Following the release of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3, the logical next step was a reimagining of Resident Evil 4, which is praised by many as one of the greatest games of all time. Many fans grew concerned at this prospect, as a task like this was a monumental undertaking. Plenty of fear regarding a potential remake derived from worries about cut content. Resident Evil 3 cut quite memorable sections of the original game, like the Clocktower segment. Additionally, some felt a game like RE4 didn’t need a remake, especially considering its endless amount of ports available. As we all know now, Capcom felt otherwise and followed suit by remaking the classic 2005 hit. Last June, Capcom boldly started the initial reveal of the Resident Evil 4 remake with the release date before showing any gameplay at all. That’s how you make a statement of confidence. Nine months later, the game is out, and I’ve been playing Resident Evil 4 for over two weeks for this review. After rolling credits, I am beyond happy to state that Capcom was clearly confident for a reason, as they have a clear Game of the Year contender on their hands.
The Influence and Legacy of Resident Evil 4
The original RE4 quite honestly changed the world of gaming forever. Transitioning from the fixed camera system that the prior Resident Evil entries utilized, Resident Evil 4 opted to use an over-the-shoulder active camera that is iconic nowadays. This camera allowed for a heavy focus on action and precise aiming and shooting. It directly gives control to the player for aim while also giving a clear view of the environment surrounding them. Throughout the title, there are many sequences where Leon must precisely aim for headshots or various other parts among the infected enemies.
Many of the games that utilize this camera result from the brilliance in Resident Evil 4. Titles like Dead Space, Bioshock, and God of War might not even exist today if it weren’t for the innovativeness RE4 brought to the world in 2005. Even the game’s resource-gathering mechanics directly inspired hundreds of developers, as we saw with God of War (2018).
The legacy of the title is not constrained just to one genre, either. Resident Evil 4 has shaped and influenced multiple genres, including survival, horror, shooters, and more. The game, truthfully, is one of the most important games of all time. I can’t even count the number of titles it has directly influenced, with the list above only being a tiny handful. This is exactly why the expectations for Resident Evil 4 (2023) are so high. Remaking one of the most important (and greatest) games of all time is an astronomical undertaking that could only be done with the same love and care Resident Evil 2 received.
Six Years Later…
Resident Evil 4 takes place six years after the gruesome events that occurred in Raccoon City. Leon S. Kennedy, one of the few survivors of the freak accident, is now part of a secret government program and is tasked with locating the missing daughter of the President of the United States. The search takes him to a remote and rural village located in the middle of Spain, where something seems to be a bit off. While there might not be zombies, the villagers aren’t ordinary. During his first encounter with a villager, Leon is attacked and forced to kill the villager clutching the axe. Heading downstairs, you find the corpse of the police officer who drove you to the village. Normally, that would be the end of things; however, as Leon heads back upstairs to leave the house, the villager he killed starts rushing towards him with its neck snapped in half.
Resident Evil 4 is a masterclass example of creating an immersive atmosphere and experience. Immediately after the segment I’ve described above, you head into the main village, where you’re thrown into an all-out brawl with dozens of villagers. You run around the entire village while parrying, meleeing, and shooting all the villagers chasing after you. It’s hard to recall the last title that was able to grant me this level of immersion, as Resident Evil 4 just perfectly pulls together everything on screen to create its experience.
What truly brings together this immersion is the sheer quality of graphics, sound design, level design, gameplay, lighting, and more. With these features together, Resident Evil 4 has elevated itself to one of the most immersive titles I’ve played. It’s unquestionably raised the standard for titles in the genre going forward, and additionally so with remakes. There’s much to explore with each of these; however, let’s first dive into the meat of Resident Evil 4 – the gameplay.
Get a Move On, Rookie.
The combat found in Resident Evil 4 is by far the most fun I’ve had in a Resident Evil title. The jump from 2019’s Resident Evil 2 to 2023’s Resident Evil 4 is simply incredible. Obviously, RE4 is a much more action-focused title. However, even the simple gunplay has been taken and retooled to fit this world six years later. From the opening encounter with the lone villager, the gunplay is incredibly tight and truly enhances the experience. This is absolutely a result of the retooled controls, which now represent a more modern style via twin-stick movement.
