I Can’t Help But Worry About The Resident Evil 4 Remake
Resident Evil 4 Remake will be a very difficult task to accomplish.
You Are Reading :I Cant Help But Worry About The Resident Evil 4 Remake
A remake of Resident Evil 4 feels very different now I’ve played through the entirety of Resident Evil Village. The first-person sequel is essentially a modern successor to the survival-horror masterpiece, adapting many of its ideas and mechanics for a new audience. It’s a campy, overblown adventure filled with over-the-top villains and nonsensical plot developments that ape the series’ finest hour, even if it sacrifices many of its own ideas in the process. Now, unless this rumoured remake completely overhauls the original vision, I can’t help but think it might end up feeling obsolete.
Given the trajectory of Capcom’s admittedly stellar remakes thus far, I’m unsure it will do such a thing. It could be the opposite, with reimaginings of Resident Evil 2 and 3 opting to trim the fat in favour of tightly executed scares and chaotic action instead of giving us time to stew in our own horrific, b-movie circumstances. Compared to everything that came before it, Resident Evil 4 was a completely different beast. It took the clunky controls of the franchise and morphed them into a third-person shooter experience that felt deviantly modern by 2005 standards. It wasn’t afraid to push boundaries, setting the bar so high that I’d argue the genre is yet to surpass them even today.
With Resident Evil Village opting to retread this sacred ground and falling short in the process, I’m worried that a full remake might fall to the same fate, but considering the trend of Resident Evil remakes, I imagine it’s going to happen whether we like it or not. Now don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to see what it does with Leon’s journey on the new, more powerful consoles, but I also don’t want to come away from it feeling underwhelmed, to feel that perhaps the past should have been left exactly where it belongs. Only time will tell, but right now, I remain unconvinced.
This train of thought originates from the remake of Resident Evil 3, which was a painfully underwhelming successor to the phenomenal remake of Resident Evil 2. The latter was one of Capcom’s best games in years, ushering in a new era of survival horror brilliance that I was confident it would build upon. With the arrival of Resident Evil 3 and Village, it seems it is opting for an action-oriented approach that won’t risk alienating those who aren’t willing to negotiate with horror. It’s the smart move, but creatively, it feels like a hollow one. Resident Evil is at its weakest when the action ramps up, giving way to adequate gunplay instead of allowing its atmosphere and monsters to do the heavy lifting.
Spectacle is all well and good, but it’s short-lived, and doesn’t stick in your mind like the haunting corridors of Raccoon City Police Station. I’m not going to remember the Lady Dimitrescu boss battle for years to come, but Leon’s first hesitant steps into Raccoon City are already cemented into my mind. Resident Evil 4 is filled with moments like this. Despite being a rollercoaster ride of gunfights and boss battles, it never fails in making you feel vulnerable. Leon could have a fully upgraded arsenal at his disposal, but not taking his surroundings into account would lead to an untimely death.
This didn’t feel the same in Resident Evil 3 or Village, due to a forgiving focus on action and campaigns that were so short that you never had enough time to feel overwhelmed. You’re on a relatively linear track of varying locations and setpieces, meaning Ethan Winters and Jill Valentine never feel lost or alone amidst foreign circumstances. They’re also armed to the teeth, so zombies and werewolves that would feel like the end of the world to a normal civilian are little more than pesky obstacles to our unstoppable heroes.
Don’t get me wrong, Leon in Resident Evil 4 isn’t to be trifled with, but even as the game enters its final act, Capcom keeps finding new horrors to surprise you with. Upon entering Umbrella’s labs, we stumble upon the Regenedors for the first time. These horrific, grey-skinned beasts are initially unstoppable, marching slowly toward you as otherworldly growls leave their infected lips. The only option is to run, or open fire and pray there is some way to bring this thing down. There isn’t, not until you come across the thermal scope and uncover the secret behind its impossible power. Scares force you to think smartly and find immediate solutions, instead of pulling out your shotgun and blowing your problems away.
If the remake of Resident Evil 4 decides to trim the fat in a similar way to 2 and 3, it will lose moments like this. The original is the longest game in the franchise by a significant margin, and this is for good reason. Each major location is like a game in itself, taking time to introduce you to their threats, puzzles, and further intricacies before things inevitably descend into an avalanche of action. You hurl grenades around like other modern entries, but here it feels earned, like you’ve triumphed over unstoppable horrors and can finally take your revenge. The campaign being cut short would rob these moments of their brilliance, and this isn’t how newcomers should experience one of the best survival horror games ever conceived.
It could be that I’m worrying over nothing, and Capcom plans to do Resident Evil 4 all the justice in the world, but many of the habits it has formed and repeated over the last generation have me thinking otherwise. I hope I’m proven wrong, since I’m still so excited for such a reboot, but not if it does a disservice to what came before it.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/resident-evil-4-remake-story-characters/