Recent reviews by krabi

Whoever designed and approved the new UI:
You are everything that's wrong with games nowadays. I genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, hope Satan rips you a new ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ while you rot in Hell for all eternity.

I don't aim to review RE4make as a standalone product, because in that case, this review would be much more positive in tone, I am reviewing it as a diehard fan of the original.

The fundamentals of the story are there, and you go through every important plot point - some even incorporated in clever, fresh ways to tie into the flow of the game better. The characters are... recognisable. The model work is generally good across the board, even though most of the male characters could use some improvement compared to the, frankly, gorgeous models of the female leads. VA selection is, other than the singular exception of Ashley, worse than the original, and the quality of the voicework leaves a lot to be desired at times. The dialogue, on the other hand, is atrocious. Every line feels like the writer desperately trying to qualify for a "cheesy action flick" metric, but unlike the original, the delivery falls flat. The game far too often forgoes iconic moments and dialogue from the original to lean toward a more serious tone, all the while its own attempts to replicate the lighter-hearted moments don't deliver.

On the topic of action - a LOT of iconic scenes are missing entirely, or changed for the worse. Once again leaning away from what made the original game stand out on its own as well as within the RE series as a whole, many scenes of Leon performing superhuman feats or enemies acting in a comical manner are gone. Everything feels more down to earth, as much as it gets when giant mutated tentacle monsters are involved, anyhow.

Game mechanics are generally similar - Leon wields an arsenal of firearms and a knife to cut through hordes of Ganados, though a significant change compared to the original is a knife durability mechanic. The knife may be used as a get out of jail free card when Leon is grappled or otherwise pinned by an enemy, as an alternative to button mashing in order to escape. Using it in this manner, as well as to inflict any damage on an enemy, be it slashing, stealth kills (also new!) or finishing off a downed enemy with a kill animation, drains the knife's durability. For a small fee, it may be repaired (as well as upgraded) at the merchant.
Into the knife mechanics ties the parrying mechanic. Most attacks coming toward Leon can be parried by hitting the knife key at the right time, briefly knocking back the attacker at a small cost to durability. During normal gameplay, this proves to be an enjoyable change - one can deflect strikes that'd otherwise be unavoidable. During boss fights, particularly later game ones, this turns into a curse. The game begins to throw in attacks that require the player to respond to a normal QTE, inbetween ones that are parry-able. This effectively creates two possible QTEs - except where in the original, either one would show up flashing in the middle of the screen, here you have to look at two different indicators and react in a split second.

The enemies, even though largely the same as the original, are freshened up and have several new tricks up their sleeves. Ganados and zealots now come equipped with slightly better navigation and movement capabilities, and those used to the slow shambling zombies of the original will be in for a surprise. Many enemies receive vicious special attacks based on the weapon they're holding, and later-game enemies are particularly annoying. (Thought you could kill Regeneradors by shooting the bugs out of their body? Think again, ♥♥♥♥♥♥.)
Boss encounters are largely redesigned from the ground up, only retaining the general idea in most cases. Most bosses are more interactive and dangerous, with improved AI and new, threatening attacks added to their arsenal.

The level and world design is top notch. Where the original sometimes struggled with pacing or level layouts due to limitations technical or otherwise, the developers have really put in good work here. Some parts of the original are omitted, some are lenghtened, and there are some new ones entirely. Even backtracking to complete some side tasks for the merchant doesn't feel arduous, the location design is a bit more coherent and for the attentive player, small bits of lore scattered throughout the game really complete the story in a way that the original sometimes struggled to.

The wide variety of extra content that the original game offers is expanded on here as well. Completing challenges during the main story awards you costumes, accessories and various artbook content, and a grade is received at the end of the main story itself. However, buyer beware - the Mercenaries minigame, a staple of the original, has been cut & resold as DLC, with Separate Ways likely to undergo the same treatment soon. Out of the "for fun" weapons that the original had to offer, only the handcannon and the tommygun are present, both as rewards for challenges.

Would I recommend RE4 Remake? As the popular answer goes, it depends. If you've played the original as much as I have, there's not much here that would impress, unless you particularly enjoy the updated combat mechanics. Get it on sale, play it to relive the story, never pick it up again. If you've never played the original, you owe it to yourself to do so before (or after) playing this game. As much flak as I've given this title, it is a love poem to the original game in many ways, and only through having played them both will some of the finer details float to the surface.

Thank you for reading.