• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Let's face it, RE4 was a massive mistake.

JCK75

Member
Your argument kind of falls apart when you think about it for 5 minutes and realize RE2 remake has the story/level of RE2 with the third person camera/control of modern RE games, this is what makes it so awesome.. all of the great design/storytelling of the original, without the janky tank controls.
 

INC

Member
RE1+2 with fixed camera still had the best atmosphere and real survival horror, even with tank controls

The new RE remakes are meh since zombies take like 6 headshots.

They look great tho
 

Vick

Member
Sure one of the best games of all time, which changed gaming history by being father of series like Gears of War, Uncharted or The Last of Us, and saved a dying franchise which wasn’t selling enough despite masterpieces like RE on Gamecube, was a mistake. Of course it was.
 
Your argument kind of falls apart when you think about it for 5 minutes and realize RE2 remake has the story/level of RE2 with the third person camera/control of modern RE games, this is what makes it so awesome.. all of the great design/storytelling of the original, without the janky tank controls.

RE2 Remake kept the pure survival horror roots of the franchise still in tact, so the design change in remake was okay. It was still a much slower affair. RE4 took the design choice and used it to destroy any past resemblance of the survival horror roots of RE. That's the key difference.
 

ExpandKong

Banned
OP are...are you Bars from GameFAQs? You should check in, there are people there worried about you.

But no RE4 is one of the best games ever made sorry. Blaming RE6 being a bad game on RE4 being an amazing game is kind of silly.
 
It's still a classic.

Change is absolutely necessary some times, even developers would get tired of trying to stick to exactly the same formula time and time again.

If a franchise gets a bit stale, they can either make big changes to it or, due to lack of sales, it can end up dying.
 

Alphagear

Member
Your argument kind of falls apart when you think about it for 5 minutes and realize RE2 remake has the story/level of RE2 with the third person camera/control of modern RE games, this is what makes it so awesome.. all of the great design/storytelling of the original, without the janky tank controls.

Yes definitely.

The issue isn't third person over the shoulder perspective but the rest of the game.

RE2 remake got it right. Kept the survival horror feel and added the third person over the shoulder perspective.

Perfection in my opinion and the perfect template for future RE games.
 

laynelane

Member
It really wasn't a mistake. At the time RE was suffering from declining sales, series fatigue, and failure to meet sales goals. It was a last chance scenario for the RE series to continue as stipulated by Capcom. Since it was a critical and sales success, RE was able to continue as a franchise. That aside, I love RE4. I've also enjoyed all the RE games I've played and expect to continue doing so in the future.
 
I wouldn't call it a "mistake", but it definitely changed the trajectory of the series... and the movies pushed it even further in that direction, which resulted in 6 being an over-the-top shootbang extravaganza.
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
“Going to 3rd person was trash”
Uhm, RE was always 3rd person until RE7
RE4 just changed to an over the shoulder view rather than a fixed camera angle.
 
Last edited:

Madflavor

Member
It's not RE4's fault that the devs who continued on with the series, didn't understand what made RE4 work. RE4 managed to hit that sweet spot between horror and action, while the games that came after went further and further into action territory.

But it really was groundbreaking when it came out. At the time, RE4 was as good as it got. To claim it was a mistake is just a moronic thing to say.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
Agreed. It was a good game but it ruined Resident Evil and it wasn’t a traditional residient evil game

It started the wave of bad Resident Evil games.

It went away from many key points of the series:

Medtroidvania style balctracking
Zombies
Puzzles
Survival Horror
Keys and locks

What it brought:

Angry villagers who throw things at you
Spinning kicks and melee
QTE’s
Escort missions
Machine gun villagers
Progress with levels: No metroidvania style layout, no Mansion, Police station etc
More Action less horror
 
Last edited:

LarknThe4th

Member
Resident Evil 4 is the high water mark of its entire generation and is Capcoms magnum opus, their gift to gaming as a whole

I domt care if the "franchise"or "IP" was confused and didn't know where to go after it, the important thing is after a turbulent journey we got something that would not have been possible if Capcom where thinking like you, luckily Mikami is a genius and wanted to take risks, all true art needs risk as a central ingredient

As far as horror, it had its moments and they hit harder due to the controls and perspective change
 

Donwel

Neo Member
I wouldn't say the switch to 3rd person is what made RE4 trash, I'd say the switch to an action QTE fest is to blame for that. That and the ammo piñata enemies that pretty much remove any sense of tension the game might otherwise have had.
yIRUtAf.jpg
 
Last edited:

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
There's a limit for debating taste and preferences. RE4 is perfection, a true masterpiece and the best in the series by far.
Maybe not perfection but making it third-person and changing the environment was setting the stage on how future Resident Evil games should be played. RE2 remake or original, I'll give that one to OP...yeah, they were better. RE7 was just hot trash. You know 7 was not groundbreaking or new. It was Capcom basically remaking cheesy Western-themed horror films and giving you an unknown / unlikable protagonist. RE7 completely disassociates itself with the whole franchise and comes off as a cheap first-person horror game but resembles nothing in element of the atmosphere of Resident Evil (I sat through the whole thing and did not enjoy it). RE4 may very well be leading the way for developers to implement that idea into RE: Village for the next-gen. RE4 sold very well and is probably the most ported version in the whole franchise. So, while it may not be the best...a mistake was 7 (RE: Zero was more relevant that 7); RE4 is keeping context, changing some elements, but overall improving the quality of RE-styled games.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
RE4 led to Dead Space, so it can't be all that bad.

