RPGs that fell short of greatness and should be remade

[Jedi Master Radek]

ToEE
Just complete the game, turn Hommlet into something edible, add some great content to get at least to level 15, another dungeon like the Moathouse and then an Hommlet invasion you have to repel or orchestrate with some side missions.
And of course, add Temple+ to the base game.

Not clear what you mean by "complete the game", since The Temple of Elemental Evil is a fairly faithful adaptation of the classic adventure super-module T1-4 by Gary Gygax. Though I suppose if you wanted to lengthen the game by adding higher-level adventures, the conclusion of the adventure in the Temple itself could lead to the discovery of Drow involvement, which would then begin an adaptation of adventure modules D1 Descent into the Earth, D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, and D3 Vault of the Drow, finally culminating in Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits with the party confronting Lolth herself.

Keith Parkinson's cover art for compilation GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders

The trouble people have with Hommlet is that there's a lot to do there but most of it is busywork. It's also busywork you really need to do in order to gain experience. But, that was the way it's written in the original module, so the Troika team uncritically ported it into the PC game.

Goes over well in the module because in pen and paper you are with a bunch of bros and you can have fun dicking around with the locals (sometimes literally -- in one run, one of the guys' characters in our party seduced the intended in a Romeo and Juliet situation between feuding farmer families which transformed the quest into this whole shitshow we had to address before heading off to the Temple). In a module, pissing off a random NPC can always cause him to run off to the Temple to join the darkness and became a thorn in your side. In the PC game, you mostly need to play it straight and little of interest develops from anything you do.

Personally, I've always been fine with the Hommlet content in the PC game and appreciate the intention behind including the busywork content (although it was probably module writer's intention, not Troika's). It's supposed to nurture a connection between the player(s) and the village they are supposed to be saving from the horrors within the Temple of Elemental Evil.

I think some of the problems with Hommlet stems from the fact that characters are pretty one dimensional. Local druid could be convinced to almost anything if you say to him something about balance in your speech

 

[Ninjerk]

I'm thinking Deus Ex 2, because Invisible War was kind of a miss.

I don't know if this qualifies. The OP mentioned "essence," of which in DX:IW was just shit.

 

[Contagium]

Just started playing Lionheart yesterday and put a good 6 hours into it, it's really good. How could they possibly have fucked up the second half of this game so badly? I'm interested on seeing what develops. Maybe it's not as bad as everyone says?

 

[Darth Canoli]

I know there was talk about a Icewind Dale conversion to the ToEE engine but I lost track of it. A port of BG 1 to the NWN II engine also exists but wasn't finished when I tried it some years ago. Did any of the conversions ever finish ?

I don't think Icewinde Dale in the ToEE engine is ever going to get released, we've got a demo of the first two areas of the game and that's it.

Besides, it's not even worth it, because the dev modder is an autist (he has to be around here somewhere, hello, you!) and he's not editing the encounters at all, as if garbage RTwP encounters were going to be great when transposed in a TB engine.

All this work for nothing...

 

[0sacred]

Wizards & Warriors.

Should be remade with a party in mind from the beginning (front row back row, quests), classes should be viable without class changing (as per Wiz 8), and I'd be playing that forever. A graphical update is also sorely needed as software mode looks hideous.

edit: oh a remake would be ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED to leave the writing the fuck alone. It's great and cheesy and epic and fairy tale like, classic DW Bradley. I shudder to think of what modern writers would turn these gems into

 

[Skdursh]

I don't care what any of you retards say, Ultima 8 is a fantastic game. The only reason it gets any shit is because it's an "Ultima" game and people are butthurt about the grey morality not keeping with the theme of previous games, but if everyone could stop REEEing for a moment they would realize that besides the broke-as-fuck jumping sequences it's an incredibly enjoyable adventure-crpg.

That said, Arcanum is the only old game I'd actually care to see get a modern update with true turn-based combat that isn't complete and total fucking garbage. Everything about Arcanum is the perfect game, except all of the combat. The only way to enjoy the combat right now is to use the Virgil cheat menu mod, make yourself a bona fide GOD and instantly blast everything away so you can get back to the actually good bits as soon as possible.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

The jumping shit is what ruined Ultima 8 for me. I don't mind the Pagan world angle. I do wish the add-on would have been released.

Might and Magic 3-5: use MM2 engine.

WHAT?!? So running into a few hundred crazy self detonation fuckers? HELL NO!!

For a few specific games:
Starflight - A combat system that's fun to play, as opposed to something to be avoided

AGREED! A tactical combat would have been awesome imho.

Ultima 2. The ideas present in Ultima 2 could produce the greatest game of all time. Not a joke

AGREED! Ultima 2 is ... is grindy as fuck for gold ti raise stats hoping to equip Quickblade.

I'd quite like a re-imagining of Spelljammer: Pirates of Relamspace.

Make the ship-to-ship combat bits happen from a 3rd person view with a 3D battle field with debris and stuff, make the boarding actions take place on multi-level ship maps and make the Toril based solar system full of pirate docks, Illithid slave markets to raid/capture/trade with, treasure to hunt for, and mysterious beasts to kill. Maybe have each new career start with a goal to achieve before retirement rather than a 'save the world' plot. Preferably include some factions which you can help to conquer territory and get rewards from.

