Resident Evil 4 Remake: the right dose of nostalgia and renewal

After remaking two of the classic games in the Resident Evil series, it’s Capcom’s turn to update one of the most relevant titles for many fans of the franchise: Resident Evil 4. Originally released in 2005, this game resonates strongly in the nostalgia of some players. who had him as one of the most prominent in his “gamer training”. For others, it was also a vertex before a fall, with titles like Resident Evil 5 not convincing and RE 6 showing that the franchise had lost its way.

I played for a few dozen hours, alternating between benchmarking on multiple settings on PC (this is Adrenaline, after all) and also progressing through the game’s campaign. I haven’t finished the game yet, but I have already stockpiled healing items, ammo, and kicks to the villagers’ faces to bring here some impressions with the game.

Just a quick disclaimer: I didn’t play the original game, on any of the thousands of different platforms it was released on. In part, I see this as an advantage, after all, among several analyzes made by players nostalgic for the 2005 title, this is a text from someone who will not have fond memories of the game, and is seeing everything for the first time. time. You will notice that throughout the text I make comparisons with the original title, but that happens because I saw gameplays, I did research and I also showed it to acquaintances who had already exhausted the original game, and they gave me a perspective of how things have changed.

How are the graphics in Resident Evil 4

After a string of troubled games, it’s even a relief to see a game run just fine on PCs. Although our testing was done during early access to the game, meaning neither AMD nor Nvidia released their drivers intended to fix the game, I was able to play it satisfactorily on hardware ranging from very limited to mid-range PCs that can already socket setups. to the max. Most importantly, the terrible stutters – those stutters that made fun of releases like The Callisto Protocol and Dead Space, or even the performance drops that plagued Hogwarts Legacy – are not present here.

Dead Space Remake: we tested how it looked on PC!

The graphics engine used is RE Engine, and it still does what I like the most about it: it offers good performance on any part profile and is very malleable in its graphics configuration, delivering something satisfying on different component profiles. We will see how the game runs on PC in the future, as well as other “in the oven” content in which we will indicate what components you will need to play the game well on your computer.

But in general I am quite satisfied with the graphical quality of the game, with some specific complaints. The first is something that has affected previous games like RE2 and RE3 Remake, which is anti-aliasing. Especially at 1080p, things like hair and vegetation have jagged edges. Unfortunately, AMD FSR doesn’t fix this flaw well, and DLSS is simply ignored in AMD-supported games, so we had to use brute force to improve this finish. I recommend, for those who have plenty of hardware, to raise the resolution scale a bit, seeking to improve these details. But if not, rendering the game in native 1080p resolution, and having enough hardware to use at least the balanced preset, the result is pretty positive. And from Prioritize Graphics up, it’s just joy.

In the next few days we will bring content testing the graphics and performance of Resident Evil 4 Remake on PC

You can see the excellent job of revitalizing the game through the free demo available to try. Here I would like to take the opportunity to commend Capcom for keeping this tradition of demos alive: they are the best way to give players a chance to see if the game is any good, either in the sense of experiencing how the gameplay turned out and the atmosphere. , or in the sense to see if it works well on your machines. That more developers give this resource to their undecided potential consumers.

Otherwise, perhaps my only criticism besides the inefficiency of the AMD FSR is the use of ray tracing in the game. It was only used on reflections, which is not a problem, considering that it hits precisely one of the moments where traditional rasterization fails the most, but even in High mode the result is still low definition reflections, in addition to a very short distance. drawing of reflected objects, making an effect below what it could be. Unless the performance impact was also low, and a GeForce RTX 2060 or a Radeon RX 6600 managed to run the game at 1080p on the Ray Tracing preset without a problem, with margins above 60fps.

How is the gameplay in Resident Evil 4

Those who played the Chainsaw demo and found the game a bit frantic got the right impression. Those who come from remakes 2 and 3 will find that this game is more action oriented, including really hectic sections in which the player must keep moving and manage their equipment and ammunition to face hordes of monsters. Even considering that the original game already brought more action to the franchise, the new version goes a step further.

If you were worried that things were going downhill, you can be sure that it didn’t turn into a bombshell like Resident Evil 6 is.. The game still forces the player to be careful with the ammunition, the enemies have erratic movements that make it quite a challenge to hit the bullets, it is important to identify the most efficient way to kill each type of mob in the game and even Leon being a super soldier who puts his beak in the face of enemies, if you pay nonsense and they surround you, you will be beaten like a convict. This means that the game continues to maintain that tension that we expect from a good Resident Evil, although this game is less scary than titles like Village or especially 7, it is still a RE that will make you nervous because the bullets are running out and that’s it this. hard to hit where you needed it in that crazy local villager.

Despite losing some tension by taking the franchise more towards the action, on the other hand the combat in RE 4 Remake is far superior to the other two remakes, thanks to this cadence but also to a more creative use of weapons, equipment and mechanical. There are new opportunities for situational buttons, with dodges, for example, in addition to other features already present in other remakes, such as the “prison escape card” knife that can be used to escape from a zombie that has trapped you without taking damage . . The only thing I didn’t like here was that the situational buttons weren’t challenging, all you have to do is “spawn” without holding the dodge or parry button so that when the monster in question uses its attack, you dodge the hit without any damage. It ends up, at times, breaking things that were supposed to be much scarier, like the chainsaw attack that the guys can already see in the Chainsaw demo.

Is it worth buying Resident Evil 4 Remake?

I think Resident Evil 4 Remake is worth its money. Capcom knew how to weigh well what to keep from the original material, and what to renew. For me who didn’t get a chance to play the original game, this is a chance to finally play the story without having to put up with dated looks and mechanics. For those who already played the 2005 game, this game manages to rekindle the memory while bringing back its stories and characters, but also provides an interesting comparison of what the stages and mechanics originally looked like and how they turned out. And overall, many of the revamps have turned out to be good successes, and some of them will be great for even getting nostalgic gamers out of their comfort zone and will, I hope, create friendly discussions of the original approach vs. the remake for some. Scenes, combats and aspects of the game.

Despite not being as scary or tense as other recent games in the franchise, such as RE Village, RE 7 or even the 2 remake, the great merit for me of RE 4 Remake is that it doesn’t lose the ball when it comes to the immersion and setting, something that Capcom has been doing very well in the releases and remakes of the franchise in recent years, but which is also the most fun in this recent phase of Resident Evil. Among the most recent games, the remake of 4 is the one that aroused my interest in the gameplay the most.and that it brought more interesting challenges to face, weapons to level up, and hordes jumping on my neck to finish it off.

With around 15-20 hours of gameplay, and with the potential for finishers to spend a lot more time doing side quests or trying to accomplish all sorts of speed race or address the new game+ and trying to play the game by changing the playstyle and weapons being used, as well as dealing with the mods that this mode offers to modify the experience, I think there is a lot of material here to entertain yourself with this game.

These in-game impressions are the first piece of content in our coverage of the Resident Evil 4 Remake launch. We’ll still bring more news about the game, including content that tests the game on its various graphics settings, its visuals, and its performance on multiple hardware, as well as indications of which machine you’ll need to play. Stay tuned here on the website and on our YouTube channel that in the next few days we will have news!

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