Resident Evil 4 Hands-On Preview
After the incredible success of the Resident Evil 2 remake in 2019, it was a no-brainer for Capcom to revitalise more of its older games to better suit a modern audience. With every step forward, though, the quality gap between past and present becomes less striking. And now it has finally arrived at the progenitor of the successful, over-the-shoulder Resi playstyle, it’s hard to imagine how much an all-time classic can be improved beyond a fresh coat of paint. But from what I’ve played of Resident Evil 4 so far, Capcom seems less interested in creating an RE2 remake-style gigantic leap. Instead, it appears more laser-focused on making one of the best games of all time even better.
During my play session, which began at the very start of the game and concluded just after the villager onslaught, everything felt equal parts incredibly familiar and unsettlingly different. The sequence of events was almost identical, but the graphical and design improvements made locations feel noticeably more lived in, claustrophobic, and haunting to explore. Despite my experience with the original, I still found myself nervously tip-toeing around every corner, with the anticipation that at any moment something unexpected could happen.
Much like in 2002’s Resident Evil remake, elements were strategically organised to subvert my expectations. A highlight in that remake of the original was the early fake-out that preyed on fans’ memory of the dogs smashing through the window, which doesn’t happen when you expect it to. With the Resident Evil 4 remake, I experienced similar twists in my short playthrough, one of which also related to a dog.
Where Resident Evil 4 does feel incredibly familiar though is in its combat. As mentioned previously, with
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