Finished on Hardcore. Fun, but feels more overfilling or disposable in a way that I didn't really expect. I enjoyed the vast majority of the changes made to the original story and pacing with just a few dips in quality. Overall the package is both fun and feels worth the wait, at least in these few hours after finishing it for the first time.

The actual moment to moment gameplay is quite fun as well, but I never actually found myself getting into a state of flow. It felt as if the survival horror-esque "fighting the controls" design clearly intended for the RE2 Remake was simply plopped into this game via the engine without nearly as much care put in as there could have been. The game gives far more vulnerability than it seemingly should have; I was told at first that I was not parrying enough, but even after getting really really good at knife strats there still were quite a few times where I was animation locked into unavoidable deaths when I had healing items in my inventory which I couldn't open the menu to use.

Still, the overall design deserves praise. The game was just as addictive as the original and its small shooting gallery bonus mode was a treat. Each area feels much more carefully crafted to look and feel like a horrific maze of a village (and castle and island lab) with impressive lighting and effects to match. The treasures, while hidden in somewhat monotonous ways, were always fun to find and collect, and getting that last gem for a big multiplier was something I didn't think I'd be craving as much as I did. Even despite the low run speed the game also felt designed in such a way that backtracking is both easy and quick for the most part which I veeeeery much appreciate.

One thing I do want to bring up is that I felt that the weakest part of the original game in my eyes - the bosses - was barely improved if at all in this remade edition. Somehow the VR version of the original has far and away been my favorite when it came to those despite them just being direct adaptations of the original's rather poor showings. There were a few notable improvements for sure, but I found myself snoring just as much during the Del Lago and Krauser fights as I always have, and Mendez was genuinely terrible compared to a somewhat likable fight in the original. Minibosses such as the Regeneradors were similarly snooze. I consider this a negative only because this is at least in part a derivative work, so I would have hoped that any of those things would have been ironed out. At the very least some key bosses like Salazar and Saddler were buffed in quality and stood out as fun moments where the original had been just fine.

As stated before I enjoyed most of the narrative changes; weirdly, though, I still found myself preferring some characters from the original based on the pacing of their appearances. Luis in particular felt like he barely had any presence until immediately before his death despite there being several hours of game wherein he could have at least had more characterization via a video call. Similarly, I found myself weirdly detached from Salazar too. While his appearances more or less mirrored those of the original game, he still didn't really get to have any banter or small talk with Leon. I'm sure many have said this before but I do rather enjoy this almost Life is Strange (good connotation) feeling Ashley in the remake. She reminds me of a couple friends I had back in college, so evidently they did their homework in characterization. My last real remark on the narrative is that I do like the more religious tone they took with the Iluminados which was sorely lacking in the original, though toward the end it felt almost a bit too thickly slathered onto an increasingly sparse set of conversations.

To touch on that sense of disposability or overfillingness I described before, there's a feeling of gluttony that I get when getting through this game which I don't really recall from any previous Resident Evil games barring maybe the remake of 2. It's not to say the game isn't replayable, which it definitely is, but it feels almost like a full plate that isn't to be touched much until you're totally empty some amount of time later. While that's not really a problem on its own, I do find the RE games tend to be the types that are incredibly replayable even immediately after you finish them so the difference is jarring. I'm sure for many it's plenty replayable, but for me the difference between it or the 2 Remake and every pre-7 game is staggering. It might just be the level of cinema these newer games go for, but I felt quite tired and done with things even though I took the game at a fairly reasonable pace compared to my usual.

The result then is a game that feels less than a sum of its parts but whose parts are generally of the utmost quality, which puzzlingly contrasts its original form being the polar opposite: jank, weirdness, and of-the-era sensibilities that mix together into what feels like near perfection. The RE4 Remake is lots of fun and the whole way through it was dazzling, but by the end for me it almost didn't feel real. When (not if!) I come back to this game I'm sure it'll be even more fun than before -- it's that kind of game for sure.

RIP Mike and Helicopter. We miss you