A better tactical would be fine and iron out the bugs. I want to fly the SPELLJAMMER and more custom ships. Ship customizing sucked ass.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

Daggerfall was a great game. Unity is great and all. But it needs a true sequel. One that carries the design philosophy forward and improves upon everything. Not sidestepping the entire thing like Morrowind with an entirely different design philosophy and the degenerations following it.

Arcanum and the Darksun games are prime candidates for a remake.

 

[Zeriel]

Daggerfall was a great game. Unity is great and all. But it needs a true sequel. One that carries the design philosophy forward and improves upon everything. Not sidestepping the entire thing like Morrowind with an entirely different design philosophy and the degenerations following it.

Arcanum and the Darksun games are prime candidates for a remake.

All of that is true, but that's also why it will never get a sequel. It's an embarrassing example of how the series has deviated from its roots, and the design principles behind it do not fit in with modern gaming, so Bethesda would rather forget it exists. Now I imagine at some point they will give aesthetic or lore references to it. There's speculation that High Rock might be partially in the next TES game. But it will never try to touch on how Daggerfall felt to play.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

All of that is true, but that's also why it will never get a sequel. It's an embarrassing example of how the series has deviated from its roots, and the design principles behind it do not fit in with modern gaming, so Bethesda would rather forget it exists. Now I imagine at some point they will give aesthetic or lore references to it. There's speculation that High Rock might be partially in the next TES game. But it will never try to touch on how Daggerfall felt to play.

There's already been lore references to it; for example "Where Were You When the Dragon Broke" and the Mage's guild questline for Oblivion prior to which Mannimarco lost most of his IQ points. Though I really hope they don't do High Rock or Hammerfell. They'd ruin it if ESO is a reflection of what High Rock would be like in a newer Bethesda game.

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

Cyberpunk nonsense did promise wifes anons but it did only give poop anons! It is true anons! It is! Give me cute Cyberpunk game with cute Cyberpunk wifes! I am cute heterosexual human male Cyberpunk wifes wife scholar! I am!

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

Cyberpunk nonsense did promise wifes anons but it did only give poop anons! It is true anons! It is! Give me cute Cyberpunk game with cute Cyberpunk wifes! I am cute heterosexual human male Cyberpunk wifes wife scholar! I am!

Here is a cute cyberpunk geography wife!

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

Here is a cute cyberpunk geography wife!

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[ERYFKRAD]

geography

 

[0wca]

VtMB and F:NV but only from a technical standpoint. Just remake the engine make sure it's moddable and it would drive way more people to these two titles.

Problem is they always change shit in these remakes and start "fixing" shit that they should leave alone. If it has mod support you can tailor it to you liking anyway.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I wouldn't mind if those Vicarious Vision guys that did Tony Hawk 1 + 2 and Diablo 2 Resurrection did a Arcanum remake. It's eccentricity aside, (which I'm going to chalk up to Blizzard and not VV) visually that Diablo 2 makeover was pretty nice looking, and it'd be cool to see something like Arcanum get that kind of love from Activision who I assume own the rights to it now. Although I could do without it being a slavish remake of the original, as I'd rather see it just pick a combat style and either basically just be isometric Dragon's Dogma, or respectfully pay homage to Trokia Games by just ripping off the combat in Temple of Elemental Evil.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I wouldn't mind if those Vicarious Vision guys that did Tony Hawk 1 + 2 and Diablo 2 Resurrection did a Arcanum remake.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Arcanum comes to mind.

I think FO1/FO2 could use remakes, but they would need to be DAMN GOOD REMAKES, done by people who:
- Understand Fallout
- Understand RPGs
- Understand Iso-TB games
- Are not SJW snowflakes
- Know the Fallout games and understand what are its issues.

Honestly I wouldn't trust it to any team with less than 50% of eastern europeans on it.

Being a normie should be classified as a mental disorder.

Fucking sigged.

Remakes aren't the answer, new games made by people whose lives do not revolve around video games are the answer. All our classics were made by people with diverse interests and backgrounds, many times historical and technical, and it made the fruits of their labors into the unique games that we cherish today. You don't remake that, you take that philosophy and push forward.

Instead, we have games made by people who only experience insular nerd-culture. They went to school for "game developers", or want to be writers and see games as a foot in the door. These people are your present day Obsidian, inXile, whatever. They produce middling nothing. We shouldn't be pining for remakes, that's pathetic. We should be asking for better games made by better people.

This is something else that I've seen discussed in the Codex and needs to be more discussed in general. I would say it deserves its own thread.

I think a good, recent example about how those interests and backgrounds can change a game is how a lot of Fallout New Vegas is shaped by Josh Sawyer's interests. For example, the game takes A LOT from history because Josh Sawyer is a big history buff. The reason New Vegas has such a smorgasbord of interesting guns is because Josh Sawyer actually likes guns, too.

Now I'm wondering what else other devs were interested in and how it influenced their game making.

 

[laclongquan]

Daggerfall was a great game.

I might feel interested in a Daggerfall game in Skyrim engine.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

Daggerfall was a great game.

I might feel interested in a Daggerfall game in Skyrim engine.

There was a mod for it. But with all the Skyrim assets and gameplay it doesn't look very good.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/29416
I don't know why you'd want to do away with the speed attributes or much smoother controls of Daggerfall for the clunkiness of Skyrim. If the drag to attack thing just isn't your thing, use unity and the turn on the click to attack option. Unity engine is probably more reliable than version of the gamebryo engine Bethesda keeps using. It will crash less two. I've only had one crash ever with Unity. You're pretty much guaranteed crashes with Skyrim.