Resident Evil 4 remake

Leon and Luis getting up close and personal. Screenshot by Oscar Gonzalez/CNET. Resident Evil 4 Remake is a substantial improvement over the original game, but ...

He's on a mission to rescue Ashley, the president's daughter, from a cult in rural Spain. One issue I and many other Resident Evil fans had with the original RE4 was simple: It wasn't that scary. These enhancements make RE4 Remake a wonderfully horrific experience for any Resident Evil fan. Capcom ups the fear factor with several improvements to the mood and setting, from the horrific-looking monsters to nerve-wracking areas where Leon's flashlight is the only light source. With its over-the-shoulder camera and precision aiming, Resident Evil 4 revolutionized not only survival horror but the shooter genre as a whole when it was released in 2005. This time around, the control and presentation advancements are a little less dramatic, mainly because Capcom is updating a newer video game.

It's not only one of the best action games in recent memory; it's the best Resident Evil since, well, probably the original Resident Evil 4.

If anything, this new version reinforces why the original Resident Evil 4 is a game people should still seek out, play, or at least watch and learn about. Resident Evil 4 changed the shape of the game industry. I could write a metaphorical book about all the ways I love the Resident Evil 4 remake, but it might be simplest to tell you to look down at the score at the bottom of this page and sum it up like this: if you loved Resident Evil 4 in the past, you will love this remake. And so, while I think it can show you why Resident Evil 4 was fun, goofy, and endearing, if you're someone interested in just why this old game has such an enduring legacy – especially one strong enough to warrant such a massively expensive remake – your best bet is to still play the original, to try and put your mind in a pre-Resident Evil 4 world to understand how that game could change everything. That will make playing the remake a much richer experience; you can see decades of lessons learned throughout the game industry about how to make a third-person action game thrilling, fun, and mechanically effective reapplied to the source material. Quickly following any mention of the original Resident Evil 4 is discussion of its camera. It's also a radical reimagining when it needs to be, a wonderfully fun game fully confident in its ability to remake one of the best games of all time. It is a love letter to a game that fans know up, down, left, right, and center, a faithful recreation at all the right moments, but with expert refinements and modern sensibilities. You play as Leon Kennedy, now a special agent of the United States president sent to a remote Spanish village in search of the president's missing daughter, Ashley Graham. Let's start with the former: unequivocally, if you are a fan of Resident Evil 4, you must play the remake. Running for my life, terrified of the chainsaw-wielding maniac chasing me through crowds of nasty folks, all the while desperately shooting at enemy kneecaps, parrying incoming projectiles, and running in and out of houses as my scarce ammo count gets closer and closer to zero was tense in a way this level hasn't been since I was a kid. Gameplay has been expanded – namely, you can walk and aim your gun at the same time now, as well as the aforementioned parrying and new melee options – which makes the already-great bones of RE4 feel modern and fresh.

And what a remake it is. We're back with our resident Sad Boy, aka special ops agent Leon. S Kennedy, whose floppy Justin Bieber hair and aquiline features are ...

There’s even a motorboat (!) that can be accessed towards the end of the game. A game for the ages. The possibilities are as endless as the zombies constantly try to take you down. A lot of RE 4’s old features have been retained, such as Leon’s beloved (and highly impractical) attaché case. Yes, Ashley is back, but this time Leon can give her instructions, the better to keep her from harm’s way (keeping her alive proved to be extremely stressful). And for all the people who have questioned why Resident Evil 4 needed a re-release, all I can say is “play the game”.

Capcom's latest remake, Resident Evil 4, is a faithful and fresh take on the GameCube-era survival horror classic that introduced more action to the ...

But after four Resident Evil games in as many years, even the current incarnations of the franchise are starting to feel a bit familiar — there are hints of the cookie-cutter mold that Kobayashi set out to shrug off more than 20 years ago, even in Capcom’s slick and gorgeously produced remakes. In between RE4’s action-heavy set pieces is a series of puzzles, many of them inscrutable and ornate in the classic Resident Evil style, along with fetch quests. The most striking and welcome example is how Capcom recast the central character of Ramón Salazar, who comes across less like a bleached Chucky doll and more like a distinguished but decaying old man. (The Merchant quips, as fans would demand him to, “What are ya buyin’?” but only sometimes, in a great and rare display of restraint from the designers.) Capcom has added a new layer to Leon’s upgrades in the remake, letting him not only increase the size of the attaché case that stores his items, but also the case itself, with variants that offer varying perks, and attachable charms that offer even more buffs. Leon is no longer the rookie cop of his previous game, and he no longer faces danger in the form of one or two shambling zombies at a time. Players will probably spend more time puzzling out how best to equip Leon, as a mystical, ever-present merchant offers a huge array of upgrades, new weapons, armor, repairs, and recipes for Leon to purchase. A group of cultists have kidnapped her in a plot to infect her with a parasite, and ultimately make her their puppet. Its angry residents — and a series of ultra-powerful men and monsters — stand between Leon and his rescuee. As in the original, Leon must also protect Ashley from harm in multiple, albeit brief segments where the two team up. Capcom’s remake of Resident Evil 4 reimagines the series’ most beloved and highly influential entry with lavish detail, modernizing the game from top to bottom. Developers have reframed Leon’s adventure through the lens of other recent Resident Evil remakes, bringing new levels of beauty and squishy gore to Resident Evil 4 while also updating its controls and story. Kennedy as an international action hero on a mission to save the U.S.

Keeping what works while reimagining what doesn't, this is about as good as remakes get. Eurogamer's Resident Evil 4 Remake review.

