The game doesn't need a remake. It really didn't. The rumours of this even becoming a reality brought more caution and dread? Than I initially ever thought it could after all resident evil 2 was great and although 3 was a bit of an after thought it was later bad water after resident evil 8 came out and that was great. Yet despite all that. It delivered. It fucking delivers with a roundhouse kick of love. This is simply one of the best examples of a remake over ever witnessed. The amount of respect. The amount of sheer love that's been put into this making it feel like a genuine love letter to the original becoming a tribute almost at times. While it exactly injects so much of its own ideas and originality is probably the most incredible feat of this remake. The original re4 brought such a troubled development making so many different games been reworked from many different ideas and being so long for so many years after many different iterations and cancellations spending so much money series creator Shinji mikami put his foot down and basically started the final creation himself. He felt with all the attempts at horror in the previous game a change needed to happen. He's said it in interviews that it only really felt natural. Shifting the camera to a 3rd person perspective. He didn't think it'd would leave such a generational impact. But it truly did. It's incredibly hard to understand the importance of this change for not just resident evil. But gaming as a whole. Last of us. God of war. Uncharted. Dead space. These are just of a few examples where the creators themselves deliberately call out re4 as their main Inspiration for one of their key pillars in those titles. It's felt to this day. But it wasn't just the camera that made it such a big change. It was a large numerous reworks that makes this title from 2005 still incredibly unique. Switching the challenge and horror to the responsibility of the players aim. Boom. Right there but not only that, the enemies as well have multiple interact points either it be the legs for a trip or stun, arms to disarm their weapons or the head (later legs too;) for a melee attack. This melee attack adds such risk and reward as once you land this headshot you need to run in close and press the context sensitive button to perform a roundhouse applying a huge amount of damage and area of effect all while the game gives you a surplus of I.e frames as reward. Along with saving ammo of course. One of the other most crucial factors of re4s unique game design is that killing is now encouraged as everything that lives can drop either money or ammo which also further encourages exploration. Treasures are added into the mix along with saving certain treasures to combine with complete parts to increase their value. Which you can also do with permanent health upgrades which can add to a high level of risk and reward. And the coolest part about all this currency is the fact everything you have can be sold. Including ammo. All to buy guns and upgrades that can suit many of different playstyles. Tie this with incredibly varied and plentiful set pieces. Constantly unique level design with different arenas. Memorable cheesey moments in the story(to which mikami wrote in two weeks as he put gameplay first) and unique atmosphere makes this character of a game test the time of today.
NOW FOR THE ACTUAL REMAKE REVIEW.
So mechanically straight away this puts it to shame. But it's also not to say it's the better game as a lot of the greatest strengths of this game is built upon such a legendary foundation. But that being said the game and directors knew that it would not be possible to bring such an influence to the medium like the original did. Instead they were more interested in making more logical changes to the story and gameplay. There's a lot that is cut but equally either replaced with something new or changed. In a smart way. The new knife implementation where it has now a health meter is only complimented by how much utility it has. Stealth kills, getting out of grabs. Finishers. Melee attacks And best of Parry's. Each coming with their cost of health correspondence to the level of execution and situation you use them In. Parry's cost the least health and perfect Parry's use even less while opening up melee. Getting grabbed and using the knife to break free uses a lot on the other hand as it's more of a punishment to the player that can be rectified by the sacrifice of a larger amount of the knifes health being depleted. This single change alone made this a 10. Yet the game of course goes a lot further than that which I don't wanna spoil all. The story isn't a b movie anymore yet it's still retains all the cheesey one liners and infact Leon has like a hidden battle ranking with the dialogue he spits in encounters depending on how well you do. The characters are more believabke as they talk like human beings while still being Capcom cartoons in the right charasmatic way. Absolutely massive changes to the arrangements of levels and even unique levels and locations along with complete different puzzles that were never in the original. Exploration being heavily expanded upon. More unlockables. New treasure mechanics were nearly every treasure can take a mixture of circle and square gemstones with different combinations of colours or patterns make this a strategy than can have you put a lot more thought into your currency. More upgrades at the merchant. Unique weapons like the bolt Thrower completely silent. Unique chapter discounts. The list goes on and on. It's actually crazy how extensive the changes are and yet a lot of those re4 locales and story moments still happen. The game will make you go ahhh at the little and largest of changes to those moments you remember and while leaving some completely untouched while with those modern tweaks or outright cut for something arguably better in most cases. It subverting and meeting expectations in possibly one of the best experiences I've had in a modern game to date. And while although these changes sound like it makes the game easier. It doesn't. I'd argues weapons are intially weaker here than the original as the og title would have you not move when you aim for a very stop and pop action and it suited that games enemy design as most enemies moved slowly. But now you can run in any direction and move while aiming but the game makes it far more aggressive for it. Weakening the stun in weapons so melee isn't guaranteed and having more traps and smart+ faster enemies balance it all out. Gives that perfect Parry it's enticing difficulty curve too. Oh I should also mention this game managed to add in actual side quests?? All while making it the same length as the original which is astounding. It's 16-22 hour campaign on first playthrough trying to do as much as you can is quite the treat especially considering how it's never boring nor repetitive. Even after playing the original given that a lot of the arenas themselves are changed rather commonly and distinctively while the combat is so greatly expanded upon. There's still so much to talk upon but it's really the closest resident evil has to its own Zelda. The length, variety, secrets, puzzles and playstyles this game can provides along with its absolute priority to replay value makes this an absolute must buy. Like right now.
