The Resident Evil 4 remake is officially here! Arguably one of the best and most beloved third-person shooters of all time is back as Leon’s mission to save Ashley is reimagined on next-gen consoles. 

 

For those who didn’t play the 2004 classic, RE4 stars Leon Kennedy, Resident Evil 2’s rookie cop protagonist. Set a few years after the events of RE2, a grizzled and more confident Leon embarks on a mission to save the president’s daughter from a rural Spanish town overrun by a mysterious cult. 

 

The most welcome changes that separate the RE4 remake from the original include the removal of tank movement, as well as better player controls across the board. The graphics and animations have been completely overhauled; the game looks and feels incredible – standing out against what has been a mediocre start to 2023 for AAA games. 

 

Faithful reimaginings of Leon’s weapons, signature kick and floppy hair play an instrumental part in keeping the game familiar to returning players, while highlighting and championing to new players what made the original so magical in the first place. 

 

That being said, the modern take on Resident Evil 4 had to make *some* thematic changes to bring the game to the modern market. Cheesy lines like Leon’s iconic “no thanks, bro” have been traded out for less idiosyncratic quips, and the Merchant is less Del-Boy and more world-weary drifter. 

 

Gameplay setpieces like the castle siege and jet ski chase have been faithfully reimagined with substantially better graphics, while the opening village fight and castle hedge maze have been noticeably altered to provide some cheeky surprises to returning fans. 

 

Don’t worry though, it doesn’t compromise on that cheesy goodness that makes Resident Evil so Resident Evil. You’re still backflipping over chainsaws, round-house kicking old ladies and zig-zagging trebuchet fire. 

 

What Resident Evil does best is keeping its 3 acts distinctly separate. Between surviving in an abandoned village, running through a gaudy Spanish castle and shooting up a kitted-out Umbrella facility, RE4 keeps the gameplay consistently fresh. 

 

There isn’t much that the game gets wrong. That being said; the nature of RE4’s remake being so faithful is that it might have failed to take a few risks that would have really cemented its place as the Game of the Year that it could have been. 

 

Also, I want to call attention to how well the game looks and runs. I played through on PS5 and despite the expansive maps, crowds of enemies on the screen and plenty of particle effects, my FPS never noticeably stalled or dropped. There was very little popping and no audio/visual hitches to speak of – honestly something I wasn’t expecting so soon after the game’s release. This games was made with a lot of love and a lot of nostalgia, but what struck me is how I always felt like I was playing something really compact and polished. 

 

I beat the game in around 16 hours, though you can put plenty more in if you’re chasing higher difficulties, mercenary mode or 100% collectible completion. There’s also plenty of cosmetics, as well as a few surprises, that only unlock after you beat the game, so it really does lend itself to being replayed. 

 

VERDICT

 

All-in-all, Resident Evil 4 is a really *fun* game – and I emphasise that because in the current market saturated with games that want you to collect 500 bobbleheads and 500 fetch-quests to complete, Resident Evil provides a really trimmed experience that keeps the player engaged and interested throughout. 

 

It also toes the line excellently between being overly dark and gritty and overly jokey and nonsensical, giving the player an end-product that doesn’t take itself too seriously while still keeping the atmosphere tense, engaging and even terrifying at the same time. 

But the best thing about this game, and my reason for this rating, was its ability to completely overhaul itself without compromising on what made the original so good to begin with. Because in a world where every new release seems to be an inferior remake or spin-off or sequel of something else, that is incredible and hard to come by today. 

 

Verdict: 8.5/10