Resident Evil 4is very silly. It always has been, yet somehow still upholds its reputation as the greatest survival horror game ever made. The original is filled with scary moments and tense set pieces, yet simultaneously wrought with cheesy dialogue and characters so damn ridiculous they feel pulled straight from a mediocre B-movie.Capcommakes it work though, weaving threads of camp comedy through its tapestry of gruesome violence and earned scares as it forges a bold new path for the series to walk forward. It didn’t stick to it unfortunately, but those mistakes only make its fourth installment all the more legendary.
With such a reputation, there were justified fears about it being remade, and whether it even needed to be refreshed in the first place. It still plays well and looks great, so why risk trying to make it better or reshape a vision fans hold so dearly? If the optional costumes unveiled earlier this week are any indication, we have nothing to worry about. They are ridiculously self-aware and flooded with creative easter eggs, riding the line between chaos and camp that Resident Evil 4 has always excelled at. I mean, just look at Ashley’s sick emo drip.
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Like the majority of blockbusters these days, Resident Evil 4 will launch with a digital deluxe edition that offers a few additional goodies for some extra pennies. While these bonuses can often boil down to consumables and similar rubbish, Capcom is pulling out the stops withtwo absolutely sick optional costumes for Leon Kennedy and Ashley Graham. Instead of making subtle changes to their original appearances to maintain realism and tone, each costume is fittingly outlandish and unafraid to poke fun about how absurd the game’s concept really is.
Leon’s deluxe outfit reminds me of a seasoned park ranger or a grumpy older brother tasked with escorting his younger sister around a supermarket because their parents don’t trust her in the slightest. His look is pretty tame, but Ashley’s isincredible.She is radiating strong emo energy akin to an MSN Messenger profile picture from 2005. Song lyrics and emojis strewn across her biography alongside a banner photo decorated by Nightmare Before Christmas characters. All the scene girl hallmarks from an era we’ve long left behind. The needless abundance of random straps, accessories, make-up, and barbaric two-tone hairstyle are in excess just enough to satirise the era it takes clear inspiration from.
Resi 4 canonically takes place in 2004, so this outfit is period accurate when you think about it. Ashley is a college student who would have been engulfed in the first wave of social media and emergence of bands like Blink-182, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Funeral For A Fried, Paramore, and countless others that boys and girls defined entire parts of their lives by. Capcom must be making this sort of cultural reference on purpose.
I used to dress like that and thought I was the baddest bitch on the planet, and I hope our pal Ashley feels the same. She totally should. Other optional outfits are a mixture of gothic, historic, campy, and referential to other Capcom games like Devil May Cry. Inspired by emo book boy V from the fifth entry, this Leon skin also comes with a filter that completely alters the game’s colour palette. It’s optional, so if you only want the fashion, that’s okay too.
There’s also fancy weapon skins, additional maps, and a mod that lets you play using the original soundtrack. All of these bonuses are amazing, complementary in ways that more than justify the extra investment if you’re a huge fan. It also solidifies the brilliance of the series as a whole. It is campy, irreverent, and never afraid to have fun at its own expense.
Resident Evil 4 is a game made to be replayed, either by avid speedrunners or casual fans eager to take advantage of New Game+ to see everything it has to offer. I hope this remake is no different, and the presence of extra costumes like this alongside similar unlockables is a positive sign it is going to be equally vast and inviting. I can close my eyes and picture most of the original game in my head, including the optional costumes one could earn after nailing certain difficulty settings. Ashley’s knight costume had comical sound effects while protecting them from all possible threats as it made her too heavy for enemies to lift.
Leon’s gangster outfit partnered with the Chicago Typewriter machine gun would have him perform a Michael Jackson-esque spin after reloading it three times. It is filled with secrets like this that you could spend dozens of hours uncovering, either through repeat playthroughs or taking your time parsing through each new environment.
This sheer attention to detail is partly why a remake worried me so much, but the closer we edge to launch, and the more details trickle out about Resident Evil 4 the more relieved I am about the whole thing. It’s a timeless masterpiece, a pitch perfect piece of media that ideally reflected the period in which it was produced while understanding how its bold innovation would rock the gaming world in the years to come.
Capcom hasn’t grown complacent with this reimagining, if anything it recognises the legacy being toyed with and how all the right adjustments and improvements must be made in order to do it justice. The end product is a game that feels like a product of the past, present, and future all at once.
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