Resident Evil 4 remake

McFly85

6 chapters in, loving it.

Movement feels restrictive compared to what I’m used to these days(Thank you souls for embedding the idea in me that I can just roll away from all of my problems!), but it feels much more tense as a result. The parry though is a very welcome addition that has saved me on more than one occasion.

Shooting feels fantastic and the and cheesiness has been preserved very well. Another brilliant remake.

Retr0gamer

Started this last night. Ran beautifully on my system. Was in the process of telling my friend that it was working really well and Digital Foundry probably only tested Nvidia hardware which had problems but straight afterwards the game crashed like in their video. Seems to be a VRAM utilisation bug or memory leak. I'll probably wait for a patch before I jump back in as don't fancy dealing with crashes every hour.

Zero-Cool

Getting a weird bug of flashing lights at the bottom of screen on PS5. Anyone else see this?

https://twitter.com/Sheehy_83/status/1641562385323360261?t=_A0e39A28I3j2AnI37KltA&s=19

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120421625#Comment_120421625

I've occasionally seem similar, a white flash on the ground while walking. Keep thinking "Oh, item on the ground... No.... Oh, item on the ground.... No.... Oh, item on.... wait...."

johnny_ultimate

Maybe turn off chromatic aberration in the settings, see if that helps? I know Digital Foundry said there was some funkiness around that in the PS5 version - I’ve turned it off and haven’t noticed anything awry (albeit only on chapter 4 as I haven’t had much chance to play this week).

Zero-Cool

Have that turned off since the start but this evening, I turned off motion blur (had missed that setting first time around), wonder if that triggered something. First noticed it in the quarry and then at the shooting range.

Showing off, how addictive is the shooting range! Had to drag myself away from the place. Just need to get all the skulls on each course.

Zero-Cool

Lights came back today but we're yellow and orange instead, really weird glitch.

Anyway, having an absolute blast tearing around the lake finding treasures. Treasure map coming in very handy.

nix

Is it just me, or is Leon and Ashley both constantly out of breath massivley annoying? I can understand maybe doing it after a bit of running, but as soon as you start moving, christ!

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120425789#Comment_120425789

Yeah. Short sprint of about 10ft over the some barrels and you'd swear they just ran the Raccoon City Marathon.

El Gato De Negocios

Played through the first chapter last night. Absolutely love it. I had played the original multiple times on the PS2 so this is a real treat. Best RE remake so far imo.

Zero-Cool

I love how they remembered that games are supposed to be fun. Merchant popping up all over the place, barrels that hold gold that you just have to plough through on a boat to auto pick up, somersaulting out a window because it looks cool, etc. Still has jump scares like when a villager pops out behind a door way and still terrifying to see a mob come at you followed by chainsaw man. Game just ticks all the right boxes and they were smart enough to leave in all the things that make it a fun game but modernise it with some fresh surprises.

Greyfox

Yeah the treasure map is essential, loads of treasure to find. I'm finding combat more intense than the original as enemies tend to attack from all over the place. I'm loving the fact that the game has me constantly switching weapons and thinking about the best way to kill enemies.

Grumpypants

Finished chapter 2. I'm just not getting near the PS5 since the 5 year old found jedi fallen order. He finished Lego star wars and is on a bit of a star wars buzz now so I'll let him at it. He did play a bit of RE4 with me (me paying,him looking out for bear traps 😂, he did crack the village master puzzle before me) but the second I went to hang out the clothes he was jumping back on jedi again.

Retr0gamer

https://twitter.com/shinji_mikami/status/1643491857694072832?t=Jouycl00dKhQg2guTlaKyw&s=19

Hope he enjoys it!

Penn

I'm guessing I'm nearing the end, and have to admit I'm glad. Last few chapters haven't been great and my interest is waning a bit and I find little things just annoying me, like enemies having body armour or helmets, or the regenerator suddenly growing another parasite thing. They're not even adding to the tension or difficulty, but rather just getting a "Oh f*ck off...." reaction from me.

one armed dwarf

On save 6 of chapter 9 of a pro S+ run, with no bonus weapons. 2hrs 16 minutes on the clock, phew. It's a difficult but fun series of combat puzzles to figure out how to optimise. It's not a revolution like og RE4 was but it's one of their better efforts with the RE engine I think. RE2 remake and this are in their top tier of games, I think. Did not rate the Ethan Winter games at all.

