Resident Evil 4 Review (Rampaging Cookie)
18 years later, still a Masterpiece!
After RE3 Remake, when capcom announced that they were doing a remake for RE4, not everyone was happy; instead, they were scared of its following the path of RE3.
But believe me, when you're playing this masterpiece again after so many years with these graphics and lots of positive points, you won't think of RE3 anymore, and in my opinion, it was close enough to what we needed.
From the start of the game, you'll notice that some places are changed and almost unrecognizable, but after playing for 15 mins, the old resident evil 4 shows itself within the soul of this game, but with real-life graphics!
capcom wants you to know that from the start, so when you come across a completely changed section of the game, you know that they tried their best being faithful, so you'll try to be open-minded; surely that has its ups and downs, but I can live with that.
The Gameplay
is almost perfect; at first, I was worried that enemies were unreliable on being stunned when you shoot them in the face since sometimes it takes more than two hits for them to get stunned. But at the end of the game, there I was, blasting through them like a bunch of predictable insects. Sure, Leon's walking is a little heavy, but it doesn't make it any less fluid.
The map is fantastic, this was the first resident evil game in that I used its map more than 100+ times in one playthrough, and I was using it for gathering treasures and doing requests for HOURS!
Gunplay was great for me with all of the guns except with TMP, that gun will never shoot where you tell it to shoot, and I only used it 2 or 3 times when I was out of ammo on other guns, or I was trying to kill some nasty dogs with Nemesis-like teeth.
The story
was expended much more, and there was so much to find out about the plaga and Los Iluminados, the Salazar family and the betrayal of Ramon, Ada and why she wants the sample or what good is that for Wesker, Major Krauser and his operation with Leon and even our Madrid's officer luis sera.
I think they're changing the whole story of Operation Javier, but it doesn't sound bad though.
Graphics
are at the peak of it! I'm not sure if ReEngine can make it further in this matter from here on forward; I must say, lighting is the best thing you can see in this game, and you'll appreciate that when playing as Ashley.
There were some crazy rain effects in a section of the village that my fps was crying in its bed, shiting its pants, but I can't actually call that non-optimized because It was so beautiful, and I was playing on Ultra 4K, so I expect some fps drops.
Ashley
is GREAT Now! she's no more a loud screaming machine that can't even climb down a ladder, but instead, you'll be amazed by the amount of help that she provides to Leon; I actually started to like her from the church encounter, there is more soul put into her and that was the best change they've made in the remake.
Cons
Some boss fights were changed a lot and even built new from the ground up, like Salazar and I didn't like that. Fight with Krauser wasn't like old times and the area felt so empty; they even changed something here too that was much uglier than the original, and that was krauser's mutation.
Some areas were a little bit smaller than the original, which was odd.
Merchant's voice was a downside; it felt like he was trying to mimic or even mock the original voice actor; I don't exactly know why, but It felt like I was talking to the duke from ReVillage. Then again, duke didn't talk this much; even if he did, I didn't care.
But the merchant is a talkative boy now! Shut up already! I'm trying to choose something to buy, don't give me that repeatable dialogue every damn second; it feels like the merchant was supposed to be Ashley or something, and his dialogue doesn't always mean something; for example, he sometimes says he got some rare things on sale but me the stranger couldn't find anything in his pockets.
Speaking of pockets, the only good and funny thing he said was that I couldn't put that Rocket launcher in my pocket.
Overall
the game feels so much like the old RE4, and in some cases even better; the action is like john wick killing a bunch of farmers, but at some points, the Horror is Unbearable! w8 until you encounter and try to defeat the first two Regeneradors while looking for that Biosensor Scope.
The BIG undeniable flaw of RE4 Remake, which cannot be completely ignored, is simplifying or removing several challenging situations that were present or more engaging in the original version, especially from the island.
Conclusion
There are not many games that can literally be recommended to all types of gamers. But some video games are so brilliant that everyone should experience them at least once. When Resident Evil 4 was released in 2005, it was considered as such. The remake of Resident Evil 4 is a good reminder of this fact. Resident Evil 4 2023 is essentially a video game worthy of respect.
It doesn't matter if you fought the followers of Los Iluminados several years ago or if you have no knowledge of Resident Evil 4. Experience this Masterpiece at all costs!
9/10, Must Play!