Resident Evil 4: The Remake is in great shape for a game that fans love

27 years have passed since the iconic video game license Resident Evil It was born and almost as many games that saw the light of day. Resident Evil The first name, in 1996, helped establish the genre survival horror. A mix of exploration, action and excitement, the first part of the saga sold 2.75 million copies at the time.

As the episodes progressed, the saga explored different avenues, variations on the game, on the constant theme of horror. If the episodes follow each other, they are not alike. And sometimes dare to break: that’s how extraordinary it was Resident Evil 4in 2005.

Designed in Pain by Shinji Mikami, who is still in charge, it differentiates itself from previous games by offering over-the-shoulder camera gameplay to emphasize the player’s sense of immersion. A true revolution at the time, it has been repeated many times since then.

The exercise is now well established for Capcom. Between each new iteration of its billionaire franchise (the most recent, Resident Evil Village, was released in 2021), the Japanese publisher has been busy churning out new versions of its older titles. After offering very solid remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3, here goes A remake of Resident Evil 4 Accordingly, it is available from March 24.

Here, too, there is no question of settling for a simple facelift with HD textures, and it is clearly sold at a high price. Rebuilt from basement to attic using the in-game engine REE engineA reworking of its setting and the appearance of some of its characters, a very significantly reworked scenario, a complete overhaul of the gameplay to be more in line with the canons of the current era… The team led by the duo Yasuhiro Ampo responsible for this RE4 Remake and the game director Kazunori Kadoi have done wonders.

All the more deservedly so as the pressure was huge around a game already considered the franchise’s most successful. “Honestly, I didn’t want to do it. In the Resident Evil saga and even more widely in the world of video games, Resident Evil 4 is considered a legend. I knew that it would be very difficult to do a remake, and that if we did one, the changes we proposed might upset the fans . Trust Yasuhiro Ampo site Game informantlast February.

Everything changes so that nothing changes

attraction Split into 16 chapters, totaling 20 hours of gameplay (and more if you want to 100% platinum the game), RE4 Remake excitedly puts us back in control of the iconic character Leon, six years after his hellish experience in Raccoon. The city began with the second part of the series.

His decision led to him being recruited as an agent under the direct orders of the President of the United States and forced to rescue his kidnapped daughter. Making his way to a remote European village in Spain, he soon finds himself battling the slightly angry locals…

And from the beginning, even more so, still as stressful, in a Spanish village where all its murderous inhabitants (the famous “Ganados”) throw themselves at the character, before seeing a villager who, without warning, swoops down, armed with a huge chainsaw, in a hurry. on the hero.

as well as an opportunity to measure how well this sequence was authentic to the matrix generated by operations such as beginning A native village of evil Exactly, which takes this idea even if the game sets its background in Central Europe. Or at least from the beginning Resident Evil 5who spread his plot in Africa.

Among the very noticeable innovations, which precisely indicate a clear break with the 2005 opus, is the first place that is now occupied by the very versatile Leon knife. Using it -well- will be essential to a character’s survival, especially on higher difficulty levels.

Able to parry attacks, dodge, kill silently, defeat enemies on the spot, thus saving precious bullets in certain cases, he will always be a valuable help, even at the cost of reduced durability. We’re also saying goodbye to QTEs (a.k.a “quick events”) that followed the 2005 game, which we don’t mind.

A love letter to fans of the iconic title, this RE4 remake ultimately doesn’t invent anything. Freed from the grime of his (distant) youth, it instead improves a very skillfully dosed recipe; Somehow a sublimated title that has already aged like a great vintage.

The question, in the end, is a simple one: should fans of the license get their hands on this version? The answer is obvious: a thousand times yes. Moreover, they seem to be answering the call en masse 3 million copies were sold Just two days after release. For the uninitiated – and there are many! – the way is already clear: go!