Resident Evil 4 remake Review
Legacy Review
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Platform: PS4/5 Xbox X|S PC
Reviewed on: PC
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Release: March 24, 2023
Time Played: 15 Hours
Genre: Survival Horror
ESRB: M
Intro:
Whether you are familiar with Resident Evil or not, you will definitely want to check this out. Resident Evil 4 is a remake of the original 2005 release on the gamecube. There has obviously been a lot of work done, the game was gorgeous, you can check out my playthrough here, but first, stick around and allow me to walk you through what this game has to offer, and where it belongs on the bar.
Story:
After surviving a terrible zombie outbreak in Racoon City, *cough* Resident Evil 2* Leon has been training with the military and become one of the President’s top agents. Recently the President’s daughter has gone missing and he has tasked Leon with retrieving her. Upon arriving in a small European village, Leon is met with hostile locals trying to murder him and terrifying monsters trying to rip him apart. He has to use everything he’s learned over the years to not only save his target, but survive the never ending waves of enemies trying to stop him.
Kiddos:
I don’t think there is a single Resident Evil game out there that would be appropriate for the kids. I mean I played through the entire first one when I was maybe nine, but the graphics show so much more now than they ever have. There is a lot of cursing, blood is everywhere, and some pretty freaky baddies that are definite nightmare fuel for the right kids.
Gameplay:
Resident Evil 4 was the first in the resident evil series to bring in more action like gameplay, and the remake is just as good if not better than the original. The basic idea is moving through a variety of areas, killing enemies by any means necessary with things like guns, melee attacks, even explodey barrels every now and again. With some puzzles thrown in here and there, not terribly difficult, an important clue to the solution is usually nearby any puzzle. Resident Evil 4 has quite the variety of gameplay.
Starting out Leon is only equipped with a pistol and a combat knife. Enough to get by, but no way to go through the entire game. Throughout Leon will find new weapons, either on the ground or purchased from the friendly merchant. But it was always important to keep the hand gun close by because hand gun ammo was the most common ammo to find. Certain ammo could be hard to come by when it’s most needed so keeping a couple gun types to fight with was a very good idea. There was a nice weapon wheel to change out equipment on the fly, it handled quite well I was impressed with how smoothly I could swap my weapons out. Frag grenades and flash bombs could go there too. You would be pretty hard pressed to fill out the entire wheel. There is only so much space in Leon’s cache, a suitcase hidden somewhere on his body where everything gets stored.
Probably the most difficult part of the game would be inventory control. Leon has a cache that he puts everything in. Except treasures and keys. So between guns, ammo, and heals, trying to make enough room for everything is almost it’s own never ending mini game. Thankfully there is an auto sort button that organizes everything nice and tidy so there is no wasted space. I could also organize manually if I wanted, turning things sideways to make just enough room to add that one green herb I really wanted to pick up. Another mechanic that helped was crafting. Herbs could be combined making for a stronger heal. Gunpowder could be mixed with small or large resources to make different ammo or throwables.
The merchant I mentioned earlier is the most important character in the entire game. Always accompanied by a typewriter, the only way to save the game, he will sell new weapons and blueprints, buy everything Leon finds from treasure to fish. He also upgrades equipment. Amping the damage a gun does, how fast it can reload, and shooting speed. He is also willing to buy guns, an upgraded gun will be worth almost as much as what has been put into it. So I wasn’t really wasting money upgrading a gun I ended replacing or not using as long as I sold it. And if going through the main story killing everything wasn’t enough, the merchant provides side quests to accomplish in every area. He’ll post a notice asking Leon to kill some rats, or destroy blue medallions, rewarding him with spinels. Small jewels the merchant will trade the more special items for. Like a treasure map showing the location of every treasure, or different parts for guns to increase their attributes.
One thing that really bugged me was the combat knife. I loved most of the new mechanics involved, like a slash or stab attack. I could even parry incoming attacks if I timed it right. But the knife now has durability. The durability can be repaired and increased, but nothings worse than needing my knife and it’s a useless broken thing in my inventory. There are kitchen knives strewn about that can be picked up and used in a pinch, but they aren’t near as effective as an upgraded combat knife. Sometimes it’s much better to knife an enemy to death instead of wasting ammo on it, well it used to be. Now that it actually costs money for the upkeep of a knife it may be much better using some hand gun ammo.
