I’ve been on a Resident Evil kick for the past week. I think it is something to do with my growing excitement for the Resident Evil 4 remake, I’ve decided to quickly run through the three existing remade Resident Evils to see if my opinion of them has changed. However, running through the original again reminded me that it really is one of the all-time greats.

REplaying the REmakes.

What do you look for in a remake? For me, it is more than a remaster - I need to see some things changed, improved upon and of course, some significant visual improvements to really get behind a remake but there’s still a line in the sand that can’t be crossed in regards to maintaining the things I enjoy about the original release. For instance, if someone remade Quake as a third-person shooter, there’s every possibility that it will still be a good time but at that point is it still even Quake?

The remake of the original Resident Evil managed to sidestep this with ease by bringing back the creator of the original game, Shinji Mikami, to create this remaster. For me, it is a bit like Metal Gear 2 to Metal Gear Solid - interviews with Hideo Kojima around the time of the preview cycle of MGS were filled with statements about how the technology the PS1 brings to the table would allow him to finally ‘realise his vision’, with Metal Gear Solid being almost a complete remake of Metal Gear 2, even down to puzzles and certain plot beats. Resident Evil Remake (or REmake as it is known, and will be known in this newsletter from now on) is the perfect remake, allowing the original creator to fix mistakes, add content and achieve a vision that simply wasn’t possible at the time of release, making an overall categorically better game that doesn’t lost track of what made the original so beloved in the first place.

Before I talk about what I love about REmake, I need to talk about why I think the remake of Resident Evil 2 (REmake 2, for the sake of my sanity) doesn’t get right. First of all, let’s get one thing straight - REmake 2 is a good videogame. A very good one, for the most part, with one rather annoying element that knocks it down a few marks due to how much of a focus it is for a good chunk of the early game. The problem I have with REmake 2 is that it isn’t really Resident Evil 2, is it? I mean, it has the same plot, characters and locations… but Resident Evil 2 is a videogame. It’s more than just the narrative elements. Resident Evil 2 is one of the best fixed-camera surivival horror games ever made. REmake 2 is a very good third-person, over-the-shoulder horror action game. It’s a completely different genre! It lacks some crucial things that I love about the original release and it doesn’t feel like they ‘remade’ that game but simply made a completely different game and slapped Resident Evil 2 onto it. Again, not a bad game but just - for my money - NOT a remake.

REmake, however, is a masterpiece. The best remake of all-time. Mikami came back and improved on every aspect of his original Resident Evil. Only six years on from the release of the PS1 Resident Evil, REmake doesn’t just look like a visual upgrade, it looks like it is from another dimension. Genuinely, when it was originally released it really had us thinking “I’m not sure graphics can get any better than this”. The creepy ambience and vibe of the original is still intact but now it’s fully backed up by the graphics - still pre-rendered but with so much more fidelity and some beautiful, subtle lighting effects. The soundtrack has been recreated too, those classic pieces being such a huge part of that aforementioned ambience and vibe.

The tweaks to the game mechanics all improve upon the original, except for one, which mercifully is completely optional. You now have self-defense items that are one use weapons that allow you to avoid taking a hit when you get grabbed by a zombie. Knives stun them and allow you to get away whilst grenades, instead of thrown, are shoved into the zombie’s mouth, either exploding on a timer or detonated when shot. It’s cool as hell. Puzzles are now a bit more nuanced and involve a bit more interaction with the inventory items, giving it a bit more of a point and click feel at times and this is something that feels like a natural progression of the ideas put forward by Alone In The Dark, the game that actually beat Resident Evil to the survival horror punch. The only change I disagree with is the option to use a “modern” control scheme which switches the important tank controls to free analog movement, which is so clearly not intended as part of the game’s design, making enemies almost trivially easy to avoid.

The main change is the inclusion of the now-infamous Crimson Head zombies. Let me tell you, reader, when I first encountered one of these, twenty one (!) years ago when playing the original Gamecube release, I fully nearly shat my pants. Any zombie you kill (and don’t decapitate with a headshot, which is a random chance) WILL get back up and when they do, they’re a Crimson Head. They’re faster and stronger and instantly cause panic - a genius move for multiple reasons. First of all, their movement speed increase flies directly in the face of the traditional Resident Evil control scheme. If you’re playing with tank controls (and you should be, you heathen) you can’t freely manoeuvre away from them. Secondly, they take a lot more ammo to kill in a game that is already about careful resource management. Finally, in keeping in spirit with the resource management aspect, another layer is added as you gain another limited resource that lets you burn the bodies of downed zombies, ensuring they won’t return as a Crimson Head. Of course, you don’t have enough to burn them all, so you need to pick and choose, finding the zombies that could effect the critical route the most or thinning a potential herd in a corridor packed with corpses.

The other little tweaks add up to an overall better experience for the newcomer but change things up enough to ensure a classic Resident Evil veteran still has a lot to think about. Some item locations are different, new traps and puzzles play on your existing knowledge and, of course, so do the scares. The famous ‘dog corridor’ is now completely silent whenever you walk through it from the main entrance hall but the first time you go back DOWN that corridor, the dogs burst in through the window. Lovely stuff.

Regardless of any changes made, however, it’s a game that still evokes the original in every single way. If a remaster’s goal is to allow you to play a game again but in the way that you remember it through rose-tinted specs, then a remake is supposed to be the game that you wished for when you were thinking of what things would be like in the future. Still with the same control mechanics and ideas but without restrictions on anything. Visually not just a lick of paint but beyond what you could’ve even thought of. I don’t hate REmake 2 but it loses too much of the source material to fulfil what I need from a remake of one of my favourite games. It’s too modernised, too close to the homogenised AAA experience of the current market. It’s a shame we never got a remake of Resident Evil 2 in the style of REmake.

Bringing us on, finally, to the soon to be released Resident Evil 4 Remake (REmake 4?!?). A demo just dropped for it and it is absolutely exceptional - there’s real potential that this could actually improve on one of the best games of all-time, which is crazy to think! “But wait, Andi”, I hear you cry. “I thought you said that simply putting Resident Evil’s aesthetic onto a game that closely resembles the homogenised modern AAA experience isn’t what you’re looking for in a remake, you fat hypocrite?”

Well, yes, I did, but the thing is, Resident Evil 4 basically laid the groundwork for a LOT of that stuff, was pretty much day zero for most of the stuff you see in modern third-person games, so giving it things like dual analog controls and the ability to turn whilst moving, as well as a few additional bits like basic stealth and takedowns feel like more logical steps, a clear progression of ideas in the original whilst still retaining the core of the original. I have a feeling it is going to be an absolute belter. After all, what game wouldn’t be improved by adding a parry?

No game, that’s right.

THANKS FOR READING.

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