Back last year when the only game anybody on the planet could talk about wasElden Ring, Ijust didn’t get it. I could appreciate the game on an academic level, seeing it transform a once fairly linear genre into not only an open world, buta fresh interpretation of a modern world without boundaries or markers. I could appreciate it on a technical level, with mechanical depth and a surrender to player control. On an aesthetic level too, it was an elevated version of the rotting fantasy cliches. But on the most basic level, as a player enjoying it, no.
PlayingResident Evil 4 Remake, I have a renewed appreciation for Elden Ring. I always admired it, I just didn’t like it. I would hear no defence of Elden Ring - it just wasn’t for me. I don’t begrudge its success and indeed a new IP triple-A game that doesn’t hold a player’s hand or chase trends dictated by the algorithm should be celebrated. But I couldn’t quite see why it was beloved, and thanks toResident Evil 4, now I can.
Related:Resident Evil 4’s Stupidity Is Its Greatest Strength
Anyone who doesn’t like Elden Ring is just instantly told to git gud, and I can understand that impulse. It’s a game where the difficulty is the point, and so when people don’t like it, it’s natural to assume they’ve given up because it’s too hard. Maybe they did. Hey, maybe I did. I’m not quite sure what it was that finally broke me. I didn’t ragequit on a boss then never return, I just got bored. I wandered into caverns, wandered back out without learning much, faced a boss, realised I was underpowered, wandered some more, and just drifted away from it.
Would I have enjoyed that aimless experience a little more if I wasn’t dying all the time? Maybe. It’s not like dying was the best part. But all of Elden Ring’s biggest fans tell you dying is a crucial part of the game. That it would fundamentally be a worse experience for everyone if you could breeze through it on easy just to see everything that happens. This past weekend I realised something: that’s how I feel about Resident Evil 4.
Resident Evil 4 is not as hard as Elden Ring, I understand that. But it’s a game where you’re constantly made to feel oppressed by the world, where it simply would not be the same without the struggle. Canonically, Leon gets through the game to the end, becomes the big hero, yadda yadda. But for most players, it’s crucial that they die in the opening village attack, that Ashley is rekidnapped, that a pitchfork goes through his neck or an axe through his skull.
My wife enjoys watching me play Resident Evil, and while she asked if she could control Ethan inResident Evil Villageas he wandered around Castle Dimitrescu with his wine bottle full of blood or to solve the puzzles in house Beneviento, she has not asked totake control of Leon and I’m pretty sure she never will. That’s damn sure not because Ethan is a better character, but because she’s seen me die enough to RE4 to realise it’s a tougher experience.
I don’t want the game to put off newcomers, especially when I consider it to be not only the best Resident Evil game but the best horror game ever. However, do I only think that in part because the game will punish you for trying to be the last action hero, and constantly forces you to think on your feet? Have I gone from the git gudee to the git guder?
I wouldn’t change a thing about Resident Evil 4, but hearing that Capcom has made some improved tweaks to the original, I’m curious to see where that takes me. Probably, at least at first, it will lead me to my death, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Maybe I should head back to the Lands Between next…
