Capcom has had quite the resurgence lately, coming off huge wins from the success of Devil May Cry 5 and Monster Hunter World, but an even larger contributor to Capcom's run has come from the Resident Evil series. Both Resident Evil 2 Remake and more recently Resident Evil 3 Remake have seen massive success, showing that the franchise that many fans decided had lost its way was finally making a comeback, even if some are fully satisfied with RE3. It seems Capcom wishes to keep the ball rolling, as reports have begun popping up that Resident Evil 4 is on deck for the next overhaul.
Remaking Resident Evil 4 poses an interesting opportunity for Capcom, an undertaking very different in comparison to remaking the classic Resident Evil titles. Considering the technical gap from the original PlayStation to current-gen consoles is gigantic, Resident Evil 2 and 3 received a lot of love for their respective reimaginings. The fourth Resident Evil game is still widely considered a relatively modern entry in the series, despite showing its age in several aspects. Capcom's development team could strike the perfect balance of new and old in giving one of the best Resident Evil titles a proper reimagining.
Resident Evil 4's Impact
Resident Evil 4 represents a completely different challenge compared to the recently released remakes. Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 both initially came out on the first PlayStation console way back in 1998 and 1999, respectively. Sony's first console didn't have the luxury of rendering highly complex character models or 3D environments, storing larger amounts of data, and any other modern conveniences games from the mid-to-late 2000s onward have. Resident Evil 4 came out for the GameCube in 2005, and though it wasn't necessarily the first fully dimensional Resident Evil game, it was the first to take advantage of next-generation hardware to craft a highly detailed world.
Resident Evil 4, though featuring plenty of familiar cramped spaces that the franchise was known for, was the first game to truly blow the world out into a more vast, open-air world. The game still remained true to the core of Resident Evil, but Resident Evil 4 was revolutionary not only for the franchise but for games in general. Despite being confined to the series' trademark tank controls, the game was incredibly innovative in perfecting the third-person shooter genre. The over-the-shoulder camera design in Resident Evil 4 greatly succeeded where many other precursor games had experimented and failed in previously. Some of the best third-person shooters released since 2005 have Resident Evil 4 to thank for its incredible aiming technology.
The game is also bursting with depth in every aspect of its design as a video game. From the core shooting mechanic to challenging dungeons and puzzles, incremental but satisfying weapon progression, heavily varied environment design, a well-balanced rising difficulty, and even some more miniscule details bring this game to life greater than many at the time. And it didn't have to be a 40-60 hours long experience to feel like players got their money's worth. Very few games felt like such a complete package as Resident Evil 4 did; Resident Evil 4 pioneered a lot for modern video games, not just the series itself.
Remaking a Revolutionary Game
Bringing back such a game ahead of its time means Resident Evil 4's remake has a lot to live up to. That's precisely why Capcom has to perform a very delicate balancing act if Capcom intends to truly remake Resident Evil 4 in the flavor of its most recent remakes. A lot of what the original game introduced to the world of games has now become commonplace for third-person shooters, survival horror games, and other genres in general. That being said, there are plenty of quality-of-life updates Resident Evil 4 deserves that a remake could achieve thanks to innovations made in games from the past decade.
An update one should certainly expect from a Resident Evil 4 remake is the refinement of the mobility and aiming mechanics. Resident Evil stuck with the tank-controls aiming technique for the longest time, but eventually evolved to allow for more freedom of movement without sacrificing the series' evocative feeling of vulnerability. Resident Evil 2 Remake is a prime example of this, eschewing the stationary aiming design and allowing players to reposition ever so slowly. But on the flipside of this, the remake should be careful not to slip too far from the original game's constraints. Resident Evil 4's weapon aiming had realistic weapon shake where every slight adjustment required the upmost precision. A Resident Evil 4 remake shouldn't lose that aspect of its tactical gameplay, but should at least allow for more mobility in combat.
Another aspect of Resident Evil 4 that was innovative for the time was its sense of scale, despite its linearity. Leon runs through rural Spanish villages, mineral mines, gothic castles, modern military installations, etc. Even in its 15-20 hour runtime, players travel to such an interesting variety of locales that the game is perceived to be much grander than it is. Even now, as the game creeps up to 15 years old, the world of Resident Evil 4 has a sense of sprawl balanced perfectly with its actual size. Now with modern technology allowing for higher graphical fidelity, a remake could see that scale expanded with larger highly detailed environments further beyond what the GameCube was capable of. Invoking that sense of scale that was so impactful in the original game would be perfect for a Resident Evil 4 remake.
From there, a Resident Evil 4 remake could continue making miniscule changes, but there's not really much else to tackle ideally. Resident Evil 4's experience was already an incredibly well-balanced experience that any changes beyond the aforementioned may work to cheapen a remake in the spirit of the original game. Though Capcom has found success in implementing radical changes as well, it'd be interesting to see how a reimagining could be tackled for Resident Evil 4.
Resident Evil 4 is available now for PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.