These new controls represent what was found in the recent RE titles; however, this time around, it’s been perfected and tuned to fit Mr. Kennedy. Remaking the combat from the original game was no easy task, but Capcom has gone above and beyond in faithfully adapting it. Aiming and shooting with Leon’s SR-09 R in the village brawl is incredibly satisfying, as aiming and shooting enemies requires some precision. You’ll also have your trusty knife, which has one of the most satisfying parry mechanics I’ve ever seen in a game. Leon also has a melee kick he can utilize against stunned enemies, which ends up becoming a suplex if you melee from behind. Pairing these with conventional grenades, flash grenades, and a vast variety of firearms creates a formidable arsenal that offers limitless fun when utilized.
Learning the gameplay mechanics is a joy. Each of the weapons feels fantastic, with exceptional care poured into each to be as realistic and useful as possible. With crowd control options for horde encounters, it allows you to get creative depending on how many enemies you’re dealing with. A great example of this is when you have one enemy leading multiple to you, where you can stun and kick the enemy into all those behind them. This will subsequently cause everyone behind the kicked enemy to fall, which could act as a diversion if needed.
Easily my favorite mechanic available is the knife parry. It is by far the most satisfying parry/counter I’ve seen in a game for years. There’s a detailed level of care behind this ability, with exceptional particle effects and sound design accompanying it. You feel like the man of the hour watching Leon push away a Ganado wielding a chainsaw with simply his knife alone. Almost every one of the enemies you encounter through the game is able to be parried. It all depends on the timing of your input, which should be just before the enemies lunges into you.
Like all things, your knife does not have infinite durability. Over time, it will wear down with each parry, stab, and slice. Once it reaches zero, it will break, which means you’ll need to get it repaired. There are plenty of different weapons to obtain and upgrade, which is done through the mysterious merchant. You’ll earn plenty of pesetas as you defeat enemies and break boxes. You’ll use these coins to purchase anything from the merchant or even upgrade your weapons.
While the Merchant might repeat the same voice lines repeatedly, he’s a great resource essential to success. In addition to Pesetas, you will also be able to find Spinels throughout each of the levels. These can be spent in a special shop through the merchant, where you can buy items, such as a Treasure Map, that reveals all treasures available to find on your area map. These can be very resourceful when looking to find different treasures and gems, which will grant you thousands of pesetas once sold to the Merchant.
Incredible Yet Faithful Level Design
Resident Evil 4 crafts a streamlined linear experience that flows flawlessly. The game never felt like it was dragging in any segment, which is something I fear many open-world titles suffer from. Many games with open environments tend to feel almost bloated at times, which can affect the narrative’s pacing. This is never the case here, as each Chapter allows you to progress through an explorable yet streamlined area. The remake perfectly adapts and recreates the iconic level design from the original game while still incorporating fresh and new ideas.
Three main areas make up the world of RE4. These are the Village, the Castle, and the Island. Each of these areas is split across about 1/3 of the game, with new sections being discovered with each chapter. All three of these locations are incredibly detailed. There’s an endless amount of hidden easter eggs and details within all three locations, which really pushes you to explore each area to its fullest.
New to the remake are optional side quests, indicated with a blue sheet of paper pinned to the wall. These are straight from the merchant and can contain anything from destroying a certain number of blue medallions to collecting rats from different levels. When completing, you earn Spinels, which can be spent on plenty of different helpful items. In my initial playthrough, I completed almost every side quest, which granted me plenty of different items and upgrades I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
The introduction chapter of Island, Chapter 13, made me feel as if I was Solid Snake on a mission in Metal Gear Solid. The waves are crashing violently along the shore as headlights shine across the path ahead. Enemies stand guard as lasers prevent Leon from entering the Island. The environments Capcom created are astounding with RE Engine. Capcom’s ability to create immersive environments is truly incredible, with Resident Evil 4 being a perfect showcase of that. This doesn’t just go for Chapter 13, however, as I consistently felt this feeling of awe as I navigated through each level. Each has been meticulously crafted to both immerse and create the game’s atmosphere.
