Resident Evil 4 is considered one of the best video games ever made. The Resident Evil franchise has always been touted as one that helped popularize the survival horror genre. Then, with the changes made in Resident Evil 4, it was praised yet again for revolutionizing it. The franchise was able to become more action-heavy, with many of the game’s features being adopted in future entries. One change, the over the shoulder camera angle, was used until Resident Evil 7 when the franchise moved to a first-person camera angle.
Despite the newer games shifting away from what Resident Evil 4 made popular, its influence has still been very present in the franchise. Recent remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 both took mechanics from Resident Evil 4 to make those games feel more modern. With both remakes being so popular, there have been rumors of an eventual remake for Resident Evil 4, but that raises an important question: How does one recreate, and improve on, a game that revolutionized an entire franchise?
According to one report from Imran Khan of Fanbyte, one way that a Resident Evil 4 remake may look to improve on the previous game is by bringing back some previously cut content, which could potentially make the game even more terrifying than the original.
The reason for this time change isn’t arbitrary. Capcom wants to adjust the tone of the remake into something spookier, taking direct inspiration from discarded Resident Evil 4 demos. That footage, which was used in early GameCube preview reels, featured Leon wandering a lonely castle, getting possessed by black smoke, and fighting off living dolls, as well as other ghostly manifestations. Some of this stuff made its way into the original game in other ways. Most of it, however, was left on the cutting room floor and direct comparisons are being made during development of the remake.
Some changes to the story, such as giving side characters bigger roles and more screentime, are also planned.
While the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes were praised for their gameplay changes, another aspect that made them so beloved was how terrifying they became. They took two games that became less scary as they aged and made them feel horrifying again. Resident Evil 4 is, for some people, when the franchise moved away from being traditionally scary and focused more on being a campy good time. That doesn’t mean it lacked scary moments, but it definitely leaned more into action and camp than horror. This reported remake, with the addition of the cut content, could bring the best of all worlds together.