The game
Born from the pen of Shinji Mikami, the Resident Evil franchise reached its fourth chapter in the now distant 2005. It was an epochal turning point: the transition from the fixed camera system to the one behind the shoulders constitutes a revolution in the genre of survival horror, which until then he had seen Silent Hill and Resident Evil as the greatest exponents. The new visual wasn’t the only element of detachment from what was the saga up to that moment. The setting and storyline changed completely, moving from the urban setting of Raccoon City to the new and rural Valdelobos, a farming village nestled in the forests of Spain. A clear break with the past, which made the fans go into raptures even if it did not fail to dissatisfy those who would have preferred greater continuity with the past.
MX Video – Resident Evil 4
The game was a huge success while remaining relegated exclusively to Nintendo’s “small” console, the GameCube, and therefore it is no surprise that it now completes the series of remakes of the famous horror saga. We then return to Valdelobos following the same story as the original game, but with several changes. First of all, the first thing that positively affects the graphic sector, completely restored and with a cleaning and a frame-rate that has shown drops in very few cases and only in particularly agitated scenes full of enemies. Combined with this, there has been a complete restyling of the audio sector, which guarantees total immersion in the dark atmosphere of the Spanish village. At the end, Resident Evil 4 been fully dubbed into Italian, which could be quite interesting to those who don’t know the language of the island of Albion well. As in the two previous remakes, Capcom has decided to give a more cinematic edge to the experience, slightly changing the color palette and making the game smoother than the original. The characters and dialogues have also undergone some changes, becoming more serious and mature than the original, and eliminating some gratuitous and out of place jokes.
In terms of gameplay, and the second positive surprise of the game, the standing aiming system that was the main feature of the original game has been completely abandoned. Resident Evil 4 veered more towards action than horror, with a general increase in the number of ammunition that can be found around and consequently also an increase in enemies to kill. Mind you, if you think of approaching the game as you would an FPS, you would make a huge mistake and you would probably soon find yourself without bullets in any case in a very short time. However, I recommend the cautious approach to the enemies, eliminating them as much as possible with the use of the knife which becomes essential to save ammunition and to defend against enemy attacks. In fact, the knife can be used as a sort of shield to parry blows and disorient enemies if used with perfect timing, and it also becomes fundamental in stealth actions which represent a novelty introduced in Resident Evil 4. Another novelty is given by the fact that all the couple gameplay linked to Ashley has been significantly simplified. The ability to tell her whether to move towards or away from Leon has been introduced, and she no longer has a life bar of her own, but she is simply incapacitated and can be saved fairly easily.
In Resident Evil 4 However, many things have remained faithful to the original: the inventory management with the arrangement of objects in Tetris remained the same. You can choose whether to manage it yourself or to let it be managed automatically. Some upgrades that allow you to increase its capacity can then be purchased during the adventure. Speaking of upgrades, the inevitable merchant is still present who, appearing in the most improbable places, is always ready to stock up on new and powerful weapons and to buy the junk that we find here and scattered around the map.
After the launch of the game, the Mercenaries also arrived, in which we command four players: Leon, Luis, Krauser and Hunk. It is a sort of horde in which we must defeat as many enemies as possible to get the highest score and enter the rankings and unlock the various characters and settings.
Amore
New control system
– The new control system could only be in first place in the scale of approval of the improvements made to Resident Evil 4. Finally they introduced the possibility of shooting on the move, as in all modern action games. The old combat system, on the other hand, was the most annoying I could try at the time. It was Mikami himself who said that he introduced it specifically to create more tension and anguish in the player. It was more of a nervous breakdown for me than anything else.
Top notch remake
– I lift my hat to Capcom, because the work has been done with Resident Evil 4 painstaking and of the highest level. Graphically the game is fluid, clean and cinematic. The plot has been made more mature while maintaining the same narrative plot of the original game. In addition, it was entirely dubbed in Italian. Without a doubt we are faced with the best successful remake of the three.
Many additional side missions
– Throughout the game some blue sheets have been inserted to collect, containing special tasks which, once completed, allow you to obtain special equipment by collecting the joints (unfortunate Italian adaptation) which are delivered by the merchant as a reward, and exchanging them with the merchant himself . The missions range from the simplest kill rats to the most complex killing a particularly difficult special enemy.
I hate it
Gameplay gimmicks aged not very well
– Resident Evil 4 a game of a historical period very different from the current one, and it shows. The attempt, however very successful on a stylistic level, to give it a purely cinematic cut, clashes a lot with its being first of all a video game that must put the player in difficulty regardless of the way in which it does it. I am referring to some puzzles related, for example, to having to find a particular medallion to open a particular door. It’s not something that would actually exist in reality, and that way you lose the feeling a bit. Problem that is obviously also present in the old chapters.
[CONCLUSIONI]
Resident Evil 4 manages to put the icing on the cake compared to what Capcom has already done in the previous two remakes. The game is a masterpiece that manages to eliminate the major flaws that the original game had and create something that feels new while maintaining the feeling and plot of the original work. Suitable for those who never played it at the time, but also for longtime fans.
9.0