Resident Evil 4 Has Shown That More Classics Deserve The VR Treatment
Capcom’s survival horror classic is hopefully a sign of things to come.
You Are Reading :Resident Evil 4 Has Shown That More Classics Deserve The VR Treatment
Resident Evil 4 VR is incredible, and I’m blown away by how seamlessly it adapts the survival horror classic into a new medium. Even with the level design, combat encounters, and mechanics remaining untouched, it feels completely natural in the realm of virtual reality. From the opening moments as I hesitantly walk towards the village occupied by infected farmhands, it’s like I’m experiencing this seminal shooter for the first time all over again.
I have played through Resident Evil 4 an embarrassing amount of times, so much so that I can envision its entire campaign in my mind without missing a beat. So when stepping into this new iteration of Leon Kennedy’s European bender, I expected a sense of familiarity, but its new perspective gave each environment that had long outworn its welcome an element of discovery. All of a sudden it feels new again.
Knowing the location of every item and enemy is given new context through the perspective of virtual reality. I’m no longer eagerly looking over Leon’s shoulder, a relatively safe distance away from the threats that lumber toward me. My own eyes are the place from which everything is digested, so I can turn to face a horde of enemies or look away in peril as I sprint towards potential safety. There’s a level of unease here that had long faded away.
I’m a bit of a pussycat, so I tend to grow anxious when large hordes of creatures or people crowd me in virtual reality, especially when they’re swinging weapons towards me while screaming Spanish obscenities. Yet within mere minutes, Resident Evil 4 provides the best mixture of power and anxiety. The accuracy afforded to the controls means it’s easy to pull off successive headshots, while movement is fast and fluid enough that the key to success often comes from keeping a careful distance from your enemies before sprinting in to execute melee attacks. Holding the pistol sideways as I lean around the corner of an abandoned hut, capping fools while constantly looking over my shoulder is such a thrill.
The original’s satisfying rhythm remains untouched, if anything it feels even better in virtual reality because the act of blowing away infected never gets old because this new medium helds firefights feel so much more intimate, like each and every moment is a fight for survival. Once I got the shotgun, I immediately cocked it and grinned as I realised the game expected me to load each individual shell, ridding myself of spent ones by fiddling with the gun instead of allowing the game to do so automatically. Having to reload in the midst of battle is a tense delight, as I’m forced to fumble desperately for a magazine or risk being torn apart if I fail to execute the movement correctly. It all feels so intuitive, and this fluid transition speaks to how flawless Resident Evil 4 really is. It hasn’t aged a day, and this port proves that.
I’m only an hour into this version of the game right now, so my opinion might change as I begin to toy with new weapons and environments, but goodness me it is already something special. It puts virtual reality in a context that developers could learn so much from, and how beloved classics like BioShock, Silent Hill 2, and so many other titles could find a new home in the medium while being afforded the same freshness that now exudes from Resident Evil 4. Sure, it changes some creepy voice lines and trimmed other parts of the experience, but it’s all in service of making it punchier and more accessible.
While not all existing environments and gameplay mechanics will translate to virtual reality with such triviality, a solid foundation can be built upon just like it has been here, and I would love to see some classics remastered in this fashion. We’re so accustomed to fancier graphics and quality-of-life improvements, but virtual reality helps make games feel new again in ways that reissues, remasters, and remakes simply aren’t capable of. You could argue that championing fanciful ports like this is stifling creativity in a way, but gamers are creatures of habit, and will gravitate towards things they recognise. Resident Evil 4 fits that bill perfectly, which is why this new release was met with such critical and commercial acclaim. It’s a classic revisited from a new perspective, and one that helps it shine brighter than it has in over a decade. If certains studios decide to follow in Capcom’s ambitious footsteps, it can only be a good thing.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/resident-evil-4-vr-classic-remaster/