Pubs with names I didnt recognise.
Shops in locations that were more convenient than the ones I used to rely upon.
Huge buildings that had seemingly sprung out of deserted scrubland.
The city felt intimate yet alien.
I was both a stranger and a local, a foreigner in a place Id once adored.
Tiny alterations that feel much larger when surrounded by something so immediately recognisable.
This was the sameResident Evil 4Ive always known, but one that feels bigger, better and more dynamic.
The limited amount of Resident Evil 4 I was privy to felt split into two distinct sections.
The first focused on the games intro, in whichResident Evil 2protagonist Leon.
The crumbling cottage was larger, with multiple rooms to creep around in.
I mean, the signs were all here.
The approach to the house now takes place at night.
The infected villager soaked up bullets without flinching.
This space, one I have spent countless hours fighting within over the years, looked absolutely phenomenal.
Whereas the opening section differed from the original game, the village is instead a 1-1 recreation.
Everything is exactly where it should be.
The charred corpse of the police officer.
Villagers pushing wheelbarrows and clearing hay as a cow watches lazily from its shed.
Chickens pecking curiously next to ladders that rest unevenly against ramshackle buildings.
Didnt Resident Evil 4 always look this good?
Back when you played it on the GameCube, the village fuzzy on your second-hand CRT?
The towers roof has collapsed.
Houses are dilapidated and unmaintained.
Decay covers every surface.
Villagers, their hair mattered and their skin pale, stumble around with a systematic sense of aimlessness.
Its surreal, to see something I know so well rendered in such vivid detail.
We know what Resident Evil 4 looks like when seen from this perspective.
We are aware of these spaces, their shortcuts and their secrets.
I felt a bit funny, as I peered through binoculars at the village in front of me.
There was the herb, the breakable box and the unassuming Ganado.
Just as I thought.
Instead of diving into the action straight away, I decided to duck and approach the enemy from behind.
Combat in Resident Evil 4 follows largely the same rhythm as it did in the original game.
New additions are relatively subtle.
Your knife will shatter instantly, however, leaving you more vunerable than before.
To balance Leons improved move set, the Ganados have also been taught a fresh lesson or two.
Theyre faster, for a start, far more than Leon.
They screech towards you, arms outstretched, bloodshot eyes bulging in their impeccably rendered heads.
Leon stumbles more, too, with attacks causing him to lose his footing.
It didnt help that the villagers are also smarter than they ever were before.
Within seconds they had cut me off, predicting my behaviours and catching me off guard.
It was a beautiful spectacle of uncontrolled chaos, an additional layer of responsiveness that makes combat sing.
Dr. Salvador will slice his chainsaw through the foundations of nearby buildings, blocking your only remaining escape options.
Villagers who step onto bear traps can be punched, severing their legs from the rest of their bodies.
Headshots still have a chance of causing craniums to erupt in an explosion of red-hot goo.
Ive fought this fight a thousand times before.
In virtual reality, as recently as this January.
I am familiar with this encounter to the point of tedium.
My pulse was pounding.
This space felt new once again, in a way that was properly exciting.
My demo ended with the villagers dropping their weapons and sleepwalking towards the church as a distant bell rang.
Leon raised his arms.
Wheres everyone going, bingo?.
The Resident Evil 4 remake is exactly the same as you remember it.
Yet subtly, tantalisingly, brand new once again.
