MUCH LIKE LEON S. KENNEDY, Capcom wasn’t in for an easy ride with this one. There are great games and then there are the classics, games so forward-thinking and complete that they shape entire corners of the games industry. In the case of Resident Evil 4, every third-person game since has worn its love for Capcom’s masterpiece on its over-the-shoulder sleeves—everything from Gears of War to Dead Space to The Last of Us runs because Capcom showed them all how to walk. Remaking a game that remade its own genre is like trying to catch lightning in a bottle one more time.
Capcom almost managed it and, for the longest time, you’ll think it did. The opening of the is outstanding, slightly streamlining the original route into the village to get you into the first big set-piece: A knock-down drag-out village brawl that, almost immediately, takes place with the constant sound of a chainsaw revving as its owner chases Leon everywhere.
