Resident Evil 4 is one of my all time favorite games. I've played it more times than I can count on multiple platforms, playing the game for the first time as a kid holds some of my fondest gaming memories and it just never gets old no matter how many times I experience it. So when I heard there was going to be a remake you can imagine I was very cautiously optimistic of it. I hoped for the best, but part of me also wondered "how can you even improve upon such an incredible game"? Well after clocking in over 24 hours on the Remake over the course of the past few days, I can confirm they did the impossible and made an already amazing game even better in just about every way imaginable.
Starting with the story, while the basic premise is still the same as we follow Leon S. Kennedy 6 years after the events of Raccoon City when he is tasked with the top secret mission of rescuing Ashley Graham, the daughter of the president of the United States from a remote village somewhere in Spain, but that's where the similarities end because so many of the main story beats and locations are re-imagined and changed around and after playing through this game as far as I'm concerned, it was for the better.
All the main characters and their personalities, their backgrounds and motivations, they are all fleshed out so much more compared to the original whether it be Leon who still retains his action hero personality and has tons of campy one-liners (both old and new), but now the narrative also explores how the aftermath of Raccoon City effected Leon and why he's so determined to not let a crisis like that happen again or Ashley who feels much less like just a damsel in distress for Leon to save and actually interacts with Leon more building up the chemistry and partner like bond between them and two of my fave characters Luis and Krauser have so much more depth as well also expanding in Leon's interactions with them and how it helps change him as a person. That's not even to mention how iconic villains like Mendez, Salazar, Verdugo and Saddler even feel fleshed out more thanks to notes you can find around the world which give a peek into their past life before the discovery of Las Plagas and it also helps that the voice acting work is all fantastic and really sells the performances even more too. Overall the writing is just top notch and without a doubt the best it has ever been in Resident Evil and while it is undeniably darker and more serious than the original game, there is also still plenty of the campy over-the-top charm from the original in tact too.
However it doesn't stop there because the gameplay has just as much improvement and refinement as well whether it be due to the new knife parrying mechanics and the resource crafting system which both add an extra level of strategy to combat encounters or the expanded treasure collecting and new Merchant requests which act as side quests to where the game encourages exploration in an almost metroidvania backtracking sense to pick up some things you can't get right away. Hell even the boss fights have been severely modified in the best way possible making them both more grandiose and over-the-top than the original and plenty challenging as well (The new Krauser fight gets my vote for the best fight in the whole series)
From the story to the gameplay, boss fights and everything in between there's just so much detail and clear passion that went into keeping the game true and loyal to the spirit of the original, but also very fresh and different at the same time and while some people will lament about a handful of iconic lines of dialogue being removed (However they're all still referenced in the names of achievements) or a few areas being reworked and a couple being removed entirely there's just as many cool new ideas implemented that I love as much in different ways so it all balances out for me in the end and while RE4 Remake will never have the revolutionary, iconic status as the original it will still certainly go down as just as much of a masterpiece as the original and arguably the greatest remake of all time.
Starting with the story, while the basic premise is still the same as we follow Leon S. Kennedy 6 years after the events of Raccoon City when he is tasked with the top secret mission of rescuing Ashley Graham, the daughter of the president of the United States from a remote village somewhere in Spain, but that's where the similarities end because so many of the main story beats and locations are re-imagined and changed around and after playing through this game as far as I'm concerned, it was for the better.
All the main characters and their personalities, their backgrounds and motivations, they are all fleshed out so much more compared to the original whether it be Leon who still retains his action hero personality and has tons of campy one-liners (both old and new), but now the narrative also explores how the aftermath of Raccoon City effected Leon and why he's so determined to not let a crisis like that happen again or Ashley who feels much less like just a damsel in distress for Leon to save and actually interacts with Leon more building up the chemistry and partner like bond between them and two of my fave characters Luis and Krauser have so much more depth as well also expanding in Leon's interactions with them and how it helps change him as a person. That's not even to mention how iconic villains like Mendez, Salazar, Verdugo and Saddler even feel fleshed out more thanks to notes you can find around the world which give a peek into their past life before the discovery of Las Plagas and it also helps that the voice acting work is all fantastic and really sells the performances even more too. Overall the writing is just top notch and without a doubt the best it has ever been in Resident Evil and while it is undeniably darker and more serious than the original game, there is also still plenty of the campy over-the-top charm from the original in tact too.
However it doesn't stop there because the gameplay has just as much improvement and refinement as well whether it be due to the new knife parrying mechanics and the resource crafting system which both add an extra level of strategy to combat encounters or the expanded treasure collecting and new Merchant requests which act as side quests to where the game encourages exploration in an almost metroidvania backtracking sense to pick up some things you can't get right away. Hell even the boss fights have been severely modified in the best way possible making them both more grandiose and over-the-top than the original and plenty challenging as well (The new Krauser fight gets my vote for the best fight in the whole series)
From the story to the gameplay, boss fights and everything in between there's just so much detail and clear passion that went into keeping the game true and loyal to the spirit of the original, but also very fresh and different at the same time and while some people will lament about a handful of iconic lines of dialogue being removed (However they're all still referenced in the names of achievements) or a few areas being reworked and a couple being removed entirely there's just as many cool new ideas implemented that I love as much in different ways so it all balances out for me in the end and while RE4 Remake will never have the revolutionary, iconic status as the original it will still certainly go down as just as much of a masterpiece as the original and arguably the greatest remake of all time.