Resident Evil 4 Remake is a terrific example of how to reinvent a classic game without sacrificing what initially made it great. The guns are louder, the combat is tougher, and the visuals are superb, but the fundamentals of the first RE4 remain. Now, Capcom’s superlative action horror has been remade again, only this time with a slightly different set of ambitions. Imagining an alternate dimension where Resident Evil 4 was released around 1998, this is the landmark, Leon Kennedy over-the-shoulder shooter but with fixed cameras, 2D backgrounds, and wonderful polygonal graphics, and you can check out the whole thing right now.
It’s hard to overstate the influence of Resident Evil 4. Establishing the genre back in 2005, the action horror game became the template for Dead Space, Gears of War, The Last of Us, and countless others. Resident Evil 4 Remake adapted and reworked RE4’s core mechanics, and fleshed out the narrative and the characters, in turn becoming one of the best PC games of 2023. But if you want a more classic Resident Evil experience, reminiscent of the PS1 days and the original RE2, one incredibly talented modder has something to show you.
Created by ‘Biohazard España,’ Resident Evil 4 Demake rebuilds the entire 2005 shooter as a traditional, fixed-camera, flat-background survival horror game. Technically, it’s a mod for the original Resident Evil 2 – you’ll notice that Ashley is basically a palette swap for Ada Wong’s character model, and the Ganados have the same animations as the RPD zombies. But really, this feels like an entirely new game. Iconic environments from the village, castle, and island have been remade using 2D backgrounds, alongside enemies and bosses from the original RE4.
The bad news is that you can’t play it – Biohazard España says the mod is an “experiment” and not available to the public. But who knows? Maybe it will see the light of a full launch in the future. In the meantime, you can play another great Resident Evil mod, which takes the entire series and the classic fixed-camera gameplay back to the Middle Ages.
Alternatively, if you miss the PS1 era of survival horror, try some of the best old games, or maybe the Resident Evil fan in you is craving the best zombie games on PC.
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