Resident Evil 4 Remake Review- Campaign Jurnal

Given my experience of ups and downs with this game and how I nearly quit it, I thought this new format I thought up could fit the bill. Its purpose is to provide a view through how I felt at different moments of the game and the annoyances or things that impressed me throughout.

Preamble

My first time playing this was quite a big punch in the gut... for some reason I was not expecting the style of game this was. I understand that this game and series is very highly regarded by people who have grown up with these games, but my perspective is that of someone who is playing their first RE game.
Through this lens, the closest thing I've played to this is the OG Dead Space ( which was a pretty horrifying experience, but I kinda enjoyed it).

The first 3 hours and the first uninstall

The title should be pretty self-explanatory about my opinions upon first contact with the game. The gameplay felt very different to things I was used to, and it felt needlessly punishing to play, with enemies routinely coming behind you when they were not there before, and taking 2-4 headshots to down.
Coming in blind to the village level at the start is quite a frustrating exprience, because your goal is of course to kill all the enemies and move on ( as is the usual in games nowadays). First option is of course stealth, which fails miserably as the enemy placement is made in such a way as to make taking more than 2-3 enemies out almost impossible. The goal is to push you into open combat, with seemingly horrible odds, so that it may save you later.
Open combat is once again slightly frustrating, as the player is not used to the clunky movement and has not developed a strategy for most fights ( does not know the full power of duck, run and melee).

Regardless, this was a though cookie to swallow for me... the problem lies in the fact that a short-ish time after comes the scaffolding Valley level, which absolutely ruined my mood at the time. The game pits you against a mob of 20-ish standard enemies that swarm you from all directions, and throws in 3 dynamite throwers in, just for funsies. You are supposed to look for your puzzle piece, while headshotting one enemy after another, and dodging dynamite sticks, and while navigating narrow bridges between platforms (not fun).
This last level filled the proverbial glass and I convinced myself that there was no need for me to continue. Why frustrate myself needlessly when I could be doing something more meaningful.

The switch

The only reason I was convinced to give it a second chance against my better judgement were videos from people I like and respect the opinion of, showering this game with praise. Absolutely no criticism was to be found. So naturally my inquisitve brain was like: ok my boy, time to bear through it and see what's what... this isn't acceptable for you to miss. And so I did...

Reinstalling and toughing it out

So alright, I hunkered down and did the unthinkable and kept going. How was my time?
I started to get used to the game and its style. I grew to accept its combat and even like it. Chapter after chapter, set piece after set piece, the game slowly got better. Weapons grew more exiting and varied; providing me with more solutions to every problem.
The enemies also became more engaging, and I started understanding the combos that were most effective and how to approach different scenarios.

I visited a Lake, a Church, a Quarry, a Castle. Each location varied and peppered with eye candy. This part of the game was in my opinion the most enjoyable of the entire game. A usual playthrough of RE4 Remake takes 16-21h, and I think the best bits are at hours 6-14.
After that point, the game starts to get a tiny bit too long in the tooth. New enemies keep being introduced and that is fun, but I mostly just kinda wanted it to be over.

I got a tiny bit frustrated towards the end with the gamey-ness of it all. What I mean by that is that usually games have a way of trying to disguise themselves as to not break the illusion too often: enemies spawn through doors and in set locations that make sense, certain environmental decisions make sense and can be used to your advantage.
In Resident Evil 4 enemies spawn behind you without trying to make sense of it, different enemies spawn in areas of the map they have no business being, just to create a more difficult combat experience at the expense of immersion.

Another slight problem is the inconsistency of enemy responses: an enemy does not always stagger when shot in the head with a pistol. Sometimes they do, sometimes they do not. I'll include a small example of one such occurence:

A particular moment that bothered me was a specific creature that even though it made perfect sense for the game to have it fight everyone including me once I set it free, it became an ally to the enemy faction and worked together with them.

The story

I will make a little section for the story as well, even though we all know this is not really why any of us are here. It's quite ok! The cast is actually stronger than I expected, and I grew a tiny bit attached to Ashley especially, even though she was a nuisance a few times throughout the playthrough. I feel the game made use of the "lost X, found X, Lost X again" trope more than was neccesary, and by the 4th time I was quite annoyed by the occurance.
The villains are very standard, they want world domination and do not have anything interesting to say besides basic evil stuff.

Conclusion

Overall, by the time it was over, I had spent 20 hours and had a much better time than I had anticipated. I am glad I let myself be convinced to play it to the end because it is a genre defining effort ( and i saw how its influence was felt by me in games I thought had nothing to do with it). If this game stopped at 16h instead of 20, I would have loved it that much more. As it stands it's a very solid game, perhaps a tiny bit unworthy of all the praise in its current Remake form and for today's gaming landscape, but absolutely worthy looking back towards the original and what it meant to the medium.

Grade: A-