loss of landmarks. In the middle of nowhere, in a Spain of forests and mountains, Leon Kennedy races toward his destination in the back seat of a Cuerpo Nacional de Policía car. Raccoon City is far, far away. And Leon has a new mission: to save the day for the president’s daughter, who is probably being held hostage in a village where the two officers installed at the front will guide him. The latter seem to take their task a little too lightly. They will quickly pay dearly for this.
Leon will have a lot to do to get out of this new adventure alive. It’s not just Raccoon City in life…
The parking lot is parking, it has arrived at its destination. Leon sinks into the forest to reach the city. He doesn’t know what awaits him, but the night seems peaceful. Striking contrast to the title’s opening scene, in which a few moments later he is fighting obsessively against the entire village community, who have decided to kill him. The police are burned, tortured, sacrificed. There’s something fishy here, and it’s not the T-Virus.
This content is blocked because you have not accepted cookies and other tracers.
By clicking on “I accept” cookies and other tracers are stored and you can view the content (further information).
By clicking “I accept all cookies”, you authorize the setting of cookies and other tracers to store your data on our websites and applications for the purpose of personalization and advertising targeting.
I accept I accept all cookies
Parasites are popular
Unlike the first three Resident Evil, the fourth installment gives pride of place to a new monstrosity called Plaga. A parasite that takes control of its host and whose function is reminiscent of those of the cordyceps highlighted in the post-apo cult Last of Us.Inevitable question: why do video games make parasites probable vectors of the apocalypse? Because such forms of control already exist in nature. In addition to Cordyceps, which is a reality, even if it is harmless to humans (its body temperature is too high), in fact, several species of worms, protozoa, fungi or even wasps are known to enslave life forms and use them as food and Reproduction.
The Leucochoridium paradoxum worm, to name just one, has one particularly impressive function: it infests snails, nesting in their eyes and forcing them to move around during the day in order to be eaten by birds. Thanks to the birds’ stomach and intestines, the parasite multiplies and colonizes new snails that feed on … bird droppings.
This content is blocked because you have not accepted cookies and other tracers.
By clicking on “I accept” cookies and other tracers are stored and you can view the content (further information).
By clicking “I accept all cookies”, you authorize the setting of cookies and other tracers to store your data on our websites and applications for the purpose of personalization and advertising targeting.
I accept I accept all cookies
A big change for a cult saga
cut and flashback. When it released in 2005, Resident Evil 4 was entitled to all the honors. A revolutionary game if ever there was one, the latest installment in Shinji Mikami’s franchise is Revolutions. Revolution in story as Virus-T and Umbrella rarely act except in the background. Revolutionizing in gameplay as well, as the cult survival horror franchise is now proud to look the action game side by releasing a new camera on the side, allowing you to follow the adventure from the hero’s shoulder. Above all, fear is much less on the agenda. But the urgency of survival combined with the most stuffy atmosphere possible is the big winner of this divisive turn.
The game knows how to surprise, in particular by varying its environments.
Split? It is that Resident Evil 4, despite being well received by critics and many new players, is also the game of the break with the usual expectations of the franchise. Rather posed, the concept of the saga until then was based on the idea of a clever mix of somewhat rigid action scenes in which every ammunition had to be saved and more or less complex puzzles to be solved in order to progress. Resident Evil 4 is based on his desire for change. The few puzzles scattered throughout the adventure, which are of remarkable simplicity, are there primarily to pass the baton to a decidedly more muscular concept. One regretted then that smell of gunpowder and novelty.
GAME PLAY RE4 Gamecube
This content is blocked because you have not accepted cookies and other tracers.
By clicking on “I accept” cookies and other tracers are stored and you can view the content (further information).
By clicking “I accept all cookies”, you authorize the setting of cookies and other tracers to store your data on our websites and applications for the purpose of personalization and advertising targeting.
I accept I accept all cookies
What remains of this story eighteen years later? Quite logical given its quality, despite the betrayal of the original concept of the franchise, Resident Evil 4 quickly established itself as one of the most successful games of the media on which it was released. Inspirational modern survival horror; Give there ideas for great franchise action games that will become classics – Gears of War, if it is necessary to quote just one of them, could only be inspired by this gameplay model. And the whole paradox is there: if it benefits from a remake in 2023, Resident Evil 4 might also be the part of the franchise that needed it the least, as its DNA is still present in most current productions. This playful grammar has not succumbed to the ravages of time.
