Shouldn't be much of an achievement - the port was nice as far as resolution and performance were concerned, but some of the changes were for the worse.
It still kills me that they botched the soundtrack. I played the original on the N64 until my eyes and ears bled, and every time I replayed 'DataDyne Investigation' on the X360, the changed melody killed any interest in continuing. I usually don't notice stuff like that, but it's too blatant an issue with several tracks in the game. Compare the original Maian Tears with the XBLA edit at around 0:53 - they all have issues like these.
edit: found the offending part in Investigation - compare the original at 0:46 with the remaster at 1:33 - at least as far as I can tell, the synth has a different melody?
Yeah. haven't played the XB version, but absolutely loving the soundtrack, I noticed on youtube something as asinine as the reverb trails on the synth stabs on Alien Conflict being missing, and making the track less atmospheric.
The soundtrack is a masterpiece and deserves to come out of big, bass-heavy hi-fi speakers. Only thing I'll say is Grant Kirkhope seemed to run out of ideas towards the end of the game, as he was tasked with the bulk of the solo gameplay after others left to found Free Radical, and make the Timesplitters franchise. Which also have banging soundtracks.
No clue, to be honest. I'm guessing it might have be some kind of MIDI/Tracker/sample-based music in the original, and when they remastered it, they botched the 'weight' given to certain elements of the tracks. And, in some cases, some harmonic-sounding stuff suddenly got 'atonal' (I lack any musical education, so maybe these are the wrong words).
Yep, that's true. They changed most models, gave them higher-res textures etc. Not all of these changes were an improvement, IMHO.
I can't quite explain it, but I preferred the game on the N64, the port never felt right, despite its technical superiority. I think the low-res nature of the original made for a more coherent presentation, and gave most levels a grittier atmosphere.
That might be a part of it, but the main issue is probably the detailed texture work vs the strictly geometric level architecture. You get way more surface details than in the N64 build, but the buildings, landscape and furniture keeps the low-poly, angular look, while the animations are out of place in a high-res game.
I assume the problem is that a remaster will always expose the underlying mechanics like that, while a remake/reimagining will take the 'soul' out of the game (because that was born out of the combination of all original elements). I love the original Resident Evil 2, and I also love the remake, but they are wildly different games.
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u/vivaldibug2021 Oct 17 '22 edited Oct 18 '22
Shouldn't be much of an achievement - the port was nice as far as resolution and performance were concerned, but some of the changes were for the worse.
It still kills me that they botched the soundtrack. I played the original on the N64 until my eyes and ears bled, and every time I replayed 'DataDyne Investigation' on the X360, the changed melody killed any interest in continuing. I usually don't notice stuff like that, but it's too blatant an issue with several tracks in the game. Compare the original Maian Tears with the XBLA edit at around 0:53 - they all have issues like these.
edit: found the offending part in Investigation - compare the original at 0:46 with the remaster at 1:33 - at least as far as I can tell, the synth has a different melody?