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[Review] Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways (DLC Expansion)


Ada gets her time to shine!
source: www.xbox.com

Ever since Resident Evil 4 Remake came out, fans knew we were gonna get this at some point. Around seven months is when we would see it though and the first impression was great. This side story seemed to be much more than it was originally, which makes sense as to why we had to wait to see it. The DLC released not long after it's announcement though, on September 21st 2023. You can purchase this DLC expansion currently for £8 on Steam, Playstation store and Xbox store. Though, how did it shape up? Well I have played it several times, including a speed run of it, so I am more than confident in giving my views on it now.

~ Positives ~

It Looks Amazing - Just like the main game, to no one's surprise Separate Ways looks great visually. Not only this though, but all the new cutscenes look wonderful and are very cinematic. You can tell a lot of effort went into this game's visuals as a whole. I also feel like the cutscenes in general are better than the original Separate Ways too, due to that having multiple times where it was just Ada talking over some footage, which was quite boring.

Gameplay Is Still Top-Notch - While it isn't much different from the main game, it didn't need to be. The skeleton of Resident Evil 4 Remake's gameplay is already at it's best for the genre. However, that doesn't mean there are no differences, because Adas grapple gun does add something to the experience. Melee attacks are so satisfying in this game so when the grapple gun allows you to do ranged melee attacks it just feels even better and looks awesome at the same time. Not only this, but the grapple gun is also used for traversal through the different areas of the experience. I feel this feature alone makes it super fun to speed run. There are also some really cool completely new set pieces and challenges which I think further improves on the original's Separate Ways. One of the best new additions being Adas laser grid section, which introduces a brand new enemy. 

source: www.xbox.com

Ada Gets The Narrative She Deserves - The narrative of the main game was already a step up from the original, but having this fill in the remaining gaps really makes it leaps and bounds above what the narrative was before. Adas main rival throughout this campaign is the U-3, which is awesome since this boss was missing in the main story. For me, the original separate ways lacked a separate story for her and felt a bit random at times, having this enemy pursue her was such a good change. The experience just felt much more like Adas own struggle rather than her just showing up to help Leon at times. All the other additional pieces of narrative also worked really well and didn't feel tacked on.

Good Amount Of Content For The Price - The original Separate Ways came with the game, so this one being separate paid dlc did raise a few flags. However, it more than justifies it. The campaign is around double the size of the original Separate Ways and features plenty of extra unlockables for hours of fun beyond the main story.

~ Negatives ~

Design Featured Some Unwelcome Back Tracking - While it wasn't a huge issue at all, you definitely feel like you back track a bit more than you do in the main game. Considering this is a shorter experience it is also more noticeable too. Back tracking itself isn't much of an issue, but it becomes one when there isn't anything really that is added to the repeat journey.

~ Conclusion ~

source: www.xbox.com

To conclude, this whole experience was great and much better than it was before in the og. It's worth the price for sure and I would recommend anyone with Resident Evil 4 Remake to not miss out on this. While it may have an issue with some of it's design it's merely more of a nit pick than a big issue. Resident Evil 4 Remake is now one of my absolute favourite experiences thanks to the addition of content from this DLC. I eagerly look forward to what is next for the series. 

Total Hours Played: 13

Score: 9/10

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