In today’s age, remakes seem to be happening all the time. The biggest contributor of that being Disney of course, remaking just about every classic movie they have under their library to feed off the nostalgia that most people hold for those movies. What most people seem to think of when they hear the idea of a remake is that it’s a cash grab, but somehow Capcom – the developers of the Resident Evil games – have proven that remakes that can be done in a way that honor the classic’s values while creating an entirely new experience altogether.

First in their library of remakes came Resident Evil 2, completely reimagining the classic 1998 horror survival game by shifting it from a fixed camera game to a third-person over the shoulder view – which completely changed the flow of the game. The tension you feel as you stand still to focus your aim as a zombie steadily creeps towards you was something not seen before in the original game. The remake completely reimagined every aspect of the original game and the developers took everything they knew made it special and modernized it for this generation of videogames – and to such critical acclaim it was received.

And this is where Resident Evil 4 comes in. RE4 was the entry game for most people into the franchise and has been hailed as not only the best game in the entire franchise, but one of the greatest games ever made. So how on Earth could Capcom pull off a remake of game that is so heavily cherished, and hasn’t even aged as much as Resident Evil 2 did? Even following the overwhelming success of RE2’s remake, many fans were skeptical as to how they could pull off a remake of such a timeless game. And yet again, Capcom succeeded in doing so.

The reimagining of Resident Evil 4 was a sight to behold. Visually, the game is stunning and plays extremely smoothly. Additions like the stealth combat and knife parrying provide even more ways to play the game which kept you on your toes as you scrape by, finding any way of surviving the next big enemy encounter. Many sequences and events in the story had been shifted around to provide smoother pacing and a more enjoyable experience. Some of the things that didn’t age well – such as the quick time events and goofy chase sequences – were removed as well for tonal consistency throughout. Main characters such as Ashley and Luis in the original were sort of just caricatures of characters, but have been greatly expanded on in the remake with better suited dialogue and tons more characterization to make them believable. 

This remake did something that fans didn’t really expect; it reimagined the classic game while still somehow being different enough to the point where both remake and original can stand side by side as distinguishable masterpieces. The original has a cheesy, B-movie sort of feel to it which fans absolutely loved and cherish, and the remake – while still having a couple cheesy one liners – provides a much darker atmosphere and is more grounded in the story it tells. The juxtaposition of these styles leads to the idea that you can play both versions and have a different experience of the game all while it holds its biggest strengths in gameplay and environments. This isn’t just a case like Resident Evil 2, where the remake just outdoes the original in every way, rendering the original as dated and not worth playing after the remake; the remake of Resident Evil 4 makes you yearn to play the original for a new outlook of the game even after experiencing it all in its refined form. And that’s why, in my opinion, it’s a masterpiece.