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The villagers are a lot scarier in the remake.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
This shift in tone and style is evident from the very beginning. Resident Evil 4<\/em> puts you in the role of federal agent Leon Kennedy, tasked with rescuing the president\u2019s daughter from a remote Spanish village, where you\u2019ll eventually encounter a murderous cult, monsters with too many tentacles, and plenty of other things to shoot at. Very early on in the game \u2014 like, before you\u2019ve even fired a bullet \u2014 you\u2019re thrown into the town square, which is filled with residents who want to murder you for some reason. One of them has a chainsaw. You have no choice but to fight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
This bold opening sequence is important for a few reasons. It shows just how action-oriented the gameplay is; you can\u2019t survive without running, hiding, and getting off a lot of headshots. It also makes it clear that the enemies aren\u2019t the slow zombies from the previous games. They\u2019re fast, and they can think. One of my strongest memories of playing for the first time in 2005 was knocking down a ladder so the villagers couldn\u2019t climb up to get me, only to see them pick it up and put it back in place. I had to put my controller down for a bit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Despite being nearly two decades old, it feels like a mostly modern experience<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In the remake, that village sequence is much more terrifying than I remember. At its core \u2014 narrative, gameplay, and design \u2014 the remake is the same as the original. But it has a number of upgrades, primarily in terms of visuals and controls, that elevate the experience and make things like the familiar opening battle more intense and dynamic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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It looks incredible, for one thing. The environments are packed with small details that make the world feel alive, from the nauseating, glistening trails of blood to the brushstroke textures on the oil paintings. During the quiet moments, it\u2019s a lot of fun to soak in the atmosphere and just look around. The more realistic visuals naturally make things a lot scarier, particularly when it comes to the enemy designs. Classic creatures, like the towering giants or pesky bugs, now look truly terrifying. Even the standard villagers and cult members have a much more unsettling edge to them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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These scares are balanced out by the fact that you feel more powerful than in almost any other Resident Evil<\/em> game. Leon is fast and strong, and the controls feel streamlined to the point that, even toward the end of the game when I had six different firearms to swap between, I never had a hard time switching in the midst of a firefight. When I died, it was usually because I did something silly, not because I hit a wrong button. It\u2019s hard to put into words, but the Resident Evil 4<\/em> remake just feels good:<\/em> the movement, the shooting, the impressive set pieces. It all gels into a game that, despite being nearly two decades old, plays like a mostly modern experience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Mine carts and explosive barrels: now that is a video game.<\/em><\/figcaption>Image: Capcom<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
There are a few places where the remake of Resident Evil 4<\/em> shows its age \u2014 but I mean that in a good way. For one thing, this is such a video game<\/em>. Modern blockbusters love to hide their inherent gaminess under the veneer of immersion, but RE4 <\/em>harbors no such illusions. This is a game where you kick crates slathered in yellow paint to gather ammo and herbs, and explosive red barrels are everywhere. There\u2019s even a mine cart sequence (with plenty of explosive barrels).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Leon makes goofy B-movie quips constantly, and characters appear not when it makes the most sense but when the plot demands it. Perhaps the best example of this is the ever-present shopkeeper, who has storefronts all over the abandoned, ravaged town, despite seemingly only having a single customer. These choices usually don\u2019t make a lot of sense narratively, but they\u2019re fun. <\/em>They make the game more straightforward to play, and overall, the experience is better off for them. I don\u2019t want to smash up all of the scenery to get those shotgun shells. Just tell me where to go with some bright yellow paint.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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This is such a video game<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Similarly, Resident Evil 4<\/em> has a level of focus that has become increasingly rare. While the remake expands on some things, particularly with more elaborate boss fights, it\u2019s still a fairly straightforward experience. There are no open-world elements. (There are some optional quests, mostly carried over from the original, but it\u2019s simple stuff like killing rats and shooting blue targets.) For the most part, RE4 <\/em>pushes you down tight hallways that connect larger areas where you\u2019ll do all of the fighting; you\u2019ll know when you reach a fight sequence because of all of the cover and exploding barrels. Its world still feels large and complex, but it\u2019s not the kind of place you get lost in. I only ever found myself lost<\/em> lost once thanks to a very well-hidden wrench that halted my progress. It also changes things up every so often so that it doesn\u2019t feel overly repetitive. You play much of the game solo, but there are various points where, much like in the original, AI companions join you for a time, adding a nice change of pace, including a very scary sequence with the first daughter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
When you really think about it, the Resident Evil 4<\/em> remake is a strange combination of things. Full-blown action merged with survival horror; modern controls and graphics with old-school level design. It\u2019s a contradiction at times. But all of those elements are balanced in a way that makes them work together. The fun moments offset the scares, like when you\u2019re walking down a creepy, dark cave only to see the welcoming purple glow of the shopkeeper\u2019s torch. And the new visuals and streamlined action make the thrilling set pieces stand out even more. It\u2019s particularly impressive when you compare this remake to something like Resident Evil Village<\/em>, which attempted to mash RE4<\/em>-style action with the series\u2019 new first-person perspective, and realize just how much better the original still is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
When Resident Evil 4<\/em> first came out, it was a game unlike anything Capcom had made before. And it turns out that, almost 20 years later, it\u2019s still as refreshing as ever \u2014 even if it\u2019s yet another remake.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Resident Evil 4 launches on March 24th on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X \/ S, and Steam.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We might be approaching a point where there are, in fact, too many video game remakes and remasters. Off the top of my head, there\u2019s The Last of Us Part I, Demon\u2019s Souls, Shadow of the Colossus, Metroid Prime, Dead Space, and soon, Silent Hill 2. But no one has gone as hard into this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}