Over 20 Years Later, Does “The Best Resident Evil” Still Hold Up?

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Originally launched on January 11, 2005, Resident Evil 4 was a huge success for Capcom. It first appeared on the GameCube and later came to other consoles, dramatically changing the Resident Evil series. Unlike earlier games that focused on exploration and survival, Resident Evil 4 prioritized action. Even though recent games have returned to a more traditional horror style, Resident Evil 4’s innovative features continue to impact both the series and the wider gaming world.

You know, going back to Resident Evil 4 is just awesome. Everyone talks about it being a classic from the PS2/GameCube era, and honestly, it lives up to the hype. Even playing it now, before the remake came out, it’s still incredibly fun. The gameplay holds up, the story is gripping, and it really shows how taking risks with the tone can create something truly special. It’s a blast to replay, even knowing what’s coming!

Resident Evil 4’s Impact Is Impossible To Ignore

Resident Evil 4 represented a significant change for the series, arriving at a critical moment. While earlier Resident Evil games were successful, the franchise was starting to feel repetitive with similar gameplay, confusing stories, and unrelated spin-offs. Even well-received titles like Resident Evil 0 had issues with clunky controls and unmemorable enemies. This is what made Resident Evil 4 so groundbreaking. It completely changed the game’s location and introduced new environments and enemies, moving away from the usual monster designs.

By focusing more on action and using a third-person viewpoint, Resident Evil 4 delivered exciting battles and monster fights. The game adopted a playfully over-the-top tone to match its strange villains and explosive combat. This was exactly what the Resident Evil series needed – a burst of fresh energy that led to some of its best reviews ever. It was also incredibly popular with players and had a lasting impact on action games, making the over-the-shoulder camera angle a standard feature in many titles that followed. It’s difficult to overstate Resident Evil 4‘s influence; games like The Last of Us clearly build upon the foundation it created.

Resident Evil 4 Has Some Of The Best Horror-Action Gameplay Ever

Since its original release, Resident Evil 4 has appeared on many different gaming systems, and even received a complete remake in 2023. But it’s still worth playing today to see how well it has aged. Surprisingly, Resident Evil 4 remains just as thrilling as it was over two decades ago. While Resident Evil: Dead Aim experimented with a similar third-person perspective and free aiming, Resident Evil 4 perfected these ideas. Leon’s movements and combat feel incredibly smooth and realistic, making each encounter feel like a true fight. He feels strong and capable, and that really defines the experience of playing as him.

When playing Resident Evil 4, it really feels like you can take on an entire village of corrupted killers. It also means that when a situation arises where Leon does have to flee, the tension feels all the more intense. While the game is more of an action title than a horror game, it’s able to use the horrific imagery and sudden bursts of intensity to elevate the tension. That’s the key way Resident Evil 4 keeps up the horror while shifting more thoroughly in terms of raw tone. Even looking at games that took inspiration from the gameplay — chief among them The Last of Us — Resident Evil 4’s ability to balance sudden terror with satisfying action gameplay was a big reason the title was so effective.

Why Resident Evil 4 Still Holds Up

Perhaps the thing that stands out the best from Resident Evil 4 is the storytelling. Resident Evil has always had a uniquely challenging tone. This can be boiled down to the way the franchise has always had one foot in the horror-action subgenre, while the other half of it feels more indebted to the legacy of survival horror. Games like Resident Evil 3: Nemesis were perfect examples of this, with fearsome enemies like the titular bioweapon adding a sense of non-stop dread — that nevertheless doesn’t take away from players getting to use an absurd number of weapons on the undead as Jill Valentine. While the series would eventually find a better way of handling both tones simultaneously, the franchise needed to refresh itself away from the gameplay style that had defined the early entries in the series.

Like how Resident Evil 7 redefined the series with a focus on pure horror, Resident Evil 4 took a different approach, offering an experience that wasn’t necessarily terrifying, but consistently exciting and occasionally startling. The game’s playful self-awareness allows for over-the-top elements like the iconic weapons merchant and the villain Osmund Saddler, but the characters remain committed to the situation. This sincerity, reminiscent of a classic B-movie, perfectly complements the action and horror. Resident Evil 4 boasts excellent game design that still holds up today, though some aspects, like quick-time events, feel a bit outdated. However, it’s the game’s overall presentation that makes it so memorable. It’s essentially the perfect action movie in video game form—and like many great films, it remains incredibly fun to play even twenty years after its release.

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2026-01-11 20:16