Resident Evil 4 (Remake) Review: That’s Bingo!
Everyone knew this game was inevitable. The moment Capcom reached massive success with the Resident Evil 2 Remake, and somewhat less success with the Resident Evil 3 Remake, they would eventually remake Resident Evil 4. In a possibly biased way, having been more of the target age during RE4’s original release, I felt that while there was a case to be made that the first three games DID need remakes, RE4 did not. While there is an argument that can be made, did this need to be made, I can now safely say that on the other side, I am glad that it was.
Coming out in 2005, Resident Evil 4 felt like seeing the future of video games, and, in many ways, to my time-addled brain, it still feels new. Despite my love of the remakes, I still doubted whether this remake was necessary. How could they make one of my favorite games better? Well, they didn’t. They opted for a much more interesting path. Instead of trying to bring this game forward, they built one that is mostly its own creation, existing in tandem with the original.
The terrifying chainsaw maniac Dr. Salvador returns to haunt players dreams.
For every decision they made, you can see where they intimately studied the original, finding every moment they could edit, tweak, or divert. All of the main beats remain. Leon S. Kennedy, former Raccoon City Police rookie, is now an agent of the government, tasked with rescuing the President’s daughter from a dangerous cult in rural Spain. He still contends with the cult of the Las Plagas, a parasite that turns the denizens of the area into compliant, zombie-like killers. All the major characters from the original return, and they all end up with the same fates. The deviations come in the minute-to-minute details. Apart from the infamous opening village fight being nearly identical, the layout of the surrounding areas is nearly completely different, with plenty of design care around remake Leon’s newfound ability to both walk and aim his gun. Levels are generally more open, and enemies are more aggressive to account for this new level of mobility. All the bosses are also adapted to this change, creating a far more frantic and frenetic experience than the original’s more measured, tense, ground-standing exchanges.
Ada Wong appears from time to time to aid Leon, but is she actually trustworthy?
All of these feelings could potentially stem from a stubborn desire to allow the original Resident Evil 4 to remain in my heart. Anything is possible, but I do genuinely believe, outside of those feelings, that Capcom went above and beyond to create a game that doesn’t replace the original but uses it as a template to create a nearly brand-new experience that excels at nearly everything it does. You could see them as two forks in the same timeline: one fork where the game is the campy action of the original, and the latter being the slick, more straightly played horror of the remake. The greatest hallmark being that I could just as easily see myself replaying the remake as I could the original.
