Resident Evil 4

(Played on Steam Deck with Japanese text and voice-over. 22 seconds shy of 20 hours to get through Standard difficulty according to the “kill screen”.)

Before I got the ball rolling, I think I owe a shoutout to video game critic Dia Lacina. Her use of the word “orthodox” referring to over-shoulder shooting (And those came and went before.) in this podcast was what inspired me to use the O word in the same way.

Yours truly certainly would not call the change from 2019’s Resident Evil 2 to 2023’s Resident Evil 4 as “from horror to action”. The former is pretty much an action game. John McClane barely outwits those who outgun him must be a horrifying thing to live through yet Die Hard is an action movie. So outwitting and outgunning those monsters in the 2019 game should be considered action as well. Plus, all things being equal (like on Resident Evil series' Standard difficulty,), I would rather face down a corridor with couple of Lickers in 2 than face the torch and pitchfork mob in 4.

I call the changes being more “gamey”, a prime example being how to make sure enemies are dead. Despite the elaborate animation, I can only relax after I pick something from the deceased, the villagers have a habit of playing dead and them robed ones in the castle would have a quite long death animation even after I picked the corpses clean. Kill and loot is the name of the game for quite some time now, and 2023’s Resident Evil 4 is a great addition to that club.

Aliens 2 the comic book adaption

I find no point in summing up the story of Resident Evil 4 here. It has been out there since 2004 if we count the launch of Biohazard 4 in Japan. It was mimicking fun B movies back then and this new team had polished the remake into what can be considered as one of those ultimate action movie simulators. One on one hand-to-hand combat? Check. High speed chase? Check. Cheesy one-liners? There are plenty. And I hope you like damsel in distress trope because this game will let you feel that distress when you sprint to her rescue.

Render me baffling that people nowadays still want a so-called “good Aliens game”, with this industry’s best to offer basically being one Aliens copycat after another. In some ways, Las Plagas in Resident Evil 4 is a very good and varied rogue galley in the image of xenomorphs. There are humanoids, big bugs that is easy to drop, big ass face hugger looking creeps and a “queen” as the final boss. You all should give them brands a break.

The Japanese voice cast is a mix of them comic book adaption mainstays and Hideo Kojima collaborators. Cho, who belongs to either aforementioned categories as Ramon Salazar is a highlight, since that little man went full-on Bond villain in the remake.

Player character Leon Kennedy is dubbed by Toshiyuki Morikawa, who had played both hero and villain in comic book adaptions and different Final Fantasy games. Given what Leon does in Resident Evil 4, Mr. Morikawa’s performance as the antagonist in JoJo Part 4 came to mind. That is a serial killer terrorizing a town not unlike how Leon has to kill them all and pick them clean.

Morikawa’s following JoJo rogue galley cast member and Hideo Kojima’s new male lead Kenjro Tsuda played the extended part of Luis Serra Navarro. The pretty action packed Chapter 11 has Luis and Leon being buddy cops. Of course Luis does not survive in the remake either, though he does get a hero’s way out. Mr. Tsuda had played two different tragedy villains in JoJo, so I guess Luis can be like that.

Another Hideo Kojima collaborator in this game is Hoshu Otsuka playing the final boss Osmund Saddler. Saddler has been turned to a cosmic horror style voice of the hivemind in this game, kind of like the remake train made the Lovercraftian horror train just a couple of years after the original Biohazard 4.

Akari Kito, a comic book adaption mainstay since about 2018, as Ashley Graham sure is a choice to attach some moe element to the damsel in distress one has to protect in the game. Thinking about the fact that this born-in-1994 young lady was about 14 months old when the first Biohazard came out on the original Playstation not only made yours truly feel old but also made the series seems so long in the tooth…

Also, “Ian McShane’s Japanese counterpart” Joji Nakata appears in the mid-credits stinger as Albert Wesker staring at the plot of Resident Evil 5. Guess with the remake being fairly big on Steam, they are just waiting for the greenlight for the remake of that loathed-by-yours-truly sequel.

