5 Games From The Early 2000s That Desperately Need A Makeover

Who misses old classics from the yesteryears of gaming? Who misses the golden-age gems that pushed the limits of interactivity, graphics and gameplay? I'm sure some of you even think about what it would be like to play some of these old classics on today's platforms.

After rummaging through the history files and seeking out a few good old games that have helped shape what gaming is today, I figured it would be pretty cool to list at least five games from around the early aughts that gamers desperately loved and would love to play again. I mean, there's a ton of people clamoring to replay the classic Halo campaigns from more than a decade ago, so here a few other games that could do with a makeover for today's generation of gaming.

Codename: Eagle

This game was the precursor to Battlefield 1942. Before DICE became what they are today, some of the members came from a Swedish-based outlet called Refraction Studios. Codename: Eagle was a mission-based, sandbox first-person shooter with a wide assortment of vehicles. Imagine a Battlefield game that was fused with Hitman and you have a decent idea of what Codename: Eagle was all about. Taking that old concept and giving it a visual makeover with the same mission-based, sandbox gameplay elements and you might be looking at a real winner.

Redline

Remember this game from 1999? It was on the cusp of 2000 and was one of the first 3D games to support vehicular combat and on-foot first-person shooting. The game was pretty cool insofar that you only had one gun but it could transform into different guns when you acquired the appropriate ammo to transform the weapon. The Mad Max-esque setting and techno-dystopia multiplayer maps all helped give the game a bit of its own identity back in the day. Seeing a remake with today's technology with something like the Unity 5 or Unreal Engine 4 would be a real treat.

Omikron

I know, I know, David Cage, the Quantic Dream head honcho, won't be returning to Omikron. It doesn't mean I'm going to stop bringing it up. Anyway, another 2000 gem that was sorely overlooked at the time. It featured some really forward-thinking concepts in terms of a non-linear protagonist (the player ultimately controlled their *own * soul and moved around to various individuals throughout the game). It would be a real treat to have an open-world game with an intricate story where players weren't beholden to a single-protagonist. It would require a lot of logistical work on the end of the developers, but boy would it be cool to see a feature like that return.

Anachronox

This was the game that will forever make Ion Storm go down in history as a developer who got severely shortchanged in the market reception of this very unique RPG. The game wasn't just about having intense turn-based battles with all sorts of monsters, assassins, bosses and aliens, it was one of the rare western RPGs that told a compelling, epic, space-opera that spanned the likes of funny and yet broken characters. The game treaded into some pretty dark territory without losing its way, and the whole galactic space adventure on top of a sci-fi, cyberpunk atmosphere makes Anachronox one of the perfect games for revitalization in today's market.

No One Lives Forever

With gender politics controlling the conversation in a lot of small sub-sections of the tech community, what would it hurt to play up to the crowd with a remake of one of the few action games that didn't get lambasted for wrongfully portraying the female form? No One Lives Forever always reminded me of James Bond-lite with an extra hint of satire. Cleaner graphics thanks to today's technology, exotic locations, and some physics-based shooting mechanics and I think this game could stand right alongside Wolfenstein: New Order and Interceptor Entertainment's Rise of the Triads as a worthwhile remake. Why not?