Puzzles that were found in the original game have been faithfully recreated in RE4. While none of them are too challenging, I appreciated the faithfulness as it assisted in driving me to explore to depths of what each chapter had to offer. They’re spaced out to where it isn’t overwhelming but throws in some problem-solving at just the right points. One of my favorite puzzles was the glass puzzle in the Church just before you find Ashley. While it wasn’t tricky at all, it required me to carefully analyze the different glass pieces right after I was chased by multiple Ganados.
Overall, the story should take you around 15 hours to complete. I ran through the game at 17 hours on my first playthrough, largely due to me exploring all sorts of areas and finding treasures. Compared to the prior remake titles, I loved this game’s length and felt it was perfect to keep an amazing pace and superb character writing. Players who choose to do everything the game offers can expect the spend up to 30 hours completing each quest and the main story. If you’re looking to platinum or 100% the game, you can expect to spend around 45-50 hours to earn that coveted trophy. Like almost every Resident Evil game, the platinum for RE4 is fun, challenging, and rewarding. With its seemingly endless replayability, getting the platinum is truly a joy.
Replayability is something I think is becoming increasingly rare in today’s games. It’s not often you complete a game and want to dive in to beat the entire campaign all over again. I absolutely felt this with RE4, however, and did it twice. It’s a game that is so hard to put down once you pick it up. I dove in for hours and challenged myself to increase my speed run time or do a no-heal run. The trophies offer plenty of challenges that can spice up each playthrough, and after your first run, you start to understand the inner workings of each chapter. Every playthrough is a new experience, which led me to start playthroughs even after I’d completed trophy-specific runs. Resident Evil 4 has the best replayability out of almost all the games I’ve played over the last five years.
Viva Las Plagas
One of the greatest strengths of Resident Evil 4 is its ability to set the tone and make you feel emotions. You truly feel this overwhelming sense of survival as you rush around each level’s various areas, whether through the gameplay, story, music, or environmental design. I personally never felt the rush of emotions in the original as I have with the remake. With the new graphics and systems, it’s almost impossible not to get completely immersed.
Ammo, or resources in general, is something I think truly encapsulates this experience. The scarcity of it all truly brings the survival element together in RE4, which is extremely important to help the narrative land as intended. You’re constantly high-tailing it to gather resources or gain better positioning on the enemy. As you frantically switch weapons to target different enemies, you’ll need to carefully keep track of how much ammo you have left in your reserves. The main method of obtaining ammo and resources is through the breakable boxes scattered around the environment.
Capcom opted to mark breakable boxes with yellow tape on them. For some, this might be too obvious, but I loved the inclusion of the clear marking and the clever placement of these boxes & barrels across the different levels. Each contains either materials, ammo, or a healing item. With a game so set on making every bullet count, breaking each box is vital to surviving and having sufficient resources on hand. Countless times during my playthrough, I was met with panic as I shot my last bullet. However, I found a hidden box that happened to have a few spare bullets lying within.
This sense of survival is unmatched and makes for decision-making upon each enemy encounter. Do you waste your remaining pistol bullets on a few Ganados, or do you opt to throw your last grenade to quickly finish them off? The choices on how to approach each enemy are all yours; however, they could impact you with your next enemy encounter.
One of the greatest examples of the remake’s ability to create a horror environment is the Regenerators in the lab. These enemies make the laboratory an incredibly immersive environment from the initial encounter to the freezer. With such little lighting, navigating through the corridors while watching for the deformed endlessly-regenerating creatures is heart-pounding. My favorite bit of this section was the wrench segment, where there were four Regenerators hibernating in tubes emitting an eerie purple light. Combined with the mist and fog on the floor, it was just the right touch to complete this environment. It gets your blood pumping and had my anxiety through the roof as I scrambled to maintain a position to shoot their weak points with my rifle. It’s almost not even an option to opt for another method, as these terrorizing beings will soak up an immense amount of ammo.
