Best "Retro Revival" so far?

[Unkillable Cat]

We've been seeing more and more of them lately - game franchises that were a thing 15-25 years ago being pulled out of the attic, dusted off and being hocked to modern audiences, all for the sake of mo' money.

I wanna hear your opinions - which one of these have actually worked out decently, or even spectacularly well? The ones that actually advanced the game somehow, brought new life to it instead of it feeling like a re-run on TV or something that people cringe about when forced to think about it.

I can easily name the worst one (will post it later) but I wanna hear about the good ones first, the 'best' ones - where modern-day gamers can now point to an otherwise outdated title and say "Hey, I know that one!"

Go as far back as you want, be as obscure as you want - but at least give a short description as to "why" it all clicked together.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

I'm not saying that any of the franchise reboots are particularly good and are just revivals of a beloved classic series, but the best one so far in my opinion would be Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

There were a lot of things that this game got wrong, but it did attempt to do a good representation of what we had seen so long ago and still play today. From the aguments, to the different styles of play that were available, and multiple solutions to problems; it did attempt to bring the ideas and techniques that were brought forth from the original Deus Ex into a new light and audience, a lot better than some other reboots that kind of turned everything either upside-down or in an entirely different direction (such as Tomb Raider, or Thief (2014)).

 

[Baron Dupek]

Xenonauts.
Because it's the same game basically.

Unless you're die hard X-Com fanboy a'la Awor - you will have hard time to spot the differences beside graphic and time (Cold War era instead of sci-fi with Guile people).

Might be fear of old players or simply there is not much place for new elements.
Or they feared to end with something like Altair's UFO trilogy (which share only basic concept + minor common elements) but they plain suxxx.

 

[Severian Silk]

Fallout 4

IGN gave it 9.5/10 it must be good.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Easily Mortal Kombat reboot (2011), best MK since Trilogy (1996).

 

[Jaesun]

None yet....

 

[Cyberarmy]

Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns.

Edit: And probably Battletech.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Knights of the Chalice.

 

[Black_Willow]

Legend of Grimrock 2 and M&M X

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

Legend of Grimrock 2 and M&M X

Legend of Grimrock rebooted what exactly?

 

[Black_Willow]

Umm, grid-based dungeon crawlers perhaps?

 

[Ovplain]

Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Perhaps not a revival of a long dead series, but definitely Age of Wonders 3. It does suffer from exactly the same problem that all of these reboots/remakes/spiritual successors usually do - lack of charm and atmosphere that the originals had (hugely attributed to the shitty eyeraping 3d), but is otherwise a really good game.

All the others I've tried were really meh. To the point I got completely indifferent and didn't even try most of the recent ones.

 

[ArchAngel]

Xenonauts.
Because it's the same game basically.

Unless you're die hard X-Com fanboy a'la Awor - you will have hard time to spot the differences beside graphic and time (Cold War era instead of sci-fi with Guile people).

Might be fear of old players or simply there is not much place for new elements.
Or they feared to end with something like Altair's UFO trilogy (which share only basic concept + minor common elements) but they plain suxxx.

Xenonauts is not close to old Xcom. Air combat is totally different, maps are smaller and same maps repeat way too often, game is less lethal (and as result you got less soldiers at start) and there is no PSI for your team. And you cannot destroy everything like in old Xcom.

Easily Mortal Kombat reboot (2011), best MK since Trilogy (1996).

This. New MK is like old but improved in every way. Probably only franchise that did that. Everyone else did bigger changes.

 

[Karwelas]

Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Dragonfall.

Edit: And probably Battletech.

Fixed it for you.

 

[tormund]

Strider reboot was p good, really nicely made and fun metroidvania.
I really liked Mortal Kombat 9 too, only recent fighting game that managed to hook me. Insanely fun, and nostalgic enough without nostalgia being its main selling point.

Other than that, it is sadly far easier for me to count the disappointing or downright bad ones that didn't even manage to become successes with current gaming crowd (like Bionic Commando reboot that is now remembered only for that wife-hand meme, or the game from OP's signature which for better or worse killed that IP for any foreseeable future).

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

The original Wasteland is way better than Wasteland 2.

 

[Baron Dupek]

The original Wasteland is way better than Wasteland 2.

But was WL1 full of skillchecks like WL2? Cause this is what pull me off from that so called "revival".

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

It invented skill checks, but not in the modern dumb way. Play it and you'll see what I mean.

 

[Baron Dupek]

That might be controversial but...
Even if they're not as godlike like orginal TA - Supreme Commander did decent job, and it's great game nonetheless. Just the fact that "it's not TA u dufoos" make old geezers bitter.

@up
will do

 

[Crooked Bee]

Shadowrun Returns? Lol, storyfags.

Re: OP, if we're talking strictly revivals of old franchises, then none so far, at least as far as the "actually advanced the game somehow" bit is concerned. If we're talking decent, though, then MMX and W2.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Shadowrun Returns? Lol, storyfags.

It is one of the good "Retro Revival" considering other revivals. (Syndicate, Thief, Dungeon Keeper)

Is it a good game/RPG? now that's debatable. Same applys for Wasteland 2.

 

[Archibald]

Comparing it with shit like Dungeon Keeper mobile just reinforces Bee's point.

 

[Cyberarmy]

 

[Unkillable Cat]

It seems there is a small confusion here - I asked for franchises, not genres, though I don't mind the broader topic of discussion.

Legend of Grimrock is a perfect example of a genre revival - it brought back grid-based dungeon crawlers as a thing, all by itself. And now we're getting the same barrage of "me-too" clones from all over...but considering Legend of Grimrock 2's "success", I'm beginning to think that this well is already tapped dry.

Xenonauts is a similar example, a game that went for the same genre as the old X-COM games.

What I was looking for were games that used the same name, settings and such. Thief barely counts as "retro" (though it's getting there) but it's a good example of a bad revival - though not the worst. IMO, the worst Retro Revival (though I begin to wonder if it even counts as one) has got to be Syndicate - taking everything that the original game stood for, picking out the single element of cybernetic agents of futuristic mega-corps fighting with lots of guns, and discarding everything else to make a game that does little but give a bad word to the originals.

Dungeon Keeper is a close runner-up - the game they released is an abomination, but at least you can tell it's somewhat faithftul to the originals.

Though I do note how people don't mention the LucasArts catalog being "remastered", or how King's Quest's corpse was dug out of its grave. Are they merely average, or did people forget them?

Jaesun bring up a good point, though - there are tons more Retro Revivals looming on the horizon. System Shock is doing interestesing things these days, but it's still too early to say anything relevant. Star Control is also out there, no word on that will fare.