Resident Evil 4: The Remake

Yeah few players I talk to already are noting that they feel that even the most minor shift is having huge consequences.

I.e. you can now strafe.

Thus enemies are more mobile and agressive

Thus you are given a parry

Thus enemies now have homing grabs

Thus you have a stronger shotty

And it just keeps looping.

Gross.

And people think that you can add strafing and moving while shooting in a game not designed around them without changing anything else.

>stronger shotty
Really? From the footage it looked pretty weak on the crowd control side (which was its main strenght in the OG). Maybe they buffed its damage?

It was payday yesterday and I was bored, so I decided to get it. There are definitely some annoying elements but I like it so far. The best way to enjoy the game is to do the impossible and not compare it to the original. On it's own merits, it's decent. Will hardcore RE4 fans consider this to be the definitive version? I highly doubt it.

Some quick thoughts - I agree with the stuff about Leon's movement. It almost feels like he's drunk when you're quickly trying to change directions. Despite being more restrictive, the movement in the original version feels much more responsive and precise. I found disabling vsync on PC helped a little bit, but I have a feeling this might be forced on for the console versions, which would be a shame.

I'm also not a fan of how the hit reaction/stun system has been altered. We all knew this wouldn't be identical to the original game, and I think this is probably why most of us were weary about it. It's not terrible, but feels very inconsistent. It can take wildly different amounts of headshots/legshots to trigger the stuns. The issues extend past this to make the entire combat system weaker than the original. Enemies used to feel controllable with the right spacing and tactics, and while it's not impossible in REmake4 it's certainly harder (and not in a fun way). As noted, enemies are faster and will rush you more frequently (with tracking attacks, yuck) and the answers to this are the crouching/parry mechanics. However, to stop you from parrying all the time, you have knife durability now too. Capcom's approach seems to be to try and tack a load of extra systems on top of what was there originally and it's just not necessary. It's not all bad, but there are things that just don't work as well as before.

It's quite weird really. It's easy to criticise most of the changes, but when it's all in motion and you aren't being annoyed by something, it is quite fun. I'm finding the more I play, the more the new systems are clicking for me. The flow and pace of the combat is enjoyable, and it can be pretty intense at times. It feels good to master an encounter and get through unscathed. The problem with a remake is that the devs want us to unlearn a game that most people love and have a lot of experience with, and understandably that means people are going to write off this new approach straight away. It's a combat system that I think is decent in it's own bubble, but pales in contrast to the design of the original.

I'm in the middle of the Castle section now, will probably do another post after I finish the game.

The fist pump is back, yay

Managed to snag the game anyway, I'm very mixed too. It feels like a 'doomed if we do, doomed if we didn't game' to me. They could've gone the Metroid Prime route and just re-released the original game with completely overhauled graphics, but you'd probably end up seeing a lot of reactions about its "archaic" controls and "sexist" plot.

On the flipside, I feel that at every turn the game has made changes not because they were areas to improve, but because "it is 2023" and because "it is a remake, we have to change things". Leon has gone from being one of gaming's definitive protagonists with a great click between script and voice-actor, to having less personality than most porn-star actors. He seems constantly at odds with himself, especially when he's forced to use lines from the original (bingo) because that's what the fans want, right?

Cutscenes took an equal hit. Meeting Luis is far less of a fantastic intro, the "big cheese" now just immediately injects Leon instead of that spooky dream cutscene, and Leon and Luis talking while prisoners is far less "quick buddy cops" and more "super serious Leon will kill Luis if he doesn't talk". Also don't like how Luis' backstory is now told through a freak'n readable file instead of in that specific cutscene. The Merchant still uses the same lines, but tries to somehow play it serious and feels completely out of place in this game's serious style.

Gameplay most have noted the grievances, though I should note I started on Hardcore where it is much, much worse. Enemies will easily tank 2-4 headshots from your pistol before staggering for a kick-QTE for example, and will at times even walk straight through a shotgun shell to the stomach. Salvador is worse, at times tanking 2-3 shotgun shells to the head, forcing you to parry. It all feels like it spirals out of control from the simple "move+shoot" change. If you play it more like a survival horror game where you knife is your prime resource, it works a bit more, but fights then become insanely boring. You can literally just stand still and parry+shoot your way to victory if you're in a nice safe corner where you can funnel enemies.

Currently combat seems to have pistols be a gun that lowers enemies HP until you parry them, with shotgun being used for parasites and tougher enemies.

Other times areas seem badly remixed or just flat out mirrored to confuse you, and it also messes with the pacing. Where I *DO* feel the game shines as a remake, is when it actually does things it couldn't originally due to technical limitations. For example, having the village-fight end in gameplay, suddenly seeing all enemies drop their weapons while you walk around going "wtf" is a fantastic touch. Being able to go up to the roof of the buliding and shoot the bell yourself is a fantastic touch too. Same with Crimson Heads sorta returning.

Also, upon returning to the village, having the tower collapse was a neat addition too. It's things like that that make me feel like "see, that's what a remake can do, it elevates the original experience", but in a lot of cases it doesn't do that though.

>hard-core
>2-4 headshots to stun
>tanking shotgun shells
>Salvador tanking 2-3 to THE FUCKING HEAD
>forcing you to parry
>FORCING
Absolutely indefensible.

>Currently combat seems to have pistols be a gun that lowers enemies HP until you parry them, with shotgun being used for parasites and tougher enemies.
So they've basically color coded the guns.

Are all the handguns with their special properties still in? I'm actually expecting them at DLC with how bad things are going.