Overall, there’s just so much love put into this title to immerse the player. The frantic survival segments get your heart pounding, while the horror segments have you taking a deep breath before each step. The game balances these areas so well that they blend together to create something remarkable.
A Ride Full of Thrills
As briefly described above, Resident Evil 4 sees Leon embark on a mission to locate and rescue the President’s daughter. There are plenty of twists and turns throughout the narrative, and while it might not be mind-blowing, it is truly a great time. Like the original game, I was hooked from the initial cutscene as the police officers disappeared into the woods. Each chapter has a clear place that offers new challenges and experiences while slowly reeling back the curtain on the narrative; it’s a thrill to experience and never lets up its pacing really at any point.
Pacing is key with action titles like these. Slowing down or having abrupt sections in-between chapters can be thwarting to the player; however, Capcom has built a thriller that doesn’t slow down once it starts. Even the slowest segment in the game, Ashley’s playable bit, still felt right at home and a purposeful part of the narrative. If you explore the entire library, you’ll find a cube you can use if you come back as Leon to the same area. By doing so, you’ll be able to get different treasures and even weapons.
The new voice-acting cast has done a phenomenal job of breathing new life into these characters. Nick Apostolides is my favorite portrayal of Leon S. Kennedy. Returning from RE2, he voices Leon with much more grit and cockiness, which reflects the experience he’s gained since the incidents of Raccoon City. He’s no longer a rookie but a seasoned fighter who’s seen all sorts of horrors. I loved his banter with each of the bosses, especially the crazy action sequences that reminded me of the John Wick films.
Another one of the remake’s greatest innovations was the huge improvement of both Luis and Ashley. I didn’t not like either of the characters in the original game, but the new writing and voice actors truly brought them into a new light for me personally. Ashley especially, with Genevieve Buechner crafting a character you actually want to save when traversing throughout the campaign. This time around, she’s funny and complements Leon well as they navigate through the corridors of the Castle. Her AI is incredibly smart and follows you at a distance that you’re able to control via the right stick.
Luis additionally is revived and better than ever, with his actor, André Peña, creating a mysterious character with unknown motives. He’s a great partner in his sequences with Leon, and overall, like Ashley, the character grew on me tremendously with the remake. He balances being mysterious and humorous quite well, with my favorite example of this being the house defense. With that thrilling and action-packed sequence, you have no idea if you should even trust Luis or follow him out of the house.
There’s truly just a sense of realism with the characters this time around, which I never felt in the original. They’re relatable and realistic in their situations. Although we lost a little bit of the iconic cheesiness from the original in the process, the more grounded and realistic characters help drive home the tone and emotion Resident Evil 4 is able to convey to the player.
Formidable Foes Await (Resident Evil 4 Review)
There’s a terrifying group of villains awaiting you in RE4. From the eerie villagers to the mighty Saddler, many different enemy encounters await you. The enemy variety in Resident Evil 4 is fantastic, with a wide number of enemy encounters awaiting you. From the initial village encounter to the depths of the Underground Laboratory, different enemies await in each area with new tricks to try and kill you.
The Ganado are smarter, faster, and trickier than the zombies you’ll find in RE2 as a result of the T-Virus. With the action focus of the fourth title, this challenge of smarter enemies is more than welcome. Instead of just relying on your pistol, you’ll be slicing, parrying, and kicking away at the enemies. There’s a large variety of different Ganado between each of the three main areas, equipped with all sorts of weapons and shields.
One of the trickiest enemies is the Garrador, who boasts wolverine-style claws. Utilizing the new crouch mechanic, you’ll have to sneak around this enemy who can only rely on their ears. If you’re too loud, the Garrador will charge at you, swinging away to slice you in pieces. You’ll encounter multiple variants, with one of them equipped with armor to protect against gunshots.
