In the second half of the week, Capcom celebrated the release of a demo version of the Resident Evil 4 remake. The audience was invited to appreciate the iconic opening sequence with the battle in the village, and this time there were no time limits. Our reviewers also went through the demo and are in a hurry to share their impressions.
Alexey Bezdenezhny ( KOZIK )
Reviewer, Special Content Writer
Demo completed on Xbox Series X
Perhaps we can do without the on-duty story about what young Capcom guys did everything beautifully, expensively, modernly, “learn how to make remakes, fools!”… You probably stomped a wonderful remake of the second part without this a wonderful but still worthy reimagining of the third. And the videos of Resident Evil 4 (2023) promised us at least a comparable level of quality. There are no surprises here – the game looks, sounds feels, and smells like a cool modern action game.
In the presented demo, we have access to the introduction of the game, which includes a very large-scale battle with a crowd of rabid peasants and a chainsaw mini-boss. The demo ends with the ringing of the bell.
In the original Resident Evil 4, I replayed this moment dozens of times, and it’s not at all that it is quite difficult. At that time, the action in the game was really impressive, I wanted to relive this battle again and again, go through it as cleanly, beautifully, and cinematically as possible, find and use all the interesting places and moves, kill as many zombie villagers as possible…
In the remake, this particular site is recreated with amazing geographical accuracy, while other places and paths are heavily shoveled. The first meeting with the insane ganado is now played out in two stages: first, Leon breaks his neck in a cutscene, and later, as soon as the fans finish grumbling at the thought that they were not allowed to neutralize the reptile themselves, he will attack again. Thus, the developers immediately emphasize that we are not dealing with ordinary people.
A lot of surprises have been prepared for experienced zombies. The authors very competently flirt with memories, catching them by surprise in the most unexpected places. Say, in the farthest corner of the village, there is a bell tower, which Leon could always climb, collect supplies and take a breath. Previously, angry peasants set fire to it, we just had to jump out the window at the right time, but now the floor suddenly collapses. Under certain circumstances, the notorious chainsaw can break the beams and block one of the passages. An oil lantern has appeared above the cow, which can be shot off, setting a local fire with a bunch of victims. As in the original, you may not see many of these details and just run around in circles waiting for the saving bell to ring. The already great brawl just got bigger
In classic Resident Evil 4, Leon couldn’t crouch, but now it’s allowed, along with stealth kills from the back. The knife has a margin of safety, so stealth, unlike The Evil Within 2, cannot be called an all-consuming imba that allows you to pass many sections “for free”. And the level in the demo is built in such a way that you will be able to slaughter a couple of breakaway old women at most before the alarm goes off.
I went through the demo three times, and each time the significant battle at the bell tower took place somehow in a new way, the eye noticed new interactive places, and the game vilely caught me on old memories, setting up new ambushes. This is even though I know the original Resident Evil 4 almost by heart, here I did not feel at all like a fish in water. And this is great, because the old people, for whom the intense action horror movie has long become cute and cozy, in the remake will once again feel like shy kittens, who will have to get used to a slightly changed feeling from shooting, delve into several new mechanics (craft ammo, stealth) and wait for never-before-seen footboards from a virtual director.
What disappointed me a little? The stylish laser pointer has been replaced with a boring crosshair for now (however, there are clear hints in the menu settings that the red dot will appear over time). The controversial ability to stop time while digging in the inventory has always seemed to me a stupidity that kills immersion, but some fans of the classics and casual players would certainly howl without this simplification. Well, yes, the wolf can no longer be saved from the trap. Why did they do this to the furry one?
