is such a miracle we got a remaster already once. THQ bought the rights to this game and released an incredible remaster in 2020 with "Re-Reckoning". It is rare enough for popular games that did well to get full remasters or remakes, that it feels like such a great opportunity that a game like KOA got one at all. That is why asking for another feels wrong. That being said, I would green light it if I could. Supposed they are working on a sequel, so I could argue that if it were made in Unreal 5, with KOA's bright art style, this could be one of the most visually beautiful games ever made.
5. Star Wars Jedi Academy REMAKE
Recently...studios have taken multi-decade old games and remastered them, and the problem with simply remastering games that are this old is they don't feel new, and they just feel...off. They feel weird. You have these high resolution textures on old flat environments. Games like GTA Remastered Trilogy, Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, and most recently Star Wars Battlefront Collection. In my opinion, they just don't work. Games from this generation need REMAKES, period. Those remastered feel like sticking V8's into golf carts and it just doesn't work. I thought about which older Star Wars game I would add to this list. My alternate thought was Republic Commando...as the gritty nature of the game felt perfect for this list. But I feel like I have talked enough about wanting a remaster of this game. I decided to go with a different pick that I haven't talked as much about. I feel like Jedi Academy is the perfect place to kick off this list because it is perfect for a full ground up remake with UE5 for few specific reasons.
It has a lot of destinations.
A Remake revisit of this game would need to pull off multiple planets and locations. In Jedi Academy you visit so many worlds that it makes newer Star Wars games feel small. Unreal 5 could make it possible to recreate all the worlds in Jedi Academy in bigger and better ways. A full remake could turn this into a much longer and denser game. Each world could be much longer and more in depth than the short missions there are in this game.
2. Character Customization
This is one of the few create your own character, create your own adventure games in the Star Wars universe, and Jedi Academy lets you pick from a variety of diverse characters. Imagine a modern Meta-human powered character creator in this game, with dozens of species and millions of hyper detailed options.
4.More Time Travel Please? - Singularity, Timeshift, Quantum Break?
I am kind of cheating my "5 games theme" here...but I honestly could not decide which game to pick for the number 4 spot on this list. I just want to see a really good Time Travel game in Unreal 5. It could be incredible.
I admit that two of these are some long forgotten 2000's era 7th gen console sci-fi shooters. But Time Shift and Singularity are a big nostalgic part of my early gaming career during the gold days of the Xbox 360. Both are time travel based shooters where the main protagonist has time altering abilities, and that is just a niche I love. We never see anything like these games accept for Titanfall 2's beyond famous Cause and Effect level.
These two games are just shining spots on my memory of playing games on the Xbox 360, and seeing their time altering effects brought to Unreal 5 could be incredible. I have been looking for an excuse to bring these old games up again, and a modern tech remake sounded like the perfect time. These games are old and haven't aged well at all. But their stories, their premises were ahead of their time. I want a good time travel story.
I added Quantum Break to this mention as QB was super underrated and deserves a modern remaster. It was so visually impressive to begin with that honestly one could argue it doesn't need one. This was a game meant to show off the power of the Xbox One and One X. It was a game that came out during the rise of 4k games, and it was visually impressive with at the time some of the most impressive character models.
These games all played with time effect like paused rain, or shattered reality or rewinding environments. They were all ahead of their time. I think Unreal 5 could really showcase these games for the real gems that they were.
3. Tomb Raider 2013 REMASTER
Tomb Raider has one of the most devoted fan bases in gaming, and it surprises me how little attention the franchise gets. Much like our next pick on this list, the fan art, cosplay, and virtual photography community's are still so alive and active for a series that is this old and for one that hasn't gotten a "new" game in 6 years. Fans are starved for a new game, and every time any gaming event is coming, I see so many in the Tomb Raider community hoping for some news on what's next. Sure, Crystal Dynamics announced they were working on the next Tomb Raider. But that was a long time, and more importantly a one whole corporate owners ago. Since that announcement, Square Enix sold Crystal Dynamics to Embracer who since then has seemed more interested in canceling projects and reselling studios than actually making games.
This year we got a (in my opinion) a pretty low effort and disappointing remaster of some of the really old Tomb Raider games. Like I said with the Jedi Academy conversation, the problem with remastering games that are old, they just are too old to ever feel fresh. I feel like it would have been better to remaster a newer game. The one I think would fit the best would be to remaster the 2013 Reboot. While this one already received a minor update between the Xbox 360 and Xbox One generations with the definitive edition, a lot has chanced in the past decade with video game technology. We've shown and talked here already on length about the improvements to character models, hair, and of course forestry environments. Lara's model rebuilt with Meta Human, placed on an island of Yamatai rebuilt with UE5 tech could make this one an incredible remaster.
While Lara looked incredible in 2013, and the game featured stunning visuals at the time; it is obvious how much technology has progressed in the last 10 years. While Lara Croft did improve in the subsequent Rise and Shadow sequels, I wanted to show a comparison between 2013's Lara and what is possible in UE5. I don't think any Lara fan can look at these two side by side and not think 2013 deserves its next overhaul.