Combat was a lot of fun. Most enemies have different weak points to attack. I usually go for a head shot, but sometimes it’s better to shoot a kneecap to stun an enemy, leaving them open for Leon to run in with a roundhouse kick, knocking all surrounding enemies down. It’s an excellent tactic to get some breathing room. There is also a stealth option, it’s not necessary in any part of the game, but I really like to sneak up and take out an enemy in one hit instead of shooting them a lot. But, again, that also used some of my knife’s durability, a real catch 22.
After the credits roll there is a lot more to the game. A harder difficulty is unlocked, all of the money and equipment from the previous playthrough are brought over, some different clothes can be obtained for Leon, and some amazing guns are available, if you can complete some tasks. You definitely have to earn the more powerful items in the game, but if you enjoy the game enough, you can playthrough multiple times saving up to buy them or earn others by completing challenges.
Challenges are available from the start, you can check them out form the title screen and spend the CP awarded on various items in the bonus shop. That is where you can see what needs to be done and what possible rewards there are, from CP to actual items its worth checking out. Added challenges to accomplish during the actual playthrough was pretty cool, most of them are obtained by just playing the game. But some involve a more complicated way to play the game.
DIFFERENCES FROM ORIGINAL
I could almost make an entire video talking about all of the major differences, instead I thought I would fit it in here. There may be some minor spoilers in this section, so you might skip ahead to my rating or stick around and feed your curiosity.
I covered a couple differences in the review, like the merchant dealing in spinels now instead of them being cheap gems sold for pesetas, and the new knife mechanics, used to only be a slash, and when Leon finds breakable boxes an action button shows, he just kicks or elbows them now. No need to try and aim the knife perfect to break things.
I really like that they have done away with having to worry about a health bar for Ashley. Instead when she takes a hit, she goes to the ground. If she gets hit one more time that’s game over. I didn’t like deciding who would get my precious yellow herbs in the original and having to waste my dam heals on her.
New enemies have been added to the game, and they seem to have added a couple more models for enemies, not many, what they have still gets re-used a lot, but that’s kind of charming in its own way. A remake of an older game forced to re-use assets, so they do it on the remake. They have also added an auto save, so if some terrible mistake was made, I didn’t always end up at my last save.
An interesting addition to Resident Evil 4 would be Leon’s cache. The basic case would increase the drop rate of hand gun ammo by 30%, and new cases could be purchased from the merchant with different buffs. If that wasn’t enough they added charms that could be attached, the charms did things like increased healing from herbs or making upgrades cheaper. To get charms I had to play around in the shooting range. That has been changed up a bit now too. Instead of shooting wood cutouts of villagers, it’s now pirates. Why? I dunno, shooting pirates is fun? Anyway, the rewards are tokens, used in a gacha like machine that spits out random charms for the cache.
That about covers it for the big changes that I noticed anyway. Minor changes to the story but it’s still the same. Leon’s one liners are a little different but still cheesy. Ashley didn’t seem to be quite as annoying as I remember so that’s a plus. As of right now there was no mercenaries option after I beat the game but I believe it should be coming soon. No word on separate ways with Ada though. It would be nice to play her side of the story in the remake but we may just have to wait for DLC in the future.
I had a lot of fun playing this. It was an excellent remake of an excellent game. Not quite as scary as other Resident Evil titles, it did have it’s jump scares and startling spots but I didn’t feel on edge the entire time like previous games. I like the idea of working through the game multiple times getting better items making it easier to take on harder enemies, the rewards feel well earned and worth it, and all of that available with the base game. Now I’m not the biggest Resident Evil fan, but this was a blast, I’m throwing this bad boy on the top shelf. It definitely earned that spot with how well everything came together. I’m tempted to play through some more in my spare time. I would suggest you give it a shot, it’s worth it. Now that I’m done with this, time to move onto the next one, I will see you there.