Resident Evil 4 Remake Review

I remember how surprised I was when I first saw Resident Evil 4. It was a game that attracted attention with its spectacular graphics and high scores we saw in game magazines. That’s why, I wanted work on Resident Evil 4 Remake review.

The game was first released as a Nintendo Gamecube exclusive, and this situation upset PlayStation owners. But this situation did not last long. Anyway, let’s check all the details of survival horror game in the Resident Evil 4 Remake review.

Resident Evil 4 Remake Review
Resident Evil 4 Remake Review: Return of the Leon

Resident Evil 4 Remake Review / PC

The RE4 video game was first released 18 years ago, which has completely different and innovative content from the previous games of the series. Now, that game is coming back completely renewed! And “Yes”. It is still one of the greatest games.

In fact, what has changed in the completely renewed version of Resident Evil 4, which has already appeared with various updates and VR versions before, is the only thing that has been renewed is the visuals, will the disaster previously experienced with Resident Evil 3 Remake repeat itself, let’s examine together.

The People of This Village Are Very Irritable

Resident Evil 4 is one of the games in the series with one of the most lame storylines. I don’t use this word too much in reviews, but it is very appropriate for this game. Six years have passed since the events in Raccoon City.

Agent Leon S Kennedy is no longer a rookie cop, but a specially trained federal agent. He travels to rural Spain with an assignment from the president of the United States to rescue the president’s daughter.

We are travelling to the secluded European village with two policemen. One of the policemen go ahead of us and says “let us take a look” and we start walking to the village because we are curious about the situation. The first villager welcomes us calmly, he goes to the stove to check his food without a care in the world and then decides to hit us on the head with an iron.

Resident Evil 4 Remake Review
Resident Evil 4 Remake Review: The People of This Village Are Very Irritable

As an action hero, we beat the villager until he says, “Wait, what’s going on?” We see that one of the policemen has been killed downstairs. Then we find out that the mayor’s daughter is here and we start to investigate the village, avoiding the villagers who like to play with torches.

If you expect a revolutionary change in the story, you will be disappointed. The game presents its clichéd story in a more detailed way and I’m glad for that.

They didn’t do like Resident Evil 3 Remake and force a new direction to the story. After writing the review, I played the game a couple of times more, and I gave that game too many points at the time.

The Seperate Ways DLC, which was added to the original game later and where we discover the hidden details of the adventure through the eyes of Ada Wong, is currently not available in the game. I think they will add it later, so I don’t think this is a big problem for now.

Let’s Play Tetris in Inventory

The original Resident Evil 4 was a very innovative game and featured a lot of different gameplay compared to the older games in the series. Enemies never behave the same and you had to develop different tactics as you progressed.

Even while fighting, you had to deal with small puzzles. You try to defeat the opponents, and in the meantime, you had to remember Ashley, who was with you and whom you had to protect at the cost of your life. The remastered version of Resident Evil 4 is faithful to all the innovations in the game and makes the necessary adjustments, and this is a great thing.

Ashley
Resident Evil 4 Remake review: You had to remember Ashley

I had previously played Resident Evil 4 on the PS2 console and was surprised to see the change from the previous games. It was a game that left the survival and thriller elements behind and turned more towards action.

You could kill enemies with your guns and knives, kick the stunned ones in the head or do the “German Suplex” move. We can do all of these in the Remake version as well. Moreover, this time we can walk while aiming! This is great news for those like me who have trouble using a controller.

Being able to move isn’t the only new addition to the combat system, there are other nice and gameplay-enhancing features. For example, we now have the ability to parry or deflect enemies’ attacks. We had something similar in the past, but this is a different system.

If you use the knife just as the opponent is about to strike, you can deflect the move and counterattack. Or you can stop Salvador’s saw with a knife, a move that greatly decreases the durability of the blade, but it’s better for the blade than the life.

use the knife just as the opponent is about to strike
Resident Evil 4 Remake review: Use the knife just as the opponent is about to strike

The number of weapons in the game has increased, which means you’ll be playing more of one of the game’s most legendary features, the “Inventory Tetris” mini-game. “Inventory Tetris” is the cheerful name for sorting the items in your inventory properly to make room for new items.

This was the nightmare of players like me who had a habit of collecting. With the remake, various helpful features have been added, one of which is the quick organisation button. If you want, you can organise the whole inventory with a single button.

We can buy and improve inventory sizes from our beloved vendor. Thanks to the small ornaments we can attach to the bag, we gain bonuses that affect the drop rate of some items in the game or our damage. It is also possible to customise the bag itself and earn small bonuses. You learn what you need to do to find them in the game.

I liked the game’s revamped battle system very much, I was able to progress very comfortably while playing with the controller. The only thing I felt missing was the “dodge” button. I’m so used to dodging in the games I’ve played that I couldn’t get out of the habit of pressing the duck button while the enemy was attacking. But as there is no dodge, I was always getting smashed in the head with the maces.RE4 Knife Tune Up

Resident Evil 4 Remake review: You can tune up your weaponsThere are different methods such as stepping back to avoid and QTA keys, but you understand the lack of what I mean.