The handguns are still in and their properties are intact, but with the combat being such a damage-based slog with little utility on Hardcore, it quickly becomes a damage-race. I do feel the punisher has its uses still.

Yahtzee described it as turning the knob from camp to sensible a few notches. Also, that the homogenization of REmake games since 2 make them boring. Would you agree, and what does the next one need to do to not fall in the same trap? Especially since

edit. spoiler fail:

. Probably not gonna touch Rem4ke for a while.

The vid in question: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/resident-evil-4-remake-2023-zero-punctuation/
Honestly, he's pretty on point with my thoughts. Feels like the original with the edge sanded off.

One thing I haven't heard notice about yet, but felt off to me, was the distinct lack of...gore. It's an 18+ game last I checked, in an 18+ series and an 18+ genre. Yet being attacked by a chainsaw just...has you drop dead. There's no piles of corpses in the farm. No woman hanging on a pitchfork (no sex descrimination here). Just feels strangely...sanitary for a horror title. Only slightly gorey moment I saw was when Leon got his eyes gauged in.

Granted I don't really care about this sort of thing too much, but just felt weird having it be absent in a freak'n horror game.

> Gore
I think the new chainsaw death is arguably more brutal, despite it not being a decapitation anymore. I got a bit desensitised to the original because it was so quick and "painless" for lack of a better term. I don't really feel like the gore is toned down though, to be honest. There are still several decapitation deaths for Leon from standard enemies, I think death by dynamite is very similar in both games from what I remember, the Gigante can bite off his head (not sure if that was in the original). I think for the most part the gore seems quite comparable.

> Colour coding
I don't think I'd go quite this far, I think the general sponginess is more of an issue than what weapons are suitable for which enemies. I'm not very good with the enemy names, but when you kill some enemies and they resurrect with the plagas tentacles, the stronger of the two types takes a crapload of ammo to take down. I've tried taking it down with combos of grenades, shotgun and sniper and felt it took too much ammo. Its particularly annoying when you have to fight two of these at the same time. I am also playing on Hardcore, as that's the recommended mode for people who've played the original (and it's deceptively challenging - some of the fights on Professional will be very tough).

Birdman wrote:>hard-core
>2-4 headshots to stun
>tanking shotgun shells
>Salvador tanking 2-3 to THE FUCKING HEAD
>forcing you to parry
>FORCING
Absolutely indefensible.

>Currently combat seems to have pistols be a gun that lowers enemies HP until you parry them, with shotgun being used for parasites and tougher enemies.
So they've basically color coded the guns.

Are all the handguns with their special properties still in? I'm actually expecting them at DLC with how bad things are goi

>Stagger

Most of the people that have completed on hardcore have said that normal is the definitive way to play on your first playthrough. Hardcore has tankier enemies so with a non upgraded handgun, it can become a chore like Raeng is experiencing. Saying that, I got stagger in 1-2 heashsots as opposed to 2-4 like Raeng. I've uploaded the clip on twitter. Hardcore mode with fully upgraded weapons on NG+ should be ideal.

>Parrying

I haven't even parried once on normal and I'm on chapter 8 lol so this whole "the game is forcing you to parry" or "parry to win" narrative seems far fetched. This ain't shitty Wo Long lmao I really hate parry focused  games.

>Salvador

You have to land a CLEAN shotgun blast to the face to stagger him, when his chainsaw is up, he can actually block the shots, hence why he doesn't stagger. I didn't realize this till fighting him a few more times.

Gregorinho wrote:> Gore
I think the new chainsaw death is arguably more brutal, despite it not being a decapitation anymore. I got a bit desensitised to the original because it was so quick and "painless" for lack of a better term. I don't really feel like the gore is toned down though, to be honest. There are still several decapitation deaths for Leon from standard enemies, I think death by dynamite is very similar in both games from what I remember, the Gigante can bite off his head (not sure if that was in the original). I think for the most part the gore seems quite comparable.

> Colour coding
I don't think I'd go quite this far, I think the general sponginess is more of an issue than what weapons are suitable for which enemies. I'm not very good with the enemy names, but when you kill some enemies and they resurrect with the plagas tentacles, the stronger of the two types takes a crapload of ammo to take down. I've tried taking it down with combos of grenades, shotgun and sniper and felt it took too much ammo. Its particularly annoying when you have to fight two of these at the same time. I am also playing on Hardcore, as that's the recommended mode for people who've played the original (and it's deceptively challenging - some of the fights on Professional will be very tough).

I think I know which enemy you are describing. When they transform do their heads open up with 4 claw type things? If so, you have to shoot them with a shotty when they open, this kills them in 1 shot. Also, flash grenade kills them instantly, I read a note about this once in game, it said something like "enemy doesn't like light" or something, can't remember.

Bu yeah, flash grenades or shotty when they open is a great way to down them fast. Even hand grenades don't do shit to them

Royta/Raeng wrote:The vid in question: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/resident-evil-4-remake-2023-zero-punctuation/
Honestly, he's pretty on point with my thoughts. Feels like the original with the edge sanded off.

One thing I haven't heard notice about yet, but felt off to me, was the distinct lack of...gore. It's an 18+ game last I checked, in an 18+ series and an 18+ genre. Yet being attacked by a chainsaw just...has you drop dead. There's no piles of corpses in the farm. No woman hanging on a pitchfork (no sex descrimination here). Just feels strangely...sanitary for a horror title. Only slightly gorey moment I saw was when Leon got his eyes gauged in.

Granted I don't really care about this sort of thing too much, but just felt weird having it be absent in a freak'n horror game.

The game gets super gorey later on, even more so then OG because magnums and shotguns can tear someone in half (I shit you not lol) plus the dismemberment mechanic is a gore fest, you'll see limbs and torsos everywhere with mine thrower and RPG.

