Resident Evil 4 Remake - Review

Survival is just the beginning. Six years after the events of Raccoon City, Leon S. Kennedy has to track down and save the kidnapped daughter of the US President, from a mysterious and secluded little village. It seems though, Leon cannot escape the horrors of bio-weapons that easily.

Resident Evil 4 is the latest in the beloved series to receive a modern day remake and revisit. The original title was a turning point in the juggernaut series, seeing a shift from the more traditional survival horror gameplay seen in previous titles, towards a more action style of gameplay that would change the trajectory of the series going forward. The original title is the favourite in the series of many players, but it may not hold up as well as people think. Tinged with nostalgia, Resident Evil 4 Remake looks to take problems that arose in a title that was originally being built as a Devil May Cry game and smooth them out.

Resident Evil 4 does an incredibly good job of rectifying issues that arose in the less than favoured Resident Evil 3 Remake, and goes back to a far more survival horror, slower style gameplay that we experienced in Resident Evil 2 remake, as well as with Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil: Village. The majority of the game is the same as the original, but the tweaks that are made to the overall pacing and story progression go a long way in adding a far more modern feeling to the title. Particularly in the second half of the game, elements of ridiculous are removed or altered to feel far more in line with the pseudo realistic approach the games have been attempting to take. This does mean that there is no floating elevator over a room full of lava in the middle of a castle, which may cause some disappointment in some.

This alteration happens far more in the back half of the game than it does in the first half. The first eight chapters maintain a far truer connection and recreation to that of the original title. The second half, which is often seen as the less enjoyable and favoured part of the game, is streamlined a lot more and obnoxious encounters are reduced to provide a more enjoyable and straight forward approach. This makes the final few chapters far more enjoyable to go through, and actually makes the game feel far more confined to its own logic, without broaching into complete Action Man territory, that the original title tended to do. This isn’t to say the action sequences are completely removed. Far from it. There are many encounters that feel familiar to the original title. What Resident Evil 4 Remake does incredibly well however, is turning these encounters of waves of enemies and danger, into a far more survival horror feeling experience.

Particularly playing on Hardcore, which is the recommended difficulty for veterans of the series, every encounter feels incredibly dangerous. Resources are tight, healing items are sparse, and you’ll often have to make the choice between making more handgun bullets, or trying to hold out and save gunpowder for rifle or shotgun bullets, which are much more costly, but far more effective in drawn out group encounters. The stress on the survival aspect of ‘survival horror’ is incredibly poignant and shows a real care and dedication in returning to the roots of the series, whilst also keeping what made Resident Evil 4 such a great game. Particularly the reinvention of the treasure and side quests goes a long way in making it feel far more intuitive with the rest of the gameplay, and less of a shiny light treasure hunt.

The greatest change in history has occurred with Ashley Graham herself. Whilst Leon has kept his cheesy one-liners, Ashley has been made a far less irritating and screaming character. Whilst it probably makes more sense that the President’s daughter would be freaking out constantly and screaming for Leon to help her, Ashley Graham in Resident Evil 4 Remake has been made significantly quieter, but also a far more enjoyable secondary character. Less of a hindrance in combat encounters, I didn’t find myself having to constantly save Ashley from enemies attempting to kidnap her. Also her hitbox radius appears to be reduced, so you less often inadvertently shoot Ashley when attempting to save her from an enemies shoulder. Luis has a far more prominent role in the game, and there is a section dedicated to playing alongside him now, rather than an unfortunate early demise.

Ada Wong, however, is far less enthralling to listen to. There is an obvious decision to lean far more into Ada’s ethnic background, something the game does by providing the voice of a Chinese born Canadian actor. The problem however is, the quality of the voice acting for Ada in Resident Evil 4 Remake is not where you would expect of it, especially coming after the great work found in Resident Evil 2. The result is that Ada unfortunately sounds somewhat disconnected at the best of times. There are certain lines delivered that sound very out of place, and alongside the rest of the cast stands out far more than it really should. This isn’t a unique problem either. Luis, whilst being a more prevalent character is also voiced rather oddly. His choice of lines seem poorly thought out, and he often sounds like he is pretending to be someone playing Luis, rather than just being Luis. The lines from both Ada and Luis feel very forced, and when stood against Leon, Ashley, Saddler and in particular Salazar, they are unfortunately very grating. This is a small thing, but it’s important to know.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is also not without some gameplay issues. The decision to go with a far more survival horror style of gameplay, and making Leon feel much heavier and reminiscent of his Resident Evil 2 Remake style of gameplay is interesting. But it does lead to segments where the overwhelming amount of enemies make this heavier movement feel incredibly frustrating, leading to a more stressful encounter. The most frustrating part however is how often you will get stun locked into corners or surrounded by enemies who are immune to what is stun locking you. I lost count of the number of times I’d die in an encounter after a group of enemies surrounded me in a corner and continue to smack me as we’re all being burnt alive by a Molotov. The autosaves per-encounter are regular enough that this doesn’t feel too problematic but may be a far more stressful feature on Professional difficulty, which takes away the auto-save mechanic. This does lend itself into the survival horror aspect, but it can be incredibly upsetting to lose progress because of something you cannot physically get out of. Being unable to even open the inventory to heal during these segments is frustrating.

A small tidbit, the use of the PlayStation 5 controller is fantastic with the game. Radio conversations play the audio of the other person through the in-built speaker, there is resistance in the trigger when swinging the knife or shooting certain weapons. Vibration is used perfectly. The Resident Evil titles have made tremendous use of the feature of the Dualshock 5, and it continues being the optimal way to experience the titles for me.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is an incredibly solid experience, and rightfully fixes issues that the original game had. People may be upset about changes to their beloved title, but Resident Evil 4 Remake is definitely the better version of two, and without the nostalgia of attachment to the original, I cannot recommend enough experiencing the game in this form. Changes to Ashley make moments with her far more enjoyable, and as a character she is developed considerably more across the story than she had been previously. Leon is the same old Leon, just with less crazy action man behaviour, and far more, tactically trained soldier way out of his depth. Environment and progression changes are good, and the overhauled treasure system feels far more intuitive and closer to the simplified system used in Resident Evil Village. A fantastic remake to the series, and the ending cutscenes are something all fans of the series should be excited to see.

The Score

9.0

Review code provided by Capcom

The Pros

+Ashley is far improved

+Survival Horror rather than Action Horror

+Treasure System far less detached feeling

The Cons

-Stun locking should not occur so easily

-Ada and Luis’s voice acting is sub-par

-Leon feels over heavy at times