RE4R

El Residente Malvado 4!

If you were to ask me what my favorite genre is I'd probably say survival horror, but recently I've been feeling less confident about that.  Signalis, Callisto Protocol and to a lesser extent even the Dead Space remake all failed to garner my interest.  Thankfully, the remake of Resident Evil 4 has reinvigorated my fondness for these kinds of games and reminded me of why I like them.

Specifically, the thing that always draws me into the survival horror subgenre is the need to harbor resources while still trying to complete objectives.  In the RE4 remake, that aspect of game design is in full effect.  Even the most basic weapon at the player's disposal, the knife, has a finite amount of times it can be used before it breaks.  Everything requires resources whether it be ammo for guns, herbs for health, or pesetas for repairs and upgrades.  Carefully stockpiling those items for when they are needed most is very much front-and-center here.  Having stated that, the gameplay isn't all that different from the original.  

Some noteworthy changes have been made to level layouts and, by extension, encounters.  In particular, there are some fun side missions that the player can engage in at their discretion.  Enemy types are largely unchanged.  Boss encounters, on the other hand, have been improved significantly.  A few things have been cut, such as the gondola ride, one minor out-of-left-field mini-boss battle, and the QTEs.  Overall, the changes represent welcome improvements over the original, but where the remake really shines is in terms of story.

While seen here as a mod for the RE2 remake, I kind of like Ada's tactical outfit
 more than the iconic red dresses she is known for wearing

Pretty much all the characters in the RE4 remake are fleshed out in greater detail by giving them more of and arc or backstory.  In particular, Luis and Krauser are much better in this new interpretation of the "Las Plagas" incident.  Sadly, one character is only marginally better.  While it's certainly a good call to have an Asian voice actress playing the role of Ada Wong this time around, the performance just feels off to me. Maybe I'm wrong here, but I always saw Ada as one of those classic "femme fatale" characters from pulp action stories and spy thrillers.  The problem is that archetype feels kind of antiquated now days.  I'm just guessing here, but the writers on the RE4 remake might not have known what to do with her in terms of updating the character which could have been the reason why we ended up with a somewhat lackluster performance.

How the heck did that wrench ended up in there?

Generally speaking, the moment-to-moment gameplay is extremely polished thanks to some well refined mechanics.  Which difficulty setting to choose when first starting the game though is a bit harder to pin down.  Just to illustrate my point, the first boss battle of the game ("Del Lago") is actually the most fun to fight on hardcore mode, but overall the balancing for the RE4 remake is kind of weird. Standard mode is pretty brutal unless your bringing upgraded gear from a previous playthrough.  Even then, I think some enemy types are a bit too hyperactive at times. It's pretty dang hard to line up the precise thermal scope shots required to take down "Regeneradores" on anything other than the easiest difficulty setting because they're so squirmy...at least if you are using a controller (and I say that as someone who got "S" ranks on all the shooting range challenges). Enemies, in general, are so aggressive and bullet resistant on Hardcore and up it's actually a better strategy to not use the environment much.  Just take a quick potshot at one foe before making a hasty retreat.  Then let the lot of them pile into a prearranged killing zone wherein you can chew your pursuers up all at once using shotgun blasts, piercing firearm shots and a liberal amount of explosives.  Hence, one could say easier settings allow the player to utilize the combat arenas in fun ways while harder settings force the player to rely on duller, but safer strategies.  Additionally, once you get the rocket launcher nimble but weak enemies (like infected dogs and oversized bugs) become the hardest to deal with in the game.  Meanwhile, big monsters and bosses are a complete cakewalk.  Granted, a lot of what I just pointed out might be intentionally designed that way for reasons I fail to fully understand.

I think a good way to wrap up this mini-review is with the question "what's next?"  I'm not talking about DLC for the remake of RE4, but rather which game the team is going to tackle next.  Resident Evil 5 would be the natural progression while Resident Evil: Code Veronica is the next biggest old game in the franchise that would benefit the most from the remake treatment.  The thing is though both of those games were conceptually not very good and as such might not be worth the effort.  Personally, I prefer the third-person perspective Resident Evil games over the first-person ones, so I hope that Capcom keeps making new games along the lines of the RE2, RE3 and RE4 remakes.  Maybe it's time for an original story?  Who knows...only time will tell.