I have a complicated history with Resident Evil 4. For a lot of people it was an instant hit, for me it was a frustrating experience. I didn’t “get” the appeal of the game for several years and only after several attempts, and because of the fact that the game influenced so many others, which gave me necessary experience to understand what it as going for, I started enjoying it. I still have plenty of criticism towards it, mind you, but nowadays replaying RE4 is an enjoyable experience for me. And I’ve replayed it many times over many different platforms, including this 2014 “Ultimate HD Edition”, which remains the best version of the game to play.
In fact, the main reason for my revisit this time was the fact that the version got even better due to fan work – I wanted to finally experience out the fantastic RE4HD mod, that more than lived up to my expectations. And in addition to that, wanted to have some fun with the recently released randomizer mod that adds some fun chaos to the overall experience. As I was about to play, the RE4 Remake got officially announced as well, so I decided that it might be the best time to revisit the original. And even in 2022 it’s still an extremely fun game… that really hates you.
Today you might have trouble comprehending just how important RE4 was, not just for the Resident Evil series, but action games in general. It didn’t just invent a new type of horror fueled third person shooter that Capcom dubbed “survival action”, it redefined what a third person action can be. It wasn’t alone, of course, nor were all of its ideas truly revolutionary – a lot of its gameplay was built on the concepts explored by other games (including previous RE titles). And yet, it’s one of those games which still influence the games of today.
Luckily, not via its QTEs… Those were praised when the game was new, by the way. As a thing that makes you “keep your guard” even during cutscenes, but if all else, what I’d love to see in a modern update to RE4 is the option to remove them or turn them into a single button press. They don’t work correctly without the mods on higher framerates too, by the way, requiring some insane mashing speed to count, but even when fixed they are a chore.
Also, the fix does not change the fact that the “dodge” QTEs are utter garbage, as the game often doesn’t let you hit/shoot/stagger the enemy of the attack you’re supposed to dodge when the prompt is up – the game will just ignore your input. It’s another frustrating leftover from the era, even if the idea of dodges is fantastic. It’s just that it got implemented much better in later RE titles, like the RE3 2020 or the Revelations sub-series. Fun fact, though – as Hideki Kamiya revealed a long time ago in his Bayonetta playthrough, Shinji Mikami wanted this dodge mechanic in the very first Resident Evil as a defense against Hunters. They just couldn’t figure out how to do it in 96, but eventually did it in 2005.
I really wanted to bring these up just because they might be the few elements that even the die-hardest fans of the game might dislike. Because the rest of RE4 clearly knows what it wants to be and how it wants to play. And the result is mad fun. Often “not fair”, but really fun. The concept of “fairness” in games is complicated in general, but thing about RE4 is that it loves to cheat to get a hit on the player. It was the game that introduced the “Difficulty Adjustment” concept (a few other games tried this too at the time, like SiN Episodes: Emergence) and it was willing to do it in either direction – to bias the gameplay for the player, or (if it considered you to play too good) towards the enemies. As a result, even apart from the poor dodge mechanic implementation, you could get absolutely stupid hits – through walls, from across the room, from a different height level entirely, – even without being aware of the danger. Tense, fun and unpredictable for an adequately prepared player who’s playing casually. But a potential failure loop for anyone not prepared for this, or someone who’s trying to play on the hardest difficulty or doing a challenge run.
Yet, people still do challenge runs. Still play on Professional. Still enjoy the mods like the aforementioned randomizer that can start you with an egg, while all of the crows around you are chainsaw ladies that can kill you with one hit. Because the core of RE4 is incredibly tight even in how it’s intentionally rude towards the players. The mods, like the fantastic RE4HD mod, just make the rest of the game shine better and look less outdated. Speaking of – a lot of locations with that HD mod look stunning even by modern standards. Even though the title was utilizing rendering tricks that are outdated today, the results are fantastic. Shame, it’s not an official part of the game. Or part of a NightDive or Pixel Remaster style remaster, with an engine port and quality of life improvements for the modern age, but the rest of the game left as is. Apart from QTEs, screw those.
Resident Evil 4 is still incredibly fun today and the PC Ultimate HD Edition is the best version there is. It’s not perfect, neither are the mods – there can be potential crashes and glitches related to them. And the controls (either keyboard and mouse, or the gamepad) do feel off, no matter how much you tweak them or mod them. And if you’ve never played RE4 before – it will beat you up a few times, that’s part of the experience. That’s just how the game is. It has a steep learning curve, steeper than I’d argue it should’ve been. But it’s worth it, even in 2022.