The original Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube became one of my favorite video games, and while the controls in that game hasn't aged the best to some, I think it still holds up rather well. I've never thought it had any major problems (I even love the Island, which is usually seen as the low point of RE4). Still, I was pretty hyped for this remake, because it's not just a remake that mostly improves the graphics of the original, since a lot in this game has been changed to make it feel like a new experience. While I still wouldn't quite call it a survival horror game (the original never was in my opinion), it does have more horror elements to it, which were mostly limited to the Regeneradors in the original RE4. In my playthrough I also noticed that the remake gives you less ammo than the original, which does make it overall more difficult. You don't get more ammo by simply upgrading the ammo capacity for a weapon anymore, but a new crafting system has been added which I thought was pretty balanced. I never ran out of ammo but I rarely had much of it either.

Another thing that was introduced in this remake was charms, which can for example help you find more shotgun ammo, or make you require -1 gunpowder when crafting. You get these charms by going to the shooting range (located at certain spots near the Merchant), where you can get tokens that can be either bronze, silver, or gold. You then turn three of these tokens into a vending machine nearby to get a random charm. There's also attache cases, which can help you find more money or red herbs for example.

As for the story and character designs, I think Capcom did a great job. It has a more serious tone than the original but it still never takes itself too seriously, and I love that they kept some of the most iconic lines from the original. Out of all the new designs for the characters, Ashley's is by far my favorite, and I liked most of the rest too.

The soundtrack was pretty good in this remake, some of the tracks really elevate the horror elements, making this game definitively scarier than the original game. Most of the voice actors did a pretty good job, the Merchant sounds fairly close to the original in my opinion and still keeps a lot of his lines from the 2005 RE4, but I still prefer the original voice actor. Another character I prefer the original of is Ada, but I still thought her new voice actress did OK. I thought that most of the rest are either on the same level as the original characters, or better.