Strongly recommend pouring money into the Punisher on pro mode, you can upgrade guns more quickly on pro as they don't lock out later tiers to later in the game. With piercing, high firepower and high rate of fire it's a great 'pop them and kick them to run past' sort of weapon when used against groups of enemies, feels very ninja

Zero-Cool

Woops, posted this in the megathread by mistake.

Got to the bit on the cake with the 'nighty night, knights' :D

Anyway, Mercenaries free dlc is out now. 2.2gb update for main game and Mercenaries is a few mb's but a separate download of you're looking for it.

Zero-Cool

Well ****. I was hobbling along the castle constantly on a sliver of health. Looked everywhere for green herb and nada, found 4 red herbs though ffs. Lacking in ammo as well, i kept getting one shotted. It was becoming head wrecking so i chose the assisted mode because the fun was actually being zapped from the game. Assisted mode is way too easy and also zapping the fun out of the game as i fear nothing so i went to change back to standard and turns out I can't. Looks like I'm stuck on boring easy mode until the end of the game.

Do not take assisted mode option if it offers it!

nix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120452660#Comment_120452660

I think thats why i actually really enjoyed RE4 this time around, it felt more like a survival horror this time with the rationing of ammo than an arcade shooter, i killed most enemies by popping them in the head and then running in for the knife/kick. I would have preferred if it was just knifing though as the kick is redic..

But yeah ammo was an issue, i only ever spent my gunpowder on making shotgun ammo really, i did make rifle ammo then a good chunk towards the end of the game. But i only used the shotty/rifle on the rough enemies. Outside of that i was just rotating between the red9 and the crossbow, id swap to the crossbow when the pistol ammo ran low and then id swap back when i had over 50 bullets again. The crossbow is grand but it is janky when readying the aim..

I didnt really use any other guns, i used the mp5 a lil when i first picked it up and then the magnum i only brought out for the last boss as that has pretty much no ammo going for it 😣

Zero-Cool

I never went the crossbow, i should have. I just stuck with the pistol, shotgun and rifle, swapping put each when i was able to buy a better version. The ammo i didn't mind as o always just had about enough for each encounter but the health was annoying. I wish there was a way to craft a first aid kit. Also, my strategy had also been leg shot, leg shot, kick. Now it's mindless shot shot dead with tons of ammo and never having to worry about health.I feel like it should be patched in where you can change difficulty mid game.

Also, the difficulty description at the start is fucked. It recommends hard mode if you played the original but standard was tricky enough, hard would have wrecked my head on first playthrough i imagine.

Grumpypants

Got a good run at it yesterday and have made decent progress well into chapter 6.

Really enjoying it now but it is so different from any of the others it doesn't feel like an RE game at all.

Jordan 199

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120445795#Comment_120445795

I feel the same. I finished the game on Thursday and felt it dragged on a bit too long.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120455072#Comment_120455072

Yeah, I just finished. Definitely could have been 2-3 chapters shorter imo, with maybe expanding a few areas in earlier chapters. Some of the castle areas were the best in the game. Would have liked a bit more there, with maybe a few more puzzles.

Finished at about 17 hours with a B. It's definitely a great game. They got a great balance between action and horror in most chapters. The action is cheesy while still being engaging. My main complaint would be that a lot of enemies move faster than Leon can turn/aim, particularly enemies who have small weak points. The speed of some of the insect-type enemies, or trying to hit the weak points on the regenerator, just became a pain. It's always manageable, just annoying.

recyclops

It's a great game but because it's so similar to the original it's not as brilliant as RE2 remake.

Underground

Just finished it. Overall had a very good time with it and it’s probably my favourite big release since the RE2 remake. Slightly concerning that my favourite games these days are just remakes treading old ground rather than new ideas but we’ve been in this remake phase for a while now.

I’m a bit disappointed that in the end the game does take itself quite a bit more seriously than the original, tone is a good deal less goofy. Yes Leon still has some cheesy one liners but the tone is clearly way darker than the original. They were always going to change certain lines of dialogue which is grand but some of the villains, in particular Salazar and Saddler have imo been completely botched this time around.

Spoiler Warning

Half the charm in the original comes from Leon’s comms getting hacked and the two lads taking it over, banter ensues. This doesn’t happen this time around. I know the reason that Saddler doesn’t take over Leon’s codec now is that he essentially has a telepathic pathway to Leon now but it’s all taken so seriously, ah well.

