The Resident Evil 4 remake is looking more and more impressive with each new glimpse at gameplay. Like Motive’s Dead Space remake, Resident Evil 4 seems to be making foundational changes in an effort to make older features more modern. The Resident Evil franchise has had some divisive experience with remakes in the past; the Resident Evil 2 remake was a landmark turning point for survival-horror, for example, but the Resident Evil 3 remake took the game in the wrong direction in terms of its reimagining. Thankfully, Resident Evil 4 could be highly redeeming.
Resident Evil 4 is a trickier game to remake than its peers because there are many more particular features and mechanics that need to be maintained in order for its original tone to be present and accounted for. The game’s corny one-liners and bombastic action will be sorely missed if omitted, but it has already been revealed that certain gameplay changes have been made, such as QTEs being removed and Ashley’s gameplay being updated. However, one of the most efficient yet incongruous gameplay changes the Resident Evil 4 remake makes is with regard to the Ingrid Hunnigan codec calls.
Resident Evil 4 Remake Represents the Best of Both Worlds
The Resident Evil 4 remake shows a willingness to make certain features modern, but the original’s own influences were fantastic for the time. It will be exciting to see how much of the original game’s DNA remains in the Resident Evil 4 remake, but there are surely sequences and enemies that players would want kept in the remake, including the island’s Regeneradors.
If the remake changes too much, that could upend all the nostalgia fans have preserved since the original’s release. In particular, Resident Evil 4 has a codec-style communications device that Leon S. Kennedy used to communicate with Ingrid Hunnigan, a Field Operations Support agent. This presented a distinct screen with portrait images for the incoming and outgoing receivers, taking players out of gameplay for a moment while these faux cutscene sequences would occur.
It is true that this means of communication would be somewhat outdated in a modern remake, and thus the change Capcom made to it is unsurprising. However, the change made to it is largely confusing from a design standpoint when many other games have demonstrated an easier and more fluid way to integrate voice-over comms calls.
Resident Evil 4 Remake’s Hunnigan Calls Are Awkwardly Positioned
Capcom has elected to make Hunnigan’s codec calls an in-game feature, comparable to when characters receive phone calls or other voice-over dialogue from characters who are not present. This change to Resident Evil 4’s UI would normally be fine, but the remake awkwardly places a tiny Hunnigan comms portrait where Leon’s back is usually off-centered in the middle of the screen.
The portrait frame is unremarkable and small, leaving a blemish on the screen while it is apparent. This is a strange placement because many other games have elected instead to feature portrait boxes for voice-overs in the corner of the screen, or at least off to the side where they will not interrupt or obfuscate the game’s other UI. Gotham Knights’ UI is one recent example.
Overall, this is only a small nitpick that some fans may not even see as an issue, especially when it's still favorable to the original codec. Still, when other games have implemented the same in-game comms and all they needed to do to integrate it well is place it to the side, it is strange that the Resident Evil 4 remake slaps this portrait box in the center of the screen so glaringly.
Resident Evil 4 is scheduled to release on March 24 for PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.