This remaster has the opportunity to offer the sort of exclusive edge to make it well worth the asking price, like Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD with its control tweaks and Assassin’s Creed III Remastered offering gameplay enhancements. And if you don’t know what a bump map is, most of what The Third Remastered offers is likely going to fly over your head. Its cartoonish aesthetics would benefit more from some improved animations, but not by giving Pierce and Shaundi more realistic bump mapping. If the original game’s visuals had aged poorly, that’d be one thing, but in reality - Saints Row: The Third doesn’t look bad anyway. There’s an increase in NPC numbers so at least your mayhem will last a bit longer, and you might bump into a traffic jam every now and then. Except this is all The Third Remastered seems to offer. To be fair, it truly is - the lighting and rendering tech implemented by Sperasoft and Volition is incredible. In a web conference, the team promised the game is going to be gorgeous. Yet publisher Deep Silver is making Saints Row: The Third Remastered anyway for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Saints Row: The Third is not one of them. I can think of so many games that so desperately need this sort of update. They can revitalize an aging game into the modern era, making it feel new again by polishing a handful of blemishes.
Sometimes they’re the only way you can re-experience a classic. Remasters can be an extremely valuable thing.