Also, later on Leon does get decapitated alot by certain enemies and like gregorinho said, it's more unsettling.

>Yahtzee described it as turning the knob from camp to sensible a few notches.
Not that I don't like serious games but it gets old really fast, this push for the "We don't use the word 'fun'" - The Last of Us 2 director Neil Druckmann. Is really annoying because games aren't allowed to be silly or stupid anymore despite being virtual toys. As Raeng has said games end up taking a hit because we can't have these silly moments anymore and characters aren't allowed to be action figure super heroes anymore. Leon is a depressed middle aged man, Chris was a depressed middle aged man in 6, Joel is a depressed middle aged man in TloU, Kratos is a depressed middle aged man, it keeps going on to the point that the term "character depth" has lost its meaning and now simply refers to people being sad about X thing.

Slightly offtopic but Inticreates selling their newest castlevania platformer as a serious action game https://youtu.be/eY0x2JanYeA only for it devolve into collecting porn magazines and surviving tentacle attacks later on has to be one of the most hilarious things that ever happened in gaming in recent memory, so many """influencers""" started seething over this game.

I wouldn't say force the parry, but it is extremely powerful and potent on hardcore and above so far. Since enemies track and stagger is lower, it's just the safest way to negate damage for me currently.

> gore
Yeah while it's brutal, the new chainsaw kill just has me laughing tbh. Leon is literally cut in half yet remains pristine. And just a lot of the surrounding gore-horror (gorror?) is gone.

>depressed middle aged man

Reflects the people making them. Same with superhero movies or hard sci-fi/fantasy. If it's not some depressing movie about the horrors of war or the mafia, it's not taken seriously.

>Inticreates

I'm a #patientgamer, but I played Bayo in 2009. The way she went from "everything wrong with women in VGs" to "female empowerment" to "queer icon" to "gay till graduation" made my head spin. Camp is eternal. Yahtzee slammed Armstrong in his MGR review as "watching NGE before accidentally switching over to DBZ". Yet today it's the best boss in a game of best bosses. You just wait, and eventually people turn round on it. Unless they're tearing it down to promote the new thing.

Forced camp is try-hard and never comes off well. Take Sunset Overdrive. Or how the original Star Wars sets were whatever they could cobble together, but now when they do Luke's home on Tatooine, everything has to be exactly how it was in 1977. Wiseau's new film will probably suffer as well.

>decap

Saw that in a review. I just call those the Parasytes because its clear what Mikami copied. It's quite unsettling when the large mouth ones sticks to the ceiling.

How does the higher difficulty compare to the chainsaw mode in the demo? I too heard that normal was actually balanced, unlike RE8.

Sekiro and its consequences have been a disaster for action games.

Royta/Raeng wrote:I wouldn't say force the parry, but it is extremely powerful and potent on hardcore and above so far. Since enemies track and stagger is lower, it's just the safest way to negate damage for me currently.

> gore
Yeah while it's brutal, the new chainsaw kill just has me laughing tbh. Leon is literally cut in half yet remains pristine. And just a lot of the surrounding gore-horror (gorror?) is gone.

>Chainsaw in half death animation is laughable

True but then again in OG a point black shotty blast to the arm/leg of regular enemies with no visible bullet damage or dismemberment should also make you laugh

RayyanHayabusa wrote:I think I know which enemy you are describing. When they transform do their heads open up with 4 claw type things? If so, you have to shoot them with a shotty when they open, this kills them in 1 shot. Also, flash grenade kills them instantly, I read a note about this once in game, it said something like "enemy doesn't like light" or something, can't remember.

Bu yeah, flash grenades or shotty when they open is a great way to down them fast. Even hand grenades don't do shit to them

That's the one, and you're totally right, flash grenades trivialise them. I think it was exactly the same in the original. Only issue is I didn't seem to get many after the first 5~ chapters! I didn't buy the crafting recipe for it though so that's my bad as well. I kept prioritising crafting shotgun/rifle ammo over the other stuff.

> Parry
It's not forced, but it is strong, agreed. I don't really mind it, to be honest. I understand people are sick of it but I think having a parry in a 3rd person shooter is still kind of novel. It's not amazing or anything, but I don't hate it. I think it'd be better if they made the timing stricter and got rid of the knife durability, though. Make it more like Royal Guard or something.

Gregorinho wrote:

RayyanHayabusa wrote:I think I know which enemy you are describing. When they transform do their heads open up with 4 claw type things? If so, you have to shoot them with a shotty when they open, this kills them in 1 shot. Also, flash grenade kills them instantly, I read a note about this once in game, it said something like "enemy doesn't like light" or something, can't remember.

Bu yeah, flash grenades or shotty when they open is a great way to down them fast. Even hand grenades don't do shit to them

That's the one, and you're totally right, flash grenades trivialise them. I think it was exactly the same in the original. Only issue is I didn't seem to get many after the first 5~ chapters! I didn't buy the crafting recipe for it though so that's my bad as well. I kept prioritising crafting shotgun/rifle ammo over the other stuff.

> Parry
It's not forced, but it is strong, agreed. I don't really mind it, to be honest. I understand people are sick of it but I think having a parry in a 3rd person shooter is still kind of novel. It's not amazing or anything, but I don't hate it. I think it'd be better if they made the timing stricter and got rid of the knife durability, though. Make it more like Royal Guard or something.

Yeah that flash greande recipe is a must bro, it's only 6k too so not stupidly overpriced.

Yeah knife durability is worse than parry imo. Once you upgrade the combat knife, it's not too bad.

