Resident Evil 4is agoddamn masterpiece. I’ve been working my way through the survival horror remake for the past two weeks and have been desperate to sing its praises. Not only does it improve upon the original, it fundamentally evolves its very foundations with smart alterations, modern narrative sensibilities, and a clear understanding of the legacy it continuously toys with.Capcomhas knocked it not just out of the park, it has launched our expectations into the stratosphere with such confidence that I can still hardly believe it.
I feel like a fool for worrying about this remake missing the mark. Capcom has shown in the majority of its previous reimaginings that it understands the importance of balancing parts of this game we’ve loved for decades while innovating in all the right ways. Some changes are subtle, while others are thorough alterations of past set pieces and mechanics which are just archaic enough to justify uprooting. So many of these choices could have been met with outrage, but none of them will be. Each one feels perfect in its presence, either by eliminating a niggle that persisted for generations or transforming entire sections for the better.
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Despite its status as a pretty faithful remake, Resident Evil 4 is still filled to the brim with unexpected surprises. The original game is so fondly remembered in large part thanks to its unconventional structure. It came from a series known for being relatively subdued and horrifying, imbued with a cringe-inducing sense of camp we had come to view as the norm. The fourth installment went through several familiar and frustrating iterations before it became the action blockbuster that changed everything, which like I said before, is a reputation this remake respects.
If anything, this trajectory is replicated in how it’s constantly eager to subvert our expectations and make an experience we once knew like the back of our hands feel new again. It’s reminiscent of returning to your hometown after a decade away, as you’re taken aback both by how much things change and how much they stay the same. That balance is respected and perfected in equal measure.
Everywhere I look are vague memories and monuments to a past I’m so close to reliving, yet a perpetual fog looms over proceedings that demands I experience them for the first time all over again. Even as I stumble across the village or step cautiously through the morbid halls of Ramon’s mediaeval castle, my mind is convinced that I’ve seen this all before.
Capcom is well aware of this familiarity millions will encounter though, and how rebuilding a masterpiece necessitates constant change without ever taking our fondness for the original away. It would be so easy to label this as nostalgic pandering or relying upon a classic due to a lack of new ideas, but Resident Evil 4 isn’t complacent in the future it’s required to build either.
Leon, Ashley, Ada, and all the ensemble’s big players aren’t hollow recreations of what came before, but a recognition of their faults and a clear desire from Capcom to build up each of them into people worth caring about. Campiness still oozes from every pore, but the sharp writing is strong enough to flesh out existing mythology and make us care for whatever form of events await in the years to come.
This isn’t an isolated remake that Capcom is going to leave behind before it cracks on with Resident Evil 9, instead a comprehensive new part of this timeline that has an exhaustive amount of potential in not only its narrative, but also the gameplay systems, pacing, and majesty of every little thing it does so well.
This remake finds itself in a unique position. Resident Evil 4 was a masterpiece back in 2005, but it resulted in sequels that doubled down on all the wrong qualities until the franchise imploded in on itself before crawling back to the drawing board. With the power of hindsight -and potentially more remakes on the horizon- it isn’t beholden to history, and would arguably benefit from taking a divergent path or critiquing its own legacy in ways that matter.
Never before has a masterpiece been recreated with this much gravitas while also contained within a property so marred with inconsistency. It is more than recreating its own perfection, to me, it promises a brighter future for Resident Evil with an intimate knowledge regarding the wrongs it can right moving forward.
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