The trouble with Remakes is you're damned if you do and damned if you don't - change too little and players will ask what the point of it all was. Some locations are brick for brick lifted from the original, while other areas - particularly later in the game - have been streamlined to better fit the flow and pace of the story. You'll find yourself making your way through most of RE4 Remake with the contents of an airport Tiffany's tinkling in your pocket, as the game helpfully breaks down gemstone value multipliers that award you more cash for certain colour and size variations, meaning you'll want to keep extra stones on you at all times to make the most of every trinket. In the original game, spinels were small jewels that you could find and sell for quick cash, but here in the Remake they become a currency all their own, given by the merchant in return for doing small requests for him throughout Leon's adventure. In the Resident Evil 2 Remake, large sections of the RPD, as well as other memorable locations, were redesigned and reshuffled to work cohesively with the updated gameplay and to make sense in a more photoreal world. Or, you can quickly craft items by dropping them on top of one another - as with the original game - directly in the case. How charms are actually acquired is a fun little surprise I don't want to spoil here, but let us take this opportunity to reassure you that for all its gorgeously spooky new visuals and foreboding atmosphere, Resident Evil 4 retains its campy sense of fun where it matters. The bulk of the action in RE4 Remake falls into the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' category, but there are still a few modernisations that players will have come to expect from this genre - ever since the original set the tone for that same genre 18 years ago. While the original is roundly praised for popularising the third person over the shoulder perspective, it should also be held somewhat accountable for the proliferation of Quick Time Events in the many games that followed seeking to emulate its success. It also marked a turning point for one of the most popular horror franchises in gaming, as it leaned into fast-paced action and interactive cinematics to create a truly unique and exciting experience as it assuredly danced players from one dazzling set piece to another. All that to say, there's a lot riding on the Remake of what is widely considered one of the best games of all time. Resident Evil 4 Remake follows this formula and builds on it, displaying a confidence in both the original game's strengths and its own innovations to deliver something that feels at once intimately familiar to old fans and excitingly fresh for newcomers.

Nearly two decades ago, I watched Leon Kennedy's head get sawed off at my local Gamestop.

There's no doubt the writing in the original Resident Evil 4 was bad, but it's also beloved. But the remake can't feel as fresh, no matter how hard it swings, because its so steeped in the original game. The original game had only a tiny gap between the first and second bosses, creating a sense of breathless tension. In the last few years, Capcom remade both Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3, the former to great acclaim. Part of the reason Resident Evil 4 was so effective all those years ago was because there was nothing else like it. We all knew a Resident Evil 4 remake was on the table. The Resident Evil series has always deftly balanced combat, survival, and puzzle solving. The remake is substantially bigger, stitching together a world that feels more connected and organic. Using a knife to deflect the same chainsaw that lopped my head off in 2005 looks and feels ridiculous, just as it should. It's hard to overstate the noise Resident Evil 4 made on release. Special agent Kennedy was on a mission to rescue the president's daughter from a remote village in Spain, but it doesn't take long before he's beset by hostile townsfolk and a chainsaw-wielding maniac. Whereas many games slowly teach you their mechanics, Resident Evil 4 begins with exposure therapy, overwhelming the player with an immediate challenge.

Well, who's ready for the highest scoring release of 2023? While we're just three months into the year, the current scores the Resident Evil 4 remake is ...

The Resident Evil 2 remake has a 91. An absolute win here, and an apparently must-play when the game debuts in a week. [IGN (10/10)](https://www.ign.com/articles/resident-evil-4-remake-review) – “The Resident Evil 4 remake is the series' most relentlessly exciting adventure rebuilt, refined, and realised to the full extent of its enormous potential.” [TheGamer (10/10)](https://www.thegamer.com/resident-evil-4-review/) – “I had the time of my life throughout my 20 hour Hardcore playthrough and immediately started up a New Game+ run on Professional mode to see how well I could put all the lessons I learned throughout the game to the test. Normally I'd still find time to nitpick some minor annoyance or under baked section, but I just don't think games get much better than this.” [The Washington Post (4/4)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2023/03/17/resident-evil-4-video-game-review/) – “Resident Evil 4 Remake gets a perfect score. Everyone has a different way of scaling this, but the general story being told here is that this is a great game remade…extremely well. That includes 27 perfect 5/5, 10/10 or 100/100 scores, even including heavy-hitters like IGN and The Washington Post adding to that total.

Resident Evil 4 is an outstanding retelling of the 2005 survival horror masterpiece for modern audiences.

In a time where The Last of Us set standards for AI partners, it would have been nice for Ashley to be more than someone players have to babysit. The sheer spectacle of the combat, horror-leaning moments, boss battles and set-pieces are enhanced remarkably this time around on top of a gorgeous audio/visual presentation. Two of the biggest standout boss fights in the Resident Evil 4 remake are the ones against a redesigned Ramon Salazar and multilayered fights against Leon’s former friend turned enemy Jack Krauser. There’s a New Game+ mode to replay the game with all the equipment from the initial playthrough alongside harder difficulty settings. One of the most useful tools is the ability to perry enemy attacks for a follow up attack. When it comes to balancing how players of the original approach combat while introducing a more modernized feel for newer audiences, this take on Resident Evil 4 has a tougher job than the previous remakes yet makes it work more times than not. The two most obvious updates to the combat mechanics are the ability to shoot while moving and an overhaul to knife usage. Shooting a ganado in the head and running up for a roundhouse kick feels better than ever. Having spatial audio goes a long way in adding immersion to the terror outside of the fantastic sound mixing. All of that is enhanced significantly in the remake thanks to the capabilities of current hardware. S and PC, and we completed a playthrough on the PS5 version. Resident Evil 4 is an outstanding retelling of the 2005 original single player story for modern audiences.