I really love the new attacks with the knife  though.and you can cover ground too. Like the Stab to the face triggering a nice stagger, so satisfying. In OG you had that lame 1 attack swipe which got tedious and repetitive. Good they added some new knife attacks but the durability isn't a welcome addition at all. OG had unlimited durability, should've stuck to that.

Yeah what you can do with the knife is pretty sick, like shooting them in knees and doing the assasin slash from behind is cool (takes huge dura though). One thing I will note is that I like that when you kill a guy, you can sometimes see the plaga inside. Great detail.

Just beat Del Lago which I felt was...okay. Seemed to go on longer than in the original, and you can't be damaged I think (only your boat?). Was surprised they kept him so in tact, I know many players felt he was a weakpoint of the original so expected him to be changed.

Royta/Raeng wrote:Yeah what you can do with the knife is pretty sick, like shooting them in knees and doing the assasin slash from behind is cool (takes huge dura though). One thing I will note is that I like that when you kill a guy, you can sometimes see the plaga inside. Great detail.

Just beat Del Lago which I felt was...okay. Seemed to go on longer than in the original, and you can't be damaged I think (only your boat?). Was surprised they kept him so in tact, I know many players felt he was a weakpoint of the original so expected him to be changed.

Yeah the plaga moving from within after death is very nice attention to detail.

Del Lago was nice. After him, you will experience the expanded lake, very nice addition as they made different areas to explore on the lake's outskirts. Different shrine's with treasures and enemies to fight etc. This is what I wanted from the remake. 

Take time to explore every nook and cranny because you will be rewarded.

>Most of the people that have completed on hardcore have said that normal is the definitive way to play on your first playthrough. Hardcore has tankier enemies so with a non upgraded handgun, it can become a chore like Raeng is experiencing. Saying that, I got stagger in 1-2 heashsots as opposed to 2-4 like Raeng. I've uploaded the clip on twitter. Hardcore mode with fully upgraded weapons on NG+ should be ideal.

Fully upgraded on hardcore still take more than one shot, or worse, a random 1-4?

>no need for parry
But if they're rushing in and tanking shots that SHOULD be instant stuns what can you do?

Birdman wrote:>Most of the people that have completed on hardcore have said that normal is the definitive way to play on your first playthrough. Hardcore has tankier enemies so with a non upgraded handgun, it can become a chore like Raeng is experiencing. Saying that, I got stagger in 1-2 heashsots as opposed to 2-4 like Raeng. I've uploaded the clip on twitter. Hardcore mode with fully upgraded weapons on NG+ should be ideal.

Fully upgraded on hardcore still take more than one shot, or worse, a random 1-4?

>no need for parry
But if they're rushing in and tanking shots that SHOULD be instant stuns what can you do?

>Fully upgraded on hardcore still take more than one shot, or worse, a random 1-4?


Should be 1-2 shots max. You should have the SG09R fully upgraded ready for HC mode Ng+ with the exclusive upgrade which provides 5x critical shots, this staggers like a mf and also gives nice decapitation head shots albeit you still have to make sure you have a focused shot (clean headshot with no body movement from Leon) 


I got about 4 out of 6 decaps with this handgun once, I'm playing on normal mode though. Strange that it doesn't de-limb? I'm pretty sure my red9 (which is on level 2 only and not level 4 like my SG) de-limbs. Like I shot someone's arm off, and another enemy's leg off. You have to aim for the elbow joint and kneecaps for de-limbing to register.




>But if they're rushing in and tanking shots that SHOULD be instant stuns what can you do?



You can duck grabs, stab to the face and there's also a hidden dodge. The game doesn't tell you this but it's  kinda weird to explain....if you're standing and aiming then quickly hit sprint and a directional input, Leon will evade with his head slightly before heading in that direction, dodging an attack.You can see it timed perfectly here, he dodges the plagas incoming swing with his tentacles:


At 30 seconds:


https://youtu.be/Id2EaldBaWw




Enemies do bum rush you but you cannot play like OG and stand there to pick off enemies 1 by 1 then switch to shotty for crowd control. You have to be constantly on the move creating space and using all your weapons to there full potential.

>Enemies do bum rush you but you cannot play like OG and stand there to pick off enemies 1 by 1 then switch to shotty for crowd control.
Never played like this in the OG.

>You have to be constantly on the move creating space
This is how I played in the OG.

>and using all your weapons to there full potential.
I like to use whatever I want, like in the OG.

Sounds like it might be worth a run through. Will wait for a price drop.

> This is how I played in the OG

i think there is a substantial difference here. moving around in RE4OG is the key to find blind spots and controlling space to keep advantage over the enemies, but you can't aim or shoot while in movement so this makes a big difference. RE4R isn't overwhelmingly frenetic as doom eternal or vanquish for instance but it's important to keep moving while carefully aiming and outspace your enemies. feels like RE4OG is more of a tactical game and RE4R more "mechanical", if you get me

NOW I'm interested.
https://twitter.com/ClandestineDee/status/1638941909740670977?t=SgUISzU33NIjNVGs0YhvcA&s=19

I played chapter 1(hardcore) and I can see why many arcade style fans complained about Leon`s movement. Devs balanced while adding new things well so far, but I don`t like where equilibrium point is setted. I prefer no stamina meters, so It is something cozy than Evil Within, but If I can`t move around enemies then It does not mean that much.


>2-4 headshots to stun

This is my speculation, but Enemies are more likely staggered by being shot different body parts. Headshot & Leg shot, or Different Leg shots worked fine with me. maybe it can be placebo effect, I`m not so sure.

