felt like playing re4 for the first time again which i suppose is the most important thing. 4 was much less in need of updating than 2 or 3, in that it’s still very widely available and holds up exceptionally well gameplay-wise (with a slight learning curve coming to it from modern shooters ofc), which makes the whole endeavor both easier and more difficult. sure just doing it again with modern visuals and controls gets you most of the way there, but if that’s all it was it wouldn’t stand on its own all that well, certainly not as well as the last two remakes which felt like fundamentally new experiences. and you don’t want to change too much, either, since it’s one of the most beloved games ever made and still relatively fresh in people’s minds for a title that was first released almost two decades ago. it’s a tricky needle to thread, and i think they pulled it off nicely for the most part. expanding and improving on certain areas - particularly the castle and island, which are infinitely better in this iteration imo - while keeping the core experience intact so that it’s instantly recognizable and familiar. the encounters are every bit as tense and unnerving as they were in the original in spite of the much more fluid and fast paced combat — the enemies are quicker and more vicious without sacrificing the inhuman eeriness than made them so impactful in the first place. capcom has really topped themselves where the action is concerned; the best feeling game in the entire series so far. improving on everything that worked in the last two remakes, and particularly 3, which i thought played quite nicely in their own right. taking out hordes of las plagas while flipping between weapons as you go, parrying melee attacks, popping headshots and busting out sweet roundhouse kicks…god there’s really nothing better. some of the cleanest third person shooting action i’ve experienced. i wish they had brought back the dodge mechanic from 3 but oh well, you can’t have it all and the parry is pretty neat too. it’s definitely an action game first and foremost, but i do think re4 has always taken a little bit too much shit (alongside the overwhelming praise ofc) for moving the series away from survival horror. that may have been its legacy, in terms of how the next couple entries followed it up, but 4 itself is still very much a horror experience imo especially when played on the higher difficulties and ammo is pretty scarce. a clear extension of the previous games in terms of how it filters american genre cinema through a gonzo anime sensibility, this is just switching up the genres it’s playing with — namely gothic/folk horror and 90s action films. it’s such a ubiquitous game that we kind of take for granted how deeply strange it is in terms of plot, mood, tone, aesthetics, characterization etc, and how wild its genre play is.. literally every element is something of a trope or cliche, ripped whole cloth from some other work, and yet they come together to form a piece that is totally singular. particularly in the village, when the game is at its most unique and horrific. and this is all in service of the most influential third person action gameplay of all time! what a masterpiece! this obviously doesn’t have that kind of game changing juice, and it’s easy to be cynical about this new era of remakes, which can feel a little cheap and cash grabby, but there is something beautiful about capcom taking all of the improvements third person shooters have made over the years and applying them back to the title that started it all. and it’s hard to be too mad at them when they’re doing these remakes alongside brand new resident evil games that are also very good (by all accounts, i actually haven’t gotten to village yet). had an absolute blast with this and i have no doubt i’ll end up returning to it many many times over. wish i was playing it again rn!