The Resident Evil 4 remake pulls off the same great trick
In 2001, four years before the original Resident Evil 4 was released, Capcom knew it had a problem. The Resident Evil series was stuck in a cookie-cutter mold, producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi said at the time. “The whole concept of RE4 was to reinvent the game,” he said. “We wanted to give the gamers something new.”
The result was a combat-forward reboot of the series that reconsidered its survival-horror roots, pitching Resident Evil 2 co-star Leon S. Kennedy as an international action hero on a mission to save the U.S. president’s daughter from a cult. Resident Evil4 was hailed as a masterpiece, injecting new life into the franchise that would only become even more action-focused in ensuing sequels — ultimately prompting yet another reinvention of the series with the back-to-basics horror game Resident Evil 7 Biohazard.
Capcom’s remake of Resident Evil 4 reimagines the series’ most beloved and highly influential entry with lavish detail, modernizing the game from top to bottom. Developers have reframed Leon’s adventure through the lens of other recent Resident Evil remakes, bringing new levels of beauty and squishy gore to Resident Evil 4 while also updating its controls and story. The result is a clear demonstration that the developers understand their source material, and want to make it sing by fleshing out every possible detail.
The game also strongly signals that Resident Evil may be in need of a reinvention once again.
Resident Evil 4’s core elements are present in the remake. Leon S. Kennedy, now a dashing government agent, is dispatched on a covert solo mission to Spain, where he searches for a target codenamed “Baby Eagle” — real name Ashley Graham, the daughter of U.S. President Graham. A group of cultists have
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