This review contains spoilers
This game feels like a redemption for my opinion on RE4 as well as a understanding of my taste.
This is definitely better then the OG RE4 in nearly every way. Many of the rough edges I found in the original are either smoothed out or just flat removed. However, doing so has made me understand what I dislike about RE4 and that is twofold.
Point One is Resident Evil 4's plot reads like a Kusoge. An agent, the edgy persona of RE2's story, goes on a mission to save the president's snarky daughter from a cult of bug worshippers, taking on a unstoppable preacher, a pompous dwarf, the best millitant in the world and the pope, in which he must fight giants, harpoon the monster of the lake, and flee from a giant robot, all while whipping snarky remarks. I may sound like a buzzkill but it was a Kusoge with gameplay that people liked. In general, this game fleshes out Leon's attitude change, Krauser, and removes most of the really over the and out of place instances and the tonal shift of extreme shounen action, to the implication of horror to the stiff controls feels pretty much gone.
The second point is that I just find the combat is not that enjoyable. This is very controversial and so I have to accept this is a subjective opinion. The parts I dislike about the game end up being the most enjoyable to most which are the "Mercanaries" moments. Running around the village dealing with an overabundance of villagers coming in at all directions, starts off enjoyable until you run out of every resource you have saved for this very scenario. And so you run around with 1hp while the screen is red, and Leon is wobbling and you can't justify shooting anything because you won't kill anything with the shots you have, whilst also not having the room to reload. I hate this. It genuinely feels like bad game design when you can't actually fight but it expects you to fight. Attempting the scenario where the two chainsaw sisters attack. Spending every droplet of resource as I back up to the start of the area slowly, finally kill all the strong badguys, get grabbed at the same time Ashley is picked up and oops, sorry shouldn't have gone back to the start because after one step of holding Ashley it's a game over. Better rest the last 5 minutes of combat. I'm very aware, this feels like a rant or a "get good" moment but the issue boils down to that every death in the game did not feel like my fault, minor things like getting an axe thrown at me combo'd into a dynamite exploding. And because I am aware the original had scaling difficulty, I'm not sure whether I did better and I CAN attribute the death to the game, or the difficulty has scaled and therefore the combat was too difficult and therefore I am also justified. I recall having these same annoyances in the original but generally think that things have been smoothed out. Krauser in particular has a much better fight. I did notice that I could not take enemies off balance which I recall doing a lot but I may be thinking of Resident Evil 5. The addition of a parry feels great and really allows you to feel like you have some chance if you are stuck but I would have had no issue bringing back an adjusted roll from R3make rather then hoping you start running early or tapping crouch. Overall, a large improvement in my opinion and the one I would go back to replay, but I still can't respect it being the top of the series with such good options. Maybe people grew up crushing on Ashley or Ada, I can't say.
This is definitely better then the OG RE4 in nearly every way. Many of the rough edges I found in the original are either smoothed out or just flat removed. However, doing so has made me understand what I dislike about RE4 and that is twofold.
Point One is Resident Evil 4's plot reads like a Kusoge. An agent, the edgy persona of RE2's story, goes on a mission to save the president's snarky daughter from a cult of bug worshippers, taking on a unstoppable preacher, a pompous dwarf, the best millitant in the world and the pope, in which he must fight giants, harpoon the monster of the lake, and flee from a giant robot, all while whipping snarky remarks. I may sound like a buzzkill but it was a Kusoge with gameplay that people liked. In general, this game fleshes out Leon's attitude change, Krauser, and removes most of the really over the and out of place instances and the tonal shift of extreme shounen action, to the implication of horror to the stiff controls feels pretty much gone.
The second point is that I just find the combat is not that enjoyable. This is very controversial and so I have to accept this is a subjective opinion. The parts I dislike about the game end up being the most enjoyable to most which are the "Mercanaries" moments. Running around the village dealing with an overabundance of villagers coming in at all directions, starts off enjoyable until you run out of every resource you have saved for this very scenario. And so you run around with 1hp while the screen is red, and Leon is wobbling and you can't justify shooting anything because you won't kill anything with the shots you have, whilst also not having the room to reload. I hate this. It genuinely feels like bad game design when you can't actually fight but it expects you to fight. Attempting the scenario where the two chainsaw sisters attack. Spending every droplet of resource as I back up to the start of the area slowly, finally kill all the strong badguys, get grabbed at the same time Ashley is picked up and oops, sorry shouldn't have gone back to the start because after one step of holding Ashley it's a game over. Better rest the last 5 minutes of combat. I'm very aware, this feels like a rant or a "get good" moment but the issue boils down to that every death in the game did not feel like my fault, minor things like getting an axe thrown at me combo'd into a dynamite exploding. And because I am aware the original had scaling difficulty, I'm not sure whether I did better and I CAN attribute the death to the game, or the difficulty has scaled and therefore the combat was too difficult and therefore I am also justified. I recall having these same annoyances in the original but generally think that things have been smoothed out. Krauser in particular has a much better fight. I did notice that I could not take enemies off balance which I recall doing a lot but I may be thinking of Resident Evil 5. The addition of a parry feels great and really allows you to feel like you have some chance if you are stuck but I would have had no issue bringing back an adjusted roll from R3make rather then hoping you start running early or tapping crouch. Overall, a large improvement in my opinion and the one I would go back to replay, but I still can't respect it being the top of the series with such good options. Maybe people grew up crushing on Ashley or Ada, I can't say.