Just got to the island, playing on Normal. I'm actually having a good time unlike everyone else here.

No, it's not the original. It will never be the original. Nothing will ever be as good as the original RE4. It never needed to be remade. But that doesn't mean a remake can't try some new things and maybe do them well.

I despise parry based games, I think Sekiro and Arkham-likes have done catastrophic damage to the genre, and until the next fad comes along, action games are kind of fucked. But from what I've played(on normal) parries are not necessary, not a main focus, and not constantly forced upon you. When games give you the option to parry and you have other avenues in combat, I can't really complain.

But having the option to parry, along with the finishing moves and defensive uses, is a really cool way to re-tool the knife. I adore the knife in the original for a lot of reasons- it's consistent, has a huge hitbox, can set up melees like the handgun, can hit projectiles, etc. They did something different here. I'll take it.

The shooting itself isn't as good because of the hit reactions being nerfed(the reactions themselves are there, but the consistency has been fucked-luckily on normal everything is 1-2 shots), but the juggle of shooting, melees, knife usage, and ammo management, along with the encounter design, keeps fights really fun to me. Even stuff like the differences between the shotguns-riot gun being longer range with smaller spread vs striker with its wide spray and short range- is cool for loadout and decision making.

I don't see anyone talking about the increase in traps and environmental elements. Bear traps are everywhere in the village and you can trap enemies in them for free melees into delimbs(including Salvador). There's more tripwires and other explosives too.

Hardcore might sour me on the game but I'm having fun right now.

Infinity_Divide wrote:Just got to the island, playing on Normal. I'm actually having a good time unlike everyone else here.

No, it's not the original. It will never be the original. Nothing will ever be as good as the original RE4. It never needed to be remade. But that doesn't mean a remake can't try some new things and maybe do them well.

I despise parry based games, I think Sekiro and Arkham-likes have done catastrophic damage to the genre, and until the next fad comes along, action games are kind of fucked. But from what I've played(on normal) parries are not necessary, not a main focus, and not constantly forced upon you. When games give you the option to parry and you have other avenues in combat, I can't really complain.

But having the option to parry, along with the finishing moves and defensive uses, is a really cool way to re-tool the knife. I adore the knife in the original for a lot of reasons- it's consistent, has a huge hitbox, can set up melees like the handgun, can hit projectiles, etc. They did something different here. I'll take it.

The shooting itself isn't as good because of the hit reactions being nerfed(the reactions themselves are there, but the consistency has been fucked-luckily on normal everything is 1-2 shots), but the juggle of shooting, melees, knife usage, and ammo management, along with the encounter design, keeps fights really fun to me. Even stuff like the differences between the shotguns-riot gun being longer range with smaller spread vs striker with its wide spray and short range- is cool for loadout and decision making.

I don't see anyone talking about the increase in traps and environmental elements. Bear traps are everywhere in the village and you can trap enemies in them for free melees into delimbs(including Salvador). There's more tripwires and other explosives too.

Hardcore might sour me on the game but I'm having fun right now.

>I don't see anyone talking about the increase in traps and environmental elements. Bear traps are everywhere in the village and you can trap enemies in them for free melees into delimbs(including Salvador). There's more tripwires and other explosives too.


Using bear traps on enemies in the village was fun. In OG they would just walk straight through them lol glad they added this new mechanic for r4make. 


There's also a trap via a chandelier in the wine cellar. If you wait for enemies to gather down below then hit a switch and the chandelier will drop and insta-kill them. That was a nice touch. 


>Just got to the island, playing on Normal. I'm actually having a good time unlike everyone else here.


At first I was skeptical, coming from the masterpiece which is RE4 OG and tbh I found the R4MAKE kinda clunky with movement and aiming but now I'm on chapter 9 and it's hitting hard!  The encounters are very tense . Planning before a fight is essential and decision making during the fight when things don't go according to your plan is key to survival. The game makes you think, which I really like.

Question: does the movement feel better the more you play? Because for me, at first the movement felt janky but now it feels smooth?


But yeah, overall, I'm really enjoying the combat the more I progress.

Just finished my first playthrough on Hardcore. I have to say, I really enjoyed the game overall. Is it as good as RE4? No, but nothing is. I think it's the best RE game modern Capcom has made though. Makes sense when you piggyback off of a masterpiece.

I managed to complete my first run without using any of the extra cases, charms, or body armor. It felt about as difficult as completing the Evil Within for the first time. That can be looked at as a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you ask. The game is very punishing and I died many times in each chapter. While I enjoyed the challenge for the most part, I can't say I really recommend playing on Hardcore to start with. It feels like it was meant for people who have run through the game once so it can be very frustrating if you don't like restarting over and over.

The strange thing is that I feel the difficulty curve is all over the place. When the game is hard, man it is tough! But then there were a lot of parts that I just breezed through without having to think much. Pretty inconsistent, but I don't think I was ever not having a good time while playing. I definitely prefer how consistent the combat is in the original when it comes to enemies. I think this game is mostly fine, but you really need to be open to learning to play different from the original before it starts to click. I never felt like I had to rely on parries to win by the way. Just felt like another tool in your arsenal. Though I think if you never use them, you will struggle.

Aside from the combat, most of the characters and voices are a downgrade for me. Don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but the villians in particular (mainly Salazar and Saddler) are really lame and don't have much of a presence. The back and forth snark contest between Salazar and Leon is pretty much nonexistent except for one or two lines. The other characters range from bad (Ada), to decent (Leon and Luis.) Ashley is the only one I thought was an improvement.

