2005, I’ll never forget it. It was the year Resident Evil 4 launched, sending the video game world into a frenzy. Leon S. Kennedy’s gruesome journey through a rural European village not only became an iconic adventure, but it also revolutionized the modern third-person shooter simply by placing the camera just over Leon’s shoulder. This new perspective allowed you to aim weapons with deadly accuracy, which was necessary when combating the new Ganado enemies – like zombies, only smarter and faster.
Part of what made that accuracy exciting was targeting different bodyparts – for example, blasting out a Ganado’s kneecaps before grabbing them and executing a textbook suplex. You can still pop shots into foreheads before following up with swift and powerful kicks that’ll knock back an entire group of enemies, rewarding you for being brave and getting close to foes instead of keeping your distance like a coward. The introductory cutscene even fleshes out Leon’s military training, explaining how he went from rookie cop to G.I. Joe.
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While playing the demo for the brand new Resident Evil 4 Remake, I had each scene from the original game playing in my mind. The opening section feels entirely new. After pushing through a narrow pathway filled with branches and bushes, Leon comes across a familiar cabin. The L-shaped corridor inside leads you towards your first Ganado encounter. This time, Leon is armed with not only a pistol and a knife, but also some basic Spanish language skills so he can communicate with more than suplexes.
The confrontation doesn’t end with tapas, and Leon dodges an axe swing before taking down his new foe. They drop a key, suddenly opening up the rest of the house – a non-linear space full of doors – and it’s very clear that bad things are happening to people. It isn’t long before more enemies start bashing in the door, and Leon takes this moment to utter a cheeky one-liner before leaping from a window to escape. The game is, undeniably, different from the original, but retains so much of the personality that made it memorable and beloved.
The path towards the village isn’t a one-to-one replica either. You’ll still find bear traps ready to chomp at your leg, and crows will still drop grenades and ammo. It retains all the weirdness that fans love, and it still plays that goofiness with an entirely straight face.
When you finally enter the village you’ll find someone tied to a stake. A Ganado throws a lit torch on the pyre below as the victim screams. Some villagers hold their arms to their sides and almost look to worship the flames, while others just go about their daily lives. It’s up to you whether you go in guns-blazing or not.
Leon now has the ability to crouch, which opens up a new world of stealth gameplay. You can sneak up on Ganados that haven’t noticed you and stab them in the neck to silence them. But your knife now has durability, and you must craft new knives as replacements so you can keep fighting. With the original game clearly being a big influence on The Last of Us, it’s interesting to see how Naughty Dog’s series has turned the tables for this remake. Regardless of how sneaky you are, you will inevitably catch the attention of some of the villagers, which will send everyone in the area into a frenzy and cause them to hunt you down while swinging knives and throwing axes.
Things are mostly as you remember in the village, but there are new item placements, a new way to enter a previously-locked building, new windows to jump through, and even a locked drawer that requires a key in one of the houses. The cow that originally just stood in an open barn, unmoving even when gunshots were blaring, is now standing under an oil lamp. It might be a bit cruel (it almost certainly is), but you can now shoot the lamp, lighting the whole building on fire, along with the cow, which will now start stampeding around the village, mowing down enemies for you. Even the most hardened and experienced Resident Evil 4 players will inevitably find something new.
The largest building in the village holds a shotgun upstairs, but entering the house triggers even more enemies to hunt you, with even the legendary Dr. Salvador, and his chainsaw, making an appearance. Since your knife now has durability, it also gets a few more uses, one being that you can exchange a chunk of the knife’s remaining HP in order to parry Salvador’s chainsaw, blocking it like an action movie hero before kicking him back.
Resident Evil 4 Remake feels darker and moodier than the original, but it has the same heart. It’s still goofy, in case the grenade crows, suplexes, and flaming cows hadn’t already convinced you of that. Leon is still as cheeky and quippy as ever, stating “Where’s everyone going? Bingo?” as the Ganados get summoned by the church bell. Resident Evil 4 Remake is a shockingly good blend of modern horror aesthetics and gameplay mechanics, along with the campy dialogue and ridiculous action movie highs that the original became known for. In 2023, Resident Evil 4 just might set the bar for horror action games all over again.
Written by Dave Aubrey on behalf of GLHF.
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