Bullets not included

“The war feeds itself” was the infamous strategy Cato the Elder used when he “pacified” Spain for Rome in the second century Before Common Era. It is also more or less what Capcom introduced into action games in the early aughts with Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter and of course 2004’s Biohazard 4. Though what on the shelf in the remake sure reminds one that they started with more melee focused combat.

There is no battle that I feel the bullets are plenty in the 2023 remake and the Merchant would not sell you bullet directly. He does sell you material to make bullets but the Gunpowder needed can only be picked up somewhere else, whether just laying about or off enemies’ corpses. Resource management is still one name of the game here, another name being “kill them all and pick them clean”.

Ironically, excuse the pun, the new feature knife durability is actually a more precious resource than bullet, since you got to see a guy about it while bullets can be picked up. Well, there are actually more fragile unfixable blades laying around. The knives break down differently depends on how much fitness one applies. Stealth kill damages the least, then parry. Giving a downed enemy the killing blow breaks the blades quick and if you parry a chainsaw with those then you might as well kiss them goodbye. Luckily the fixable knife can be upgraded in the durability department like them guns in the magazine size and reload speed.

The end song they gave this remake has the cheeky title “The Bullet or the Blade”. It sums up the game’s close-quarter combat neatly. In a control skim set up by Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of Patriots, the right trigger when pulled alone would allow one to stab and if you run out of knives it would not do anything. Left trigger then right trigger is how one aim and shoot here. Left bumper would let one pull out their knives also serves as parry. Parried enemies (Some takes more than one.) then can be kicked by the down face button or stabbed by the right trigger.

In many ways, the quick switch between gun and knife combat “promised” by Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater was fulfilled by its contemporary Biohazard 4. Leon would trot his aim to remind players that something is within knifing range. There is light stealth, so do not except to MGS your way through this game. It’s nothing more than reducing a coward before the real business of hot war can begin. The remake just filed off some rough edge for the post-Gears audience.

Move and shoot is never about “run and gun”, it’s just a better way to adjust one’s aim. Though Leon would not stop while reload his guns in the remake, reloading can be canceled by taking other actions like picking something up or leaping off a ledge.

Escorting Ashley this time around stays about the same. There is no dumpster to hide her in since those have trash and something the Merchant finds valuable in them. You got to do a lot of your dirty killing and looting around this girl. I counted 2 lockers she can get into and the second one is somewhat optional. Well, at least you don’t have to share food and medicine with her. Since the game world is more segmented like in the 2005 game, there is a bar for her out of Leon’s reach. Stab those carrying her away is safest way to save her for A she can still be wounded and killed by friendly fire and B stab to the necks unaware is the cheapest way to kill someone in this game.

About the Deck

Some genius at Capcom had the bright idea to have the game unlocked eight in morning at the time zone yours truly reside. So in the Friday the game came out, I simply threw the Steam Deck into the bag I take to work, and started downloading on the train with data plan. The download was finished on the office wi-fi and I spent the whole weekend plus the first 2 days of the week after on the game.

Despite the status still being Unknown as the time of writing, it runs like a dream. Which is excepted since this game has the same system requirement as 2021’s Resident Evil Village and that game runs well on the Deck. Texture can devolve to PS4 level in the performance mode I chose, but it’s a fairly good way to play Resident Evil 4 with framerate higher 30 fps. Full charge can last about 80 minutes.

It might not be for everyone, but the extra “pleasure” of playing the mine cart segment on the bumpy bus ride is pretty hard to forget. The actual pleasure playing the final escape on the train is also hard to put into words.

Just when I think I am out, they pull me back in…

I regulated myself to sleep before two in the morning when I played 2023’s Resident Evil 4. Gaming until four in the morning is not something my 33 years old ass can handle regularly. But then something weird happened. I would wake up earlier than usual partially due to the excitement I felt for this game before I slept (The other reason might be spring warmth). So the day I finally beat this game I woke up at 4 in morning after a 3 hours long sleep and started playing again. Even though the game is retelling a story I knew, its presentation and design still manage to be spell-bounding. Its difficulty does not scare the Soul-borne naysayer in me. I would recommend anyone interested in action to try this one out.