I have loved the Resident Evil series ever since I played the first game on PS1 in the late-90s (the Director’s Cut to be exact). I tend to think of the mainline games as distinct eras: original (the first game through Zero), action (4 through Revelations 2), and RE Engine (VII, VIII, and the recent remakes). Even with nostalgia intact and despite a couple of small missteps, I believe the RE Engine era is the best Resident Evil has ever been.
I’ve played through all of the RE Engine games on console, some multiple times, mostly because my PC wasn’t up to the task until about a year ago when I upgraded. Over the past few months I’ve bought the PC versions on deep discounts and now, at the start of spooky season and with Requiem coming early next year, it felt like a good time to replay them.
I’m starting with the RE4 remake, simply because I’ve only played through it once. I’ve finished the original RE4 at least a dozen times (mostly on GameCube and Wii), and I think the remake is phenomenal. It manages to keep some of the endearing goofiness, while also learning a bit more into horror. The mechanics and systems remain the most addictive the series has ever been.
It may not be a “pure” horror game, but the vibe of RE4 remake is incredible.
The game looks and runs at a solid 4K60 on my PC (AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, GeForce RTX 4080 Super), but I’m still not able to max out every setting.
I really appreciate the care that Capcom took with this PC version (and I’m assuming the other RE Engine games). There are dozens of settings to tweak and the game makes it very clear whether or not the change will affect performance, based on your graphics memory. Obviously there are other factors to consider, but this approach provides a lot of helpful insight about the impact of individual graphics settings.
I like or love all of the RE Engine games and I’m looking forward to revisiting them on PC in the leadup to Requiem, which I’m pretty obsessed with following the most recent trailer. It’s a long way to February 27th, but these replays should make the wait easier.
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