There must have been some of you who got nervous when QTA was mentioned, after all, there aren’t many games where you get stabbed for having a snack in the cutscene. The unnecessarily overused QTA parts of Resident Evil 4 have been reduced to a reasonable level in this game.

You no longer need to press buttons at ridiculous moments. My favourite thing about the remake is that everything that seemed unnecessary in the old game has been neatly reworked and integrated into the remake.

Let’s also talk about the difficulty of the game. We started the review a little late, and when I tried the demo, I realised that the difficulty was harder than the old game even on normal, so I planned to finish on the easiest and see the differences. I definitely don’t recommend doing this. The game becomes so easy that I can’t explain it.

The game is a great option for those who are interested but don’t want to play on hard. You never have a shortage of bullets or health, “Damn boss, here’s a rocket for you!” you are travelling like a one-man army. It’s fun in a way, but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. Even the standard difficulty will allow you to play without too much difficulty.

Be careful to the enemies
Resident Evil 4 Remake review: Be careful to the enemies

Speaking of difficulty, Ashley, who is famous for his “Leon Help!” cry that old players remember, has become more player-friendly in this game.

The fact that she is a young girl who has been took by force and needs our care does not change, but she is not so badly made that she comes to an end some-where and in need of us to play the last part from the start.

Moreover, it is no longer the case that she dies as soon as her health runs out, she falls to the ground and we are given time to pick her up.

Graphics

I played the PC version of Resident Evil 4 Remake on a GeForce RTX 3070 system with both 2K and 1080p resolutions. Playing in 1080p, I averaged between 100 – 110 fps without any problems, some sections saw 80 fps due to crowding or various effects, but overall the performance is very good.

At 2K, I was able to average 60fps, and since my monitor is already 75Hz, I wasn’t looking for much more. The game looked very good at both resolutions.

Character modelling, animations and environmental details look great. The rain effect, which was very responsive, has also been improved. You can adjust the game’s graphics settings as you like, and there are visuals in the menu that allow you to see what kind of effect your changes will have. In this way, you don’t need to enter the game to see how the environment will look after you change the setting.

Graphics settings
Resident Evil 4 Remake review: Graphics settings

I said the game works fine, but I can’t say I never had any problems. During the time I played, I had a completely random crash problem with the GTX 3070 in both 2K and 1080p resolution. I don’t want to say it happened too much, but I had to re-enter the game an average of 2 times every time I played.

When I put my old card (2060) in and switched the settings to the middle, I only had this problem once. I don’t think there is a problem with my card, I guess it is a problem that will be fixed when the game comes out with updates.

Sounds and Music

The game does not disappoint in terms of sound and music, the renewed OST album is very good. The sounds and effects that complement the atmosphere are used properly. When you think that you can find some things hidden in the environment only by following their sounds, you realise how important it is to use the sounds well.

The character voices are quite good, both Leon and Ashley’s English accents are pretty impressive. Ada’s voice actor in RE2 has changed, but it’s not a disturbing change that will affect the character.

Lastly, I love the new looks of the characters. Ada’s new outfit may upset some of us, but she looks great!

Before I finish, I played the game on PC with both keyboard-mouse and DualSense controller. I normally prefer Xbox controllers, but this time I made a change by saying “Let’s see if DualSense features are available on PC”. DualSense works very well and the vibration features are nice, but the DualSense reactions I experienced in the PlayStation demo remained a PlayStation 5-only experience.

Resident Evil 4 Remake Review
Resident Evil 4 Remake Review: The game is out on all platforms except Nintendo Switch.

Conclusion

There’s no need to beat around the bush about Resident Evil 4. We have a great game. Until I played this version, I was saying things like “What was the point, we already have a playable game.

“Where’s Code Veronica?” I admit I was half wrong, this game was needed and it’s great. I’m still going to insist that Code Veronica needs to release, and if possible, it needs to be as good as RE2 and this game.

There are some very minor shortcomings at launch, I had random crashing issues, I wish there were side features that unlocked after the game was finished, but none of these things make the game bad. Innovations that improve the story, lots of side quests, extra actions to do, treasures to collect and much more await you in Resident Evil 4. Let me tell you something that most Resident Evil fans know, once you finish the game, don’t quit, keep playing!

You can get the Resident Evil 4 PC version on Steam. It has recently seen a price hike and with this price, I think I can recommend “Buy it for sure”, if you are a fan of the game, yes, I recommend it. Console players, as we are not used to, have more advantageous prices in this game.

In-game Store
Resident Evil 4 Remake review: In-game Store

Those who want to play on the Xbox Series S/X console can buy it through the Microsoft Store, while PlayStation 4 and 5 versions are on sale on the PlayStation Store. There are also extra versions with various outfits and bonuses that you can check out, but they don’t have a major impact on gameplay.

If you want to play the game before you buy, you can check Resident Evil 4 Remake demo.

Decision

Final Score - 9.2

9.2

Capcom did it well

Resident Evil 4 is coming to make its mark on the gaming world again! Forget the bad remakes that hide behind classic IP’s, what we've got is a Remake that will take a great game to perfection.

User Rating: 4.35 ( 1 votes)

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