He resident Evil revival marches with a vengeance. first praise for resident evil 4 Redo makes it sound like the best game of 2023 so far. While not everyone is as impressed as those who think it’s an early GOTY contender, it appears to be a modernized version that’s still true to the spirit of the original, blending beautiful new visuals with the focused design of the 2005 GameCube game.
Available March 24 on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, the resident evil 4 remake updates one of the best entries in Capcom’s long-running survival horror series. Following the steps of previous remakes to resident evil 2 and 3the newest game still see Special Agent Leon S. Kennedy sent to a Spanish town to rescue the president’s daughter from a strange cult. This time things are much nicer, the controls and user interface are more modern, and there is new content, such as additional side quests.
various places like IGN have given the game perfect scores, and it currently sits at over 90 on Metacritic. At the same time, not everyone is under the spell of the new version. “Several clever changes; some disappointing cuts”, tweeted Edge deputy editor of the magazine, Chris Schilling. “When it’s good, it’s brilliant, but largely in exactly the same way as the original.” Here’s what other critics are saying about the latest blockbuster of the year:
Capcom removed a ton of frustrating elements, added a ton of great and amazing new stuff, and I still don’t have enough words to go over all the little tweaks and additions that I appreciated. Parrying feels amazing every time, whether you’re swinging an ax out of the air or avoiding a chainsaw blade taking your head off. The shooting gallery is expanded and offers useful charms for those with good aim. Spinels are no longer random shiny objects in the environment, as they are now trade quest rewards that can be spent on upgrades and exclusive items. Journal entries expand on memorable boss fights like El Gigante and The Garrador. Even something as simple as placing gems in treasures has added a fun color-based multiplier system to maximize their sale value.
There are some places where the new version of resident evil 4 It shows its age, but I mean that in a good way. For one, this is a video game. Modern blockbusters love to hide their inherent gameplay under the veneer of immersion, but RE4 he harbors no such illusions. This is a game where you kick boxes smeared with yellow paint to collect ammo and herbs, and exploding red barrels are everywhere. There’s even a minecart sequence (with lots of exploding barrels).
It more than justifies its existence and, more importantly, it doesn’t pretend that the past never happened. In addition to honoring resident evil 4The unique DNA of, a game of many flavors and tones, among which the game swings at will, the original game has not been removed from the physical and digital shelves. The two live in harmony. Electronic Arts took the same approach with Dead spaceanother remake that, like resident evil 4sought to embrace the gap between our collective memory of an old classic and how gaming feels in 2023. The new version of Dead Space feels like what it was like to play Dead space in 2008. The Resident Evil 4 remake feels like what it was like to play resident evil 4 in 2005. Newcomers get a chance to understand what all the fuss was about, and the rest of us hop into a time machine.
resident evil 4 it also differs from previous games in its linearity. There’s very little backtracking to do here, as the game aggressively pushes Leon into new areas and new settings. While the same sequence of events is intact from the original, the general flow and momentum have been shaken up and softened. Where Capcom has cut, wisely, is by removing or reworking the sillier components of the original game. The quick-time events from the original, where Leon would have to outrun rocks or a giant mechanized statue out of place, only to potentially fail within a matter of milliseconds before doing so again, have been recontextualized. The most surprising and welcome example is how Capcom recast the central character of Ramón Salazar as looking less like a bleached-out Chucky doll and more like a distinguished but decadent old man.
The problem with Remakes is that you’re damned if you do and if you don’t: very little changes, and players will wonder what the point of it all was. Change too much and you risk upsetting longtime fans while making fun of what made the original game great in the first place. Remaking one of the most influential games of the last twenty years is no small feat, but Capcom has pulled it off here. Leon is just as dryly sassy, Ada is a smoke show, Ashley is considerably less annoying than in the original (even if her fashion sense has suffered terribly), and all the bad guys are given their time to shine and then blow up. into a mass of extra entrails and limbs. Oh and the regenerators? It’s still absolutely terrifying. There are some glitch sequences, particularly late game, but overall, this is about as good as the remakes. Even if the bingo reference is lost a bit in the new generations.
This is what RE4 remake has reduced me to: a pleading mess of unfulfilled nostalgia and frustration. It’s not a terrible game, but it’s not perfect either. It adds a variety of new enemies and environments, but Leon’s bullets routinely hit their targets harmlessly, his movement is clumsy, and his new parry ability is only semi-functional. The game clearly lays out combat strategies for each scene, but then its mechanics get in the way, punishing the player in the process. In general, the word for the RE4 The remake is inconsistent.
Cartoony may be a funny word to apply to a horror game, but scenes from the original “Resident Evil 4” bordered on Looney Tunes-style slapstick comedy. The President’s daughter would be kidnapped via conveniently placed traps apparently set by Wile E. Coyote. León himself is a bit like the Road Runner, dodging obstacles like a giant robot version of the short-statured castle lord, Ramón Salazar. In the new version, much of this is greyed out. Two fire-breathing dragon statues from the original game have now been moved to the infamously difficult “water room.” That giant robot is also reimagined to be a little less goofy and now mixed in with another infamous late game challenge.
resident evil 4 remake is the new vision I wanted, but also not the one I expected to get. As a resident evil 4 a purist, he feared that playing with the magic of an all-time classic would spell disaster. On the other hand the resident evil 4 The remake deviates from the original in many significant ways, but never compromises on anything that made it revolutionary. It preserves it, recontextualizes it, and rejuvenates it in a game that’s designed to constantly keep veteran players on the edge, playing with what they remember to create fear through subversion. Although I have intimate knowledge of the original game, small tweaks and unexpected additions kept me from reaching a comfort zone – I never felt completely comfortable, even with my knowledge of the original game.
Yeah resident evil 4 remake was an original and independent title, it would be a very good game, and anyone who plays it will have a good time (although maybe not on Hardcore: it is really brutal). But this isn’t a standalone game, it’s a remake of one of the greatest games ever made, and when it comes to crunch, it falls short. Where the original felt expansive, this feels cramped, and where the original went off on a breathless tangent and threw one idea after another at the player, this feels (especially in the second half) like it settles into a rhythm and you are not especially interested in getting rid of it.
With all due respect to the likes of The last of us and god of war ragnarok – both excellent in their own way – resident evil 4 he has no time for heavy, deep, meaningful dialogue. Leon’s quirky haircut may scream 2000s emo, but his stoic demeanor is that of a total ’80s action hero, and no matter how much I had to change Tetris’ ever-growing selection of weapons and ammo to suit. to his inventory box, he always seemed to have plenty of room left up his sleeve for a one-liner wink to unleash after a completely insane action sequence before slipping a new clip into his submachine gun and running headlong into the following.
The biggest problem in all of this is that it’s heavily loaded up front. The best section of the game is when you first enter the town, and it never reaches that height again. That’s not to say it’s not still a fun time, but I can’t believe they haven’t put together more complex pieces like that.
As great as this remake is, and let me reiterate that it’s amazing, I don’t think it shows you why Resident Evil 4 was so innovative. It just can’t. There is no universe in which this game is as important as the game it remakes. It cannot come out in the same time, space and context as the first. resident evil 4. Ironically, it’s as good as it is now because it exists in a post-resident evil 4 world. And so though I think I can show you why resident evil 4 it was fun, silly and endearing, if you’re someone interested in why this old game has such an enduring legacy, especially one strong enough to justify such an enormously expensive remake, your best bet is to keep playing the original, to try and put your mind in a pre-resident evil 4 world to understand how that game could change everything.