Resident Evil 4 Remake: 6 Changes We LOVE (And 2 We Hate)

1. Wasted Story Potential

Luis Serra's characterisation is in keeping with the top form Resident Evil has been on with it's colourful cast of heroes and villains in the last half-decade but RE4 Remake is a significant stopping point of that momentum.

For example, after six years of presuming she's dead Leon finally reunites with his mysterious former love interest Ada Wong with about as much emotional resonance as realising someone's done the washing up for you. This is true to the original game, which was actually a criticism of the 2005 title that the remake could've fixed. Overall, Ada's presence in the story feels muted and the same can be said for the game's villains.

Salazar's war of one-liners with Leon is missing which makes sense for the tonal shift but nothing replaces it. He comes and goes, as does big bad Osmund Saddler, without relative fanfare.

Jack Krauser gets the worst of it. In RE4 classic Krauser enters the fray late into the proceedings as a figure from Leon's past. It wasn't until The Darkside Chronicles, an on-rail shooter for the Wii, that we got to see the history of the two as part of Operation Javier. Excitingly, Krauser mentions these events by name... and then the game totally contradicts them. What is seen as a two man operation in the spin-off is erroenously described as large job with lots of dead squad-mates that sent Krauser on a warpath.

The biggest flaw of the original Resident Evil 4, for the RE super fan, was how disconnected it was to all the other stories around it. As such, Capcom spent a lot of time trying to make connections to fix this. The remake could've been an incredible opportunity to finally retroactively do so and instead it complicates matters even further.