Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways Review (raw maw)
A lack of separation
A rather neat little side-campaign expansion for the Resident Evil 4 remake!
And it is a mostly positive experience, in my opinion.
I do have quite a handful of gripes against this expansion, but overall it is fundamentally still at its core basically just more Resident Evil 4 remake content for me to play. And I loved that game!
The Separate Ways expansion continues the engaging & enjoyable gameplay of the main-campaign; as the gameplay is in large part unchanged. And I feel like that's one of my largest gripes with this expansion... it's basically just more Resident Evil 4 remake gameplay formatted through mostly new content... but in lesser overall quality. A lot of things bogs it down compared to the main-campaign, and since it doesn't do a lot to strike out & carve its own unique gameplay path much it kinda just feels useless. I don't see why I should return to this side-campaign when I already have the main-campaign when in my eyes the latter is inherently just the former but better in every way.
I don't hate or dislike what this expansion has to present, but I also don't have a lot to praise about it since it barely does anything unique that I haven't seen already.
It's the same gameplay, it's the same weapon arsenal, it's the same enemies, and most arenas you've already explored in the main-campaign. Outside of the mostly arbitrary inclusion of the grapple-hook it really doesn't do anything new in terms of a moment-to-moment gameplay experience. I feel it really just needed something to truly set it apart from the main-campaign beyond simply the inclusion of new arena fights & a different protagonist. I guess you could say it doesn't separate itself much from the main-campaign. Meaning that unlike the main-campaign it's unlikely I'll return to replay the experience.
Still, I did have a vastly positive time throughout my experience nevertheless. Again, it is basically just more Resident Evil 4 remake gameplay, and I loved that game! I enjoy having more content of that game for me to play through.
Bosses
I think one the expansion's attempted highlights were its boss-fights. There's a decent chunk of them here, and I will give them credit for they do not play anything alike any of the main-campaign boss-fights, which is refreshing.
However, none of the boss-fights really interested me all that much or had me very engaged throughout.
The now multiple Resident Evil 4 campaigns -- original and modern -- have sadly never really amazed me with many of its boss-fights. Both the classic & modern entries' combat gameplay has always felt heavily reliant on focusing on multiple smaller targets rather than a singular larger one. Yet each entry nevertheless occasionally prevailed & gave me something noteworthy. But I really didn't get that here. All the boss-fights either had me completely uninterested or had me on the verge of being pissed off. Espeically the Saddler fight where his attacks would hit me through the pillar & the El Gignate fight where I ran out of ammo half-way through really just felt overly tedious.
And then there's that monster in the laboratory that had me facepalm myself in dismay of how really poorly made it was. It appears & dies during a singular escape sequence where you don't even get to fight it once!
Yes, that voice
Now, a generally huge negative of this expansion following the Resident Evil 4 remake's version of Ada instead of the original's is that I had to endure the dry, monotonous voice-acting.
Again, I complained about Ada's new voice in my review for the game's main-campaign, but since you're now enduring a full campaign with this new Ada as the protagonist I felt it was worth mentioning again.
It felt hard for me to endure at times, and I was on the verge of installing the fan-mod that replaces Ada's voice-lines with a soundalike of the original Resident Evil 4 Ada's voice actress. But that just didn't feel very pure per se for a first play-through. So I dragged on.
Conclusion
I am very critical of this expansion side-campaign in this review, I realize that. But I did honestly still enjoy it. I just find it hard to talk about it in-depth without just regurgitating my review for the main-campaign.
Yes, this is a good side-campaign, yes I would recommend checking it out if you enjoyed the main-campaign. But it's also just generally in my opinion just a direct downgrade compared to the main-campaign.