Resident Evil 4 originally released for the Nintendo GameCube in January of 2005. It was critically acclaimed and received a Metacritic score of 96 at the time of its release. It’s still considered by many gamers today to be the best in the Resident Evil series. The game has been re-released for many consoles but now, it finally comes to the Xbox One.
This version of Resident Evil 4 comes in 1080p and runs at 60 FPS. Other than that, the game remains largely unchanged from its previous release. What the game lacks in upgrades it makes up for in gameplay. As I watched the opening cutscene I felt nostalgia for the game I played over eleven years ago. I was instantly brought back to the Spanish woods with Leon Kennedy as I started to explore a rural town inhabited by cultists.
The atmosphere in Resident Evil 4 in my opinion, was the last great atmosphere in a Resident Evil game. Getting out of the police car and walking in the woods with the dreary overcast sky reminded me of being enveloped in a gloomy late autumn day. This adds to the atmosphere as you explore old houses, lakes, cemeteries and castles. The surroundings add to a feeling of dread throughout the game.
The camera angle is over the shoulder of Leon. This was a drastic change in the series at the time since all the previous Resident Evil games featured fixed camera angles. I feel that the over the shoulder angle adds to a sense of claustrophobia and tension. The camera angle isn’t fixed but it is limited and you can only see what’s in front of you at a given time. This makes being chased by the cultists even more tense as you don’t know how close they are to catching up to you when you run away.
I don’t consider Resident Evil 4 to be scary but it remains a very tense game. This is mostly due to the awkward control scheme. At the time, I had no issues with the controls but now in 2016, the movement and aiming feel dated. I struggled for a bit in the opening section to get my bearings as I wildly shot at shambling villagers attempting to kill me. It was tough to go back to such a dated control scheme after years of dual-stick shooters and strafing. I eventually did get used to it again and the tension was still there. Being stuck in one spot while a mob of cultists walk towards you is very suspenseful.
While the ammo is not as stingy as in the previous Resident Evil games, it’s still important to make your shots count. I found that despite having a lot of bullets, if I missed a shot it could be the difference between life and death. For example, a villager threw an axe at me, I missed my shot and the axe hit me resulting in a loss of health and Leon grabbing his side as I fled from battle. Even though this version of Resident Evil is more in common with an action game, it still can be stressful in the best possible way.
The story still holds up as intriguing after all these years. Not to go into spoilers for anyone who hasn’t played it but the idea of what is behind the evil in this game is very interesting and makes this game feel more like a standalone experience compared to the previous Resident Evils that revolved around Raccoon City. While there are ties to the original storyline, I felt that if you never played any of the series prior to 4, you weren’t missing out on much.
Even though the story still holds up, a couple of things did not. The voice acting is quite awful as video game standards have come a long way since the original release of this game. The villagers’ shouts are good and creepy, but Leon and the conversations he has are cringeworthy at times. Speaking of Leon, he’s not really an interesting character. What’s interesting about Resident Evil 4 is the atmosphere, villains and supporting characters. Leon felt out of place in 2005 and still feels out of place in this game in 2016. That’s the one disadvantage that 4 has is the main character is kind of just there.
Another issue I noticed while played was despite having the visual resolution increased, the sound design was not adjusted accordingly. Some sound effects, such as villagers shoveling hay in the background sounded rough. The sound effects had no depth to them and I feel that Capcom really missed an opportunity by not just remastering the entire game from the ground up. Also, the cinematic cutscenes are not rendered in 1080p. I don’t know exactly what they are rendered in but they are noticeably blurry to the human eye compared to the actual gameplay. The inventory system is also a negative in my book. I’ve gotten used to switching weapons on the fly and having to go into a menu every time you want to equip a grenade or another gun is extremely frustrating and time-consuming. It’s not a deal breaker but it’s a noticeable break in the pacing of the game.
One other thing I noticed which is minor but thought I should point out is that when you use the single-shot rifle, the reload animation drops frames. It was a bit jarring because the game is smooth throughout except for this one instance.
Summary
In summary, if you’ve never played Resident Evil 4, it’s a must-play video game experience. This is a game that every gamer should take the time to play through as it’s the pinnacle of a classic franchise. Even though some of the game mechanics are outdated, the action is tense, the atmosphere is gloomy, and the story is interesting. If you’ve played the game before it’s still worth revisiting. I played it when it first launched on GameCube and still enjoyed the heck out of it again eleven years later. While I do feel that Capcom missed an opportunity and could have remastered this game from the ground up, for $20 it still holds up in its current state.
Tommy was a community contributor to ICXM, writing 3 articles in 2016 covering game reviews. ICXM operated as an independent Xbox and Windows gaming outlet through the run-up to Xbox One S and Project Scorpio, plus the broader Windows 10 gaming push, drawing from a rotating bench of editorial volunteers. They post on X as @sirtommyguns.