Speaking of Salazar and Saddler, both of their boss fights have taken a downgrade here. I mean they weren’t great to begin with but are worse now imo.

All that said I did have a really good time with it overall, it’s RE4, you can’t go too far wrong.

johnny_ultimate

I'm into Chapter 9 now I think, and I'm definitely somewhat underwhelmed by the whole experience. Now, when I say that, it's by any objective criteria a very well-made game. The flow of combat is sharper than ever, the graphical makeover is robust and successful, and many things have been carefully updated to appeal more to modern gaming sensibilities. The basic essence of what made RE4 special first time around is mostly present and correct.

Mostly. In sanding down some of the rougher edges - and some of those absolutely needed to be sanded down - it loses some of the weirdo charm that helped make the original game so special. As @Underground notes above, the first game is proudly goofy, and that's part of what makes its peculiar alchemy so special. This doesn't really have that at all, at least in a first playthrough minus the unlockable costumes or whatnot. You can still suplex elderly villagers, but it doesn't seem like that level of absurdity is well-woven into the broader identity of the game.

Similarly, while there are probably countless changes here, I can't help but feel the game lacks a 'take' in the way RE2 remake in particular had. Part of that comes with the territory: the game didn't need as much updating as earlier games did. I haven't played RE4 the whole way through since release, so understandably a lot of the specifics elude me, but there are parts of the game here where the deja vu has kicked in big time and it just feels like playing that same GameCube game again. Obviously, that's the whole 'it's how you remember the game, not how it actually was' thing kicking in, and obviously there are plenty of new additions. But whereas RE2 took the core of the original and put its own design spin on things while remaining true to its spirit, this just doesn't have that extra spark.

Part of this, of course, is that Resi 4 is for me one of the great, boldest video game sequels - as much as a departure as it was from the originals, it did so with purpose and imagination. In contrast, Resi 4 remake is a very conservative reimagining - just tidy up the mechanics / graphics and add some modest extras and quality-of-life changes. It's the whole philosophy of remakes the games industry as a whole seems to be grappling with and/or commercially exploiting at the moment. Obviously, it's great games like this are being re-released for a new audience, but it also opens a debate around the whole artistry and preservation of major, significant games. And perhaps it's also because I recently played Hi-Fi Rush, another evolutionary and forward-thinking action game that feels like it takes a genre forward (and, coincidentally, also has a Shinji Mikami credit). RE4 is a brilliant game and big chunks of that are still present here (as said, with some 'objective' refinements), but I'm torn between thinking it probably didn't need a remake at all and wondering whether - if a remake was a commercial inevitability - such a creatively audacious original deserved something bolder and more inventive than what we have here.

Retr0gamer

Shinji mikami gets a lot of credit for resident evil 4 but it's secretly a Clover studios game. He was more an advisory roll. Nearly the entire resi 4 team went to clover afterwards and then formed platinum. I always feel resi 4 has an awful lot of modern platinum in it, the same goofiness you find in revengeance and Bayonetta.

Zero-Cool

I must be near the end of chapter 10 but assisted mode is after ruining it for me. I was tempted to reload to my standard mode save a few hours ago but at this stage, think I'll just push on until the end.

I tried Mercenaries, thought i did well on my first go scoring 90k and then saw the leaderboards with people scoring 700k :D

one armed dwarf

Woop, S+ without bonus weapons get

I generally agree that it's a very conservative refurbishment of the original. Still, the mechanical extensions they made come alive on a speedrun. Figuring out routing through a level, upgrading rate of fire to more quickly stun enemies, knowing when to go for stealth kills and grounded fatalities (both of which kill the plagas inside the brain, before they erupt). There's a lot more options to juggle, and it's imo a very interesting iteration on the 'stand your ground' gameplay of the original. They could have thrown in a dodge button, but they didn't cause it's sort of antithetical to the way you manage enemies in this. It's pop pop pop, karate chop and feck off. You hit them and move on, and it's an exciting flow

But still, Capcom are in this iterative posture right now with their IPs and they sort of blend together a bit. I suppose they will keep releasing these remakes until it stops making economic sense. Which means 5 is probably next.

Zero-Cool

I legged it through the last few chapters, done and dusted, was a great romp but this whole 'best resi ever' is going a bit far. Great remake but i prefer 1 and 2 remakes still.