Well, I bought it. How could I not?
The main issue I have appears to be the same most of you are having as well, namely the unresponsive nature and inconsistency of so many of the game's core systems and mechanics. I never feel fully in control of Leon's basic movement on account of the myriad of little animations that take priority over player input. I never feel fully in control of where I'm shooting on account of the detestable RNG reticle bloom (the optional laser sight negates that issue of course, but is incompatible with some of the coolest weapons in the game like the Red9, the TMP, or the Broken Butterfly, making it more of a nice afterthought with a big asterisk next to it than a central mechanic). I never feel like I have much of an influence on enemy AI given their erratic movement patterns and inconsistent staggers / hitstun properties. All of this stuff adds up to a frustrating mess that feels much more like TLoU than RE4. Both combat systems in RE4 and RE4R make you feel similarly stressed and overwhelmed at first, but the one in the original can be mastered with enough time and practice because of how solid and precise it is, not unlike any other action game classic. The one in the remake is just something you learn how to endure a little better over time. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest to hear that the combat becomes even more bullet-spongy and cheap on Pro difficulty. The GoW reboot has the exact same problem.
I would like to point out that almost all of these problems have plagued the modern RE games ever since RE7, which is why I mentioned that one in my original reaction post after playing the demo. The newer games have added abunch of new stuff of course, but RE7 grandfathered almost all of these underlying RNG issues, especially erratic enemy AI and lack of hitstun consistency. But everybody and their mum felt compelled to hype up RE7 to high heaven and Capcom learned the wrong lessons from it and now here we are.
The knife parry is a pretty unnecessary addition, but it is nowhere as intrusive or forced as some of us might have feared. The main issue I have with it is that it only works from a particular forward-facing angle and that due to the imprecise nature of the basic movement and positioning system, Leon isn't always facing the direction of the enemy attacks. It's a relatively harmless mechanic, though.
The Ashley partner AI is almost entirely out of the player's control. It's a complete and utter mechanical downgrade for the sake of heightened immersion and realism. With that said, she seems relatively good at keeping herself out of trouble. The partner AI in RE5 is a thousand times more frustrating.
But I do agree with something
@Gregorinho said, namely that "when it's all in motion and you aren't being annoyed by something, it is quite fun". If you take the game for what it is and don't compare it too much to the original, it is indeed fun. One thing I haven't heard anybody mention and that I would like to add is that the combat is clearly at its best in MID-RANGE encounters. When the enemies are close enough so that you can reliably damage them while keeping them out of melee range, everything works more or less fine. Long-range combat is a mess due to the aforementioned reticle RNG and the fact that characters in the RE engine seem to suffer noticeable frame drops when positioned at a certain distance from the player character (which has also been an issue in all modern RE games since RE7). Close range combat is even worse due to how arbitrarily difficult it can be to hit enemies who are right next to you, and the apparently complete lack of the basic stunlock prevention system of the original very often leads to the most frustrating situations imaginable when surrounded.
The crafting system is cool, I like how it allows the player to focus on specialized ammo that they might not encounter normally. But as with the rest of the game, there's too much RNG involved. The only other issue I have is that it makes the game feel a bit too similar to RE2R and RE3R, as opposed to its own thing like RE4 is in comparison to the classic games. But I don't know if that's a fair criticism.
Some of the QoL changes are good, like not having to click an extra window whenever you pick up an item. Some are bad, like the multitude of controls and camera options in the menu instead of a carefully thought out and balanced default setting. This is not a properly optimized single-platform game and it unfortunately shows. I'm also playing in performance mode on PS4 Pro and I'm having to deal with a lot of extremely delayed texture pop-ins.
Music is a total downgrade (again, like most other modern AAA games including RE2R and RE3R) and so is the audio design. I am regularly being grabbed and attacked from behind by enemies I didn't hear coming, even with headphones. Huge flaw in my book. Some of the ambient sounds are pretty good, however.
The pacing, level and encounter design on the other hand are really good, almost as good as the original's. The new sidequests are a mixed bag (locking additional treasure behind optional subbosses is a neat idea, but hunting rats is a bit TES-y for my taste). I like the new layout of some of the areas, especially in the castle and the island and I don't feel too upset about the removal or complete redesign of certain sections. The game flows really well and isn't bogged down by nearly as much fluff as most other AAA games these days. Only one forced walking sequence is basically cause for celebration, after all.
