Resident Evil 4 (2005) was the first in the Resident Evil franchise to make substantial changes to the combat, mobility, no more fixed camera angles, and made changes to the tone and style from horror to thriller action. The Original was already an iconic and the most praised game in the series, but the remake makes many changes that fix a lot of issues from the original.

In both versions of the game, Leon Kennedy is sent by the president to save his daughter, Ashley Graham, in Spain. Though, the remake starts with a quick recap of the events of Resident Evil 2, the previous game Leon was in. Leon then arrives in a village with two cops. Once doing a little exploring, the two cops go missing, and it’s quick to tell that there is something wrong with the village. The residents are corrupt with a virus, and now serve a cultish group, which is explored on throughout the story.

The controls definitely feel less clunky than the original. It feels a lot more smooth playing as Leon because it’s easier to fend off the enemies. It was surprising how many different enemies there were throughout the game, I didn’t expect that many enemies with different ways of defeating them. Some were annoying, because you had to hit a specific spot on them, and the weapons have pretty bad recoil so it’s hard to aim for the spots. The boss fights are really fun, they can be difficult but they’re all great fights.

Like in the original, Ashley accompanies you through most of the time once you find her. It can be very chaotic, because enemies can capture her during an encounter, and you have to save her before they carry her away, or else you fail your mission. There were a few times where she got captured and there wasn’t really much I could do, so I’d just fail immediately. It’s a lot more tolerable now than before, because it was a lot more of a problem in the original.

Resident Evil has always had puzzle elements within their games, but in some cases it can be very overcomplicated and convoluted. Most puzzles are just you having to fetch a key of some sort, but some you have to face head on. There’s one puzzle where you have to shuffle colored glass until it’s in the exact spot it needs to be in, and another you have to keep pressing on buttons till it works.

A lot of iconic and fan-favorite moments from the original, didn’t make the cut in the remake. I think it was the right choice because some of them didn’t really feel like it fits the themes, and felt a bit corny and goofy. Though Leon does still keep some corny lines and jokes that he makes, which is nice.

All of the voices of the characters sound great, except for Ada Wong’s character. Her and Leon have different voices from Resident Evil 2 because her and Leon are supposed to be older. Ada’s voice wasn’t really that convincing and the line delivery was mostly dull. It does suck because she’s one of the best characters.

The difference in graphics and detail is substantial. The original still holds up well because of the style of the game, but the remake really upgrades the detail of the environments and character designs. The gore is also a lot more detailed and everything looks just as brutal as it was in the original.

In comparison to the original, the remake is phenomenal in every aspect, despite already having large shoes to fill.