Former glories

We write often in this part of the magazine about the enduring peril of videogame sequels. Yet this month’s Hype crop puts a very different spin on the conundrum. This is not just about making the next one, of following up on some successful thing from a couple of years ago with enough new bells and whistles to justify another £50 price tag. This issue, three very different developers are seeking to rekindle some much older flames.

Final Fantasy VII Remake (p30) offers up a fitting swan song for a generation in which developers and publishers grew so fond of repackaging beloved classics, but its title is a little misleading. This is a rootand-branch reconstruction of the PS1 RPG, to the point that it is, really, a completely different game, albeit one that tells a story we’ve heard before with characters we’ve known, loved and mourned for over two decades. Furthermore, the project is so comprehensive, and so sprawling, that Square Enix has had to split it into multiple releases. Does that even still count as a remake? And when the results are this good, does it even matter? Larian Studios also has something of a naming problem. Baldur’s Gate III (p36) is, indeed, the third game in a series whose previous entry came out almost 20 years ago, and that brings enough baggage by itself. Yet in taking on the project the Danish studio has to not only satisfy fans of the original, but bring its D&D stylings up to 2020 standards – and all while ensuring its Divinity: Original Sin fanbase doesn’t find it too much of a departure from what they know and love. Our demo suggests the team has well and truly cracked it.

In this context, Harmonix is a relative pup: why, Rock Band 3 isn’t even a decade old. The 2010s were rough on the studio behind some of the greatest music games ever made, but Fuser (p48) suggests a developer that has well and truly got its groove back. On this evidence, perhaps you should touch the classics after all.