The Best Game Remakes and Remasters
Ranked by how much better the new version is than the one it replaces, and you can vote the order into whatever shape you prefer. A remake is a ground-up rebuild in a new engine with new assets. A remaster re-presents the original code at a higher resolution with the rough edges sanded off. Both are here and every item says which it is, which is exactly why a remaster sits fifth and a remake sits thirteenth: the label is not the ranking. Two rulings worth stating out loud. A collection sold as a single product counts as one item. And an Enhanced Edition that never shipped as a separate purchase is not a remaster at all, it is just the game, which is how Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition and Morrowind's Game of the Year edition stayed out. Ties break toward fidelity to what made the original work. Originals live on sibling lists: horror keeps the 2005 Resident Evil 4, the story list keeps the 1997 Final Fantasy VII.
Resident Evil 2 is #1 on “The Best Game Remakes and Remasters”.
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Resident Evil 2
Fixed camera angles and tank controls went in the bin: Capcom rebuilt the 1998 game over the shoulder for 25 January 2019, and it had sold 18.32 million copies by May 2026. Nothing here travels further, because the original is a fundamentally different machine. The Tyrant cannot be killed, only knocked down, and he follows you everywhere except into a safe room. Remake.
Resident Evil 2 on SteamA deadly virus engulfs the residents of Raccoon City in September of 1998, plunging the city into chaos as flesh eating zombies roam the streets for survivors. An unparalleled adrenaline rush, gripping storyline, and unimaginable horrors await you. Witness the return of Resident Evil 2.https://store.steampowered.com/app/883710/ - 2
Resident Evil 4
Capcom shipped this rebuild on 24 March 2023, and by May 2026 it had sold 13.60 million copies. Leon's knife now carries a durability meter you can burn through parrying a chainsaw, then pay the Merchant to repair. Ashley lost her health bar and stopped being homework. Second only because the 2005 original, which the horror list keeps, still plays beautifully. Remake.
Resident Evil 4 on SteamSurvival is just the beginning. Six years have passed since the biological disaster in Raccoon City. Leon S. Kennedy, one of the survivors, tracks the president's kidnapped daughter to a secluded European village, where there is something terribly wrong with the locals.https://store.steampowered.com/app/2050650/ - 3
System Shock
Nightdive Studios raised over $1.35 million in a Kickstarter that closed on 28 July 2016, then restarted development from scratch twice and moved to Unreal Engine before shipping on 30 May 2023. Hauling a 1994 interface into something a person can actually operate is a colossal distance traveled. SHODAN can only be beaten in cyberspace, and those wireframe flight sections remain deeply strange. Remake, not the Enhanced Edition.
System Shock on SteamA first-person fight to the death in the depths of space!https://store.steampowered.com/app/482400/ - 4
SILENT HILL 2
Bloober Team's rebuild, published by Konami Digital Entertainment on 8 October 2024, arrived carrying more doubt than anything else here and then quietly won the argument. Dragging the camera over the shoulder and overhauling combat should have wrecked the pacing; instead the fog sits heavier and the apartments run longer. Remake, and the one I expected to hate. Horror takes the 2001 original.
Save 60% on SILENT HILL 2 on SteamInvestigating a letter from his late wife, James returns to where they made so many memories - Silent Hill. What he finds is a ghost town, prowled by disturbing monsters and cloaked in deep fog. Confront the monsters, solve puzzles, and search for traces of your wife in this remake of SILENT HILL 2.https://store.steampowered.com/app/2124490/ - 5
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
Virtuos and Bethesda Game Studios shipped this on 22 April 2025, and the trick is a hybrid: Unreal Engine 5 draws it while the original Gamebryo engine still runs the game underneath. Bethesda calls it a remaster, and it outranks most of the remakes below it anyway, because sprinting is new, the leveling system is rebuilt, and the gap from 2006 is enormous. Ranking by upgrade does that.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered on SteamExplore Cyrodiil like never before with stunning new visuals and refined gameplay in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion™ Remastered.https://store.steampowered.com/app/2623190/ - 6
Dead Space
Motive Studio and Electronic Arts put this out on 27 January 2023, and the pitch was one uninterrupted shot: the Ishimura as a continuous ship with no loading screens between decks. Peeling lets you strip a Necromorph layer by layer, and Gunner Wright finally gives Isaac a voice. Held back only because the 2008 version, which the horror list keeps, aged remarkably well. Remake.
