Our next category in this year’s Game of the Year celebrations is Best Old Game. This is awarded to the best game not originally released this year, either the original version, or as for this year’s winner and runner up, remasters of old games.
Winner: Tomb Raider I-III Remastered
The next couple of years promise not one but two new Tomb Raider games, with yet another remake of the 1996 original coming in 2026, and the fully-fledged entry Catalyst due in 2027. In the meantime, the recent remasters of the first six games are a treat, and the first pack tales the crown for Best Old Game.
Now nearly 30 years old, the first three Lara Croft adventures stand up remarkably well due to their varied settings, thoughtful level design and stirring sense of discovery. Aspyr and Crystal Dynamics respectfully updated the work of Core Design, preserving the gameplay but adding smoother modern controls and crisp new visuals. Amusingly, the developers must have spent a large chunk of time working on tomb ceilings, because back in the day, Core had too tight a polygon budget to decorate them. In this way, the remasters literally shine new light on old classics.
Sure, the combat in these games is dated and the levels can be confusingly opaque – looking at you, Canary Wharf in Tomb Raider III – but this is why the endlessly helpful Stella’s Tomb Raider Site deserves a special mention, surely one of the best fansites online.
– Andy Johnson
Read our review of Tomb Raider I – III Remastered.
Runner Up: System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster
2023’s remake of the original System Shock helped to revitalize this long dormant franchise, and so attention naturally turned to the sequel. However, 1999’s System Shock 2 had aged a lot better than its predecessor, with the core gameplay and approach still extremely engaging in 2025. Therefore, Nightdive Studios opted to give the game the broad remaster treatment, upscaling the graphics, the character models and the UI, but leaving the gameplay functionally identical. The 25th Anniversary Remaster is now the best looking and most accessible way to play this genuine classic of the immersive sim genre, and it afforded me the opportunity to finally say I have completed this still excellently entertaining game (since my personal introduction to the “shock” franchise was BioShock in 2007).
– Gareth Brading
Read our review of System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster.
