They said it couldn’t be done but Capcom’s remake of the legendary Resident Evil 4 is a triumph, even if it’s not quite the game you remember.
For years the best advice anyone could give to Capcom, whenever the subject of a Resident Evil 4 remake came up, was just not to do it. The original is not only an all-time classic but one of the most influential video games of all time. It popularised the concept of the third person shooter and created a foundation for modern action games that is still as relevant today as it was when the original launched on the GameCube back in 2005.
It’s not that Resident Evil 4 is a sacred cow that cannot be touched, since Capcom’s existing remakes of Resident Evil 1 and 2 are excellent, despite several liberties being taken with the second one (Resident Evil 3 is, as always, entirely superfluous). Instead, the problem is that Resident Evil 4 is very much a product of its time, in terms of its goofy tone and abstract control system.
Modernising the game by making the dialogue and controls more sensible is relatively easy but by doing so you lose much of the charm. Compromise is almost always the enemy of creativity and yet somehow Capcom has managed to thread the needle with such skill that all the early concerns now seem needlessly pessimistic.
Resident Evil has one of the longest running storylines of any major franchise, with not a single reboot since its inception in 1996. However, Resident Evil 4 was a soft reboot, in that while it exists in the same continuity the gameplay is completely different to everything that came before. Not least the fact that instead of zombies you have much more intelligent human enemies, as well as other more monstrous foes.
The game is also not really a survival horror. There are a few jump scares and creepy moments – more so in the remake, thanks to the more realistic visuals – but this is much more a straight action game.
The plot is pure nonsense, and never seems to have intended as anything else. You play as Leon S. Kennedy, as he seeks to rescue the US president’s daughter, who has been kidnapped by an evil Spanish cult. Although given the outrageous accents and the depiction of rural Spain as still being stuck in the 15th century it’s a good job nobody ever got offended by it. Resident Evil 4 is dumb and silly and it always has been, but that actually feels very refreshing today, given how seriously some modern games take themselves.
As the prototypical third person shooter, Resident Evil 4 is a very straightforward beast in terms of mechanics, especially in the remake. There is a grand total of six different control schemes, but all allow you to move and shoot at the same time. Although we’d swear the movement when aiming over the shoulder is faster now than it was when we previewed the game last year, which makes it seem a little less unique than we originally expected.
Not being able to move and shoot is not a question of nostalgia; it strikes to the very core of the game’s design and pacing. In most action scenes you are beset by dozens of enemies at once, in encounters that always last far longer than you expect, and which often have no obvious endgame – other than your grisly demise. The only thing to do is keep mobile and not get boxed in, so not being able to shoot and move is exactly the opposite of what’s needed, which is why the original was so outrageously tense and exciting.
Of course, that limitation makes no logical sense in real world terms, it’s a conceit that was invented purely to make the gameplay more interesting, but that, sadly, is a level of abstraction that modern video games no longer allow. The furthest the remake is willing to go is making movement while aiming slightly slower than normal.
Some part of us feels we should resent the remake for giving in like that, but it’s still such a joy to play the change becomes more an issue of academic interest. The sense of constantly being under pressure, never knowing where your next ammo clip is coming from or how long the current set piece will last, is still maintained perfectly.
It’s especially impressive because the game isn’t particularly difficulty, it’s just incredibly nerve-racking, as you rush around the small sandbox areas, constantly looking for additional weapons and items or new vantage points to chip away at the hordes of enemies.
The famous village sequence at the start of the game (which is also the centrepiece of the free Chainsaw Demo) is still the most iconic but there are dozens of similar set pieces throughout, including a number of sieges, where you desperately try to barricade windows to keep enemies out. Some are recreated almost 1:1, some are greatly expanded, and some are completely new but while they can go on for a very long time that’s never a complaint and as soon as they’re done you just want to go back and do it again.
Although you rescue Ashley, the president’s daughter, relatively early on she’s constantly getting re-kidnapped and so is only around as a companion for a fairly small percentage of the game. Her AI isn’t great, and she doesn’t help in combat, but there are far worse escort missions in gaming than hers.
She’s still a bit of a wimp but then she is supposed to be just an ordinary civilian and Resident Evil has plenty of other far more capable female characters – including Ada Wong, who is particularly good in this (her side story Separate Ways is not included in the remake but is hopefully coming as DLC).