Azamat Tegaev ( Azzy )
Completed demo on PlayStation 5
For me, the original Resident Evil 4 is not as beloved as the previous games in the series, but the impact of the fourth part on the industry can not be overestimated. At the very least, the over-the-shoulder camera angle, which appeared there for the first time, has become the standard for many third-person games. The remake, based on recognizable scenery and mechanics, is trying to seriously rethink and modernize this once-revolutionary concept. I deliberately avoided trailers and screenshots to keep my perception fresh, so from the first seconds, I received a powerful charge of nostalgia and positive emotions. The developers tried to preserve all the recognizable attributes and, most importantly, the spirit of this crazy village, dressing it in modern graphics with a lot of various details and special effects, such as a light haze through which light rays pass,
When the emotions subsided a little, I began to notice small technical flaws (passed on to the PlayStation 5). In the “Resolution” mode, there are still small ladders in the game, and some elements of the environment have unclear textures. In some places, performance noticeably sags – most often this happens near puddles, which are calculated by “rays”, but in a scene with a large number of villagers, everything is more or less stable. However, in the options “tracing” can be turned off right now, and this will slightly improve performance.
It is important to mention the stealth mechanic, which allows you to silently eliminate enemies. The branching of the passages in this segment of the village makes it possible to explore the area and eliminate several opponents before the main action begins. I hope the rest of the game will have more of these moments, allowing you to act inconspicuously. Even compared to previous remakes, the mechanics of the knife have changed, it now has a durability scale. It is not yet clear how interesting and essential an element of game design is.
The demo is quite short, so you can’t write much about it. Although, it can also be noted that the developers decided not to use the phrases of the distraught villagers in the remake, at least during the passage of this demo I did not hear familiar shouts like “Ahi esta!” or “Un forastero”. By the way, the demo version of the game from the Turkish PSN is presented entirely in Russian.
Alexander Kopanev ( Shibito )
Reviewer, Special Content Writer
Demo completed on PlayStation 5
Naturally, the demo does not give a final idea of the final product but allows you to understand in which direction the authors are moving and how the project feels technically. If the first point can be a platform for debate among experts and seasoned fans, then the technical component raises objective questions. The original Resident Evil 4 instantly had crisp controls, a perfect character feel, easy aiming, and overall quality, but the remake is frankly disappointing. Immediately there is a feeling as if you are playing with a high temperature or after five or six glasses of strong drinks.
Leon moves extremely slowly and unresponsively, and the fluid motion animations look awry during active actions, such as a quick 180-degree turn, crouching, and finishing off enemies if they are standing or lying in not very convenient places. The graphics mode settings do not allow finding a suitable option: in resolution mode, an unstable frame rate gives rise to a strange “tearing” effect, and the performance mode makes the image even soapier, which is hard on the eyes at a high level of detail in the environment.
If you are not too lazy, you can, of course, still rummage through the control sensitivity settings – with some effort, you can achieve an acceptable result, but wait … Are players supposed to calibrate all these details? What kind of immersion in the gameplay can we talk about when the player spends most of the time in the settings menu?
All this is frustrating since the work of artists and directors is exceptionally respected. The game is truly atmospheric and made with obvious reverence for the masterpiece of 2005, with the addition of curious nuances that look like an organic continuation of the ideas of the original. In terms of gameplay, Resident Evil 4 has become similar to The Evil Within due to the ability to go through some areas stealthily, and quite a bit on The Last of Us – primarily due to the increased number of scripted moments where Leon’s actions are limited by the narrative context. Simply put, pulling out a pistol from the very beginning and shooting a clip at the first crows that come across is impossible. You have to wait until the game helpfully leads you to an episode where you will need to get scared and shoot a little.
In the new version of the square battle, the game is as close as possible to the original. Leon needs to maneuver between houses, run inside, block doors, look for the most effective locations for defense, and so on. Ganado learned a couple of new tricks, like setting traps in random places, which makes each new playthrough different from the previous one.
The demo caused conflicting emotions, but the developers will most likely be able to fix most of the controversial technical decisions by the release and the first patches, so skeptics like me should not put ashes on their heads in advance.
Resident Evil 4 Remake releases March 24, 2023.