Dead Space on SteamThe sci-fi survival-horror classic returns, completely rebuilt to offer an even more immersive experience — including visual, audio, and gameplay improvements — while staying faithful to the original game’s thrilling vision.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1693980/ - 7
Mafia: Definitive Edition
Hangar 13 and 2K rebuilt Illusion Softworks' 2002 game in the Fusion Engine, released it on 25 September 2020, and recast the English voice cast entirely, with Andrew Bongiorno taking Tommy Angelo. Despite the label it is a full ground-up remake, which is exactly why the naming on this list needs arguing about. The Fair Play autodrome race later returned as its own mode.
Mafia: Definitive Edition on SteamAn inadvertent brush with the mob thrusts cabdriver Tommy Angelo into the world of organized crime. Initially uneasy about falling in with the Salieri family, the rewards become too big to ignore.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1030840/ - 8
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
Square Enix released the PlayStation 4 version on 10 April 2020, this enhanced PS5 revision on 10 June 2021, and the Steam edition on 17 June 2022, after a Windows launch that December through the Epic Games Store. Counted here as a remake of the 1997 game, but of Midgar alone, and a partial replacement scores lower. The Active Time Battle gauge keeps every fight honest. Story list keeps the classic.
FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE on SteamCloud Strife, an ex-SOLDIER operative, descends on the mako-powered city of Midgar. The world of the timeless classic FINAL FANTASY VII is reborn, using cutting-edge graphics technology, a new battle system and an additional adventure featuring Yuffie Kisaragi.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1462040/ - 9
Shadow of the Colossus
Bluepoint Games remade every asset from the ground up for Sony Interactive Entertainment and launched on PlayStation 4 on 6 February 2018. It is a PlayStation exclusive that never reached PC, so the link goes to Wikipedia. Climbing a colossus to reach its glowing weak point still feels like scaling weather, and it feels identical to 2005 on purpose. Faithful, which caps the upgrade. Remake.
Shadow of the Colossus (2018 video game) - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Colossus_(2018_video_game) - 10
Demon's Souls
Japan Studio and Bluepoint rebuilt FromSoftware's 2009 game for Sony, and it arrived on PlayStation 5 on 12 November 2020. Still a PS5 exclusive with no PC version, so Wikipedia takes the link. Fractured Mode mirrors every level's layout, a cruel joke on anyone who memorized Boletaria. Ranks under Colossus because a 2009 game had less distance to travel. Remake; soulslikes keeps the original.
Demon's Souls (2020 video game) - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon%27s_Souls_(2020_video_game) - 11
The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series
Skybound republished all four seasons as one compilation in September 2019, after Telltale's majority studio closure the year before, and it reached Steam in October 2020. Qualifying is not automatic: it shipped as a new purchase beside seasons people already owned rather than quietly replacing them, and a bundle sold as one product counts once. Clementine's dialogue wheel still ticks down while you hesitate. Remaster.
The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series on SteamThe Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series contains all 4 Seasons, 400 Days, and The Walking Dead: Michonne, which includes over 50 hours of gameplay across 23 unique episodes.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1449690/ - 12
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
Bethesda released this on 28 October 2016, five years after the 11 November 2011 original, with an upgraded engine and mod support on consoles. That engine work is the point, since it is why enormous mod lists load without collapsing, but the game underneath is untouched, word walls and Dragon Shouts and all. A remaster that shipped as a separate purchase; the 2010s RPG list keeps the original.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition on SteamWinner of more than 200 Game of the Year Awards, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition brings the epic fantasy to life in stunning detail. The Special Edition includes the critically acclaimed game and add-ons with all-new features.https://store.steampowered.com/app/489830/ - 13
The Last of Us Part I
Naughty Dog rebuilt its 2013 PlayStation 3 game for PS5 on 2 September 2022 and brought it to Windows on 28 March 2023. Enemy AI got the hardest overhaul, running up to 128 active NPCs tracking the player against eight in the original. Trouble is, the version most people owned was the 2014 PlayStation 4 remaster, so this is the shortest step here. A remake, ranked below three remasters.
The Last of Us™ Part I on SteamDiscover the award-winning game that inspired the critically acclaimed television show. Guide Joel and Ellie through a post-apocalyptic America, and encounter unforgettable allies and enemies in The Last of Us™.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1888930/ - 14
Life is Strange Remastered
Deck Nine handled the rework for Square Enix and it landed on 1 February 2022, seven years after Dontnod's original crept out episodically across 2015. Facial motion capture is the whole change, which sounds cosmetic until Chloe's eyes stop being uncanny during the long conversations. Rewinding time to redo a line you regret was always the mechanic; now the faces carry it. Smallest upgrade here.
Life is Strange Remastered on SteamExperience the BAFTA award-winning story of Life is Strange now beautifully remastered with enhanced visuals and vastly improved animation using mocap technology.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1265920/
How this list was ranked
Readers rank this list by voting items up and down. Items are ordered by reader votes.