The design of the villagers is terrifying.
Goodbye grey
This is thought to be a particularly delicate exercise in bringing the jewel back into focus. The whole equation had to find the right formula to update without betraying, update without distorting. As such, the new version of Resident Evil 4 is undoubtedly closer to the original experience than the developers’ proposals on the three previous parts. But there’s also an improved version, revised and corrected, re-orchestrated and sensibly retuned. Everything is clearer, more obvious, largely freed from the excesses that were common in the media at the time.
This legibility is, of course, largely due to the technical score. The big innovation is this largely updated graphics engine, which has been adapted from the three previous parts. Here the effect is more spectacular than ever. The sad gray tone of the original game is set aside in favor of sets where relief comes from careful management of shadows and lights. The variety of environments traversed is transfigured. Here a village in decline, there a castle with striking baroque and mystical accents, further still the high-tech tones of a carefully hidden base… All these areas are a visual delight.
The work on the lamp is visually striking.
The other important addition is undoubtedly due to the fluidity of the experience, which has been largely redesigned to allow plot and narrative to coexist better. In order to progress, Leon has to compose. On the one hand, in order to survive, he must use the weapons at his disposal. Shooting, cutting, planting, sneaking around or stealthy killing is the full range of genres available. Small novelty that changes everything, the hero can even fight while remaining mobile, which is nice novelty. And then the story, it is stuck in the dead times, in the spaces that are left to breathe. It unfolds after small discoveries, a thousand and one details that enrich the background. Leon has a lot to do to make his way through a still diverse and impressive bestiary, but he also needs to explore to understand what’s at stake.
The peculiarity of this opus is that Elon has to take care of a non-playable character, Ashley.
This is the strength of this new proposal. The sequences follow one another without ever getting tired, while the crossed characters finally deserve a little density. Above all, there is finally no fear. A question of staging, of more precisely defined themes, but it also arises because the playful gimmick of the opus is finally relevant: we’re really worried about Ashley. Better programmed, the one who becomes Leon’s non-playable partner (save for one chapter) is always the central element of the challenge, this mission that absolutely must be kept in mind by making sure that the young woman does not get hurt or injured in the process is kidnapped We fight for her survival. But the developers had good taste in making his interventions more relevant, his behavior more human and thus more touching. Along with a more cohesive on-screen behavior, this new version of Ashley’s contribution to the epic is quickly apparent.
Breathless
The consequence is that the player connects the chapters without taking the time to breathe, without even thinking about it as the whole shows consistency and maturity. At most we’ll be moved once more by those shops that are so many must-do’s to stock up on our gear – no, a merchant amidst monsters, that’s definitely not rational – but for the rest the work is largely mastered. And generous: the endgame is substantial, while the additional content promises some great moments. A free mercenary mode in which you face off against hordes of enemies in a row has been available since April 7th, while a DLC dedicated to the formidable Ada Wong, Separate Ways, could quickly show the tip of its nose . The Plaga parasite obviously hasn’t stopped freaking us out…
Available for PC, Xbox Series and Playstation.
In summary
Resident Evil 4 Remake published and developed by Capcom for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series S/X and PC.
We love :
– The implementation with small onions: the latest remakes of the Resident Evil games are small marvels on the visual level
– The gameplay gains in fluidity (especially in Leon’s movements and the ability to influence Ashley’s behavior) without betraying the feeling of the original experience
– The rearrangement of certain sequences, the care of the characters and the search for realism result in a game that is less cheesy, less nanrdesk, more mature and more coherent.
– The Lifespan, solid and further bolstered by a consistent endgame and DLCs that are gradually arriving. The first, Mercenaries’ survival mode, is free.
We like less:
– Some weaknesses here and there in the textures
– We’re definitely not a fan of those vendor stalls that have little to do in a universe infested with parasitized humans
– Difficulty peaks sometimes a bit inconsistent