Resident Evil 4 Review – Bingo

All credit goes to 2005’s Resident Evil 4, and it’s considered to have changed the entire series, but in reality, long before Resident Evil 4 Remake’s release date, the RE franchise has always been more of an action game than a game. horror game. From the original to 1996, the survival elements were mostly illusory: the zombies, hunters, and even bosses in this game are plain and silly, and you’ve got more than enough ammo to clear Spencer’s mansion, maybe twice. . about.

On the contrary, all the elements of the action are open. The Resident Evil cover art features a hyper-muscled Chris Redfield wielding a machine gun. The opening track features characters posing, checking weapons and smoking cigarettes, accompanied by heavy rock music and a Don LaFontaine-esque voiceover: “Jill Valentine. Chris Redfield. Resident Evil.”

I never considered Resident Evil 4, from that day on, known as “Resident Evil 2005” or “Resident Evil 4, the first”, as Capcom taking action, abandoning horror. Instead, RE4’s achievement was to harmonize and strike the perfect balance between Resident Evil’s many creative influences.

Now, 18 years later, when it comes to the Resident Evil 4 remake, I feel like there are two main questions. Is the first good? – Fair. If it’s very good. Second, is it better than the original? it’s harder to answer and maybe now that I’ve played the game it doesn’t matter anymore.

From turning Resident Evil into a series to inspiring games like Gears of War, Dead Space and The Last of Us, RE4, the former, represents a turning point in the history of mainstream shooters. By contrast, Resident Evil 4 Remake’s revs are harder to tell apart. It implements things that shooters have lacked, perhaps since its invention, but unlike its namesake and predecessor, it’s not the kind of game that will change the genre.

Si vous vous inquiétez de la nature des remakes – si vous êtes frustré par la recente tendance à resusciter des jeux plus anciens au lieu d’investir dans des concepts plus frais et plus risqués – Resident Evil 4 Remake ne sera pas le jeu pour vous faire change your mind Smarter, prettier, redesigned and refined, but structurally it’s exactly the same game it was almost two decades ago, and perhaps less commendable in the sense that it’s a closed loop: all the games inspired by Resident Evil 4 2005 have now become in the inspiration for Resident Evil 4 Remake.

But take a look. Pay close attention to how Resident Evil 4 Remake handles the little moments, the little details, the microelements rather than the macroelements, and I’d say you’ve got gameplay that, if not as transformative as the original, is at least a brand new game. water for games of this type. In terms of the shooting experience (aim, shoot, and see blood and carnage), it’s the best game I’ve played since The Last of Us or Max Payne 3, and maybe even better.

Every combat encounter in Resident Evil 4 Remake, whether it’s against a horde of enemies, a boss at the end of a chapter, or just an unlucky Cattle, feels like a trap; Like all the systems that make up the game’s combat system, it’s been refined, redesigned, and exaggerated to the point that even the most random moments seem spectacularly choreographed.

Each weapon has a fantastic sound. Squib hits and gore make for truly devastating attacks. Many of the great moments in the scenery—the minecart shootout, the cabin showdown, the dreaded powder room—are simply recreated from the original, but the hard work to turn every trigger pull into a ” moment” makes Resident Evil 4 feel almost like a brand. new.

And it’s terrifying, or if not completely terrifying, at least intense and with such a sense of charge and passion that it feels frightening. Your various encounters with Garrador, Wolverine’s blind, clawed monster that dwells in the castle’s dungeons, seem like good examples of this, as does the endgame boss fight, which I won’t spoil, but that’s certainly the Best boss fight ever. what Resident Evil has done.

It’s a game where you feel breathless, where sometimes the prospect of turning a corner or opening a door is daunting. It won’t scare you or give you nightmares, but as a truly powerful horror experience, be it a movie or another game, Resident Evil 4 takes you through moments of furious action and drama to quieter sections of grateful relief, but still with a sense of need return. It’s the middle ground between action and horror that Resident Evil has always strived for: Resident Evil 4 Remake does it even better than RE4 (the first).

His other victories are more subtle. In an era dominated by sandboxes and open world games, where you even want to justify yourself as a major release, a video game needs to be over 50 hours long, a few hundred square miles in size, and curated with five annual content roadmaps, resident. Evil 4 manages to be understated yet rich, tight yet deep.

There is intelligence. There are side missions. Crafting now goes beyond just mixing herbs or pairing a butterfly lamp with a green cat’s eye. But the game is still diligently, diligently, and pretty much every minute you spend on something that feels exciting or interesting. In the same way that Resident Evil 4 Remake seamlessly combines action and horror, the player has freedom of choice and freedom of choice, but at the same time never has to sacrifice the direction of the story and the pace of work of the creators.

And it looks amazing. Playing on a relatively average PC and using the game’s default settings, I can hit a solid 110 fps, perhaps dipping down to 70 when facing a lot of enemies at once. Here you have a variety of presets, from “recommended” to “balanced”, as well as the option to enable ray tracing. Even on the “graphics priority” setting, my usual rig runs Resident Evil 4 flawlessly, with no stutters, crashes, or input lag.

There are also a host of customizable options, covering everything from anti-aliasing, shadow detail, corpse physics, bloom, landscape, field of view, and even the ability to tweak the details of Leon’s signature hair. And that’s just the technical side. The variety of action sequences and settings in Resident Evil 4 Remake is only matched by the variety of environments. From the bleak village lake to the majestic castle halls and grimy island laboratories, this is the best Resident Evil game to date, always welcoming you with stunning new vistas before inviting you to see more.

The only real miss is Ashley. In the original game, she embodied just about every problem with video games and female characters: if she wasn’t a helpless, screeching damsel, she was an obedient robot that we’d yell orders at anyway, climb stairs or crawl under a rock. table, a sexual object. . The new version makes Ashley better for sure, but she continues to patronize and patronize the idea that a woman is a woman! – can be useful for the player.

In one scene, he hands Leon a map on which he plots a possible escape route. – You’ve done it? Leon asks in disbelief. “Wow, keep up the good work and I’m quitting my job!” There is also a moment when he has to turn the valve. just turn the valve – and she happily exclaims: “Leave it to me, I’m good at this job”. It’s like Resident Evil 4 wanted you to know what they were thinking and they tried to change Ashley but at the same time she still doesn’t give her anything to do or be except what we need to protect.

I was hoping Resident Evil 4 Remake would address this particular aspect of the original more vigorously. Despite all the other improvements, the fact that it doesn’t make the new version any more useless.