Resident Evil 4 (2023)

The Hands Come Off.

“Yeah, but why?” I asked.

By now, it’s obvious that Capcom loves its proprietary Reach for the Moon engine. Their passion for ‘REdoing’ every past Resident Evil installment is so persistent, a Dead Aim or Outbreak remake wouldn’t surprise me.

Over the years, the Remakes have arrived at a brisk pace. I was excited for the 2019 Resident Evil 2, though I had to get used to it as its own entity. RE3make was a rushed disappointment. Inevitably, the time came for Resident Evil 4 to receive the same treatment.

Yeah, but why? Ever since its 2005 GameCube release, Resident Evil 4 has been ported to more platforms than any other Resident Evil. Resident Evil 4 is the Skyrim of Resident Evil. If the point of a port, remake, or remaster is to revive a game’s commercial availability, then an RE4 remake is moot, since you can reach out and touch that game wherever you are.

Still, it’s not like I wasn’t going to play it. And now that I have, I can say it’s the most faithful Resident Evil remake since 2002. However, Capcom still altered a good deal, in ways that might evoke ambivalence.

Resident Evil 4 takes place six years after the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3. The Umbrella Corporation, eldritch horror nightmare of Big Pharma conspiracy nuts everywhere, is out of business. Their negligence and greed led to a viral outbreak that turned Raccoon City’s population into zombies. The city itself is an irritated crater, courtesy of the U.S. government. Leon Kennedy, one of the few survivors, is now a Special Agent working under the President.

When a Spanish religious cult kidnaps Ashley Graham, the President’s daughter. Mr. President trusts that only one dude is bad enough to rescue her. When Leon arrives, he encounters a parasitically mind-controlled army. His job becomes rescuing Ashley and escaping back to America, which isn’t in accordance with the cult’s plans for world domination.

The original Resident Evil 4 was a series game changer, for sure. Not only did it trade its predecessors’ careful resource management for a loot grabbing action splatterfest, it was also a dark comedy. Within six years, Leon went from a hapless rookie cop everybody ignored, to a wisecracking, shotgunning badass. Though Resident Evil 4 was disturbing, Leon was Ash Williams from Evil Dead, countering every threat with bitter sarcasm. Combined with the relative ease in which Leon kicked or blasted through enemies, Resident Evil 4 had an old Chuck Norris film’s attitude.

Upon starting up this new RE4, I was presented with a difficulty selection screen. I had three to pick from: Assisted, Standard, or Hardcore. When I highlighted Hardcore, the on-screen dialogue read, “pick this if you’ve played Resident Evil 4 before.”

Well, of course I’d played, and beaten, Resident Evil 4 in the past. Many times. It sounded like Hardcore was the right option, then. I began a new game and led Leon to the iconic village where the action begins.

I hadn’t played the original in at least three years, though. Nevertheless, muscle memory kicked in as the villagers rushed me. Okay, you remember how this goes. Let this first guy grab you. After the ‘shake analog stick’ QTE pops up, kick his head into a gibbed mess, then quick-turn in time to pistol pop the woman behind you.

Imagine my surprise, then, when that first guy strangled me. The woman stabbed me with her pitchfork, allowing the strangler to wring my neck a second time. Where I expected reaction prompts and stunlocked enemies, I received pain instead.

These were not the same enemies from 2005‘s Resident Evil 4. They were reskinned zombies from 2019’s Resident Evil 2, but with pitchforks instead of teeth. I used to love it when the Ganados crowded around me because I could deal out mad carnage. Now a loading screen tip encouraged me to run away.

That difficulty selection text didn’t mean, “pick this if you played the Resident Evil 4 from 20 years ago.” It meant, “pick this if you already completed the remake on Standard.” RE4Make does not play like RE4. The enemies lunge for hit boxes like Luis Sera lunges for hit boxes—with desperate fervor. The action shooting becomes a game of Keepaway till you find adequate vantage points. RE4Make adapts 2016 Doom’s “never stop moving” rule.

After dying about six times, I restarted on Standard. The pain lessened here, but I still suffered while relearning Resident Evil 4 all over again.

While that was going on, I noticed this remake was very pretty—as pretty as a 1080p/60 monitor can output, anyway. You’ll have to bear with me. Some of us are poor folks. Aside from that, the thing about modern AAA prettiness is it isn’t always about beautiful sunsets and crystal clear, ray traced ponds. It can also exhibit the deplorable living conditions a cult like Los Iluminados creates.

The RE4Make world is a dilapidated shithole, with the structural integrity a step below a Fallout game. The parasite enslaved populace look like they haven’t bathed in decades. RE4Make presents a frightening place, dark, disturbing, and foreboding. It doesn’t leave much room for jokes.

This is fitting, since RE4Make isn’t much of a comedy. Leon is still his cynical, one-liner dropping self, but his mood has changed; he is somber, tired, and defeated., his quips a defense mechanism for post-traumatic stress. Here is a man who has experienced too much already. Fighting through monsters is another workday before the weekend.