The bosses are also really good, with the notable exception of Del Lago which is complete shite. The RE engine doesn't seem to understand what water is. I'm also not a huge fan of the new Salazar fight considering I really like the original (looks like I might be in the minority on this?). But the others are really good. I was very apprehensive about how they would handle the Krauser fight in the Sand Fortress since it's my favorite part of the original, but I honestly can't complain too much. I even like the first knife encounter a lot despite the lack of the iconic choreographed cutscene. The new Saddler fight is fine.
I love the new creative theme of the shooting range! Super fun. Unfortunately, I also DESPISE gacha mechanics. So... yeah.
The new narrative tone is a bit too serious for its own good. I don't mind serious stories at all (I watched
The Fountain last week, fight me), but there's a time and a place for everything and a campy feel-good story about a heroic rescue mission punctuated by big explosions and slimy tentacles sprouting out of people's heads does not exactly require this type of sombre and self-important approach. But this has been an issue for me ever since Mikami's departure from Capcom and RE5 pretended to be a stone-faced geopolitical thriller. I really like the new Ashley though, and her characterization and relationship with Leon is pretty much the only aspect of the game I would consider a net improvement over the original. I'm also a fan of the new Luis who is a much more fleshed out character in this game. Leon's new VA is not bad, but I think the script is doing him a disservice by wanting him to deliver so many cheesy lines of the original in-between super serious Naughty Dog-esque moments. Mendez and Krauser are fine. Salazar and Saddler are not. And the Merchant is abysmal, forced camp is the absolute worst.
EDIT: To say nothing about Ada's total lack of personality. So much that I had completely forgotten about her when writing this post.
The ranking system is almost entirely based on playtime (again, like all other modern RE games), which is a bit disappointing. On my initial playthrough I took care of every request, collected every treasure, and didn't use a single FAS, and yet none of that influenced the final ranking. I think that not rewarding any other playstyle apart from speedrunning is a missed opportunity. And if speedrunning really is the main thing the devs want to promote, why are there no in-game speedrun leaderboards?
Mercs is also a mess. The thing I love about RE4 Mercs is how intuitive and straightforward it is. No gimmicks, no cheap or counter-intuitive strats, just plan your routing ahead and kill the enemies as efficiently as possible. Period. RE4R Mercs falls into the same trap as RE5 and RE6 Mercs by adding a bunch of superfluous mechanics which inevitably end up creating a very sterile and narrow meta. And that's on top of the aforementioned problems with the basic combat that are simply not conductive to a precision-based arcade score attack game to begin with. It's fun, but that's about it. I don't feel any motivation to play this one for hundreds of hours.
But overall, I can't in good conscience claim that this is some Vampire Rain-tier debacle. There is way too much hyperbole floating around in gaming discourse and this is NOT a bad game. But it's also not RE4 and it doesn't really understand or recapture the incredible mechanical precision and design integrity that makes RE4 so great. It's little more than "RE2R
Las Plagas Edition" which is trying to recreate some of RE4's signature moments and game feel using its own randomization-heavy and animation-based formula. It's enjoyable, it's okay, it's even interesting in some aspects and I'll probably play through it a few more times in the foreseeable future, but it is not an evergreen arcade action classic in any way, shape, or form.
Honestly, my biggest criticism is not with the game itself but with the general state of the gaming industry and the deliberate move away from arcade design sensibilities in favor of Naughty Dog-style immersion and pseudo-realism in the AAA space. I also take issue with the widespread appreciation of RE as a series being almost entirely divorced from its mechanical identity. The mechanical identities of other series like Halo, Streets of Rage and Street Fighter are being respected and preserved even in their latest entries, meanwhile a game with such an impeccable core gameplay loop as RE4 has been completely tossed out and redesigned from the ground up into something categorically different. I think it's a shame. RE4 was designed without any preconceptions of what it should be. RE4R was designed to play catch-up with the rest of the industry. It's perfectly playable, but it's not GREAT.
PS @Roy:
This is the first time I'm hearing about Dr. Salvador's
eye being his hidden weakpoint in the original game. My understanding is that his entire head hitbox loses its superarmor properties during all of his chainsaw attack animation frames (startup, active, and recovery) so that he can be thrown into a melee stagger state from any damage anywhere on the head during that period. That's the only special weakness I'm aware of. Am I missing something here?
I also have to push back against incendiaries being the ONLY plaga prevention method (again, in the original). Death from hand grenades and explosive barrels also cancels plagas, afaik. Plus of course Hunk's Neckbreaker and Krauser's special arm attack. I also think that both of Wesker's melee moves are plaga-canceling insta-kills, but I could be wrong.
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