Resident Evil 4 Remake Review

The original Resident Evil 4 first saw release in 2005 exclusively for the Nintendo Gamecube after a rocky development (which also resulted in the creation of Devil May Cry). The game’s exclusivity didn’t last long as the game was ported over to the PS2 a few months later. The game would go on to become one of the best games of all times. After a plethora of re-release across everything but the kitchen sink, Capcom decided to remake their all-time classic and give it the same treatment as RE2R and RE3R. So how does the 2023 version fare? Let’s find out.

Resident Evil 4 is set in 2004 and brings back RE2 protagonist Leon S. Kennedy as he is sent on a mission in an unnamed rural village in Spain in order to save the President’s daughter, Ashley Graham. The First Daughter has been kidnapped by a mysterious cult with evil intentions in mind. As Leon attempts to investigate and question a local villager, our protagonist quickly realizes that things might not be as easy as he’d want them to be.

Resident Evil 4 is a third-person action shooter with survival horror elements. While the Resident Evil series started off as a more survival horror-focused series, Resident Evil 4 implemented a bit more action gameplay and this version steps it up even more. As Leon Kennedy, you’ll have to face off against hordes of Las Plagas-infected enemies looking to bite your head off while you rescue and protect Ashley. This time around, the President’s daughter doesn’t have a life bar, meaning you won’t have to waste health items on her; but she can get knocked down and be vulnerable to dying. And if she dies, it’s game over.

While Mr. Kennedy starts off with a basic combat knife and his pistol, as you kill enemies, you’ll collect Pesetas, which is the currency that can be used at the merchant to buy new weapons and upgrade any weapon you have. You’ll also find jewels that can be sold off for extra cash or used on treasures found in order to increase their value and get more money out of the merchant.

Along with buying, selling, and upgrading, the Merchant now offers Trading where the merchant will take a set amount of specific jewels for certain items such as Yellow Herbs or crafting materials. And yes, speaking of which, Capcom brought their crafting mechanic in RE4. By collecting materials, you can craft ammo, grenades, and herb mix. While some ammo can be crafted out of the gate, you can also purchase additional recipes, such as Magnum ammo, from the merchant. This time around, your knife (and protection vest) can be damaged and broken. But thanks to the merchant, while both can fix repaired to 100%, the knife can also be upgraded. You’ll also find additional, weaker non-combat knives, throughout your mission that can be used as a replacement until you meet the merchant.

If you’ve played the original, I have good and bad news: QTEs. The good news is that they aren’t as prevalent and you don’t need to catch Ashley, but the bad news is that QTEs are used as a dodge mechanic during certain battles meaning if you don’t time it right, you get hit. One of the best new mechanics is Leon’s ability to crouch and approach enemies stealthily for a few silent kills. It’s a welcome feature, especially with Ashley around as it allows players to get rid of enemies quietly and avoiding things goig south. Another new feature is the parry mechanic which allows you to parry melee attacks. While it’s a neat feature (albeit now a bit overused in gaming nowadays), unless you want to finish it with the knife only, it’s not required to parry except during a specific boss battle.

Capcom added completely optional side-quests that are triggered by finding specific pieces of paper throughout each area. They can vary from destroying Blue Emblems to killing vipers or rats. Once you’ve completed them, the Merchant will automatically recognize this and give you your rewards; jewels more often than not. Other quests such as killing and collecting viper skins require you to sell them to the Merchant.

As you’d expect, Capcom’s RE Engine does a great job overall with the game’s visuals. Character models look great, albeit a bit shiny. Environments are highly detailed and appropriately creepy. The enemy variety of enemies and bosses is as good and as horrifying as you’d expect. Although the engine seems to struggle with rendering realistic hair, and if you’ve played Resident Evil: Village, you’ll notice Capcom reused certain assets for environments and certain enemy models/movement. There’s also this lazy job when Leon uses his comm device. The window of the interlocuter appears in the middle of the screen like an amateur Photoshop work; this is quite the downgrade compared to the original presentation of Leon’s use of the communication system.

The soundtrack complements the game very well. The ambient score adds a layer of tension and uneasiness during enclosed areas. In a late section of the game, hearing the Regenerators breathing from afar was one of the best (and unnerving) uses of sound in recent memory. The voiceover work is well executed as a whole, but Leon has even more annoying, useless one-liners that become old very fast. Also, the recasting of Ada with a woman with a deeper voice tone feels a bit off, but you’re used to it by the end of the game.

Unfortunately, there are a few annoying quirks. The first one is the A.I. being somehow (despite better technology) dumber than the one in the original. So many times I was able to approach an enemy for a stealth kill while in his periphery and he didn’t budge. Ashley’s A.I. is also dumber as well. During a single run, she managed to get caught more than the 100+ hours I put in the original. Even when close to me, while running away, she couldn’t keep up and got caught somehow causing to backtrack and trying to kill the horde of enemies I was trying to avoid.

Additional annoying nuisances are the fact that you can’t store most of the things you can carry in the storage box (available at typewriters) for whatever reason. Meaning if you collected ammo for a weapon you don’t have yet, you either need to discard, sell it or let it take up space in your case. And the lack of a proper dodge button makes certain fights more frustrating than anything else. Also not having Mercenaries mode available out of the gate (i.e. after finishing the game) and fed through (free) DLC instead is baffling, but that’s a debate for another day.

Capcom also overall made things slightly worse with Ashley. Even with giving the order to stay close, she’ll often get lost behind tying in with her less competent A.I.. Also, they added her to sections where she wasn’t before such as the courtyard; making navigating the maze even more annoying. If you enter cabins or small enclosures, Ashley won’t follow you which will leave her vulnerable if enemies are around. And a small heads up to those familiar with the 2005 version: If you hated Novistators, Capcom decided to use them even more often here.

All in all, Resident Evil 4 (2023) is a fun, (too?) lenghty and intense action shooter with a few unnerving sequences, although little to no scares. Capcom added quite a bit of content and gameplay mechanics (and unnecessarily padded fluff), but it also has a few annoying quirks such as dumber A.I. (at least it wasn’t butchered like RE3R). I do feel the shine’s off these waves of remakes and with rumors of Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil Remake (*sigh*) remakes, Capcom needs to take a break from revisiting the past and explore the RE lore by giving more love to characters like Ada and/or Jill. Whether you have played the original or not, RE4 2023 is well worth the investment. Fair warning: if you were planning on playing the original for the first time, do it before this remake.