2. Nier Automata REMASTER
It is hard to describe how inexplicably popular 2b has become. She has become one of the most widely cosplayed characters. She has become one of if not THE most crossed-over character in gaming. The amount of games she has appeared as a guest is hard to quantify. What other character has ONE game, seven years ago and becomes this iconic? It is safe to say that 2b from Nier Automata has far far transcended her one game. She has become so famous that to this day, 7 years later she is still appearing in cross overs.
To be honest...the fact that Nier Automata HASN'T received a remaster is the most shocking thing to me. If someone asked me what game am I most surprised hasn't been remastered yet it would be Nier Automata. Like does Square Enix and Platinum Games seriously not know just how popular this character has become?
If they re-released Nier Automata with modern visuals I believe it would sell like hot cakes. This even comes at a time when Square and Platinum both desperately need a win. Platinum's last game took the crown as the worst game ever, (shutting down in less than a year) with Babylon's Fall. Square Enix is still struggling with financial failures like Avengers. They both should be looking for an easy game that would be a guaranteed success. A quality remaster of this game would be an EASY win.
Every now and then when I pitch these 5 Games series...I mention a "this should be a painfully obvious one to do"...and I don't think I have ever pitched more of a NO BRAINER as this one. The game is already visually impressive enough to make a remaster easier, the game is old enough to warrant it, and even 7 years later the fan base is active enough that it would sell so easily.
People clearly want 2b enough to buy DLC for so many random games, that I don't understand how no one as Square or Platinum has thought..."huh, maybe we should release the game she is known for?"
Just look at how good 2b and friends look in the Naraka Bladepoint crossover. Clearly the technology has progressed since 2017. Fans were falling over at super high resolution character models in the cinematic trailer for this cross over. People want more of this. Just look at the massive recent success of Stellar Blade with is such a spiritual successor of Nier. Imagine an Unreal 5, hyper detailed Nier Automata remaster complete with photo mode and a diorama mode? This would PRINT MONEY.
The cinematic trailer from the Nier x Naraka cross over I think is the closest look we have at what a current-gem UE5 version of Nier could look like. The detail in the character model of this game is just an order of magnitude higher than what have in her original game. A UE5 version of 2B could have more polygons on her lips than the original 2b had in her whole body. Look at the difference in her mouth and lips between the original game and this? We already know how much better the character models could look, and we know from so many examples how good the world of Nier could look with UE5 environments. This could be just INSANE.
1. Mass Effect ... obviously
(Omega in UE5 Fan Made)
"Jesse. Stop being such a Mass Effect fan boy. You always talk about it. Can you even write an article without bringing up Mass Effect? You hype it up too much. You just got a remaster. Stop!"
No.
NOOOOO.
If The Last of Us can keep getting multiple remasters and remakes, than the GREATEST VIDEO GAME SERIES EVER CAN.
I am sorry. (not really)
In all seriousness, I know that it feels like Mass Effect just got a remaster, and that is a fair point; but hear me out. "Mass Effect 5" is so far away, with the latest industry rumor putting it all the way at 2029; there is a lot of time between now and then! The fact that EA is content to take its greatest franchise and just let it cook without any thing else is insane to me. EA should take the Mass Effect universe and be licensing / parsing it out to other studios to give us some spin offs. We should have a multiplayer game by now. We should have a tv series by now. DO SOMETHING EA. How can they just sit on the greatest game series of all time and be content with almost two decades between games?? Who do they think they are? Rockstar?
Mass Effect 3 had a release date of 2012. Legendary Edition had a release date of 2021. Am I to be content with nothing between 2021 and 2029? No thanks. The Last of Us (another all time great) came out in 2013, and got a remaster in 2014, and got a full remake(ish) or "ground up rebuild remaster" in 2021. It also got probably the beset live action game adaption ever. If the Last of Us can have three iterations and a tv show than so can Mass Effect. Even TLOU 2 got a remaster by now.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition was impressive. It visually looks much better, especially the first one. But the thing is it's not even an engine upgrade. Both the original and remasters are Unreal Engine 3! When asked about why they didn't update to Unreal Engine 4, they said that the port was too difficult, lengthy and costly. It would have taken more money time and effort to port one game to UE4 than it was to remaster the entire trilogy in UE3.
I get that.
But time and technology evolve. Just because it was too hard then doesn't mean that the future couldn't make it feasible. UE5 is the most developer friendly engine to date. It is also the best engine ever made, and I think that the greatest video game franchise ever made deserves to be brought to UE5. Even from a business decision, if EA wants Mass Effect 5 to be a success, it will need something to reinvigorate fans between now and 2029 right?. This is a huge gap to go with just...nothing. Legendary Edition sold very well, and so would an Unreal 5 Remake. Having a next-gen feeling remake will set fans up ready to buy ME5.
