How Capcom Should Remake Resident Evil 4

7. How To Update A Perfect Combat System

However, there presumably will need to be some slight tweaks to this opening set-piece in the town judging by the changes Capcom have made to Resi 2 and 3's gameplay. While they very much follow what Resi 4 started, there are some key differences in the combat mechanics.

While RE 4 was way more responsive and fluid than the games it followed, it still very much used classic tank controls. The perspective was just switched. Leon was still a bit cumbersome and could only do a handful of things at a time. There was no aiming while moving. No reloading while moving. And moving diagonally out the way of danger was a right pain.

Though that sounds like a bunch of negatives, all those limitations made Resi 4's combat so intense. Hell, they're what make it stand up under scrutiny over a decade on.

They weren't limitations, they were features; a way to keep the player under pressure when while fighting what are, really, otherwise harmless threats.

The enemies in Resi 4 are slow and shambling, and while they might throw cleavers at you, you can shoot them out the air like you're in an old western relatively easily. What makes the combat intense is sheer numbers, and the inability to move while you're loading in your last remaining clip as a bunch of pitchfork-wielding bad guys close the distance.

Of course, those restrictions in gameplay are seen as archaic in 2020, and both Resident Evil 2 and 3 did away with them entirely. Fortunately, both those games managed to create a similar air of intensity around their combat, something which needs to be adapted for Resi 4...