Also many of the scenes I was looking forward to experiencing from the original are no longer present which bummed me out. But hey, it's a different game right? Just gotta roll with the punches. Cannot forgive them for cutting "your right hand comes off" though. The fuck were they thinking with that one? Anyway I can't relate to the sentiment I've seen online from the general audience about everyone being improved.

Overall I would give it a 9/10 I think. Definitely doesn't reach perfect status, but I think I am happy it exists, and I think rather than being something that is trying to replace the original, it just feels like a big celebration. The dev team even gives a special shoutout to Mikami and all of the original dev team members in the credits (some of which are actually on the remake team) which I thought was really nice.

Anyway, I am off to run through Hardcore on NG+! Trying to get the A rank.

> having a good time unlike everyone else here.

I play on hardcore(1st playthrough) and I`m now chapter 3. I also enjoy it, and I agree that the game itself is good if you see it as an independent one. But, there is always "big but"...

I just can`t put it aside because this game is not so different from original at least till chapter 3. idk maybe there would be changes in enemies and map designs. I can change my opinion if that is a case.

But most of enemies and map designs are simliar, I couldn`t overlook the difference of player controls between original ver and remake ver. In original, Your input can intercept animations and that gave very arcade-y feeling. Let`s say, The movement and many elements(like aiming) of original feels "digital/discrete", but the ones of remake feels like "analog/continous". That feeling keep reminding me of original ver.

> parry system

Parry(reactive defensive option) itself is not bad imo, but only if active defensive options are there. If there were rolling function with some delay instead of sitting down, I would be happy with this game. It doesn`t have to be a level of baytonetta or Re6, but I would prefer it.

> the lake
For me I more enjoy the twists that weren't there, the new areas with the lake honestly felt...well, tacked on. That random cave with a shrine inside felt super gamey all of a sudden. In general the game's tone seems weird to me. It's super, super, super serious. Yet suddenly I'm ramming barrels with my boat for money haha. It's nice to see they also added new content though, also appreciate the remixes they've done at times.

> stagger
I think it is also tied to upgrades. I hadn't upgraded my weapons yet, since I wanted to save cash for later weapons, but turns out upgrades are basically 'free' in a sense. I tested it with sales, bought a 8000pts upgrade and upon resale it gave me 7700pts back, so that's barely any loss. After upgrading stagger seems far more prevalent.

> knife dura
One thing I do like about it, is that as a result it's the first game where stealth-kills aren't overpowered. TEW2 was gold, but stealth killing was too powerful. You had the same issue in Uncharted4, meaning you had to basically limit yourself in their usage or just remove the combat from the game.

> traps
I feel they're too weak tbh. Beartraps deal 0 damage and are more a 'gotcha' during combat, with rarely coming into play. The bombs feel focus-tested with their giant dingdongdingdong sound. I do like that they finally work on enemies though.

> movement
It's growing on me too. Once you sort of settle in your mind that it's not that arcade style movement but more 'weighty'(?) it's easy to control yeah.

> enjoyment
It's hard for me to sing it's praises since I do feel it falls short in what I want from a remake, but I fully agree it's the best modern RE entry in a long time, for sure.

> difficulty curve
For me it's really hard to say. I died a couple of times in the village fight, but after that I haven't died yet. I'm honestly quite surprised by how much healing items you get as well, took me by surprise.

> salazar
In general I feel the radio calls lack a lot of...personality. It kinda reminds me of modern Batman strangely enough. In the old strips he was very personable, but in current comics it is all like "Penny-1, report in. Status. Joker is MIA, batarang OSP". I mean yeah, it's more realistic, but the original's dialogue between Hunnigan and Leon had a lot more vibe going on imo. So far Ashley seems to be the only one that got an upgrade, she seems more like an actual person than Spongebob's Sandy being stuck in a child's body.

Also I did laugh when Leon was all professional in the first few sentences to Hunnigan going all 'ROOST, THIS IS CONDOR ONE' and immediately Hunnigan says "THIS IS HUNNIGAN!" and Leon immediately goes "THE PRESIDENTS DAUGHTER, baby eagle". Like why even use codenames hahaha

> it's not that different
Personally, a remake has only a few reasons to exist. Either the original is just too unavailable (lol, not the case here), or you want to update it and improve upon it, or change it into something wholly new. The latter was out of the question, especially once it was revealed the Director didn't know who Hookman was (sadface). So honestly, all that's left is "improve on the original" in my eyes, which is impossible obviously. So it generally feels, to me, like a cool wasted breath. Seeing some scenes in the modern graphical style is fantastic and at times it's cool to see enemies in different places or areas remixed going "ooh, that's neat how that now ties together". Some things like the first El Gigante fight are also a lot more cinematic now which was enjoyable.

Just...if you'd called it RE9, swapped the area a bit and given yourself some unique creative freedom, I think it would've been a fantastic stand alone game. Now I'm constantly just thinking "yes this is cool, but...". Might also just be a me-problem obviously.

> If you`d called it RE9

Honestly, I just want devs to make a whole new work, new enemies for the sake of this combat system. It`s surely modern and accessible, and I enjoyed it anyway. I have to finish other things first, but I will not ditch it.




And also god bless capcom devs, They set running both on LB and L-stick-click. I just hate to L-stick-ass-click-running, even on toggle.

Royta/Raeng wrote:> the lake
In general the game's tone seems weird to me. It's super, super, super serious. Yet suddenly I'm ramming barrels with my boat for money haha.

This is one of my issues as well. It feels like they couldn't fully commit to one direction so it feels kind of forced. They should have leaned into the cheese harder lol

Royta/Raeng wrote:>> stagger
After upgrading stagger seems far more prevalent.  