That being said two nitpick complaints one that doesn't matter to much and the other is like 3 minutes of the game that's only a little lame. Ada's vo is from the welcome to racoon city movie and while she definitely did a fine enough job there. Her voice sounds like there is zero emotion or care at all. Like a one take deal. Which is a shame cause her design slaps so hard and there's far more conversation in this ranked than og. Goes with the entire story actually feeling complete and fleshed out now but it's also a mild shame it feels like Ada doesn't really care for Leon bit oh well minor nitpick. Last one is there's a forced walking section near the end that goes. Reeeerallllllyyyyyy dang slow. But it's placed near the end so it doesn't feel as intrusive as any other game that does it?? But it's actually still lame it's a resident evil at all especially when the game wants you to speedrun it can feel like a drag. But that does it for those complaints that really actually don't matter at all what are you doing go play it now please god knows I want to right now. 3 playthroughs and counting it's not even been out for a week;)
NOW FOR THE ACTUAL REMAKE REVIEW.
So mechanically straight away this puts it to shame. But it's also not to say it's the better game as a lot of the greatest strengths of this game is built upon such a legendary foundation. But that being said the game and directors knew that it would not be possible to bring such an influence to the medium like the original did. Instead they were more interested in making more logical changes to the story and gameplay. There's a lot that is cut but equally either replaced with something new or changed. In a smart way. The new knife implementation where it has now a health meter is only complimented by how much utility it has. Stealth kills, getting out of grabs. Finishers. Melee attacks And best of Parry's. Each coming with their cost of health correspondence to the level of execution and situation you use them In. Parry's cost the least health and perfect Parry's use even less while opening up melee. Getting grabbed and using the knife to break free uses a lot on the other hand as it's more of a punishment to the player that can be rectified by the sacrifice of a larger amount of the knifes health being depleted. This single change alone made this a 10. Yet the game of course goes a lot further than that which I don't wanna spoil all. The story isn't a b movie anymore yet it's still retains all the cheesey one liners and infact Leon has like a hidden battle ranking with the dialogue he spits in encounters depending on how well you do. The characters are more believabke as they talk like human beings while still being Capcom cartoons in the right charasmatic way. Absolutely massive changes to the arrangements of levels and even unique levels and locations along with complete different puzzles that were never in the original. Exploration being heavily expanded upon. More unlockables. New treasure mechanics were nearly every treasure can take a mixture of circle and square gemstones with different combinations of colours or patterns make this a strategy than can have you put a lot more thought into your currency. More upgrades at the merchant. Unique weapons like the bolt Thrower completely silent. Unique chapter discounts. The list goes on and on. It's actually crazy how extensive the changes are and yet a lot of those re4 locales and story moments still happen. The game will make you go ahhh at the little and largest of changes to those moments you remember and while leaving some completely untouched while with those modern tweaks or outright cut for something arguably better in most cases. It subverting and meeting expectations in possibly one of the best experiences I've had in a modern game to date. And while although these changes sound like it makes the game easier. It doesn't. I'd argues weapons are intially weaker here than the original as the og title would have you not move when you aim for a very stop and pop action and it suited that games enemy design as most enemies moved slowly. But now you can run in any direction and move while aiming but the game makes it far more aggressive for it. Weakening the stun in weapons so melee isn't guaranteed and having more traps and smart+ faster enemies balance it all out. Gives that perfect Parry it's enticing difficulty curve too. Oh I should also mention this game managed to add in actual side quests?? All while making it the same length as the original which is astounding. It's 16-22 hour campaign on first playthrough trying to do as much as you can is quite the treat especially considering how it's never boring nor repetitive. Even after playing the original given that a lot of the arenas themselves are changed rather commonly and distinctively while the combat is so greatly expanded upon. There's still so much to talk upon but it's really the closest resident evil has to its own Zelda. The length, variety, secrets, puzzles and playstyles this game can provides along with its absolute priority to replay value makes this an absolute must buy. Like right now.
That being said two nitpick complaints one that doesn't matter to much and the other is like 3 minutes of the game that's only a little lame. Ada's vo is from the welcome to racoon city movie and while she definitely did a fine enough job there. Her voice sounds like there is zero emotion or care at all. Like a one take deal. Which is a shame cause her design slaps so hard and there's far more conversation in this ranked than og. Goes with the entire story actually feeling complete and fleshed out now but it's also a mild shame it feels like Ada doesn't really care for Leon bit oh well minor nitpick. Last one is there's a forced walking section near the end that goes. Reeeerallllllyyyyyy dang slow. But it's placed near the end so it doesn't feel as intrusive as any other game that does it?? But it's actually still lame it's a resident evil at all especially when the game wants you to speedrun it can feel like a drag. But that does it for those complaints that really actually don't matter at all what are you doing go play it now please god knows I want to right now. 3 playthroughs and counting it's not even been out for a week;)
marnold
1 year ago