Resident Evil 4 Remake — All the differences from the original

RESIDENT Evil 4 is making a comeback with a full from the ground up remake being released 18 years after the original.

In this time, console generations have come and gone, and things we take for granted now simply didn’t exist when the original released.

We got our hands on a demo of the upcoming remake of Resident Evil 4 and were able to play up until the village siege.

A lot has changed in 18 years, from the area layout to the item placement, and even the control and pace of the game.

Here are the ten biggest changes we found in the Resident Evil 4 remake:

There’s a new intro cutscene

Right from the start, Leon’s opening monologue has changed to talk about his military training alongside the fall of Raccoon City and Umbrella.

We get a glimpse of him practising his knife skills against a familiar partner.

Leon can crouch now

Despite all his military training, poor Leon never learnt how to crouch. Now an early fallen tree shows off his new crouching skills in all their glory.

Crouching allows you to move silently, meaning that you can approach foes without being spotted.

Introducing stealth kills

More similar to the mechanics in modern Resident Evil games, Leon can now sneak up on enemies and kill them quickly and silently.

It might not make a big difference overall, given how many enemies there are on the field, but it could help you when scavenging supplies.

Your knife can now break

In the original Leon’s knife was indestructible, always giving you a backup when you were out of ammo.

However, now the knife can break, and you’ll have to scavenge materials in order to make a new one.

The knife cannot only be used for stealth take-downs, but there’s a new parry mechanic which uses your blade.

This can really help out against enemies with one-hit kill moves, though it will take away some of its durability.

Crafting new weapons

Knives aren’t the only thing you will have to craft, as a whole new crafting mechanic has been introduced.

Fans of the series will recognise things like glueing scrap and gunpowder together to get more ammo.

Conversely, many of the ammo drops have now been changed to material drops, meaning you are more able to choose between shooting or melee.

The first encounter is new

The first house you enter is much bigger than the original, though your meeting with a Ganado plays out similarly, except now Leon speaks Spanish.

After you beat him, you’ll be able to enter new rooms in the house with added enemies to take down, and more world-building.

The dog is dead

At the start of the original, you encounter a dog in a bear trap. Freeing him will allow him to help you out in a later boss fight.

In the remake, the dog is already dead by the time you arrive, which shakes up the story later on.

Set the cow alight

A cow stands in an open barn in the village area, and in the remake the developers decided to add an oil lamp hanging from the roof.

As you may have worked out already, you can now set the cow on fire, which will help out in the fight against Ganados.

The tower can collapse

The tower acts as a safe space in the original village siege, but in the remake it is anything but.

Once you climb the ladder to look around you, the floor can fall from under you thanks to the grumpy man wielding a chainsaw.

Brand new jump scares

While much of the village is the same as the original, enough things have changed that even seasoned players will be caught out.

There are new windows, ladders, items and paths to wander down. You can even climb in the locked shed with some assistance.

This suggests that each of the game’s areas have been expanded, so that everyone will find something to unsettle them.

Written by Dave Aubrey and Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.