Video Game Reboots for PC
A lot of video games released in the past are still enjoyable today, although their graphics and gameplays are maybe not as developed as they are in the new titles. Some of them sold so many copies that the Software Houses may even decide to literally work on reboots for their best pieces, with better graphics and, in most cases, revised stories and characters. In this article we’ll see a few video game reboots for PC.
Tomb Raider
How can I not talk about this game series first? Our beloved heroine Lara Croft is such a legend for many of us who grew up in the ’90s.
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure game created by Core Design and owned by Eidos Interactive and then Square Enix in 2009. After the sixth game, The Angel of Darkness, faced difficulties during development and was considered a failure, Eidos decided to switch development duties to Crystal Dynamics.
The original franchise has been released between 2001 and 2007 and even got two film adaptations with Angelina Jolie as protagonist in 2001 and 2003.
The iconic Lara is an archeologist who always wears a very tight light blue top, brown shorts and keeps her hair tied back in a braid. Her very pronounced curves surely couldn’t be ignored while playing and her adventures kept us glued to the screen for hours with those difficult puzzles, the scary dinasours and dungeons full of traps.
When the new Tomb Raider game has been announced in 2011 and released in 2013, many people complained about it even before playing it due to the younger features Lara got and the iconic body shape drastically changed. However, even with a more modern story and gameplay (where she uses a bow and a rifle more than the classic two pistols), the game still kept its old touch with the puzzles, the aggressive wolves and the little creepy side we love.
This version also got a sequel called Rise Of The Tomb Raider in 2015 and a new movie has been planned for 2018 based exactly on this new franchise, with Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft.
Note: The reboot is now available for PS4 as Definitive Edition with improved graphics.
You can get Tomb Raider for PC here. ROTTR is available on this page, or as Collector’s Edition here.
Devil May Cry
Now, be prepared because this part will most likely be the longest of the entire article. DMC is a popular franchise developed by Capcom and created by Hideki Kamiya, originally intended as a Resident Evil sequel. The story is centered on the main character Dante and the goal of avenging his mother’s murder by exterminating demons, extending long chains of attacks while avoiding damage in order to exhibit stylized combat.
Devil May Cry is based on the Italian poem “Divine Comedy” where not only the main character is named after Dante Alighieri, but we also have Vergil (Dante’s twin brother) and a woman named Trish, created after Beatrice Portinari.
The first game was released in 2001 and got three more installments due to its huge success, initially made for PlayStation 2 (then for other consoles as well) and packed along with 2 and 3 for the Definitive Edition. The Special Edition of the third game has been ported on PC, while Devil May Cry 4, released in 2008, already got a version available for Microsoft Windows.
Devil May Cry 3 is technically a prequel more than a sequel, which explains what happened exactly before the events shown in the first game. Some people believe Devil May Cry 2 is a sort of spin-off where the main character has a different personality, well far from the ironic and funny one Dante usually had. Apart from the fact that this title was not appreciated as much as the other games, someone believes the guy may be Vergil in disguise (who has a more matching personality in this sense), eventually taking his brother’s place after the latter’s death. This would make the game an Alternative Universe, considering the one who dies (supposedly) in DMC3 is indeed Vergil himself. It’s quite interesting to see what sort of speculations video games can form! 😀
The twins are only partially humans having a demon father, Sparda, who fell in love with a human woman named Eva. Trish was created by Mundus, Demon King and main antagonist in DMC1, with Eva’s physical appearance in order to lure Dante to the island so that his servants could kill him.
The fourth game has a new playable character named Nero, a young man who clearly has a specific connection with the Sparda twins although he never met them before. His blue eyes and white hair are unmistakable, but the mystery behind his left demonic arm still remains pretty much unsolved today.
According to the novels made for DMC4, Nero is supposed to be Vergil’s son and Dante’s nephew, were it not for some big inconsistencies. The books were not considered 100% canon and thus nothing has been officially confirmed by Capcom.
In DMC4, the player can also use an older Dante for a few missions once Nero is momentarily out of action.
Devil May Cry also has an animated series, comics and novels.
