Resident Evil 4 remake review and First Impressions

As usual, it’s me, POGOPLAY, and today we’re talking about the “Resident Evil 4” remake. Now the original was released in 2005, believe it or not, and it’s when the series kind of shifted into a bit more crazy action mode.

First Impressions Resident Evil 4

So love that change or not, “Resident Evil 4” was quirky and cool enough to have a spot in most people’s hearts, including mine. So cards on the table, I’ve been playing since “Resident Evil 1” released, so that’s my context, that’s where I’m coming from.

I actually was a bit worried about them remaking this one because it’s so unique and strange, it felt like lightning in a bottle that couldn’t be recaptured. But in short, man, yeah, they come really close. “Resident Evil 4: Remake” is a great time. It’s the “Resident Evil 2” remake-ification of 4, like better presentation, graphics, cinematic ness, but moment to moment game play and like when you’re in it, it feels really familiar.

At first I was like, as I started it, I was unsure in the opening hours, like my brain had to adjust, it just felt weird. I was unsure about it, but the more I got into it I just sank right back into “Resident Evil” goodness. So if you’ve never played 4, this is awesome for you. I still think the original has its own special things not quite replicated here and it’s actually missing a few things.

But this is a really, really fun representation of the OG. But even with there being a demo out and everything and them wanting to preserve spoilers or whatever, like you should be able to see more of the game before you buy.

And we really don’t think reviews should be like neutered. I get that it’s for spoilers, but in this instance not seeing the game it’s okay ’cause it turns out the game’s actually pretty good, they’re not hiding anything. But I don’t want this to set a precedent. Publishers and developers could use this tactic to obscure games that are not so good. I know it’s a little bit in the weeds, we don’t usually touch on this stuff, but I did want to kind of call that out.

Story of Resident Evil 4

So yeah, with that all in mind, all I’ll say about the story is that it is improved, mostly, in every way. The game somehow feels like it’s paced even better and is more thrilling. It’s also just overall more interesting, from how characters interact with one another and how it actually tries to feel like a sequel to “Resident Evil 2.” I mean, back in the day this new badass Leon just showed up with only a little context and we all just accepted it.

They added a tiny bit here and I think people will like it. That also goes for interactions with like Luis and Ashley, just a bit more in depth and interesting and not surface level. But the game doesn’t go that deep on you don’t, don’t worry. I mean this Leon still does back flips and cool shit. In fact, the game really does some pretty incredible stuff, but I’ll leave that for you to discover. So, the setup, you, as Leon, venture into a Spanish village looking to rescue the president’s daughter, yes, really. And things quickly go crazy because the people of the region are infected with something nasty and you progress fairly linearly through the game in action survival-horror fashion. If you’re unfamiliar, think more “Resident Evil: Village” gunning than the slower pace sections of 7. “Resident Evil 4” is action heavy as hell. I mean, like you kill a lot of men and monsters with all kinds of cool guns and weapons. And so even though this game was a shift for the Resident Evil series, it was and still is, just a good action game.

A good shooter, satisfying weapons, a really good upgrade path of those weapons, and some really tense controller clenching bits. If you’re familiar, you’ll get right back into the rhythm of like popping a dude in the face and running up to roundhouse kick him, it’s totally the same. But everything around it is amplified, right. So Leon is more capable, like he has more moves, he can just move around better, and he has a knife which you can use to parry now. You can parry incoming attacks and things thrown at you. The parry window is pretty generous, but if you get it just right you can open up an enemy to another roundhouse kick to the face. The knife is also breakable, so you kind of have to manage it like another precious resource.

And along with that, Leon can crouch and kind of sneak around now, but it doesn’t ruin the game. I didn’t want a “Resident Evil” game where I’m crouch walking around everywhere, and thankfully it’s just a nice bonus. Some people might try and go hard on it but like I just kind of used it to stealth attack a few enemies to thin the herd before they notice you. There’s not really like an actual full stealth detection system here, and it’s just another balancing act anyway because the stealth kills affect knife durability too. And Ashley, your companion, who through a lot of the game has been reworked somewhat. First of all, her and Leon have some chemistry, which is nice to see play out, but mechanically she’s been simplified.

