Forget about all the fancy upscaling tech touted by graphics card and television manufacturers – the most powerful graphics enhancement engine resides in the parts of the human brain responsible for memory.
Anyone who’s returned to a beloved game of years past, only to be shocked by how badly the graphics have aged, knows this.
Back in the day, nothing felt as thrilling as gunning down Stormtroopers on Nar Shaddaa in Jedi Knight, or exploring Incan ruins in Tomb Raider. Loading the same games up today (after much fiddling to get them working on modern operating systems), it’s often impossible to look beyond the dated graphics, and the thrill is, as BB King would say, gone.
The spate of HD remasters from the past several years are an acknowledgment of this fact, combining the powers of nostalgia and increased pixel counts to hopefully create something irresistible to gamers eager to relive past glories.
Sometimes, this works. It works when the only thing making a title seem dated is its old-fashioned graphics. But when gameplay or control mechanics have moved on too far from the days of the original release, a fresh coat of paint just isn’t enough.
Which brings us to the umpteenth re-release of Resident Evil 4, this time for the PS4 and Xbox One. Starting life on the Gamecube, it’s been ported to the PS2, Wii, mobile platforms, Xbox 360, PS3, and the PC, the last three of which also got the HD treatment.
There’s no doubt that RE4 has never looked better than it does on Sony and Microsoft’s current-gen consoles. It’s more than 11 years old, and no amount of HD-ifying is going to make it look pretty by modern-day standards, but the goal of not having the graphics interfere with the gameplay has been achieved.
Unfortunately, that gameplay hasn’t changed a bit in the last 11 years. And even if you think you remember how frustrating the controls were, well, let me tell you now that it’s not just graphics that are often remembered with rose-tinted vision.
It’s for good reason that controlling protagonist Leon has often been likened to driving a tank. Moving and looking around is painfully, painfully slow. Changing direction feels like trying to do a U-turn with a 10-tonne truck. If you’re only familiar with more recent third-person shooters, I venture that you’ll find the controls so frustrating as to make the game almost unplayable. For some, the desire to experience this piece of gaming history for the first time might win out, but they’ll have to be really determined.
The game still has all the great action and set pieces that made it famous, but you have to fight it all the way to experience them. Some people feel that there is a great game in there despite the control and other dated gameplay aspects, such as the way the inventory is handled. Others feel that no matter how great some aspects are, the above-mentioned issues are a deal-breaker.
I probably fall into the latter camp, but this doesn’t mean that I’d recommend not buying RE4. I would, however, recommend asking yourself exactly what you’re looking for.
If you’re an old fan of the game, don’t already own one of the earlier remasters, and aren’t bothered by the controls, go for it.
And you’re someone new to RE4, eager to finally experience what caused so much hype back in the day, then it all depends on how much frustration you’re willing to go through.
Bottom Line: The graphics have been updated to make them palatable to 2016 sensibilities, but everything else is stuck in 2005. Buy if under the influence of great nostalgia or great curiosity.
Rating: 6/10
