Let’s not talk about the usual story about who the guys from Capcom are and what good fellows they are for doing Resident Evil 4 Remake. They did everything beautifully, expensively, and modernly, of course, but I want to say, “learn how to make remakes!” as everyone does. But in this case, I simply can’t. Even sarcastically, it would be a lie. These guys have already figured out what people love, what they want, what they need to give, what the old generation loves, and how to show and lead the new generation to what is considered a classic. This is our Resident Evil 4 Remake review.
And here it is worth clarifying one important detail, I went through almost all the RE games in order, but the passage of this game for the first time for me, a very long time ago, back in 2008-09, I started playing, but then I did not advance far and did everything thoughtlessly, and now, when I fully analyzed the previous events of the series, I am impressed with this game, and to say that I like it is to say nothing. Do I recommend this game – yes, but not just as a game that you can play and forget, but to spend time and make out what is happening in the series.
You have probably already played the wonderful remake of Resident Evil 2 more than once without it, after which you took a slightly less wonderful but still very worthy rethought Resident Evil 3 for a snack. And Resident Evil 4 Remake videos promised us at least a comparable level of quality. And here I will tell you no surprises – the game looks, sounds, feels, and smells like a cool modern action game, but the way it looks when you set all the settings to the maximum is breathtaking.
In the recently released demo, we had an introduction to the game, including a very large battle with a mob of rabid peasants and a mini-boss with a chainsaw. In the original Resident Evil 4, I replayed this moment dozens of times, and it’s not at all that it is quite difficult. At that time, the action in the game was really impressive. I wanted to relive this battle again and again, go through it as cleanly, beautifully, and cinematically as possible, find and use all the interesting places and moves, and kill as many zombie villagers as possible.
And you know what – this game managed to evoke those memories, and even evoke new ones because even with some changes, all the emotions and what happened looks and feels great. If you have not yet decided whether to give your hard-earned money for this game – be sure to download the free demo to understand and touch everything this game has to offer.
For those who don’t follow or have forgotten the plot and what happened to the characters.
Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop from Resident Evil 2, injured Raccoon City survivor, now an injured US Strategic Command soldier. After the incident in Raccoon City, Claire and Leon broke up, Claire continued to look for Chris, and Leon continued to take care of Sherry. Soon Kennedy and Sherry were detained by the US military, where he was then invited to serve. And now he is sent on a mission to a remote village somewhere in Europe. He is looking for the kidnapped daughter of the President of the United States, who has been kidnapped by a mysterious cult in an unknown rural region of Spain. Upon arrival, Leon quickly finds himself surrounded by hostile villagers infected with a deadly parasite known as Las Plagas.
The location in the game looks great, and the whole atmosphere is disgusting, but you want to examine and study it
While this remastered version of Capcom’s survival horror game retains the storytelling, characters, and main locations of the original, the game’s structure, how each terrifying and thrilling scene plays out, has been slightly reworked. It’s definitely a remake, but it feels fresh and bright.
Resident Evil 4 will have a much darker tone, the vermin-infested enemies are downright ruthless, constantly surrounding Leon and giving the player no time to breathe. Players will find themselves regularly running out of ammo, taking out vicious hordes with everything they have on hand, and if you don’t comb your surroundings, you’ll be in trouble.
Places that offer just about everything your heart desires in horror. Whether it’s a church with ground mist and a collection of skulls, a gloomy stalactite cave, or a magnificent castle with polished marble floors, all the sets are lovingly crafted and create a dense dark atmosphere with atmospheric light and weather effects and an intense soundscape.
Every place is a rotting smorgasbord of horror. You explore a farm where emaciated animals roam and then drop dead from starvation, and where every hut has some villager waiting to stab you in the back. As I said, after going a little through the plot, more luxurious scenery appears later: gothic buildings, decorated walls, renaissance paintings, and impeccably set dining tables, each room has a neat puzzle or a fresh monster, but it is also worth considering that the enemies become stronger, faster, and more resourceful.
But what’s nice is the freedom to explore, but the game feels like the leash is always tight and you never get bored or lost or enter an area you shouldn’t have found yet. To be honest, the subliminal environmental indicators in this game are some of the best I’ve ever come across.
