Resident Evil 4 Review

Remaking Resident Evil 4 — one of the most influential games ever made — was a tightrope walk. Capcom doesn't just avoid falling; it delivers one of the best remakes the medium has produced.

This is the 2023 remake of the 2005 original, built on Capcom's RE Engine and released on March 24, 2023 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and PC. The setup is unchanged: six years after Raccoon City, agent Leon S. Kennedy is sent to rural Spain to rescue the US president's kidnapped daughter, Ashley Graham, from the cult of Los Illuminados. Capcom keeps the bones and rebuilds almost everything else.

Sharper, scarier, smarter

The over-the-shoulder combat that this series invented now feels modern: weighty guns, a satisfying knife-parry system, and enemies that swarm and flank you. Resource scarcity keeps every encounter tense without tipping into frustration, and the famous inventory case is as compulsive as ever.

The biggest change is that Leon can finally move while he shoots and reloads, and the rest of the design has been rebuilt around that freedom. The Ganados are more dangerous to compensate, pushing you to use the environment by igniting flammable objects or barricading doors and windows. A downed villager convulsing as its parasite prepares to erupt forces ugly split-second choices about which threat to deal with first. The knife now has durability, so every parry is a small economic decision, and a new crafting system turns scavenged resources into ammunition on your terms.

A masterclass in pacing

What still astonishes is the rhythm. RE4 constantly shifts — village siege, castle, island — introducing new threats just as the last ones grow familiar. The remake's lighting and sound make Leon's nightmare genuinely atmospheric while keeping the original's pulpy, B-movie charm.

Capcom split development into three groups, one each for the village, the castle and the island, and you can feel it: each act has its own texture, enemy roster and bag of tricks. The Merchant returns with new side requests that reward you for finding specific items and hunting marked targets, which gives the quieter stretches a welcome pull. Quick-time events have been pared right back, and the Krauser encounter is now a fully playable knife fight rather than a string of button prompts — an upgrade in every sense.

Resident Evil 4 - Launch Trailer, published on Capcom's official Resident Evil YouTube channel in 2023.

What the remake changes

Ashley is the most improved part of the package. The original's escort sections were a sore point; here she stays close or keeps her distance on command, has no health bar to babysit, and only needs reviving when she takes severe damage. She is written as more of a partner than a damsel in distress, and her relationship with Leon lands better for it. The laser sight gives way to an aiming reticle (the laser returns as an attachment for traditionalists), and there are six control schemes, including one styled after the original.

Not everything survived the trip. A couple of beloved set-pieces have been trimmed or reworked, and purists will notice. The attaché case remains a love-it-or-hate-it game of inventory tetris. And the story is still gloriously silly — which, frankly, is part of the appeal.

Presentation and performance

The RE Engine does exceptional work with light and shadow: fog-soaked village lanes, torchlit castle halls, rooms where a flashlight beam is all that stands between you and whatever is waiting in the dark. The sound design is just as sharp, from creaking floorboards to the rev of a chainsaw somewhere you can't yet see. Nick Apostolides returns as Leon and plays the one-liners with exactly the right mix of dread and wink. Directors Kazunori Kadoi and Yasuhiro Anpo, both veterans of the Resident Evil 2 remake, bring that game's tactile, physical feel to a far bigger adventure, and the remake has since spread well beyond its launch platforms, with iPhone, iPad and Mac versions arriving on December 20, 2023.

Beyond the campaign

Capcom has supported the remake well. The Mercenaries, the original's score-attack mode, returned as a free update on April 7, 2023 — the same day optional paid weapon-upgrade purchases appeared, which you can safely ignore. The paid Separate Ways expansion followed on September 21, 2023, retelling events from Ada Wong's perspective with a grappling hook and a sharper espionage flavour, alongside new content for The Mercenaries. A free VR mode followed in December 2023. The Gold Edition bundles the game with Separate Ways and the Extra DLC Pack, and it is the version Capcom is bringing to Nintendo Switch 2, digitally on October 16, 2026, with a physical release on January 29, 2027.

Another mission. Another order. Another path. Ada Wong steps out of the shadows and into the spotlight in The Separate Ways DLC for #ResidentEvil4, available now! 🌿 bit.ly/RE4SWBlog

— Resident Evil (@RE_Games) September 21, 2023

Official resources

• Resident Evil 4 official site
• Capcom press release: Resident Evil 4 Gold Edition on Nintendo Switch 2
• Resident Evil 4 on Steam
• Resident Evil 4 on PlayStation
• Resident Evil 4 Gold Edition on Xbox
• Resident Evil 4 (2023) on Wikipedia

The verdict

Newcomers get the most approachable way into one of the genre's landmarks; veterans get a version that respects their memories while surprising them at almost every turn. If you prefer slow-burn, puzzle-led survival horror, it is more action-forward than Capcom's Resident Evil 2 remake. But as a campaign you will want to replay on higher difficulties, and then again as Ada, it is hard to beat.

A few cut moments will sting purists and the plot is still wonderfully daft, but as a tense, replayable action-horror package it's superb. For more white-knuckle action, see Tom's DOOM Eternal review.