Resident Evil 4 Remake reviews round-up: Sounds perfect

The resident Evil Revival is going on with a vengeance. Early praise for Resident Evil 4 make new makes it sound like the best game of 2023 so far. While not everyone is as impressed as those who think it’s an early GOTY contender, it appears to be a modernized version that still stays true to the spirit of the original and features beautiful new graphics with the focused design of the 2005 GameCube game combined.

Coming to PlayStation, Xbox and PC, the March 24th Resident Evil 4 Remake updates one of the best entries in Capcom’s long-running survival horror series. Follow in the footsteps of previous remakes for Resident Evil 2 And 3the latest game still looks Special Agent Leon S. Kennedy sent to a Spanish village to save the President’s daughter from a strange cult. This time things are just a lot prettier, the controls and UI are more modern and there is some new content like additional side quests.

A number of places like IGN have given the game perfect scores and it is currently over 90 on Metacritic. At the same time, not everyone is under the spell of the remake. “Several smart changes; a few disappointing cuts”, tweeted edge deputy editor of the magazine, Chris Schilling. “When it’s good, it’s brilliant, but much the same as the original.” Here’s what other reviewers have to say about the year’s latest blockbuster:

Capcom removed some of the frustrating elements, added a lot of excellent and surprising new stuff, and I still don’t have enough words to describe all the small tweaks and additions that I appreciated. Parrying feels incredible every time, whether it’s chopping an ax out of mid-air or stopping a chainsaw blade from chopping off your head. The shooting range is expanded and offers useful stimuli for the goal-conscious. Spinels are no longer random shiny objects in the environment, but are rewards for merchant quests that can be spent on exclusive upgrades and items. Journal entries expand on memorable boss fights like El Gigante and The Garrador. Even something as simple as inserting gems into treasure has added a fun color-based multiplier system to maximize your selling value.

There are a few places where the remake of Resident Evil 4 you can see his age – but I mean that well. For one, this is such a video game. Modern blockbusters love to hide their inherent playfulness under the facade of immersion, however RE4 has no such illusions. This is a game where you kick crates painted yellow to collect ammo and herbs, and there are explosive red barrels everywhere. There’s even a mine cart sequence (with lots of explosive barrels).

It more than justifies its existence, and most importantly, doesn’t pretend that the past never happened. Except to honor Resident Evil 4s unique DNA – a game with many flavors and tones that the game oscillates between at will – the original game was not pulled from the physical and digital shelves. The two live in harmony. Electronic Arts followed the same approach Empty roomanother remake that, like Resident Evil 4tried to bridge the gap between our collective memory of an old classic and how games feel in 2023. Dead Space Remake feels like what it was like to play Empty room in 2008. Resident Evil 4 Remake feels like what it was like to play it Resident Evil 4 in 2005. Newcomers get a chance to understand what all the fuss was about, and the rest of us hop in a time machine.

Resident Evil 4 also differs in its linearity from previous games. There’s very little to do here, as the game aggressively pushes Leon into new areas and new scenarios. While the same sequence of events from the original is intact, the overall flow and dynamic has been both shaken up and smoothed out. Capcom has wisely cut back by eliminating or redesigning the original game’s sillier components. Recontextualized quick time events from the original where Leon had to overtake boulders or a misplaced giant mechanized statue, only to potentially fail within milliseconds before doing it again. The most striking and welcome example is how Capcom redesigned the central character of Ramón Salazar, who seems less like a bleached Chucky doll and more like a distinguished but decaying old man.

The problem with remakes is that you’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t – change too little and players will wonder what the point of it all was. If you change too much, you risk upsetting longtime fans while poking fun at what made the original game so great in the first place. Remaking one of the most influential games of the last twenty years is no small feat, but Capcom has nailed it here. Leon is just as dryly sassy, ​​Ada is a smoke show, Ashley is considerably less annoying than in the original (although her fashion sense has suffered terribly), and the villains all have their time to shine and then burst out in a crowd of guts and extra limbs. Oh, and the regenerators? Still totally terrifying. There are a few sequences that fall flat, particularly in the late game, but overall this is as good as remakes get. Even if the bingo reference is somewhat lost with new generations.

This is what the RE4 Remake has reduced me to: a pleading mess of unfulfilled nostalgia and frustration. It’s not a terrible game, but it’s not seamless either. It adds enemy variety and fresh environments, but Leon’s bullets routinely hit their targets without dealing damage, his movements are clumsy, and his new parry ability is only semi-functional. The game clearly lays out combat strategies for each scene, but then its mechanics get in the way, punishing the player in the process. Overall the word for the RE4 Remake is inconsistent.

Cartoony might be a fun word for a horror game, but scenes from the original Resident Evil 4 bordered on Looney Tunes-style slapstick comedy. The President’s daughter was kidnapped via conveniently located traps apparently set by Wile E. Coyote. Leon himself is a bit like the Roadrunner, dodging obstacles like a giant robotic version of the diminutive castle lord Ramon Salazar. A lot of that is toned down in the remake. Two fire-breathing dragon statues from the original game are now relocated to the infamously difficult “water room”. This giant robot has also been reimagined to be a little less silly, and is now mixed in with another infamous late-game challenge.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is the reinterpretation I wanted, but not the one I expected either. As a Resident Evil 4 Purist, I feared that messing with the magic of a classic would spell disaster. Instead the Resident Evil 4 Remake deviates from the original in many ways, but never compromises that made it revolutionary. It preserves that, recontextualizes it, and rejuvenates it in a game designed to keep veteran players constantly on their toes, playing with what they remember to create fear through subversion. While I’m intimately familiar with the original game, the small tweaks and unexpected additions have kept me from ever reaching a comfort zone – I’ve never felt entirely comfortable, even with my knowledge of the original game.

If Resident Evil 4 Remake was an original title in its own right, it would be a very great game indeed and anyone who plays it will have a good time (though maybe not on hardcore: it’s really brutal). But this isn’t a standalone game, it’s a remake of one of the best games of all time, and when it comes down to it, it falls short. Where the original felt expansive, this feels cramped, and where the original touched breathlessly, throwing idea after idea at the player, this (especially the second half) feels like it’s settling into a groove and not particularly interested in getting rid of it.

With all due respect to people like The last of us And God of War Ragnarok – both of which are excellent in their own way – Resident Evil 4 has no time for dialogue-heavy, profound and meaningful. Leon’s banging haircut may scream naughty emo, but his stoic demeanor is quintessential ’80s action hero, and no matter how much I had to swap out the growing selection of Tetris weapons and ammo to fit in his inventory case, he always seemed to pack enough There was still room up his sleeve for a tongue-in-cheek one-liner that he could whip out after a thoroughly insane action sequence, before popping a new magazine into his submachine gun and running headfirst into the next.

The biggest problem with all of this is that it’s very superficial. The best section of the game is when you first enter the village and it never reaches that height again. That’s not to say it doesn’t remain a fun time, but I just can’t believe they haven’t put together more complex set pieces like this one.

As great as this remake is – and let me repeat, it’s incredible – I don’t think it will show you why Resident Evil 4 was so groundbreaking. It just can’t. There is no universe where this game will ever be as important as the game that makes it new. It cannot come out in the same time, space and context as the first Resident Evil 4. Somewhat ironically, it’s only as good as it is now because it’s in a post-Resident Evil 4 World. And so, although I think it can show you why Resident Evil 4 was fun, silly, and endearing, if you’re someone interested in why this ancient game has such an enduring legacy – particularly one strong enough to justify such a massively expensive remake – it’s best, always nor play the original to try it and put yourself in a pre-Resident Evil 4 world to understand how this game could change everything.