As well as the cheesy dialogue, the previous Resident Evil remakes also downplayed the equally silly puzzles, that have always been an important part of the franchise. This remake brings them back, and even adds in new ones, although they rarely deviate from collecting various ludicrously shaped keys (unicorn horns and lithograph tablets are just two examples) and using them in very obviously signposted locks.
This element is necessary as an occasional palette cleanser, but the complete lack of any actual puzzle element does become tiresome. Instead, exploration is a much more satisfying distraction, with useful loot lying around every corner, as well as new secondary objectives primarily conveyed via new blue request missions.
These are usually simple things like shooting a set number of targets, or taking on an extra hard monster variant, but while their rewards come in handy, they do spoil the pacing a bit, as they often involve backtracking to earlier locations, which is something the original game never really did. Although the obvious solution to that is to just not do them.
The remake includes many other brand new elements, from unique items to whole new set pieces and areas. Many of the boss battles have changed too, although most are at least as good as the original (or still just as bad, in the case of the anticlimactic final fight). We’re still somewhat upset that the original’s QTE encounter with Krauser, which was easily the best use of QTEs ever, is now represented as a standard real-time fight, but it is a very good one and helps justify the new focus on knife combat.
Knives are still used to escape an enemy that’s grappling you but can also parry weapons, including projectiles. However, each knife takes damage when used and is either eventually destroyed or rendered unusable until you get the Merchant to fix it. Speaking of which, we were quickly won over by his new voiceover. He’s much more obviously cockney now and while he repeats some of the lines from the original, he’s got a number of new ones that are almost as good (aka bad).
Overall, though, the game is more serious than back in 2005 and while it does keep some of the original dialogue the bingo quote at the end of the Chainsaw Demo implies that happens more than it does.
Some of the sillier set pieces have also been toned down, such as the over-the-top fire traps in the castle and one of the more infamously absurd boss battles, but there’s always visual or dialogue-based references to how it used to be, that strike just the right balance between honouring the original and making it more palatable for modern audiences.
And that is the game in a nutshell: a rare compromise that manages to have its cake and eat it. In a way though, despite it technically changing more in terms of its presentation and controls, Resident Evil 2 still feels closer to its original than this, when it comes to everything but the dialogue.
We took 25 hours to finish the game on our first playthrough, and while that involved more backtracking and careful exploration than the average player is likely to attempt we were still left wanting more by the end – which you get thanks to a significant New Game+ option and the promise of The Mercenaries time attack mode, as free DLC after launch.
Given the challenges of recreating a game that belongs to such a very specific period of time, Capcom should be applauded for executing such a difficult reimagining. Many of the details may be different but the core appeal, the very peculiar mix of goofy fun and almost unbearable tension, is almost exactly the same as the original.
What flaws the remake has are largely subjective and while we can see some people getting frustrated that you can’t store health and ammo at save points, even though you can guns and attachments, that’s just another affectation meant to make the gameplay more interesting. It works too, because as silly as the attaché case is the difficult question of what to fit within its finite confines is a serious tactical decision, even if the fact you can pause the action at any time to peruse it does, literally, take you of the action.
The attaché case is one of many elements that would never have been part of the game if it was made as a brand new title today but what ages the gameplay the most is the lack of a dedicated dodge button. Occasionally there are context sensitive dodges but otherwise you just have to turn round and run away if you want to get out of something’s way and that almost feels more archaic than the idea of having to stop to shoot.
Beyond that, the only real fault is that Resident Evil Village, the most recent mainline entry in the series, steals so much from the original Resident Evil 4 that there’s an unfortunate case of déjà vu here, especially in the castle areas. That’s unfortunate but the remake is a much better game overall. It’s graphics are also superior and, like everything, else find a perfect midpoint between the monochrome brown/grey colour scheme of the original and the technicolour delights of the modern era.
The remake of Resident Evil 4 could never have had the same groundbreaking influence as the original, but it is just as entertaining, and still not quite like anything else around… even after all these years.
Resident Evil 4 remake review summary
In Short: More a reimagining than a straight remake but despite the difficulty of recapturing lighting in a bottle, this is both a loving tribute to the original Resident Evil 4 and a great game in its own right.
Pros: Fantastic action, with some superbly well-orchestrated set pieces. A lengthy story with mountains of content and meaningful secrets. Excellent graphics. Cheesy tone is maintained better than previous remakes.
Cons: The modern controls make the game feel more generic than the original and no longer completement the gameplay as well. At the same time, a dodge move is sorely missed. Non-puzzles feel increasingly pointless.
Score: 9/10
Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £54.99
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: 24th March 2023
Age Rating: 18
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