However, I totally understand the loss of gameplay elements in the transition from RE1-3 to RE4. But considering how many franchises bit the dust when "finally going 3D", Resident Evil could've gone worse. Clock Tower, Alone in the Dark, Phantasmagoria, Sanitarium, Nosferatu, The Immortal, D, etc all went away...
 

kiphalfton

Member
I can't help but shake my head whenever people show the abomination that is resident evil 3.5 or whatever that crap is with the hook man. Really, that's what you want. Be happy we got what we got, which was an extremely high production game, with great graphics, atmosphere, etc.
 

Astral Dog

Member
Lol RE4 is STILL amazing and one of the best horror AND action games ever made. Its sequels don't undermine its greatness and while a large amount of action RE wasn't necessarily good, the series needs a shakeup from time to time.

There are many types of Resident Evil games and all have made at least one classic.

Also imagine if there was only third person RE after the greatness of 7 on VR 🥺
 

dan76

Member
No, RE4 saved the series. The static camera system was stale by that point. Go find some reviews of Zero, which was way inferior to REmake.

RE4 is the best in the series. The only mistake they made was not having conventional zombies.
God yes. It's about the only thing I'd change. Proper zombies would've been great. I'm looking forward to that fan remix of REmake in the style of RE4, it looks fantastic.
 
It is one of the greatest games of all time.

It is NOT a Great Resident Evil simply because it isn't Resident Evil. A Survival Horror series.

This is true but it's really hard to argue against RE4 since it was so good that maybe it was worth it to kill the old RE formula for it you know. I don't agree with this but it's that good.
 

Neff

Member
Factually, demonstrably, objectively, scientifically, irrevocably, mathematically, officially, and literally no.
 

ethomaz

Banned
Agree.

It is the RE that bored me to hell to the point to never try the new ones (5 and 6) until the amazing back to the roots with 7.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Resident Evil 4 literally made us judge survival horror games differently. Everything from the man with the chainsaw to the typewriter theme song. Resident Evil has tried to live up to 4. You can’t convince me that there was another horror game that brought more to it’s own genre than Resident Evil 4. This is why Resident Evil did so well with Resident Evil VII. Resident Evil 4 broke the mold and they couldn’t make anything to top it.
 

SuperGooey

Member
Going to third person was trash. RE4 turned the franchise into an action game for the next number of installments and they got progressively worse. Leading upto the cluster fuck that was RE6. Those design choices were all rooted in from the success of RE4.

Even RE3 remake while flawed was still better than RE4 as an RE installment.

Want proof? Compare how critically acclaimed RE2 remake and RE7 were. Even Remake went back to it's roots which every RE4 fan were suddenly making it out as the second coming and RE7 was a new step into exploring the psychological horror of the genre. Which what RE is meant to be by the way.... HORROR.

So yeah screw RE4. Good riddance to that history of Resident Evil.

Edit: Was RE4 a fun action game? Sure. Was it a good RE game? No way in hell.

THIS is what RE4 was meant to be before the design change. Biohazard 3.5:


The series was getting action-heavy with RE2, and undeniably an action game by RE3. Not sure how more action makes RE4 a bad game, and hating RE4 for being successful is childish. You are conveniently forgetting (or just don't know) that the RE series was dying with Capcom about to pull the plug after the financial failures of REmake and Zero. RE4 saved the series by shaking up the formula and creating something fresh and exciting. I mean, honestly, the oldschool style peaked with REmake. Where else could the series go with in that direction in the early 00s? It needed to do what other dead horror franchise from the time didn't do--evolve!

In order for franchises to survive for decades, they need to evolve and change over time as well. RE4 expanded what an RE game could be. Having a rigid "RE has to be this and only this always" mindset is incredibly close-minded. Though, you can argue that like the oldchool style peaked with REmake, the action RE games peaked early with RE4 with no place to go but downhill. Blaming RE4 for being so well-designed that its sequels couldn't live up to it shouldn't be a mark against the game.

Also, horror is subjective. RE4, to me, is by far the most atmospheric and creepy RE game. The village is incredibly unnerving, and the Regenerators, Dr. Salvadors, and Garrodors still give me more anxiety than any other RE series monsters.
 
Last edited:

SuperGooey

Member
I wouldn't say the switch to 3rd person is what made RE4 trash, I'd say the switch to an action QTE fest is to blame for that. That and the ammo piñata enemies that pretty much remove any sense of tension the game might otherwise have had.
yIRUtAf.jpg
This is a very dishonest image. You're never in danger of running out of ammo in RE3. You have more than enough ammo to kill every enemy in the game, as well as drop Nemesis every encounter. Same is true for RE2.

This point people keep parroting that "RE4 is a good game, but a bad RE game" is so silly and a lazy way to write off RE4. By that undefined yet rigid standard, you can say RE2 is a bad RE game as well, right? I mean, there is far less focus on item management compared to RE1, as well as far more ammo and much more linear level design. Puzzles? RE2 has the least amount of them out of the oldschool games, and even less than RE4.
 
Last edited:

cireza

Member
Game was unbelievable on Gamecube. Felt like next-gen was already there, but on the current gen.

It was a depart from previous games, but we had 4 of them (1, 2, 3 and Code Veronica). I think it was a good thing to try something new.

Just like Resident Evil VII. I strongly dislike what they did, but still it felt right for them to try something new. I can't stand it when series are the same thing again and again. Show us creativity !
 

Lokaum D+

Member
Resident Evil main serie review:

1 - okish
2 - masterpiece
2R - masterpiece with great graphics
3 - masterpiece
3R - is this a joke ?
4 - good game, not a resident evil ( AY, un forastero )
5 - wtf is this ?
6 - is this a bad joke ?
7 - great game, good atmosphere, great resident evil but in first person.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom