[Review] Resident Evil 4 Remake

The best Resident Evil Remake

source: blog.playstation.com

Resident Evil 4 Remake is exactly what it says on the tin, a remake of the 2005 classic game. RE 4 Remake arrived worldwide on March 24th 2023, though I played it much later in January of this year. Resident Evil 4 originally elevated the series into new ambitious heights, that set it quite apart from previous entries. I enjoyed the original a lot and so did many others, with it getting critical acclaim. So this remake had quite some shoes to fill. After Resident Evil 3 Capcom had lost a little trust in the fans, all of us hoped for it to get the same love and care the Resident Evil 2 remake did, but did it in my opinion? Well now I have completed the game not once, but several times, I can confidently give my thoughts on the game.

~ Positives ~

Let's start by talking about the positives. To start with, the game looks absolutely stunning. I am a huge fan of all the visual upgrades and changes. Many of the characters look better than they did originally, especially Ashely, her new design is great. The enemies look even creepier than they originally did as well, thanks to the details being easier to see. The animations are very smooth and fluid, you can tell most, if not all of it, was mo-capped. This is all no surprise though as Capcom's RE engine is absolutely top tier for this stuff. 

Moving on to the gameplay, it is peak Resident Evil. The gunplay is very similar to the other two RE Remakes, which is great because it was amazing in those games. However, RE 4 Remake throws in a new mechanic, parrying. This mechanic makes the game so much more fun, getting a perfect parry is so satisfying and allows you to get yourself out of a tricky situation. It was so nice for the enemies that threw or shot projectiles at you. Of course, like the original, RE 4 Remake also let's you use melee moves on staggered enemies, this was always great fun to do, watching Leon do that roundhouse kick never gets old. A huge improvement I will give it's own mention is the Ashely Segments, the addition of two formations you can assign her really helps you get her past enemies better. She also doesn't need to be caught from a drop meaning gameplay doesn't get slowed for that reason. It's so much better and I don't dread those sections anymore. 

Now let's talk about the story. Wow, they greatly improved this aspect for sure, it was pretty decent before, but so many moments are just made so much better in this. I also love how much more spotlight they gave certain characters like Luis for example. In the original I felt like his death was way too early and it didn't really mean much to the player, but having him accompany you for a longer time allows the player to actually care more about him and his story. Ashley is also much better in my opinion, in the original she was so annoying, but now she has much better characterisation. In general, while I did like how comic the original felt at times in it's story, I am glad they toned it down a little too. 

~ Negatives ~

Now let's talk about the negatives. There really aren't too many for this game, but two things do stand out to me. Firstly, while most of the cut/replaced content was more than fine with me, there few bits that I did miss from the original. As an example, the lava room wasn't the most fun in the original but I would have loved to see it in the new visuals and possibly overhaled a bit. The laser grid room was also another thing I wish was here because that was just cool. I am also not sure why they removed incendiary grenades, those were pretty fun to use. 

Now for the second thing, the voice work for Ada and Wesker aren't my favourite. Though I don't think they are bad by any means just not really what I envision for the characters. They did grow on me a tiny bit over time though, but they are still not doing it 100% for me.

~ Conclusion ~

To conclude, this game is absolutely amazing. My negatives aren't that weighted really, though they do exist. I think overall this is easily my favourite Resident Evil game beating out Resident Evil 2 Remake. Capcom thankfully delivered, after what happened with RE 3, they must have wanted to make sure they didn't mess this one up. I also think this beats out the original by quite a bit as well. This to me is the definite RE 4 experience. I would recommend it to any survival horror game fan as well as action game fans, it's the perfect blend. I am interested to see where they go next, RE 5 is a pretty decent game but would need to be less faithful in my opinion than RE 4 remake. Whatever they choose to do if they do the RE 5 remake I will most likely be getting it, as I am super happy with how Capcom is treating Resident Evil again now.

Rating: 90/100

Hours played: 20 (65 total)

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