As a huge fan of the original I was skeptical that I’d enjoy this remake, especially since I wasn’t a huge fan of how RE2R and RE3R played, the games really changed atmosphere a lot and I was nervous a lot was going to be dropped in this remake.
Thankfully, Capcom seems to have learned from a lot of their mistakes. RE4 Remake is a content rich, and action packed game that, just like the original, is filled with fun set pieces and arenas to run through, and the action never really seems to slow down until it’s all over.
Firstly I’ll praise what I really like. The story has been enhanced in many ways, I never had a problem with Ashley in the old game despite seeing a lot of complaints online, but she’s definitely a much more likable character in this game. Secondly Luis’s changes make him an even more enjoyable character in many ways, though I’ll fully admit I do miss a lot of his more cheesy one liners. The balancing for this game seems a lot tighter too, and maybe it’s just because I’ve played the original a billion times but this game is much harder too. Which I think is a good thing, as many bosses and hard areas in the OG can be easily cheesed with rocket launchers or certain safe spots.
Now that’s a lot of praise, I know, however I probably have even more to complain about.
The shooting is awful. Coming from the original which always had such fun and snappy interactive shooting, where enemies would recoil differently depending on where you shoot. Leg shots to trip them, head shots to stagger them, etc. The remake has elements of this but add things like weapon bloom, and recoil to make shot placement a bit more random, which is awful for a game that requires such precise shooting. In many cases this really isn’t TOO much of an issue but sometimes it can really fuck you over. This issue is much more prevalent in the early game where Leon’s pistol feels like a fucking airsoft gun that doesn’t even make enemies react as bullets and pumped into them.
Secondly, as I just said enemies don’t always react to shots. Now I’m not sure if it’s random or if there’s some damage threshold but this is a huge issue in the early game. You will be rushed by a bunch of villagers and headshots won’t really do anything to slow them down. Enemies being tanky isn’t a problem on it’s own, but they are also faster and more aggressive, and the game loves dangling ammo just out of your reach all the time. I don’t have any idea why they would make ammo less plentiful while boosting the amount of enemies and how much health they have. I suppose they wanted to increase the survival aspect and encourage crafting but all it really did was make me never use anything other than a pistol and shotgun because what was the point? All other ammo was too rare or too expensive to craft, and sometimes wasn’t even more effective.
Thirdly, all the bosses were gutted. Not really in terms of difficulty at all, many of them are better fights. I mean more-so their character and presence. You don’t have Sadler taunting you occasionally, no Salazar making fun of you and having a goofy back and forth with Leon. Even if their background lore was enhanced, they lose a lot of screen-time and I think that’s a huge shame.
Fourthly, the knife. I’ve seen heavy praise for the parry mechanic of the knife and I quite like that aspect, although knife durability and all that shit is so stupid. It becomes less of an issue as you upgrade your knife and find the merchant more often, but in the early game and especially long treks, your knife breaks and then you have nothing. No way to parry, no way to save ammo, which was the entire fucking point of the knife in earlier games. Instead the logic is “I better keep pumping handgun rounds into this guy, don’t want to damage my knife”. I understand it’s supposed to be a fail safe when enemies get too close, but it breaks so easily, you need it to finish off certain enemies too, which only makes it break even faster.
Lastly, and this is by far my biggest complaint, the stupid charms from the shooting range being RNG each new file is absolutely insane. These should be secrets you unlock throughout the game that scale with how far you are. Instead I roll shit like “eggs heal more” while I see other people getting charms that increase their handgun ammo drops and stuff. The game would have been better off without these stupid perks, balanced tighter and everything. Instead you need to roll the right charms or you just.. don’t get to use certain weapons as much, or move as fast, or heal more. It can make the game much easier for people out of blind luck while pretty much screwing over others.
That’s about all I have to say. Despite all my hefty complaints I do quite like this game for what it is. I am so glad it is very distinct and didn’t try too hard to be identical to the original. It allows both games to exist together without one necessarily trumping the other.