The Regenerators return scarier and more fear-inducing than ever. Sure, it was something that caught you off guard and was scary at the time in the original game, but the remake takes this to a whole new level. On the Island, you’ll be forced to head into a lab. As you walk through, you’ll start seeing dead humanoid experiments all throughout, abandoned by the scientists. Eventually, you’ll come across a file describing the Regenerator – a being created with extraordinary regenerative abilities. Shortly after this, you’ll see a shadow run across the room down the hallway, and upon entering, you will encounter your first Regenerator. I haven’t scrambled to get out of a room that fast in such a long time. They are legitimately terrifying, especially with the environment, as described above.
As for the main big bad, Saddler and his crew return to reign terror upon Leon once again. I was slightly worried about Salazar’s design change in the remake. However, my worries immediately vanished as I loved the modern interpretation of the character. He still has his cheesy lines blasted by the megaphone throughout the castle. Saddler was great in each scene he was in, but he was missing a lot of the buildup he saw in the original game. Boss fights overall were fantastic and carried a sense of epicness and scale that only Resident Evil can deliver.
One of the things I wish wasn’t ‘cut’ from the original game were the moments when Salazar and Saddler hijacked the radio lines. These moments added characterization to Saddler, who, again, I felt somewhat lacking in this remake. He came around for a few scenes and, in the end, just shows up as the “big bad” without too much buildup. Sure, you take down his lackeys Krauser and Salazar, but you just don’t get the buildup you did from his hijacking of the communication lines in the 2005 original. I do, however, prefer the new method of radio communication that doesn’t take up the whole screen. Since you were able to move in real-time, it made it feel like you were truly getting paged by the US.
I want to note that, at first, I thought the audio for certain scenes, specifically the radio ones with Hunnigan, was broken. I later found out that this was a result of my controller audio being off, as the audio for these interactions plays through the DualSense controller. Luckily, Capcom has a setting you can switch to play this audio through your TV instead of a controller. As someone who isn’t too keen on controller audio, this was much appreciated, and I’m glad I was able to figure out where the ‘missing’ audio was.
It’s All in the Details
This remake of Resident Evil 4 has gone above and beyond in detailing its environment. Countless details and easter eggs can be easily missed or overlooked depending on how immersed you are in the game. I’ve briefly mentioned these things throughout this Resident Evil 4 review thus far; however, I want to highlight just how far Capcom has gone with detailing this world.
None of this would be possible without the phenomenal RE Engine. This engine has proven time and time again that it is one of the greatest pieces of technology in the industry, with stunning imagery and graphical showcases produced throughout its lifetime. Resident Evil 4 is no exception to that, with the title being Capcom’s best showcase of its engine to date. There is infinite detail in each level between the lighting, textures, and models. I could spend days talking about the technology behind this game and the sheer quality of the graphical framework; however, I think just the screenshots throughout this review do plenty of justice to the experience. Check out those hair strands.
I’ve continuously been blown away by the vast amount of easter eggs Capcom has shoved into each of the environments. One of the most popular tricks fans spotted is with the first village encounter. As you may know, the village attack lasts for a few minutes until the church bell rings. Normally, you’d think there’s no way to end it early, right? Capcom went above and beyond and made the bell shootable, which, when shot, will immediately stop the attack from the villagers.
Another example of this is the hallway that’s dropped from under your feet in the castle. When you reach the middle of it, an enemy automatically spawns and drops you and the walkway to the floor below you. During my playthrough, I thought to myself, “What if I threw a grenade just before he spawns and ran through the walkway?”. To my surprise, the grenade killed the enemy before it could even activate the trap. Things like these immersed me into the world, as I just don’t see other games allowing this kind of creativity through their detailed environments.
There are countless other small details like these that allow you to approach each enemy and environment in the way you’d like. This level of creative freedom allows you to examine and take on areas however you’d like. I loved experimenting and trying to see if “this will work” or if “I can beat this enemy like this.” It’s rare these days to play through linear titles with the ability to think like that, so I really appreciated the vast details and options Capcom littered throughout the levels.
