Resident Evil 4 Review
In light of the high-quality remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3 released in 2019 and 2020, it felt like a safe bet that Capcom would do an equally admirable job of rebuilding Resident Evil 4. Even so, when I hit the start button on this 2023 remake of the legendary 2005 action-horror game I wasn’t prepared for how forcefully it would knock my knees out from under me and suplex me headfirst into 16 hours of sustained tension and exhilaration. This fully revitalised campaign dramatically one-ups the original in almost every conceivable way. Its Spanish countryside setting is substantially more sinister, its pacing has been tightened to the point where hardly a single minute is wasted, and its controls have been modernised in order to allow its signature dynamic shooting mechanics to really shine. I’ve been waiting 18 years for a game to thrill me in the same way as Resident Evil 4; as it turns out, this whole time I’ve just been waiting for another Resident Evil 4.
The original Resident Evil 4 is a landmark installment in Capcom’s seminal survival-horror series that, for many, would need no introduction. However, considering it came out back when we assumed that Episode III would be the last Star Wars film and iPhones didn’t even exist yet, I should probably give it some context. At the time it was a big deal for Resident Evil to switch from the series’ traditional fixed-camera perspectives to a then radical over-the-shoulder viewpoint that brought us uncomfortably close to the gore and put the emphasis on reflexes and precision targeting, and as a result Resident Evil 4 was an action-horror epic without peer. Its influence has subsequently been felt in countless other third-person classics like Gears of War, Dead Space, and
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