Despite the more controlled gameplay and more of a realistic approach that I’m not a huge fan of, I’d highly recommend RE4 Remake if you like survival horror games with heavy action and occasional B-movie cheese thrown in.
Thankfully, Capcom seems to have learned from a lot of their mistakes. RE4 Remake is a content rich, and action packed game that, just like the original, is filled with fun set pieces and arenas to run through, and the action never really seems to slow down until it’s all over.
Firstly I’ll praise what I really like. The story has been enhanced in many ways, I never had a problem with Ashley in the old game despite seeing a lot of complaints online, but she’s definitely a much more likable character in this game. Secondly Luis’s changes make him an even more enjoyable character in many ways, though I’ll fully admit I do miss a lot of his more cheesy one liners. The balancing for this game seems a lot tighter too, and maybe it’s just because I’ve played the original a billion times but this game is much harder too. Which I think is a good thing, as many bosses and hard areas in the OG can be easily cheesed with rocket launchers or certain safe spots.
Now that’s a lot of praise, I know, however I probably have even more to complain about.
The shooting is awful. Coming from the original which always had such fun and snappy interactive shooting, where enemies would recoil differently depending on where you shoot. Leg shots to trip them, head shots to stagger them, etc. The remake has elements of this but add things like weapon bloom, and recoil to make shot placement a bit more random, which is awful for a game that requires such precise shooting. In many cases this really isn’t TOO much of an issue but sometimes it can really fuck you over. This issue is much more prevalent in the early game where Leon’s pistol feels like a fucking airsoft gun that doesn’t even make enemies react as bullets and pumped into them.
Secondly, as I just said enemies don’t always react to shots. Now I’m not sure if it’s random or if there’s some damage threshold but this is a huge issue in the early game. You will be rushed by a bunch of villagers and headshots won’t really do anything to slow them down. Enemies being tanky isn’t a problem on it’s own, but they are also faster and more aggressive, and the game loves dangling ammo just out of your reach all the time. I don’t have any idea why they would make ammo less plentiful while boosting the amount of enemies and how much health they have. I suppose they wanted to increase the survival aspect and encourage crafting but all it really did was make me never use anything other than a pistol and shotgun because what was the point? All other ammo was too rare or too expensive to craft, and sometimes wasn’t even more effective.
Thirdly, all the bosses were gutted. Not really in terms of difficulty at all, many of them are better fights. I mean more-so their character and presence. You don’t have Sadler taunting you occasionally, no Salazar making fun of you and having a goofy back and forth with Leon. Even if their background lore was enhanced, they lose a lot of screen-time and I think that’s a huge shame.
Fourthly, the knife. I’ve seen heavy praise for the parry mechanic of the knife and I quite like that aspect, although knife durability and all that shit is so stupid. It becomes less of an issue as you upgrade your knife and find the merchant more often, but in the early game and especially long treks, your knife breaks and then you have nothing. No way to parry, no way to save ammo, which was the entire fucking point of the knife in earlier games. Instead the logic is “I better keep pumping handgun rounds into this guy, don’t want to damage my knife”. I understand it’s supposed to be a fail safe when enemies get too close, but it breaks so easily, you need it to finish off certain enemies too, which only makes it break even faster.
Lastly, and this is by far my biggest complaint, the stupid charms from the shooting range being RNG each new file is absolutely insane. These should be secrets you unlock throughout the game that scale with how far you are. Instead I roll shit like “eggs heal more” while I see other people getting charms that increase their handgun ammo drops and stuff. The game would have been better off without these stupid perks, balanced tighter and everything. Instead you need to roll the right charms or you just.. don’t get to use certain weapons as much, or move as fast, or heal more. It can make the game much easier for people out of blind luck while pretty much screwing over others.
That’s about all I have to say. Despite all my hefty complaints I do quite like this game for what it is. I am so glad it is very distinct and didn’t try too hard to be identical to the original. It allows both games to exist together without one necessarily trumping the other.
Despite the more controlled gameplay and more of a realistic approach that I’m not a huge fan of, I’d highly recommend RE4 Remake if you like survival horror games with heavy action and occasional B-movie cheese thrown in.