Can perfection be improved? Resident Evil 4 Remake review

It is true that Resident Evil 4 is not the best installment, but I have to write that it was a real breakthrough. This is the first entry in the main series that successfully abandoned the static variable camera in favor of the TPP ( third person perspective ) mode, i.e. directly from behind the hero’s back. In addition, Leon S. Kennedy, whom we could like in Resident Evil 2, returns . Today, however, this wonderful creation, with a lot of ports, reissues and remasters, has aged very mechanically. The controls were non-intuitive, wooden – even disturbing. Due to technological limitations, the locations are very tunnel-like and sometimes even claustrophobic. This year, specifically on March 23, 2023, we received a full-fledged remake of this iconic Capcom game. Is it worth reaching for it?

 

Some history

Let’s go back to 1996, when the first Resident Evil came out . The game, which was supposed to be a new form of another production called Sweet Home , became a new series, because already in 1998 we got the second part, and in 1999 – the conclusion of the Racoon City story. Of course, there was also a spin-off in the form of Resident Evil Survival , but I have to focus on the parts from the main series, because only those get remakes.

Before I mention the first renewal from scratch, I cannot miss the year 2000, when Resident Evil Code: Veronica came out on the Dreamcast , which continues the story of the Redfields, i.e. the hero of the first part and the heroine of the second installment, respectively. In 2002, a remake for the GameCube console appears, the first installment gets its second life, or rather the third and fourth, because only after being ported to PS3, PS4, Xbox and PC, respectively, one can talk about success, at least in Poland, where Nintendo had no The PlayStation 2 spin-off met the exact same fate – Resident Evil 0 , also from this year, appeared exclusively on the GameCube and later on the Wii, until 2016.

All of the above-mentioned productions are the most classic survival horror games; the camera is variable, fixed for a given frame, little ammunition, a moderate number of enemies, an incredible atmosphere of hunting and puzzles. Resident Evil 4 debuts in 2005 and is the most ported and remastered title in the series. However, two remakes are worth mentioning as they are already on Capcom’s current graphics engine, REngine . Resident Evil 2 Remakefrom 2019 was a bull’s-eye, transferring the classic to TPP, modern mechanics and graphics, with a full reconstruction of the gameplay, but not the story core. A year later, the same thing happened with the third part, unfortunately, the American branch of the company was working on it, not the original one, and it turned out as it turned out. The style of gameplay is great, the graphics are even better than in its predecessor, but the cuts in locations in favor of single-player tower defense activity just to keep the time in the game close to the original did not catch on well. That’s how we got to the fourth renewal at the base.

A beautiful Spanish adventure

I will now move on to the changes, and there are a lot of them. In fact, it’s easier to list what has not changed compared to the original, and this is the main storyline, i.e.: the daughter of the US president has been kidnapped, the intelligence has determined that she has been taken to Spain and Leon is sent to rescue her. Everything else has been completely transformed or rebuilt to make much more sense. The original had flaws in several places, wooden controls, locations – especially in the later part of the game – uninteresting and even boring. All these aspects have been improved in the new installment, although the section in the castle is still weaker than in the village, and the island is a bit immersive, but each location has been greatly improved and there is no feeling of prolonged gameplay.

Completely removed the classic QTE ( quick time events) for blocking and parrying with a knife, there are also a lot of novelties in the armament. Incendiary grenades were abandoned, PRL special weapons were removed, and the mine launcher, considered useless, was replaced with an automatic crossbow with the possibility of mounting an explosive charge on the bolt. However, two carbines and one type of grenades have been added, so the arsenal is similar overall. The role of the trader has also been increased – he is not only our supplier of weapons and allows us to upgrade our equipment, but also repairs our equipment, gives us small orders that greatly diversify the gameplay. Yes, in the remake, the knives and vest have their stamina bars, they need maintenance – this seems like too much of a change, but it didn’t bother me at all, even though it affects the financial issues.

It is also worth mentioning the novelty in the matter of treasures and precious stones, now there are two classes, they have three colors, and the antiques themselves have two to five slots, in which we can put such a stone and increase the sales value.