I think this is definitely the case. I am doing NG+ on Hardcore right now and the game actually feels like the OG at times since the stagger actually happens so fast. At least in the beginning. The further in you get the more tanky the enemies become, but it's always manageable enough. Enemies attacking me off screen or behind is the worst though.

Royta/Raeng wrote:>> knife dura
One thing I do like about it, is that as a result it's the first game where stealth-kills aren't overpowered. TEW2 was gold, but stealth killing was too powerful. You had the same issue in Uncharted4, meaning you had to basically limit yourself in their usage or just remove the combat from the game.

As someone who holds the OP stealth in TEW 2 as one of it's biggest flaws, I agree that it's a good thing in RE4R, but there are certain parts of the game where not having an unbreakable knife is just dumb. Krauser in particular. The thing is though, I almost ALWAYS had a knife on me. My combat knife is broken? Well I still have three kitchen knifes. Then the merchant is right around the corner. So it honestly seems kind of moot. Probably should have just gotten rid of the durability honestly.

Royta/Raeng wrote:> traps
I feel they're too weak tbh. Beartraps deal 0 damage and are more a 'gotcha' during combat, with rarely coming into play. The bombs feel focus-tested with their giant dingdongdingdong sound. I do like that they finally work on enemies though.

The traps in the village did remind me of TEW which made me happy, but yeah they're basically set dressing aside from using them to kill enemies.

Royta/Raeng wrote:> difficulty curve
For me it's really hard to say. I died a couple of times in the village fight, but after that I haven't died yet. I'm honestly quite surprised by how much healing items you get as well, took me by surprise.

One thing I will say is that whenever I get hit I immediately reload the save and do it over and over and over until I am happy with my performance so the playthrough ends up being much longer and harder than it needed it to be. At times it felt like I made my own AKUMU difficulty with how often I restarted a fight after taking any amount of damage lol

Royta/Raeng wrote: > salazar
In general I feel the radio calls lack a lot of...personality.

That goes for most of the interactions. Most of the fun was stripped out and watered down. I do like that you can shoot Salazar's speakerphone to get him to shut up like Leon does in the OG. Might only work on the first one though.

Royta/Raeng wrote:  Now I'm constantly just thinking "yes this is cool, but...". Might also just be a me-problem obviously.

No, I do the same exact thing. It's hard not to just compare things to the original and how it would have been better served as its own thing. But what else are fans supposed to do? It's called RE4.

I made this vidoe just for fun
poor luis

Just beat Verdugo, was surprised how much fucking health he had. Way more than I recall. Guy took basically all my ammo to the face to the point that I thought "does he have infinite HP"? hahah

Sounds awful.

Do you still freeze him?

Yes, but it didn't seem to be enough. Afterwards only headshots work so it takes a while. Activating the hydrogen also no longer grants i.frames so he can get a hit in sadly.

Royta/Raeng wrote:Just beat Verdugo, was surprised how much fucking health he had. Way more than I recall. Guy took basically all my ammo to the face to the point that I thought "does he have infinite HP"? hahah

You can kill him with 1 RPG shell if you freeze him in hallway lol 

I didn't have the RPG so what you need to do is make sure you don't shoot him when he's not frozen. He has like 4x HP when he's unfrozen. 


When I froze him I would use shotgun to the face and 1 magnum round lol 

Btw I found this boss fight way harder than OG because you have to time the nitrogen when he's running towards you then activate it. Much harder than shooting a barrel full of nitrogen from afar when he's next to it lol 

But wait till you fight Salazar, he's a different beast altogether, he moves like sonic and hits like a train. Make sure you have some mine thrower rounds, around 6 should be enough. Took me an hour to beat him on standard lmaoo

Just finished my second playthrough. Hardcore seemed way harder than standard at first but I got the hang of things pretty quickly. The inconsistency with hitstun is a huge blemish and my biggest gripe with the game but overall I’ve had a great time. The resource management is heavy and in combat I tend to do a lot of different things quickly and the decision making part of my brain goes pretty hard. Obviously I prefer the arcadey beat ‘em up style of combat from the og but I think I love this too.

There’s a lot of stuff cut though. The gondola ride, the truck chasing before the castle, several rooms leading up to the garden in the castle, the cage fight with the garrador, the lava room, U3, etc. I know shills will say “duuur, that stuff sucked anyway” but they legitimately cut some of the best encounters from the original. I don’t care if the rooms were wacky or had no cohesion, they were amazing.

>verdugo
I didn’t kill him on either of my playthroughs, just ran past him. Was wasting way too much ammo.

I also really enjoyed it by the time it ended. The more time I spent with the mechanics and enemies the better I got at managing the encounters, thinking ahead about how I might try and avoid danger etc. There is less consistency to the enemy behaviours than in the original, which is a shame, but improving your gear and game knowledge helps mitigate this. I'm going to do a Professional run and if I enjoy that, think about trying for the S+ rank.

I'm not really interested in trying to figure out if this game is better than the incredibly loved, greatest-of-all-time contender that was the original - both are excellent and different enough that I can enjoy them without worrying which one is worth playing. It might help my enjoyment of REmake4 that I only have one playthrough of the OG under my belt (and that was only a couple of years ago), but it's one of my favourite action games of recent years. RE4 didn't need remaking, but I'm surprised to say I'm glad they did.

I hope by the end of my Professional run I still feel the same. Bring on Mercenaries on the 7th!

Salazar was really, really fun. That was on of the worst fights imo in the original so I'm glad to see him get buffed. Did find him easy though, might have been my load-out. Had a Bolt Action Rifle with Exclusive, so after like half a clip to the head he already died. Killed him on my second try.

