The original Resident Evil 4 is my favourite Resident Evil game, bar none. I have way too many fond memories of playing it with my friend non-stop on the PS2, and I must have finished the game myself like 6 times.

This remake is stunning in many ways, but it also feels very different from the original. A lot of what was in the original is present, and slightly remixed, such as iconic encounters, bosses and the map itself, and it was a joy to play through and see all the slight tweaks and improvements that were made. The gameplay overhaul is also amazing, and the game just feels great to play. Everything is responsive and smooth and handles well, and the addition of things such as the knife parry and removing Ashley's health bar make the game just overall enjoyable to actually play. The hands-on experience is unrivalled in terms of third-person shooter gameplay.

The caveat though, is that the game changes a lot of what makes the original fun. The more serious tone of the story and characters in this, for one. I miss the campiness of the original, especially Leon just being an absolute sass queen, with quips and one-liners for every conversation. There are also a lot of quality-of-life features that were introduced in the RE2 Remake that are noticeably absent from this game, such as the ability to unload unused guns to get the ammo back, or to store items other than guns and attachments. Like these features were already in the other Remakes, why leave them out of this one?

Overall, I did have a good time with this game, but I do feel the story suffers from trying to take itself too seriously. I would much rather have the campy tone and silliness of the early RE games than the deathly seriousness and angsty protagonist thing for this series. In terms of the Remake series, it's a solid entry - way better than 3 by miles, but lagging behind 2. Compared to the original, there is no comparison.

When rumors of this game started to appear, I was thinking to myself about how the hell would they remake this game without sacrificing much of what the original game did so incredibly well. After the RE3 remake, myself and many other people were also sceptical. I am happy to say that after playing the remake coming off the original not too long ago, the remake not only manages to preserve most of what made the original great, but somehow improves on it even further.

The gameplay is modernised with Leon being more fluid then ever. He also has more gameplay mechanics like parrying and crouching which both add on a lot to combat. The level design is expanded upon to accommodate these gameplay changes and to add a new flavour to previously visited areas. The plot and characters are massively improved with Ashley and Luis being the most notable improvements with them being actual characters.

The game is also generally a really good remake with most places returning and being revamped, still not as good as the RE1 remake in terms of how faithful they were to the original as there are omissions, but without a doubt they did the best job here out of all of the REmakes so far.

In terms of problems of this game, there are very few problems I think. I feel like some of the soul has been lost in terms of its goofiness (the Leon quips are just as good) with the remake being more serious, but this is a minor complaint especially with what they have improved in compensation.

Overall, triumphant game and a very good remake all round. I like the original slightly better but this is a must recommend for everyone.