When aiming down the sights, Leon will actually position his gun in a way that resembles a close-quarters position if the enemy is too close to him. The little things like this truthfully enhance this experience from a great one to a masterpiece. I fell in love running around and exploring to see just what things I could find that the developers left for players to find. Overall, the remake of Resident Evil 4 goes above and beyond in offering an environment begging to be explored.
Time to Be a Merc
The Mercenaries, a free mode added after launch, was released a few weeks ago on April 7. Built off of the original mode found in 2005’s Resident Evil 4, this mode has been refueled and reloaded to be better than ever. In Mercenaries, you run around a map and fight off endless hordes of enemies. There are plenty of boxes around and different powerups, which you’ll need to collect to stay along the longest you can and kill as many enemies as possible.
The four characters available currently are Leon, Luis, Krauser, and Hunk. Three maps are available to choose from, being that of the Village, the Castle, or the Island. While there might be some missing characters that appeared in the original game’s Mercenaries mode, I fully expect them to join the cast in the remake sometime soon. Each character has a unique arsenal of weapons and abilities, which can make each round of Mercenaries exciting and fresh. Just like the main game, putting down Mercenaries after just playing one round is hard. It’s quite fun to take on each round with a new character or strategy. I found myself spending some rounds testing out different vantage points while others, I did not stop moving for one second.
This mode especially has me hoping that someday Capcom might look into making a game that is simply just Mercenaries. It could include all characters from the franchise and clash together some of the series’ best protagonists and villains. I’d love to see Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield, Chris, and even some of the stars from VII & Village join the fray with a collaboration like this in the future.
The Future
The future of Resident Evil is more exciting than ever. With Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil Village, and now Resident Evil 4 under their belt, Capcom’s Division 1 has incredible momentum. Logically, the next title from this beloved team will most likely be Resident Evil 9, which is rumored to be the most ambitious RE title to date. After that, the inevitable remake of Resident Evil 5 will surely release sometime down the road, and hey, throw us a remake of Code Veronica while you’re at it! Regardless of the next title, Division 1 has truly found its stride over the past six years, and I am incredibly eager to see what lies in store next.
Truthfully, I fully expect the reign of Resident Evil 4 to continue throughout 2023, as a release of a remade Separate Ways DLC is most definitely in the pipeline. I can’t wait to play as Ada and explore her story, completely remade to perfection. RE4 is too big of a title not to release DLC for, and Capcom is lucky that more stories already exist. As aforementioned, I was a huge fan of Ada in Resident Evil 4, and I am immensely excited to hopefully see more of her later this year.
Resident Evil 4 is one of the most outstanding titles I’ve had the pleasure of playing over the last decade. It’s the perfect blend of action and survival, with a superb splash of horror thrown in to top things off. The immersion that the remake of RE4 was able to grant is almost unreal to think about, as so few games can make such a claim. I cannot recommend this title enough, regardless of if you’ve entered the world of Resident Evil before or not. It’s clear that Capcom has never been better, with the future looking incredibly exciting. Separate Ways is assuredly on the way, and I am ecstatic to see how the proclaimed developer manages to innovate once more.
Although we have nine months of the year left, it’s going to be tough to take my personal Game of the Year title away from Resident Evil 4. I can confidently state that Resident Evil 4 now resides among my favorite games of all time, as even long after rolling credits, it’s still fresh at the front of my mind. It’s just a perfect blend of everything a game needs – exceptional characters, perfected gameplay systems, and flawless overall design. Capcom has executed arguably the greatest video game remake in existence by building upon the original release and modernizing it for the new generation of players who never touched the original. I fully believe that Resident Evil 4 is among the greatest video games of all time.
This is a title I’ll be coming back to and replaying for years to come, and I’m sure most RE fans would agree with me on that. Between the endlessly fun campaign and addictive Mercenaries mode, there are hundreds of hours to be spent running around fighting Las Plagas. I cannot put this title down, and I don’t think I’ll even think about doing so for the next few months. Now Stranger, if you’ll excuse me, I think it’s time to start up another playthrough.
Disclaimer: Capcom provided Final Weapon with a PlayStation 5 copy of Resident Evil 4 for review purposes.