Like you don’t have to manage her health, just make sure you don’t shoot her in the face or like let a bad guy literally grab her and run away with her. You can command her to follow you closely or stay back and that’s about it. It still manages to make for some tense moments, but it’s a little less annoying and I was happy with it. Now, in terms of progressing through, the areas, the encounters, it’s not totally a one-to-one remake. It’s not like “Dead Space” where there’s just little thoughtful changes here and there. There are semi significant shakeups here and we will leave them a surprise. There might be like one thing or so here and there that you might miss, but the game has so many things that’ll surprise you and things that just fit in seamlessly. Some fans may have wanted like 110% purity, but I like things here and there.

And again, it’s hard to go into without spoiling anything, maybe we’ll do a follow up video or something on my channel, I don’t know. But there is just more, so more blue medallion challenges, side little objectives to do, just more alternate paths and stuff like that and way more treasures and trinkets to find and earn and backtrack for. Visually, it’s worth pointing out, yes, they’ve said they are fixing the weird rain graphics and otherwise I’d say it looks pretty decent. Most of the time it looks really great. Every so often though, you’ll encounter some muddy textures or just something looking a little bit flat, but the art direction is absolutely on point.

Like the way the moonlight or the rising sun shines through the trees as they move in the breeze or how the light of a fire flickers on cave walls to some really great sound and some really unnerving background sound effects and some good nods to the original. It’s just good stuff, and I really liked first time enemy encounters and sub bosses and boss moments. They are absolutely heightened and so freaking awesome. Like the presentation really makes this thing a goddamn spectacle, that makes it worth the ride. Incredible music, well directed scenes, and some really really good fan service.

I’m not gonna lie, just seeing some of these things again and and a bit of a higher quality presentation had me really, really sweaty there in certain moments, I was freaking out. I think the only thing I’ll say is that while I really like the new dialogue and writing and what they added here, even some good new one-liners, some of the actual voice acting choices felt a little flat for me. Also, as you may or may not already know, there are no quick time events in the game, like there’s no onscreen button prompts.

They’ve moved away from that kind of old gaming trope. So now you’re mostly just doing the stuff, the cool stuff that you used to be able to do. In a couple of parts there’s compromises but ultimately it’s really impressive how they just kind of translated over the action. Still, like I said, it’s a hell of an entertaining ride. It’s like a masterclass in escalation. While it feels silly towards the end to be scrounging around for ammo and crates endlessly while there’s so much action, it still manages to just all work. “Resident Evil 4” always kind of had this weird little identity crisis to it and that carries over here and I actually think that’s a good thing.

It’s probably ’cause I’m a “Resident Evil” fanboy, but hey. So I finished it in just under 16 hours, but I was playing pretty zippy. I think you can get up to 20 out of this one, thanks to the new little reasons that the game gives you to explore a little bit more. And that’s not counting new game plus, which I always think makes these “Resident Evil” games worth replaying. I really only say it about this series or survival horror games, like you might think, oh only 16 hours. But like you always play through a “Resident Evil” game at least twice. It’s like a whole thing, it just gets better. It’s not me shilling or anything, it’s just like how I play it.

So I’ll say if you play the OG a million times, I’d recommend maybe bumping up to the harder difficulty. Then there’s also a fourth difficulty you unlock after finishing. And then as with the newer “Resident Evil” games, like a kind of fun shop that you access on the main menu where you can spend points you earned by playing through the game on cool stuff like outfits, accessories, and some secrets. So yeah, like I said, I had a great time playing through this and I recommended it. If you like, the “Resident Evil 2” remake, this is a really good follow up to that.

It’s different from the “Resident Evil 2” remake where that was a remake of an old PlayStation 1 game so a lot was up to interpretation. This is a game that a lot of people still play all the time and it’s some people’s first “Resident Evil” game so I think there’s gonna be a little bit more conversation around the changes, but ultimately I was very happy. Like I said, we’ll probably talk about it more in depth soon, but that’s a “Before You Buy,” you know how this goes by now.

I give you some pros, some cons, and some personal opinion, and now I want to hear yours. Really, I just wanna know your history with the franchise and how you feel about the original “Resident Evil 4.” Shout out to Capcom for at least putting out a demo for this game. So if you played the demo let me know what your first impressions are of that. Let’s talk anything “Resident Evil” really down in the comments.