Up to Natla’s Mines now
this is so good, I think the gold standard for remasters. I was a bit harsh when I first saw the games announcement and I have to take that back.
It’s the core game so nothings been changed, but there’s so many QoL tweaks and it just makes the whole game feel modern.
Playing through the final Egypt levels and the mines today and I’ve only just noticed a few new tweaks. The guns drop bullet cases when fired which somehow react to the floors around you! And the controller vibrates when firing guns or nearby events occur.
The additions for the textures are really great, like in the mines they have not only used high resolution artwork, but added wood beams that would support the mined areas, as well as work lights and electric cables. Talking of lighting, every single level has been lit beautifully with natural looking lighting and each new light source has some kind of graphical texture tweak (like a hole being added to the ceiling or a crack in the wall or some other reason for light being there). In the case of the mines, everything having a red hue because of the molten lava is a nice touch.
The standout part so far for me though has been the final sections of Egypt, with the work they’ve put into the two large statues that are underwater. The new textures and tweaks and lighting worked really well there, I had to double take that I was playing a 30 year old game.