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GAME: Resident Evil 4 (2023)




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Kicksville



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 1168
PostPosted: Fri Mar 31, 2023 1:06 pm Reply with quote
I'm still taking my time playing on Hardcore. It's a clever combination of 4's mechanics and all the games that came after. The original has some very abuseable elements once you get to grips with it (melee, i-frames, etc), so I was a little concerned they might overcorrect and depower the player too much, but they did a good job of rearranging things. There's tension, but you're not weak.

Even though they took steps to make it more horror oriented this time, this does push RE in a more actiony direction again, so I'm curious what they'll do from here. I imagine they'll try not to press it too much farther.
Quote:
The bloated and often incoherent Resident Evil 6 was perceived to be such a disaster that it nearly killed the series entirely.

People are so dramatic about 6. It was criticized and still sold 8.5 million copies. Ridiculous to act like it put the entire franchise on death's door.
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wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Posts: 896
PostPosted: Fri Mar 31, 2023 1:30 pm Reply with quote
I enjoyed RE:4 more than I didn't, though I think 19 hours for an initial run on Standard is way too long for a horror game. My first run of Village clocked in at around half that, and I was much keener to replay immediately after thanks to all the fun and thoroughly game-breaking unlockables it dangled just out of reach after my first clear. (Yes, I was an easy mark for absolutely everything about the M1851 Wolfsbane, and gladly subjected myself to hell again to give it unlimited ammo.) RE:4's only "reward" is the bare-minimum New Game +, most of the bonus shop is still in ???? mode, and there's nothing even worth buying until getting at least an A rank on Professional, at which point even the weapon unlocks seem cosmetic.

There were definitely parts that felt like padding, and some segments felt like they were being annoying just for the sake of it. A good portion of the third act just sucks, like the game can't decide if it wants to lean into the quiet dread perfected by past RE:makes, or up the ante on the run-and-gun action that became the focus of 5 and 6, and just settles for giving the player whiplash instead with how often it flips between the two. Maybe I'll appreciate it more on a second go-round, but right now I still feel like I never want to do that again.

But on to the good: it's definitely scarier. Los Ganados now chant ominously as they shamble around, and the overall cult atmosphere has been dialed up to extremes. All it takes is me hearing "Gloria Las Plagas! Gloria Las Plagas!" to start swinging my camera around looking for red robes, knowing I'm probably dead if I don't stop the ritual in time. It's not real survival horror unless you come away from the experience with at least one new panic button.

Quote:
I also dealt with some odd visual issues playing on my PlayStation 5, specifically regarding the game's HDR mode, which looked washed out and simply off no matter how much I fiddled with the settings (this could easily be an issue with my display, though, rather than the game).

The PS5's HDR mode worked fine on my old(ish) TV, with a lot less tuning than I usually need. I tweaked just enough to notice that HDR mode was actually working. This could be an issue with TV settings rather than game settings. (I also highly recommend calibrating the PS5's virtual surround, for anyone playing with TV speakers or a stereo sound bar.)
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smurky turkey



Joined: 30 Jan 2022
Posts: 1728
PostPosted: Fri Mar 31, 2023 2:06 pm Reply with quote
An amazing game and great remake with many interesting changes, but I do have to agree with the poster above me. The town section is amazing as an introduction, the castle has some moments that I will never forget and then comes the third section...

The third section makes the game too long for me and it ramps the dumb action up to 20 with hordes of never ending enemies. That helicopter bit in particular makes me sigh and forget some of the fun I had before it. In the later bits of the third section I just want it to be over. which is funny in that during the first two sections I never want it to end.

On a bright note, Ashley is a much better character now and she seems easier to keep safe.
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DKL



Joined: 08 May 2005
Posts: 1932
Location: California, USA
PostPosted: Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:24 pm Reply with quote
Big fan of the original, but I really enjoyed the remake.

That said, it'll be interesting to see the meta around the gameplay develop, but I would have to concede that the remake gameplay is inferior depending on how much you value consistency in mechanics.