The Island is slightly shorter I feel and a bit better, lot less dumb arenas so far and the regenerators don't outstay their welcome for me (even though there seem to be more of them). Felt it was a fun twist that you expect to get the scope...only to get a gun haha.

Just beat Krauser, and so far the game is still the same for me. I'm especially surprised by the story, a lot of things are done weirdly. Krauser is now less mysterious and basically Vergil (Mooaaar poweerahhh). Not sure why they did that. Heard one of the voice-actors got blasted off of social media, not saying she deserved that but so far VA work has been pretty trash too. Krauser got done dirty the most imo.

Also surprised that you don't see Saddler or Salazar as much.

I like the game and I'll replay it more for obvious reasons, but it does so many minor little things 'worse' it's hard for me not to compare them.

> cut content
In some cases I don't mind it, as I feel some of the new areas are neat or how they combined things was fun. Like the clock-tower now combines the final climb of the original with the flamethrower with the statue - it's something. My biggest complaint regarding this though is that, despite cutting content, the game is still as long (if not longer) than the original. Which was already too long in my book. The new (and terrible) side objectives don't make matters much better.

My biggest disappointment is how the weapons are less personable. A lot of the big sweeping changes aren't there, like the Striker now only has ammo-cap of 48 instead of 100, the Blacktail is now 'more balanced' instead of just a rapidfire machineA lot of exclusives are now just "power x1.5" etc.

Gregorinho wrote:I also really enjoyed it by the time it ended. The more time I spent with the mechanics and enemies the better I got at managing the encounters, thinking ahead about how I might try and avoid danger etc. There is less consistency to the enemy behaviours than in the original, which is a shame, but improving your gear and game knowledge helps mitigate this. I'm going to do a Professional run and if I enjoy that, think about trying for the S+ rank.

I'm not really interested in trying to figure out if this game is better than the incredibly loved, greatest-of-all-time contender that was the original - both are excellent and different enough that I can enjoy them without worrying which one is worth playing. It might help my enjoyment of REmake4 that I only have one playthrough of the OG under my belt (and that was only a couple of years ago), but it's one of my favourite action games of recent years. RE4 didn't need remaking, but I'm surprised to say I'm glad they did.

I hope by the end of my Professional run I still feel the same. Bring on Mercenaries on the 7th!

Great write up and I fully agree. Both OG and R4make are excellent games. OG has that old school arcade shoot em up feel with flawless stagger and hit detection. R4make has unique systems and mechanics that encourage you to think and plan ahead before any encounter. Standard difficulty is also dangerously balanced, I would say it's perfect for a 1st playthrough.

Krauser and Salazar have been my highlights thus far. Salazar was a beast and had me on my toes. Krauser was a great mix up of all of the game's combat mechanics in 1 fight (knife poke/slash/running attack + kicks + parrying + gun+ dodge prompts) 

I'm nearing the end now, 2 more chapters and I'll gather my final thoughts but so far I'm having a blast.

Yeah I think my biggest mistake was starting on Hardcore honestly.

I really did like Salazar, Krauser was ok for me. His final form had a bit too much tracking, and I was surprised by how little health he had. Also does anyone know a way to parry/avoid his super jump attack outside of climbing the ladders?

>My biggest disappointment is how the weapons are less personable. A lot of the big sweeping changes aren't there, like the Striker now only has ammo-cap of 48 instead of 100, the Blacktail is now 'more balanced' instead of just a rapidfire machineA lot of exclusives are now just "power x1.5" etc.

What.

> Avoid Krauser's jump attack
Nope, just cheesed the hell out of him using the ladders. Was glad he had low health because he was getting rid of my healing items real quick. The speedrunners probably know the strategy, though.

> Exclusive upgrades
Yeah, these were pretty crap. Nothing exclusive about most of the weapons having a 1.5x damage super upgrade. Seemed a really pointless thing to change, too.

> Starting on Hardcore
It was challenging, for sure. I feel for the console players jumping in on Hardcore, it was a bit more manageable with M/KB.

> krauser
Apparently he doesn't take bonus damage from knife-slashes, but he does from stabs.

> final boss
Just finished the game, not sold on the new concept behind the final boss. Him being a mob fight with tons of helpers cheapens it a tad, and makes it a nightmare to do with controller with him wibbling back and forth constantly. Have no clue how I managed to beat him.

Also slightly frustrated that the jetsky section has the camera right behind you Bayonetta-motorcycle-style so you can't see a damn thing. Anyone else had that?

Overall enjoyable game, starting pro-mode soon.

> PRO
Playing on pro now. I think it was a mistake letting players do NG+ between difficulties. As a result you're either stuck with a mode that's way too hard for new-game players, or way too easy for NG+ers - or both.

That said, Professional is pretty bad imo. It enters the clear 'no fun zone' for me of high difficulty modes; when I play on the highest difficulty setting I'm looking to be challenged and have to push the mechanics to their limit. Here a lot of mechanics just...vanish. Stagger is basically completely gone for example, enemies will walk through everything - I have no idea what the logic is behind this choice. In hardcore you could upgrade your guns to have more stopping power which seemed to work, but we've reached the point where a headshot from a slightly upgraded BAR isn't killing and 5 rounds to the face still don't trigger the kick-animation (sometimes you will, finally, get a stagger though).

I've generally swapped away from using the handgun entirely, and just use it as a ranged pulling tool. Shotgun seems the only way to go (reminds me of RE2make strangely enough, where I had the same issue).

For those aiming for S+, I've heard there are some glitches near the end with regenerators not dying when they lose their plaga, so be careful.