So folks as we are now into December, I figured its time to do another review before Christmas and this one will be on a video, which is Resident Evil 4 Remake, which is a remake of the acclaimed 2005 original.
So, how does it compare to the original? Well, let's take a look and find out...
STORY
So, as for the story, I will mention briefly what it is about, as it follows Leon Kennedy, a former cop, who is now a US government agent, who is given the assignment of rescuing the President's daughter, Ashley, who has been held captive in a village in rural Spain. On arriving in the village, Leon is soon attacked by the villagers, who have been infected with the Las Plagas parasite. Leon himself is soon captured the village head, Mendez, who injects Leon with the parasite but Leon manages to escape along with the help of Luis, who once worked for the Umbrella corporation.
Leon soon rescues Ashley, who has been infected with the parasite also and together they must try and find a way to cure themselves and stop whoever is behind the mysterious cult that controls the infected villagers. But along the way, Leon and Ashley also find help in the form of one of Leon's former acquiantences, the mysterious Ada Wong, who is after something for an old foe...
THOUGHTS
As a remake, Resident Evil 4, is a terrific update of the original game, which excels on just about every level in terms of its presentation, visuals and its storytelling. The game also keeps the humour of the original too with Leon's quips still in tact with the most famous being when all the villagers vanish after they attack him as they heare the chime of a bell and after they leave, Leon asks "Where did they all go? Bingo?!". It also does a fine job at restaging the action scenes from the game and keeping everything that bit tighter in terms of pacing as the game clocks in at around 17 hours as opposed to the 25 hour run time for the original. In short, the remake really does build very impressively on the acclaimed original in just about every way.
GAMEPLAY
As for the gameplay, I will do my usual and split it into sections as below.
WEAPONS AND COMBAT
Starting with the weapons, Leon has a good selection of weapons to choose from here as there is a mix of handguns, shotguns, machine guns, assault riles, sniper rifles and of course the classic rocket launcher. You can also assign shortcuts in the inventory system for different weapons, so Leon will have easier access to them. He will also have access to other weapons such as grenades, flash bangs as well as combat knives. Leon can also craft ammo from resources found such as gunpowder to create different types of ammo such as handgun bullets or shotgun shells.
As for the combat, Leon will generally rely on gunplay and shooting enemies but the game also has some new mecahnics as well. For starters, Leon can now move around as he shoots at enemies and is no longer stationary like in the original, Leon can also perform melee attacks up close and additionally, stealth kills with his knive when creeping up on enemies as well as counter attack them.
MERCHANT "What are ya buying?!!"
As for the classic RE4 merchant, he returns here with his usual banter of "What are you buying?" and "What are you selling?" and has a large number of weapons and other items on sale for Leon. The merchant can also tune-up your weapons for you as well as repair broken combat knives (for a price of course!). You can also sell items back to him (generally at a reduced price) or valuable items you might have discovered as well as trade items as part of side quests to shoot down precious jewels.
COMMANDING ASHLEY & PLAYING ASHLEY
In the game, similar to the original, Leon will also have give commands to Ashley to keep her safe, such as to stay back, or move up in order to avoid enemies. However you need to be wary of this, as leaving Ashley too long will likely get her killed, so its important to keep an eye on her. There are also sections of the game where you control Ashley as she helps Leon in moments where he has been trapped again similar to the original, or even moments where Ashley has to move levers or wheels to rotate or bring up platforms.
PUZZLES
As for the puzzles in the game, they make their return once again, which for the most part aren't too bad but there are still one or two pretty annoying ones (especially that one with the muticoloured lights in the church!). The puzzles generally are designed to open doors to new areas, or obtain keys or other valuable items to progress further into the game. For once though, I have to say, I was able to solve quite a few of the puzzles whereas normally I tend not to be able to in Ressie games! ;-)
ENEMIES & BOSSES
As for the enemies, there is quite a varitey of infected enemies from the rural villagers, to the religious cult members (who are very creepy!) some of whom even sprout big tentacles out their heads and later on there are infected soldiers on the island. And the bosses in the game are quite memorable and include the intimidating Mendez, who turns into a giant tentacled creature who Leon fights in a burning barn. Then there is Ramon Salazar, who is a creepy little Spanish lord, who turns into something a bit more sinister later on and lastly there is the Krauser, who trained Leon as an agent, and later the two of them duel one another.
HEALING ITEMS AND HERBS
As for healing items, simialr to the crafting ammo, you can create your own healing items using herbs that you discover. Generally speaking you will find green herbs that restore your health partially alone, however combined with red herds, they will restore Leon's health entirely. And this time there is the inclusion of yellow herbs, which when combined with green, will extend Leon's health bar beyond its initial rate. Leon can also heal his health fully via the use of first aid sprays, which can be found throughout the game and purchased from the merchant.
GRAPHICS
As for the game's graphics, they look stunning as the game's environments are detailed and varied in design and it also has some great environmental weather effects on display for rain, sun or other conditions. The character models however are also where the visuals really standout as Leon, Ashley, Ada and Luis's models all look terrific and while not quite lifelike, they still are very impressive as are the models of the enemies and the bosses. In short, RE4 Remake looks superb here.
MUSIC
As for the music score it was written by Kota Suzuki, and overall is pretty good although I wouldn't say it stands out as strongly as the original score does but its still worth listening to albeit along with the game and not on a solo basis as much.
FLAWS
As for flaws, does RE4 remake have any worth a mention??? Yeah there are one or two.
For starters, I think one of the issues with the game is Ashley's stay close or run away scheme, as it can easily get her into trouble and be killed easily, which can be quite annoying (but then so is she lol!). Also when she is attacked, she will fall down and you need Leon to pick her up in order to restore her health, which I thought was a daft way to restore her health. Why didn't they just give her some kind of health kit rather than relying on Leon to pick her up!
Also further to the point of Ashley, she is still pretty annoying like she was in the original, as she does alot of feeble screaming as she runs around like the typical damsel in distress. Ashley does have her moments where she is forced to be useful in order to pull levers or turn wheels to help Leon progress or to rescue him, which does she has some use I guess, but ultimaltey the remake coudn't quite not make Ashley that much better a character (well maybe a little!).
I also though the inclusion of Leon's breakable combat knife was a bit pointless in a way, as none of his other weapons has durability issues and this wasn't something appeared in the previous games, so I don't really know why they included it in here. So, for the sake of using to kill or block attacks from enemies, you have to eventually get it repaired for a few thousands pesos, it just seems a bit lame.
You could also maybe argue the voice acting is a bit of a mixed bag, as the voice actors for Ada and Krauser are a bit disappointing in different ways. For starters, Ada Wong's delivery by Lily Gao, is pretty wooden for the most part and she barely puts any feeling into her performance at all and unfortunatlely she ended up taking a lot of flak for her performance, which was a bit unfair in a way because her performance isn't terrible by any means, its just a bit lacklustre at times. However as for the voice actor, who did Krauser, he was way more annoying in his delivery of his lines, as he sounds like an overexcited maniacal villain, unlike how Krauser was played in the original in a more calculated way. So, the voice acting certainly is pretty good for the most part but it still can be a mixed bag.
So, that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up, Resident Evil 4 Remake, is an excellent game and a very worthy re-imagining of the original back in 2005 with vastly superior graphics and finely tuned gameplay. The game's pacing is also a good bit tighter here compared to the original yet it still retains most of the original's action setpieces. And while there are some minor complaints regarding some control issues with Ashley and some of the voice acting, this is a still a top drawer remake and well worth looking at.
So, I will rate RE4 Remake:
9.5 out of 10
So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post or two before Christmas.
Until then its bye for now!
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