It's seems like a strange place to look, but you can really tell the type of design they went for if you try to shoot all the bonus skulls in all the target games (which I did, but will never do again): they stack RNG (weapon sway) on top of RNG (bullet spread... even the damn crossbow feels like it has spread and a random arc for some reason) and it really feels miserable after that 7th attempt of missing the bonus skull all the way in the back with your pistol. At some point, I began to think it was easier to hit things in the original game on pad than it was to hit things in this new game with a mouse, which was absolutely crazy to me. There's this mechanic where if you hold down the aim long enough without shooting, the gun will get kind of more accurate, but I don't know if this necessarily makes things more interesting.

Knife durability was never an issue unless you liked crafting bolts for the very weak bowgun, which I stopped using once I bothered to actually look at the damage output relative to other weapons (mines kinda good though). They give you a million knife drops and at some point it was getting in the way of being able to carry stuff that I was actually using more, like ammo or crafting materials.

I'm not thoroughly convinced yet that the sluggish movement is too bad since it seems like people haven't mastered perfect parry or ducking under enemy command throws, but I can understand why purists would be annoyed with the "modern polish" they put on things since there's various things that will cause Leon to go into a bunch of animations that makes things less precise and feel kind of bad from a gameplay perspective (though I guess not from an "immersion" perspective since the animations and details are pretty cool).

Ashley is absolutely worse as a game mechanic compared to the original since you can't park her anywhere safe as your only options for her are flail near you and flail at a distance from you. She will also actively get in the way: there was a part where I was aiming at some enemies on top of a staircase, Ashley was already behind me while I was aiming down the barrel, then she randomly ran in front to eat a bullet halfway through my shooting. I never had this issue in the original because she's designed to snap to your back if she's within a certain range behind you: it looks jank, but it feels nice.

That said, most of the stuff I noted above is not really things most players would even notice, so maybe it doesn't matter in the end unless you're a speed runner or challenge runner. I'm mostly spending my day off today to study youtube videos in preparation for an S+ Professional run without any DLC or bonus weapons or whatever. That run is meant to be 5.5 hours, which I find interesting since my casual hardcore playthrough where I was taking my time with all the encounters and treasure hunting was like 30 and NG+ Professional A rank was 6 (though Capcom annoyingly made it so that time keeps running unless you load a save from the menu, which I only found out about later, so I was probably quite a bit under the time needed for the S rank since I was holding forward during a lot of sections).

Gameplay aside, I mostly feel like the remake has superior set pieces, atmosphere and writing. Everything just feels a lot more cohesive and I can absolutely see this as a game a new generation falls in love with.

The sales are well-earned.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5874
PostPosted: Sat Apr 01, 2023 1:59 am Reply with quote
wolf10 wrote:


But on to the good: it's definitely scarier. Los Ganados now chant ominously as they shamble around,


The cloaked ganados in the castle section did this in the original.

Kicksville wrote:
People are so dramatic about 6. It was criticized and still sold 8.5 million copies. Ridiculous to act like it put the entire franchise on death's door.


It is kinda funny because the game when it was originally released was supposed to sell a certain number of copies it only hit that number in the years following the original release. But because of that it was considered by Capcom at the time to not be the level of hit they wanted it be.
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James_Beckett
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 23 Nov 2015
Posts: 274
Location: USA
PostPosted: Sat Apr 01, 2023 1:15 pm Reply with quote
Kicksville wrote:

Quote:
The bloated and often incoherent Resident Evil 6 was perceived to be such a disaster that it nearly killed the series entirely.

People are so dramatic about 6. It was criticized and still sold 8.5 million copies. Ridiculous to act like it put the entire franchise on death's door.


I actually like RE6 more than most, I think. Especially the Leon sections. It is definitely too much Resident Evil, though.
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tintor2



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 1795
PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2023 10:45 am Reply with quote
According to the datamine, Ada's path will be DLC.

Also, yeah RE6 might have been fun but it was ridiculously campy. Leon kills the zombie of the President of the United States in the first cutscene. It gets even more ridiculous with the boss who (to make it even more tiring) is probably a bigger simp for Ada than Leon. Chris' side kinda made his character sad while the fights felt even more action packed.
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