An important change appearing in the new installment is the character of Ashley herself. In the original, it was a four-letter ulcer, fortunately, it was written from scratch, and the voice actress does not have that annoying style and timbre. Sure, we still have to babysit her, but it’s not frustrating, and the character herself has many more uses than just being a target. The very fact that he often helps to get to places inaccessible to Leon himself is a big plus. There are also changes in the bestiary, first of all, one of the bosses has disappeared, maybe there will be a place for him in some DLC. In addition, two types of enemies from the island have been replaced: the fat one with a minigun and the other with a mace, with a large peasant with a cow mask, which comes in various options (unarmed, with a powerful hammer or something like a rapid-fire on a hand-held bolt launcher).Resident Evil 4 . Combat arenas, thanks to less hardware limitations, are much better thought out; although more space makes skirmishes much easier, at least they are not annoying, and simply provide an intense experience.

Don’t go without your equipment

It’s time for me to illustrate the technical issues of the PC release, because I had the opportunity to play this option. Before I move on to my experiences and observations, I would like to add that I also checked the opinions of people playing on consoles and everything is nice and smooth there, generally very good. It’s not so colorful on PC anymore. I don’t mean that on my Ryzen 5 2600, GTX 1660Ti and 16GB RAM I didn’t get a stable 60FPS, and I had to make big cuts in graphics settings to get them at 1080p resolution. Accordingly, in the already two-year-old Resident Evil Village with the same cuts (as a reminder: it’s the same graphics engine) I have 120 frames per second. It comes down to Resident Evil 4 Remakelooks like a bit older brother, but works worse, which perfectly shows that this is a position dedicated to the latest technologies. Looking at the options in the graphics settings, if I changed the processor to R5 5600, and the graphics to RTX 3060 12GB VRAM (everyone knows that 8GB is not worth it) and maybe doubled the amount of memory for comfort, I could enjoy the full range of quality in smoothness decent pc. This shows that if someone has, for example, a PS5 and not the latest computer, it is better for him to choose a console game. Of course, I’m not saying that the game looks bad, because it’s graphically very nice, I’m more sensitizing that the resources needed to achieve quality are immeasurable compared to consoles.

A few miscellaneous issues

As a fan and veteran of the series, I follow opinions, trivia and various reviews. A lot of very negative voices are being directed towards the new voice actress for Ada Wong’s character. I do not understand this regret a bit, its color is completely different from the original, but just as well used, thanks to which it emphasizes the heroine’s calculating nature. For me, this is a big plus, but I have a lot to blame for Krauser’s change. Originally he had a heavy, guttural masculine timbre, now he sounds like any guy you meet on the street. From the character there is also Luis, whom I did not want to push into the issues of changes, but probably many will be happy that there is more of him and he has a bigger role.

Character skins are another thing worth mentioning; in the original we could unlock two additional sets. Here we have one, but in the form of microtransactions there are some completely new ones. Personally, I don’t support it, but nobody is forcing anyone to buy such things.

It is also a bit poorer in additional modes, although The Mercenaries were added on April 7, but Seperated Ways, where we controlled Ada, has disappeared and there is no information whether it will return. Of course, we can expect more DLCs, because the game sold very well, but it is not known whether they will be free. Just as I don’t mind completely new modes, so if something that was previously removed just to earn a little more money was to come back to the game … Judge for yourself. As for the Mercenary mode itself – I’m not a fan, it’s more interesting than the original, but it doesn’t give anything but satisfaction, so only if someone likes this kind of gameplay, they will devote more time to it.

The biggest controversy, which can be heard especially among Polish audiences, is the lack of Polish language, even subtitles, and full Russification. Sure, politics and the gaming world, but it’s big enough to be perceived as slander. They had enough time before the premiere to do something about it and look better in terms of image, but they didn’t. For me, this is a big minus for Capcom. We already swallowed the lack of basic polonization in The Village , and the language in Residents is not so complicated that you don’t understand what’s going on, so they could also skip Russian.

Platinum pursuit, or summary

The first ascent took me less than 16 hours; this is a very good result, considering that most games in the series are more for one sitting. The additional challenges and the proverbial platinum took me almost 57 hours and to be honest it’s almost a speedrun; a layman will easily have many more hours of great fun, especially since some challenges require perfection. The new form of creation has a very positive effect on the willingness to make more attempts. The puzzles that I didn’t mention before are the perfect stop to stretch your mind between fights. The intensity and improvement of everything that was good in the already archaic original makes it a perfect remake, but I would leave the crown to the second part.