Also included in the game are small subtasks: a series of quests in which you kill rats and shoot at hidden targets to earn money that can be used to buy exclusive items from the merchant.
The game retains the feel of the original and pays due attention to its rhythms and tempo, where it really lets loose is in updating the look of the game. The remake looks absolutely great, locations that were once blurry and bare of detail are now very meticulous and full of characters and tiny touches that sell the world, and what happens to the light and detail on the characters is simply amazing in places.
Gameplay and changes
Up to this point, Resident Evil games have been slower, with zombie-inspired plots, and here comes Resident Evil 4, which gave the series the adrenaline rush it so desperately needed. And the game after this change has remained unsettling and in places absolutely creepy and dark, it is much more focused on combat in terms of narrative and gameplay.
Now it’s immediately clear that this is just a remake and changes that changed a lot back in 2007 because even the character’s movements resemble new remakes, where the characters have an adequate turning speed, and the movements of different characters are different.
The game has been reimagined so familiar areas are likely to have vastly different layouts and connect in unexpected ways. Nonsensical placeholder parts have been merged with other areas, some segments have been expanded, and progress has become a little more linear so constant tedious rolling back is not required.
Speaking of difficult areas where mob enemies are still present, they don’t feel like a chore and this design philosophy is applied throughout the game. From time to time there are branching objectives that can be tackled in any order, along with additional surprises and treasure hunts, just in case I made it too linear.
The game also has additional side missions. Like the blue medallion hunt from the original game, Resident Evil 4 now lets you earn money that you can exchange for weapons and treasure. This is a cool addition that gives you a reason to spend more time in a dense gaming environment.
Most interestingly, the biggest misconception about the original Resident Evil 4 is that it’s actually a big escort mission disguised as a shooter. After all, Ashley is our companion (and the love of many), and she’s never been much of a problem. She followed us around, dodged gunfire, and generally didn’t get in the way unless you were in a particularly lively firefight. This is basically the case here, although Ashley’s mechanics are slightly modified, in the original game, you could give Ashley two commands – wait and follow, which was later seen with companions in RE revelations 2. In the remake, you can either make her follow right behind you or try to hide and give you space, but regardless of the option, she always follows you and enemies follow her, which means that she is more likely to be in danger, and there are fewer opportunities to hide her during combat, and compared to the original, she hits a lot more often into “danger”. But what I liked is that Ashley no longer has a health bar. The system reminds me of Revelations 2 because when it takes damage, it shuts down and requires you to pick it up again. This does not mean that you can throw grenades at her or use piercing pistols, as such strong attacks will result in an immediate game over.
And another change that everyone is sure to notice is knife parry and knife durability. Yes, the new addition is the ability to parry with a knife, though of course not all attacks can be parried, leading to these long sequences of complete chaos where the combination of skills and reactions will have cinematic staging and moments that you will remember after.
The player’s animation system falls somewhere in between being responsive and favoring animation over input. Actions have momentum and speed, even picking up weapons takes time, so some players might call these controls “heavy”. On the contrary, the parry system works instantly and can be launched even from the aiming post.
Pressing action right before the strike results in a devastating counterattack, but instead of dealing damage, a perfect parry stuns the enemy, while a slower parry actually blocks. Parrying will take time to understand and master, as the time window differs for each attack, but on normal difficulties, you can press the button with a small chance that it will not work.
Additional content currently available in the game
Currently, the remake only includes the main game, while the original offered the following additional content:
- Mercenary Mode (Mercenaries): Unlockable Score Hunt
- Infernal Mission: An unlockable non-canonical mini-game starring Ada.
- Separate Paths: Unlockable additional content in which we re-enact Ada’s role in the story. It was available in all versions after the GameCube after beating the main story.
- It is already known that the mercenary mode will be delivered later. However, we don’t yet know if other content will arrive as DLC
I suspect that for those who have not played Resident Evil 4, the experience of this remake will be to discover a very good third-person shooter with great graphics and wonder why everyone has made such a fuss about it. And the sad fact is that although the original game is already old and the same game defined the genre of the entire series, this remake will forever be a legacy and bound by it. The Resident Evil 4 remake is undoubtedly better than the original, as is everything new, but there are people who are used to the old and will remain the same.
This review was completed thanks to a verified Steam/PC purchase.
