Resident Evil 4, the game that took the series from ‘Oh, my goodness they just keep making the same game over and over, and I can’t seem to aim correctly when panicking’ to ‘Well, finally! I can aim correctly!’ in the blink of an eye. The relevance and presence of Resident Evil 4 in the RE universe is so significant that every time a new game in the series is released, and the gaming vultures start to circle it, they start comparing the new game to the RE4. To say Resident Evil 4 had a huge impact on fans of the series would be an incredible understatement.
Of course, its important existence didn’t just stop at the series. The game actually helped breathe life into a video game system that was desperately trying to stay relevant in a DVD demanded world. It reminded people that the IBM Gekko chipset in the Gamecube wasn’t for just pushing data to the GPU for the Mario’s of the world. The game showed the system’s power off, as its quick loading time and its commitment to pushing some of the better graphics of that generation were still very much a reality.
It created a wave on all sides of gaming that everyone was hit by.
Now, 11 years later (was it really that long ago? God, I’m old), the game makes it back to consoles and we’re given the opportunity to relive all of it. The story? Still fun as hell and creepy. The gameplay? Still deep and exciting. The controls? How did my fingers survive it??? Oh, yeah, the best controller in the world, the Gamecube controller.
*looks at PlayStation 4 controller*
But you’re a close second, toots.
Capcom literally took the same game they released from yesteryear, did nothing to it (outside of extending the epilogue) and brought it back to the world. Is that good or bad? Well, it depends on what you want out of it. For me, I love going through Leon’s adventure and love seeing the firm reminder of a shift in horror and perspective. I still think that the gameplay holds up, as does the horrifying characters and pressing need to uncover a terrible truth about what the heck is going on with a cult in Spain. I think Capcom’s decision to shake it up a little and move away from zombies, replacing the enemies with creature driven beings (gross ones), chainsaw wielding psychos and carefully placed quicktime events made sense then, and still makes sense now. Folks, I jumped at some scares in the game while reviewing it this week, which probably made me jump 11 years ago on the Gamecube, so all of what I would expect from this game in terms of gameplay and story were firmly relevant and intact with this release, as well as emotionally effective.
Having said that, the one big caveat was the controls. I was miserable with the control scheme. Aiming with the directional pad on the PS4’s controller was about as fun as playing Resident Evil 4 on the PlayStation 2 — not at all. I had a lot of moments where I would aim the gun and have to constantly tap the directional pad left/right to get some sort of accuracy on my target. This happened a lot and would have been rectified if the thumbstick was for aiming as well. I know this release was built on nostalgia, something I am all for when it comes to classic games like this, but if you’re going to push this out on a next generation console, you’re going to need to update somethings for the port. Again, I understand this was not a remaster like Resident Evil HD, but not being able to use the left thumbstick to aim is so jarring. What’s more baffling, you can move Leon with it, but you can’t aim with it. That might have made sense back in 2005, but it just doesn’t translate well here. Small things like that and the lack of smooth aiming with weapons that could easily run out of ammo made for some frustrating times.
Eventually, I did get used to the controller. I did get over the frustration hump, somewhat, and progress in the game, but it was piggy-backing on my desire to keep playing the classic that I knew this game was back in the day. I can only imagine how much nicer it would have been if Capcom’s developers had just tweaked the controls to fit the PS4’s needs. It wouldn’t have put it on the remastered pedestal, but it would have made this reviewer much happier with the finished product.
That’s not too much to ask, right? Maybe it is.
Anyway, regardless of my misery, I commend Capcom for delivering Resident Evil 4 onto the next generation consoles. They delivered the same game that we all loved back in the day (if you were born then. If you weren’t, you’re not old enough to play this anyway). I can’t fault them for that, as they listened to the fans out there and did what they promised they would do. I just wanted a bit more effort on their understanding of what would work in this day and age, and less on what worked in 2005. Eleven years is a big gap between generations, so it was something they needed to take into account before releasing this.
Onto the summary.
