A superb revisit to a timeless classic, made even better in it's gameplay and story execution, albeit both versions of the games having their fair share of pros and cons.
This remake effortlessly dethrones Resident Evil 2 (2019) and became my favourite game in the series by itself. Everything is so well crafted and paid attention to in it's faithfulness to the original at the same time, it was a priceless experience and I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it.
The gameplay is such a dopamine trip, it never gets old and left me wanting even more (thank god for The Mercenaries and Separate Ways), the memes about this game making you feel like John Wick definitely are not baseless at all because Leon is an absolute fucking-quipping tank, every weapon feels as if it packs a punch with the DualSense in your hands, it's pure satisfaction. What elevates this over the original even more is the shedding of unnecessary jank that made the original a little bit less than perfect for me, obviously excusable for the time it was released, but not at all excusable by today's standards, it makes sense to remove certain sections and mechanics. Ashley's AI was also improved on to the point where for the first time in a game since maybe The Last of Us series (and RE5) I wasn't spending half of the game stressing and being completely pissed off over how braindead the companion AI was. I think 95% of my game over screens in the original was because of tedious AI and unfair timeframe windows that made Ashley constantly get kidnapped. I think my overall favourite addition to the remake was the extended ability to parry. Sure, this was possible in the original, but not nearly to the extent it was used here. The Krauser boss fights were super entertaining because of the parry mechanic, feeling like a boss fight straight out of the Metal Gear series. Parrying ganados' attacks, chainsaws and flying axes was super satisfying and even cooler when you got to roundhouse kick the fuck out of some poor motherfucker who had the misfortune of not catching me off guard.
Resident Evil has never really been a series strong on it's storytelling, at least in my opinion. With every Resident Evil so far with the very, very close exception of the OG RE4 and RE5, the stories were basically nothing and the gameplay always reigned supreme (I've only played up to Revelations at this point.) They really left more to be desired given how intricate the worldbuilding itself is, almost screaming for some complex Metal Gear level storytelling, but it was always missing. Basically what I'm saying is, this specific version of Resident Evil 4 broke that trend. While not as heavy as Metal Gear or maybe most games with heavy narratives, such as Alan Wake II, it definitely brought to the table what I felt this series was missing. I really enjoyed the story, of course despite already knowing how it played out, but I felt as if it was just written so much better. So many of the characters, including Leon himself, were instantly more likable, relatable and easy to symapthise with. I absolutely loved this game's version of Ashley, Luis and Ramon Salazar, even if I felt like a large portion of the radio calls between Leon and the baddies was missing. The conflict between Leon and Krauser was a lot easier for me to get into, something about their story felt very similar to certain Metal Gear characters.
Really, my only issue with this game was the yellow paint on almost everything. I'm sure you can turn it off, I wish it wasn't on by default though. I didn't really bother to configure the settings too much outside of enabling hair strands and experimenting with the OG and remake SFX for a bit. I'm not really against the trend, I think accessibility for games is absolutely an overdue aspect that is gladly getting more attention as of recent, but it felt a bit ridiculous at times.
if I were to give this a direct comparison to the original, I would say the pros outweigh the cons. This game proves itself to be the definitive, modern experience of Resident Evil 4, but it's very hard for me to just dismiss the original. I think in ways this is a better game, for sure, but it also feels like I am doing a mild disservice to what came before, so I'll just say that I love both versions of this game, with a lean towards this one. It's a great game, perhaps the best remake ever, and I keep saying this with certain remakes, but this one definitely takes the cake.
This remake effortlessly dethrones Resident Evil 2 (2019) and became my favourite game in the series by itself. Everything is so well crafted and paid attention to in it's faithfulness to the original at the same time, it was a priceless experience and I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it.
The gameplay is such a dopamine trip, it never gets old and left me wanting even more (thank god for The Mercenaries and Separate Ways), the memes about this game making you feel like John Wick definitely are not baseless at all because Leon is an absolute fucking-quipping tank, every weapon feels as if it packs a punch with the DualSense in your hands, it's pure satisfaction. What elevates this over the original even more is the shedding of unnecessary jank that made the original a little bit less than perfect for me, obviously excusable for the time it was released, but not at all excusable by today's standards, it makes sense to remove certain sections and mechanics. Ashley's AI was also improved on to the point where for the first time in a game since maybe The Last of Us series (and RE5) I wasn't spending half of the game stressing and being completely pissed off over how braindead the companion AI was. I think 95% of my game over screens in the original was because of tedious AI and unfair timeframe windows that made Ashley constantly get kidnapped. I think my overall favourite addition to the remake was the extended ability to parry. Sure, this was possible in the original, but not nearly to the extent it was used here. The Krauser boss fights were super entertaining because of the parry mechanic, feeling like a boss fight straight out of the Metal Gear series. Parrying ganados' attacks, chainsaws and flying axes was super satisfying and even cooler when you got to roundhouse kick the fuck out of some poor motherfucker who had the misfortune of not catching me off guard.
Resident Evil has never really been a series strong on it's storytelling, at least in my opinion. With every Resident Evil so far with the very, very close exception of the OG RE4 and RE5, the stories were basically nothing and the gameplay always reigned supreme (I've only played up to Revelations at this point.) They really left more to be desired given how intricate the worldbuilding itself is, almost screaming for some complex Metal Gear level storytelling, but it was always missing. Basically what I'm saying is, this specific version of Resident Evil 4 broke that trend. While not as heavy as Metal Gear or maybe most games with heavy narratives, such as Alan Wake II, it definitely brought to the table what I felt this series was missing. I really enjoyed the story, of course despite already knowing how it played out, but I felt as if it was just written so much better. So many of the characters, including Leon himself, were instantly more likable, relatable and easy to symapthise with. I absolutely loved this game's version of Ashley, Luis and Ramon Salazar, even if I felt like a large portion of the radio calls between Leon and the baddies was missing. The conflict between Leon and Krauser was a lot easier for me to get into, something about their story felt very similar to certain Metal Gear characters.
Really, my only issue with this game was the yellow paint on almost everything. I'm sure you can turn it off, I wish it wasn't on by default though. I didn't really bother to configure the settings too much outside of enabling hair strands and experimenting with the OG and remake SFX for a bit. I'm not really against the trend, I think accessibility for games is absolutely an overdue aspect that is gladly getting more attention as of recent, but it felt a bit ridiculous at times.
if I were to give this a direct comparison to the original, I would say the pros outweigh the cons. This game proves itself to be the definitive, modern experience of Resident Evil 4, but it's very hard for me to just dismiss the original. I think in ways this is a better game, for sure, but it also feels like I am doing a mild disservice to what came before, so I'll just say that I love both versions of this game, with a lean towards this one. It's a great game, perhaps the best remake ever, and I keep saying this with certain remakes, but this one definitely takes the cake.