5 Video Game Remasters That Are Worse Than The Originals

With hardware improving by leaps and bounds every few years, remasters are developed to preserve old masterpieces and bring them to newer audiences. However, it isn’t always the case that the remastered versions of games are better. Sometimes, they manage to do the impossible: to make something already amazing worse.

Bad design choices, missing features, or a boatload of glitches are usually the culprits. When this happens, not only do the developers frustrate the fans, but they also ruin an old classic. This has happened far too many times in recent memory, and this list highlights the absolute worst cases. So, from missing multiplayer modes to flawed design choices, here are remasters that managed to be worse than the originals.

1) Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Definitive Edition was released in 2021. The goal was to bring GTA 3, San Andreas, and Vice City to modern hardware. While the Definitive Edition did exactly that, it was one of the worst remasters ever made. On PC, the remaster was nearly unplayable. All three games were littered with glitches. Things like textures popping in or being stretched, the lighting being messed up, or NPCs not behaving as they were intended to. It was the classic Cyberpunk 2077 1.0 release all over again.

It was impressive how you could make the remasters run worse than the originals. But there was a reason for that. The development studio actually didn’t remaster the full games. They built the remasters off of the mobile versions. These were weaker versions, inferior to the PS2 originals in every way. 

Also, in doing so, the Definitive Edition inherited all the bugs from the mobile versions, too. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy was laughably broken. While Rockstar did manage to fix most of the issues in future updates, the Definitive Edition will always be remembered as a butchered remaster.

2) Life is Strange Remastered

Emotional stories like Life is Strange are always better with good visuals. Better facial animations always make the impact of the dialogue hit harder. However, Life is Strange Remastered had plenty of inconsistencies. For one, the graphics were better than before. However, the comic-like aesthetic was replaced with a realistic look, and that betrayed what the original was praised for. Lighting was different in the remaster as well. Some areas were too dark, leading to a big loss of detail.

Optimization was bad on all platforms, especially the Nintendo Switch. On the Switch, there were painfully long load times, muddy textures, and lighting glitches. These were things that wouldn’t have been there had the original been ported to the Switch instead. In retrospect, the original Life is Strange holds up really well today. The only primitive thing about it would be the facial animations. That said, if you’re willing to look past that, then odds are you’ll agree that the original is superior to the remastered version.

3) Silent Hill HD Collection

The Silent Hill HD Collection was a remastered port of the second and third games in the series. However, remastered would be a kind word for it. You see, Konami lost the source codes for the final versions of both games. This led to the remastered versions being built on older builds of Silent Hill 2 and 3. As a result, many bugs and problems found their way into the final release of the Silent Hill HD Collection.

Frame rate drops, game crashes, and glitches were abundant in the HD Collection. But arguably, what made it worse than the original two games was the changes. The signature fog of the Silent Hill games, which they are known for, was severely toned down. In some areas, it was completely removed. This ruined the aesthetic and eerie vibe of the games and was a cause of massive backlash from fans. 

Another big misstep the HD Collection made was using new voiceovers. All dialogue had been re-recorded. However, some fans felt the new actors didn’t match the emotional depth as well as the originals. While the Silent Hill HD Collection did have better textures, the aesthetic hadn’t been preserved. So, that, along with the bag of glitches at launch, gained the HD Collection a reputation for being a really poor remaster.

4) Crysis Remastered Trilogy

The Crysis games were notorious for their hardware toll back in the day. For comparison, their performance was like that of a game running with ray tracing, but in the early 2010s. So, you can imagine why the announcement of the Remastered Trilogy had people worried. And unfortunately, those worries turned out to be a little too accurate once the Crysis Remastered Trilogy hit stores.

The remastered Crysis 1 had lighting issues, and textures didn’t translate properly into the remaster. There were downgrades, like a saturated look and missing mod support for the game. In Crysis 2 and 3 Remastered, environmental destruction wasn’t as detailed as it was in the originals. The vegetation was rendered at a different refresh rate, and that made the scene look jittery. 

But the biggest blow to longtime fans of the series was the missing multiplayer modes. Despite the saturated or glossy graphics, you could argue that the Crysis Remastered Trilogy has better visuals. But with the missing mod support and multiplayer, there are still many reasons to keep playing the originals even after all this time.

5) Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is undoubtedly one of the most unnecessary remasters ever made. Horizon Zero Dawn was released in 2017 as a PlayStation 4 exclusive. It holds up incredibly well today, so when the remaster was announced, it had a mixed reception. Many players disagreed on the need for a remaster and cited that a simple resolution update for the PlayStation 5 would have been enough. Be that as it may, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered was released in 2024.

Now, when it comes to the quality of the remaster, there’s a subjective take. The remaster definitely improves the overall details of everything, from the machines to the character models. However, it also switches up a couple of things. The lighting was brighter, making the remaster appear more saturated compared to the original’s moody tint. And as is always the case, glitches not present in the original somehow found their way into the remaster. 

The most noticeable of which is the constant clipping of Aloy’s character model. Water effects and textures, on the other hand, weren’t an improvement and could even be seen as worse. The difference in aesthetic between the original and remastered is like that of night and day. So, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is a bit of a mixed bag. For players who love more details, the remaster is the way to go. But for those who loved the original for its moody visuals, they’ll see the remaster as a major downgrade.