In 2013 Capcom released a new title developed by Ninja Theory, which sadly generated a lot of hate and negative reviews from the fans. DmC: Devil May Cry is in fact a reboot with a completely revised story and design, where Dante lost his white hair getting black strands instead (although he gets it back at the end of the game by unlocking his full power) and Trish was replaced by a completely different female character named Kat.
Eva is not human anymore but angel, that combined with Sparda’s nature makes the twins Nephilims; half demons and half angels.
The majority of players didn’t like these changes, refusing to even try the game and attacking both Capcom and Ninja Theory for this new creation and complaining about the never developed Devil May Cry 5 (there actually are rumors around about a possible sequel in production, but everyone is waiting for an official announcement).
The general discontent generated right after the very first teaser trailer, where Dante had an ‘alpha’ design and he was displayed as a smoker although he doesn’t even touch a cigarette in the entire game. Dante became “a stupid punk” to fans and this didn’t exacly play a good card since the beginning.
DmC has a more urbanistic setting, where Dante has literally no memory of his childhood and keeps hiding being persecuted by demons wherever he goes. Vergil, on the other hand, leads a whole organization called The Order, founded by himself to uncover Mundus’ plans to rule the world and control the human mind with fake advertisements and a totally distorted perspective of what people see around them.
The harsh comments written by haters forced the devs to create an Easter Egg, inserted into the very first mission of DmC:
In the end, Ninja Theory thought to at least create and release a DLC where Dante could wear his old clothes from DMC3 and even get that hairstyle people used to appreciate so much.
A few months later a new downloadable content appeared on the market, set right after the main story and having Vergil as playable character.
In the end, Capcom announced that this game didn’t sell as much as they hoped. This means a DmC 2 is not going to happen although the game still sold quite well (not what Capcom wanted, but hey it was not a flop at all!) .
You can buy the PC version of Devil May Cry 3 here, Devil May Cry 4 on this page and DmC over here.
Mirror’s Edge
Note: I already made an entire article for both games here and here, reason why I won’t spend too many words in this section.
Mirror’s Edge is an action-adventure platformer developed by EA DICE and published by Electronic Arts in 2008. The game is set in a futuristic dystopian society, in which a network of ‘Runners’, including the main character, Faith Connors, act as couriers to transmit messages while evading Government surveillance. In the style of a three-dimensional platform game, the player guides Faith over rooftops, across walls, through ventilation shafts and urban environments using movements inspired by parkour. The game has a brightly colored style and differs from most previous first-person perspective video games, offering a greater freedom of movement with regard to its 3D environment.
Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst was at first known as a possible Mirror’s Edge 2 when Dice released the first teasers and we had no official title yet.
The moment they started to introduce more about the new Faith and the game in general, the fans thought it was simply a prequel based on the comics, in which we can see how she became officially a Runner. In the end, a huge part of the fandom complained once again because it presented itself as a reboot instead, not really connected to the first game if not for the main protagonist, overall theme and gameplay style.
Prince of Persia
Prince of Persia is a franchise created by Jordan Mechner, developed and published by Brøderbund originally, then by Learning Company and Ubisoft today. The very first installment was released in 1989, followed by two more games for the oldest consoles and OS. The franchise is built around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous prince.
The gameplay is mostly based on climbings and parkour, with different kinds of traps, enemies and puzzles. Prince of Persia also got a few spin-offs, mobile games and a film adaptation in 2008.
This game actually got rebooted twice. The first reboot made alongside with Ubisoft, The Sands of Time, came out in 2003 for PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows, mobile and PlayStation 3. The game follows an unnamed Prince whose father sacks a Maharaja’s city at the instigation of its treacherous Vizier. During the attack, the Prince obtains an artifact called the Dagger of Time, while his army captures an hourglass containing the Sands of Time. For the ‘Ubi30 Anniversary’, The Sands of Time has been offered for free on Uplay last summer.
This title is also what inspired the live action movie.
Ubisoft was planning to create a spin-off for The Sands of Time named Prince of Persia: Assassins. That is what we know today with the name of Assassin’s Creed, which generated a whole new successful series.