Underneath, RE4Make is still an arcadey action game, with downed enemies spilling ammo and green herbs from their corpses. But supplies are also limited. While you are still encouraged to kill everything rushing you, Capcom has sneaked the survival horror back in. As a result, it becomes necessary to make quick decisions in the middle of combat. “Do I keep blasting away with my dwindling shotgun shells, or do I switch to the handgun to save up for a tougher target? Do I risk letting this guy get too close, breaking my knife to escape?”

The 2005 Resident Evil 4 is recognized as one of the best video games ever made. But it’s easy to forget how divisive it was 20 years ago. As much as gamers loved Leon’s adventure in Europe, others wondered what happened to the resource management. Now, for those veterans used to the action gameplay, it’s not so much, “you got your campy action comedy in my survival horror,” as it is, “you got your survival horror in my campy action comedy.”

Leon now has the ability to knife parry melee attackers, including those iconic chainsaw wielders. Knife parrying is a very useful mechanic players can abuse after some practice. However, a durability meter limits the knife. Parrying won’t work if it breaks.

Leon can also perform stealth kills with his knife. Stealth helps in sections where it’s wise to silently stab as many enemies as possible. RE4Make isn’t Hitman, however. The stealth is a lazier kind of stealth, where enemies ignore corpses you’ve left behind as if there’s nothing to worry about.

Once Leon locates Ashley, he must protect her while focusing on the constant hordes. A lot is different about managing Ashley, too. Leon can only order her to hide in lockers, of which there are not many. There are two Ashley commands: tell her to stay close or to keep her distance. Having her stay beside Leon makes it easier to shoot enemies that snatch her, but it puts her at higher risk for taking damage. If she stays back, she will avoid damage, but it’s harder to protect her from kidnappers.

Ashley no longer has a health bar. She becomes ‘incapacitated’ if she takes a single hit. A button press helps her up, without the need to dip into medical supplies. But if she takes a second hit while in the ‘incapacitated’ state, she dies, and it’s game over.

But where Ashley lacks a health bar, she has a better developed personality. She begins the journey fearful and distrusting. She warms up to Leon as the game continues, which leads to growing confidence as they work together for survival. They develop a genuine feeling friendship. Leon also keeps things professionally platonic whenever Ashley flirts with him. It’s funny watching him respond literally to her awkward come-ons. You can’t blame him, either; he has enough problems.

I’m happy with how they handled Luis Sera for this round. His new character design makes him look like an unsavory charlatan—the kind of guy who, after a long night of losing his money gambling, tricks women into going home with him. His untrustworthy appearance adds an air of mystery about him. In the original, he showed up a few randoms time, to do some stuff before some stuff happened to him. Here, Capcom gives him more room to shine, and I like that.

The merchant also makes a much needed return, happily selling his one unpossessed customer guns, ammo, supplies, and upgrades. A new addition is side missions he offers. His requests range from shooting those blue medallions he seems to hate, to killing stronger variations of enemy types, to fishing in the lake. While these tasks don’t earn extra money, the merchant pays in spinels you can trade for bonus gear.

Spinels also buy treasure maps for the game’s three greatly expanded main regions. Finding treasure and completing tasks adds incentives to explore. But one critical issue is there are points of no return you aren’t always warned about. You’ll think you can go back for missed treasure after crossing a bridge or dropping off a high ledge, but you’ll have to leave it behind until the next playthrough. While this adds replay value, it’s a pain realizing you ventured too far to earn an Achievement.

I completed my first run in Standard. The path to victory was not the easiest. You might say, perhaps, that Standard was a bit of a mountain climb, as opposed to a brisk walk. Still, I did well enough to reach the end. Then I decided to do a fresh playthrough, picking Hardcore in order to earn my bragging rights badge.

As of this writing, 26.4% of other players have this bragging rights badge.

Standard helped me learn the new gameplay mechanics, and it reminded me this was a remake, not a remastered upscale. Overall, in terms of Hardcoreness, this was among the milder hardcores. That didn’t mean it was a breeze, however. There were sections where I suffered more deaths than others, until I either figured out the right battle tactics, or the RNG took pity on me.

And one thing I’ll say about Hardcore is that it makes you stop and think, and while you’re at it, look around and appreciate your surroundings. The intensity intensifies. Given what Capcom aimed for, mixing survival horror with the action, I’ll wager this is the difficulty setting they intended players to pick.

Overall, I had a hard time putting down the Resident Evil 4 remake. But whether you will have the same experience depends on your feelings about tone and gameplay changes. Ask yourself, “Do I want my Resident Evil 4 to be serious? Do I want the enemies to be aggressive and spongy?” Don’t pass up an opportunity to give it a try and answer this for yourself.

Final Grade: A-