Resident Evil 4: Remake
#4
PC - Steam
Beaten April 2nd, 2023
Oh yeah, the return of the King!! Well, other people think it's the king, I only gave the original 4 stars back in the days of my original RE series playthrough.. RE4make is the 3rd of the Nu RE makes that I have been terribly fond of - I was excited for this but mostly to see how well they'd address my largest complaint of the title: it's almost complete lack of horror and atmosphere outside of a rather-great-but-not-really-desired B-Movie camp. I'm happy to report that it is generally good! There's a darker mood in each of the locations and the disgust and horror at what the Plagas do to the poor residents of the Village is definitely heightened.. so it's all perfect now right??? Well, not quite...
The Good
-Encounter design is insanely good in several places. Interesting arenas, resources to find if you move around, new configs of enemies that pop out on you... good stuff, kinda want to steal some of these for my dnd games lol
-Improvements to Ashley and Leon's character are stellar, in fact the story is pretty good all around this time! Leon still wise-cracks pretty often but its pretty clearly he's just a dude struggling to deal with his clear PTSD - he has a couple times in the game where the mask slips a bit and I genuinely loved it. Also Ashley and Leon legit bond in this one, she's not just a whiny annoying kid the whole way through the game wants you to ogle at - them becoming genuine partners is a major theme through the 2nd and 3rd acts of the game.
-Darker and more serious tone than the original. Still plenty of B-movie lines but they're all delivered by Leon and its clear he's just trying to keep his shit together. Lots of bits of environmental storytelling where we see ripped apart bodies and houses that've been either neglected or ripped apart... and of course the contrast between the destitute village and the outrageously wealthy castle...
-The SHEER AMOUNT of times a villain would start launching into a certified Villain-Speech and Leon would tell them to fuck off and shoot them in the head lololol, he just had no chill for the "Resident Evil"-ness of our bad guys.
The Bad
-The Island is still too much! The crazy encounters felt more annoying half the time than super interesting. Like, these are just standard 3rd person shooter encounters... that's just not terribly interesting in the RE world? This is more like Gears of War shit.
-Ada's new voice actress is blehhh. Not sure if that's her fault or the direction though... Also Salazar was definitely a downgrade from his original self. I appreciate what they were trying to do (and what a hard time it is to "fix" him to the new tone without redoing him entirely) but I don't think it worked.
-It's STILL just not that scary. I dinged the original 4 because it had VERY little horror in it and while the remake does try a bit harder, it's still not really where I'd like it to be.
The Meh
-I know it's a remake but the color palette's are... just not that good looking? Village is very brown, castle is very light gray, island is very dark gray...
-The length. It's quite a bit longer than all the other REs and it's definitely good in some ways but also dragged a bit in others. Makes me feel less likely to replay it
The Hmm
-Where are all the cool unlockables like from Village??? Where's my infinite shotgun ammo???
-Leon has a momentum to his movements in this game compared to the other RE engine titles, it's kinda odd and takes some getting used to.. I'm going to have to go back to one of the other ones to see if I end up preferring it or not
-Guns don't feel particularly fun? At least compared to the Dead Space remake though that's more the setting not being sci-fi and RE always keeps things grounded. I'm labeling this under "meh" because I was a coward and basically tried NOTHING new because I was scared of wasting money lol so this very well might be my fault!
So while there's still some things holding this game back from it's Legendary status in my mind, I do think it still clears the bar to 5 stars! It has a solid, if small, cast of likeable and interesting characters with exceptional encounter design with a fun combat system. It may not define whole genres for years after its release like the original and I may wish it focused a bit more on legit horror but I do think it is a wonderful time for any fans of action gaming.
Final Grade: A
#4
PC - Steam
Beaten April 2nd, 2023
Oh yeah, the return of the King!! Well, other people think it's the king, I only gave the original 4 stars back in the days of my original RE series playthrough.. RE4make is the 3rd of the Nu RE makes that I have been terribly fond of - I was excited for this but mostly to see how well they'd address my largest complaint of the title: it's almost complete lack of horror and atmosphere outside of a rather-great-but-not-really-desired B-Movie camp. I'm happy to report that it is generally good! There's a darker mood in each of the locations and the disgust and horror at what the Plagas do to the poor residents of the Village is definitely heightened.. so it's all perfect now right??? Well, not quite...
The Good
-Encounter design is insanely good in several places. Interesting arenas, resources to find if you move around, new configs of enemies that pop out on you... good stuff, kinda want to steal some of these for my dnd games lol
-Improvements to Ashley and Leon's character are stellar, in fact the story is pretty good all around this time! Leon still wise-cracks pretty often but its pretty clearly he's just a dude struggling to deal with his clear PTSD - he has a couple times in the game where the mask slips a bit and I genuinely loved it. Also Ashley and Leon legit bond in this one, she's not just a whiny annoying kid the whole way through the game wants you to ogle at - them becoming genuine partners is a major theme through the 2nd and 3rd acts of the game.
-Darker and more serious tone than the original. Still plenty of B-movie lines but they're all delivered by Leon and its clear he's just trying to keep his shit together. Lots of bits of environmental storytelling where we see ripped apart bodies and houses that've been either neglected or ripped apart... and of course the contrast between the destitute village and the outrageously wealthy castle...
-The SHEER AMOUNT of times a villain would start launching into a certified Villain-Speech and Leon would tell them to fuck off and shoot them in the head lololol, he just had no chill for the "Resident Evil"-ness of our bad guys.
The Bad
-The Island is still too much! The crazy encounters felt more annoying half the time than super interesting. Like, these are just standard 3rd person shooter encounters... that's just not terribly interesting in the RE world? This is more like Gears of War shit.
-Ada's new voice actress is blehhh. Not sure if that's her fault or the direction though... Also Salazar was definitely a downgrade from his original self. I appreciate what they were trying to do (and what a hard time it is to "fix" him to the new tone without redoing him entirely) but I don't think it worked.
-It's STILL just not that scary. I dinged the original 4 because it had VERY little horror in it and while the remake does try a bit harder, it's still not really where I'd like it to be.
The Meh
-I know it's a remake but the color palette's are... just not that good looking? Village is very brown, castle is very light gray, island is very dark gray...
-The length. It's quite a bit longer than all the other REs and it's definitely good in some ways but also dragged a bit in others. Makes me feel less likely to replay it
The Hmm
-Where are all the cool unlockables like from Village??? Where's my infinite shotgun ammo???
-Leon has a momentum to his movements in this game compared to the other RE engine titles, it's kinda odd and takes some getting used to.. I'm going to have to go back to one of the other ones to see if I end up preferring it or not
-Guns don't feel particularly fun? At least compared to the Dead Space remake though that's more the setting not being sci-fi and RE always keeps things grounded. I'm labeling this under "meh" because I was a coward and basically tried NOTHING new because I was scared of wasting money lol so this very well might be my fault!
So while there's still some things holding this game back from it's Legendary status in my mind, I do think it still clears the bar to 5 stars! It has a solid, if small, cast of likeable and interesting characters with exceptional encounter design with a fun combat system. It may not define whole genres for years after its release like the original and I may wish it focused a bit more on legit horror but I do think it is a wonderful time for any fans of action gaming.
Final Grade: A