In 2008 the second reboot came out for consoles and PC, displaying a brand new story set in ancient Persia, with a character whose name is not revealed (again). He is accompanied by a woman named Elika, whom he met after a large sandstorm diverted him from his course and he ended up in a mysterious land. Players traverse many different environments using his acrobatic abilities to scale walls and even crawl on the ceilings. Throughout the journey, players combat various enemies as they attempt to cleanse the land of corruption. The game’s storyline and setting borrowed some aspects from Zoroastrianism.
Prince of Persia also has the official epilogue for the story as additional content, but sadly this package is only available for console users and not PC.
Get Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Prince of Persia 2008.
Thief
Thief is a series of stealth video games in which the player takes the role of Garrett, a master thief in a fantasy/steampunk world resembling a cross between the Late Middle Ages and the Victorian era, with more advanced technologies interspersed. The series consists of Thief: The Dark Project (1998), Thief II: The Metal Age (2000) and Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004).
The game was developed by Looking Glass Studios who ran out of business in 2000, Ion Storm Austin took the reins after that.
The main tactic of Thief is to avoid fights and instead sneak around the enemies. Thief is sometimes described as either a “first-person sneaker”, “sneak-em-up” or a “first-person looter” to emphasize this difference. Classification of the game has been slow coming, as three-dimensional stealth games, such as Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed, only became more common years after the first Thief.
In 2014 Eidos Montréal released the new rebooted Thief, (initially announced as Thief 4) published by Square Enix.
The story begins when Garrett is paired with his former apprentice, Erin, with both accepting the same job from their contact Basso. On their way there, Garrett steals Erin’s claw without her noticing, because she usually uses it to kill guards when not necessary. They arrive at their job’s location, Baron Northcrest’s manor, and find a ritual taking place. Garrett gets a bad feeling and calls off the job, but Erin disagrees. They struggle on the rooftop and she ends up falling into the center of the ritual, which was nearing its completion.
Thief Collection, Thief (2014).
Blades of Time
The first game is originally called X-Blades and it’s an action-adventure game for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. The player assumes the role of Ayumi who wields two pistol-blades. The game was developed by Gaijin Entertainment, published by SouthPeak Interactive and TopWare Interactive. The game was released in November 2007 by 1C Company in the Russian language for Microsoft Windows, under the title Oniblade.
X-Blades is a hack-and-slash style action-adventure game in which the player must fight monsters, using a pair of gun blades and spells, through indoor and outdoor levels in order to progress. Monsters are encountered in both preset numbers and in areas with Monster Generators which spawn both standard and boss opponents until they are destroyed.
Blades of Time is a spiritual successor published by Konami in 2012, available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows and Mac OS.
The main character is once again Ayumi, but we can already see a different style which looks more realistic compared to the anime-like version from 2007.
Ayumi finds herself stuck on a mysterious and dangerous island. While rich with bounty, the island is also caught in the throes of Chaos magic. Ayumi soon discovers that it is also the home of thousands of long-held secrets, including special powers and abilities that she can gain for herself. Using everything she can, she must find a way to defeat armies of menacing villains and a multitude of treacherous traps in order to break free of the possessed island’s grasp.
Get X-Blades and Blades of Time.
DOOM
Doom is definitely a classic, a series of first-person shooter games developed by id Software and released for the first time in 1993 for MS-DOS. The series focuses on the exploits of an unnamed space marine operating under the auspices of Union Aerospace Corporation, who fights hordes of demons and the undead in order to survive.
The first game was followed by three sequels, four spin-offs and finally, by a modern version released in 2016.
DOOM is in fact the reboot published by Bethesda Softworks, fourth title in the main series. While the original game is known for its very old blocky graphics, this new version has a completely new design with realistic 3D models, offering a more immersive experience with high quality blood and gore.
The gameplay returns to a faster pace with more open-ended levels, closer to the first two games rather than the slower survival horror approach taken by Doom 3.
Originally announced as Doom 4 in 2008, the game underwent an extensive development cycle with different builds and designs before being restarted in 2011 and revealed as simply Doom in 2014.
Click here to purchase DOOM (2016).
This is just a small selection, is there any other reboot available for PC that you liked? If so, please feel free to talk about it here with a comment! 😀
