Resident Evil 4 Remake review – beautiful, tense, camp, gory: all that’s best about the series

Resident Evil 4 Remake review – beautiful, tense, camp, gory: all that’s best about the series

Capcom; PC, PS4/5, Xbox Series S/X
This reimagining includes all the design knowledge of the whole series, from the awkward shuffling tension of the first version to the gory horror of Resident Evil 7

It begins in the way it always has. Leon Kennedy, the bruised, damaged rookie cop from Resident Evil 2 is now a spec-ops super soldier sent on a mission to a remote village somewhere in Europe. He’s searching for the US president’s kidnapped daughter and this is her last known whereabouts. His entry point is an overgrown woodland path, dark and cold; ravens peck at the bodies of dead animals, weird sounds fill the fetid air. And finally he spots it – an abandoned hovel just visible among the dead branches…

But from this point on, we’re in different territory. Although this updated version of Capcom’s seminal survival horror sequel retains the narrative, characters and major locations of the original, the structure of the game, the way each terrifying and exhilarating set-piece plays out, has been subtly remixed. It’s definitely a remake, but it feels fresh and vibrant. And it is brilliant.

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