When a name resonates even in the head of someone who hasn’t played it, it means that it has achieved a certain notoriety. resident Evil It is one of those emblematic Games of the 90s with its zombie attacks, its infected inhabitants, its dark and disturbing cities and towns, the episodes of the saga have revolutionized, or perhaps simply left traces of horror and survival games (survival awful ).
And among all, resident evil 4 It was undoubtedly the most emblematic. In 2005, its publisher Capcom wanted to renew the genre a bit by transposing the action, no longer to Raccoon City, the location of many episodes, but to a Spanish town. Having become an agent of the President of the United States, Leon Kennedy is assigned to save the latter’s daughter, Ashley Graham, kidnapped and kidnapped by a sect, Los Illuminados.
as often in resident Evilnothing happens easily and the hero faces strange beings, infected by a parasite (Las Plagas) that takes away their willpower and transforms them into hostile monsters.
“A game that marked a generation”
“It’s an episode that really revolutionized the license. It’s still a survival horror game, but it’s going to be a lot more action-oriented. It is a game that has left its mark on an entire generation of players”, explains Carole Quintaine, content creator. specialized in videogames and in particular in the license resident Evil.
Appearing on the GameCube when it was launched, the Japanese title wants to take advantage of the new power of the Nintendo console to offer a more complete and ambitious experience than the titles of the time. Capcom’s game was a long time coming out. Announced in the early 2000s, it has experienced multiple settings, styles, and orientations.
Shinji Mikami, its creator (of which this will be the last episode of the saga) had several canceled versions, whose inspiration leaned too much towards other fashionable titles and in particular the silent Hill by Hideo Kojima, before resulting in a game that would inspire other titles in the future.
Because resident evil 4 brought its share of novelties, such as a way to follow the hero with the shoulder camera in this third-person shooter. There were also the QTE (Quick Time Event) that consisted of pressing a button on the remote at the right time to trigger an action against an enemy, a model that was widely used later.
More dynamic than its predecessors, the title also plays with the rise of opponents, often more numerous thanks to the performance of the GameCube, then PlayStation 2, which will arrive a few months later. The effect is immediate on the players and success is guaranteed.
More beautiful, more delicately terrifying
Was there really a need to make a new version of this? resident evil 4 (available this March 24) at the risk of taking it out of the sweetness of our memory? As is often the case with old glories who undergo cosmetic surgery (dead space, the last of us part 1), the memory we had in mind remains intact before the beauty of the images remade from A to Z. And despite this redesign, the “madeleine de Proust” effect continues to work.
“We really found all the essence of the game from 2005, but obviously more modern, especially in the gameplay (playability, editor’s note)”. Capcom has thus sublimated the visual aspect of the game by redoing all the images. “We recognize them without recognizing them because the construction is very different,” he admits. “We have a lot of extra things.” the soundscape that will make players scream even more and it will startle them, making it easier to reconnect with their memories of yesteryear.
The developers have brought more stealth to the game to get closer to enemies before attacking them. Certain sequences, which did not exist in the initial version, or which were played with another character, however, have been modified to give the story more rhythm.
And the number of less popular QTEs has also been reduced. “There is a more important survival dimension, you have to learn how to handle a knife-use caliber, repair it, buy equipment.” And to acknowledge: “The game is perhaps a little higher than the first, but it is still widely accessible, even if it is not an easy game.” To be a specialist in this type of game, she also acknowledges having chosen to do it at a standard level.
This resident evil 4 However, the new skin erases some imperfections from its original era, such as the inability to shoot and run at the same time that drove more than one player crazy. In 2023, we can do both to survive longer. That alone is a serious facelift for a title that still deserves to thrill generations of gamers. And if you like to get scared, a virtual reality version is in development to double the dose of nightmares.
Resident Evil 4 is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Source: BFM TV
