Resident Evil 4 (2023 video game)

• 1. Introduction

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  Resident Evil 4, Capcom's 2023 survival horror remake, earned an unusual compliment from the man who made the original. Shinji Mikami, who directed the 2005 game, said on Twitter that he enjoyed the remake very much. He also admitted that the story he wrote the first time was a "half-assed scenario" that took him just two weeks. In his view, the new team fleshed it out and improved on it. That raises a hard question about any remake of a game people already know by heart. What do you keep, and what do you tear down? The answers involve a rescued daughter who now refuses to stay out of the way, a knife that wears out, and a cast that drew both praise and harassment. They also involve a sales run that kept climbing for years.

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• 2. Two Agents in Spain

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  In 1998, Raccoon City is destroyed, and Leon S. Kennedy agrees to become an agent for the United States government. He trains in a special programme with Major Jack Krauser. Six years later, in 2004, the US president sends Leon to rural Spain to rescue his kidnapped daughter, Ashley Graham. Ingrid Hunnigan guides him remotely.

  Soon after arriving, Leon finds his escorts brutally murdered by villagers. The villagers are controlled by the parasite Las Plagas and have pledged themselves to a cult called Los Illuminados. Leon then meets Luis Serra, a scientist on the run from the cult. Ingrid confirms that Luis once worked for the Umbrella Corporation. The village head, Chief Bitores Méndez, captures both men and injects Leon with a Plaga parasite. They escape and go separate ways.

  Ashley is being held in the village's old church. Leon rescues her, only to learn that she carries a Plaga as well. Méndez and a horde of villagers chase them until Leon kills him in an abandoned warehouse. Bad weather delays their helicopter, so the pair shelter in a castle. There, forces loyal to Lord Ramón Salazar capture Ashley. Leon briefly meets Ada Wong again, for the first time since Raccoon City.

  Deep underground, Leon reunites with Luis, who hands over suppressants for the Plagas. Luis says he wants to atone for his work as an Umbrella researcher and for his part with Los Illuminados. They use mining tunnels to reach the surface, where Krauser stabs Luis. Luis forces Krauser to retreat. Before dying, he gives Leon the key to his personal lab, so Leon can cure himself and Ashley. Back at the castle, Leon kills Salazar. With Ada's help, he pursues Krauser, who has carried Ashley off to an island facility.

  On the island, Leon finds Ashley and meets Osmund Saddler, the leader of Los Illuminados. Saddler intends to send the infected Ashley home to infect her father, so that he can take over the world. He uses the Plagas inside Ashley and Leon to control her and incapacitate him. Leon then learns why Krauser took her. Krauser resents the US government over "Operation Javier," a mission two years earlier that killed his entire unit. He narrowly survived it. Wanting power, Krauser mutates himself with a Plaga, and Leon reluctantly kills him. Leon and Ashley reach Luis's lab and remove their parasites. Leon and Ada then kill Saddler, who drops a vial of Plaga amber. Ada takes it and leaves by helicopter, while Leon and Ashley flee the exploding island on a jet ski.

  Ada's own version of these events, the Separate Ways story, begins when she frees Luis from Salazar's dungeon. He can then fetch a vial of Plaga amber that he hid for her. One of Salazar's enforcers, Pesanta, infects her with a unique Plaga. Her boss, Albert Wesker, grows impatient and checks in from time to time. While secretly helping Leon against the cult, Ada reunites with Luis. He notices her infection and sends her to gather ingredients for a suppressant. Her condition worsens whenever the amber is nearby, which forces the two apart for a while. Ada kills Pesanta, which makes her vomit up her parasite, and she destroys it. Soon after, she learns that Krauser killed Luis for the amber.

  Later, Ada helps Leon reach the island facility, secretly places a tracker on him, and goes after Krauser. She watches Krauser give the amber to Saddler. Wesker supplies a device that lets her bypass the facility's security. Then she learns that Wesker plans to detonate the island whether or not Ashley survives. Using Luis's files, Ada sabotages the bombs. Saddler catches her off guard and captures her, but Leon rescues her, and together they kill Saddler and take the amber. As she leaves, Ada asks Wesker what he intends to do with it. He promises that a "new dawn will break" at the cost of billions of casualties. Disgusted, Ada forces her pilot to change course.

  Wesker soon learns of her betrayal. He also learns that the bombs did not detonate correctly, so the island still stands. Holding Krauser's body, he proclaims that the "age of man" will soon end. Rebuilding everything around that threat fell to a team inside Capcom.

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• 3. Rebuilding the Village

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  Early in 2021, Capcom brought the project in-house under its Division 1 team. Many staff who had made the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2 returned. K2 inc provided additional work and development support for the game and its downloadable add-ons. Producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi found the idea of a remake challenging, because the 2005 game was so popular.

  Kazunori Kadoi and Yasuhiro Anpo, both of whom had worked on the Resident Evil 2 remake, were picked as directors. The team split into three groups. One group built the village, one the castle and one the island. All of them worked in Capcom's RE Engine. The developers redesigned the visuals to make the horror stronger, and they wanted the story to lean further into fear.

  One decision changed the pacing of the action. Capcom used far fewer quick time events than the original did, so more of the game stayed in the player's hands.

  The developers also replayed the 2005 game to look for ideas. They noticed the Blue Medallion mini-quest in the village, which the original never repeated elsewhere. In the remake, new mini-quests were added to the village. The Merchant rewards Leon for finding certain items and for hunting target enemies. The most visible change of all, though, concerned the president's daughter.

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• 4. Ashley Beside Leon

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  Yasuhiro Anpo, the co-director, explained what bothered the team about Ashley in the 2005 game. Hiding her while Leon fought was fun in some ways, he said, but having her "basically disappear for a while felt like a waste."

  So in the remake, Ashley cannot be left alone. She always follows Leon, though the player can tell her to stay close or keep her distance. To keep the challenge alive, her health bar was removed, and yellow herbs can no longer boost it. When she takes severe damage, she falls and must be revived to avoid a game over. The same idea appeared in Resident Evil 6.

  Enemies can also pick her up and carry her away. If she is taken too far from Leon without being saved, the game ends. Some moments still send her ahead on her own. As in the original, the player can guide her through holes to unlock doors. Unlike before, she can climb down a ladder without the player's help.

  Her outfit and overall design were altered as well. The goal was a character who looks and acts like a true partner rather than a damsel in distress. The team also aimed to deepen her relationship with Leon. Ashley was not the only character the team revisited, because the whole roster of voices changed too.

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• 5. Combat Reworked

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  Six control schemes ship with the remake, and one of them is styled after the original game. Players still aim over Leon's shoulder, but the design borrows from the Resident Evil 2 remake of 2019 and the Resident Evil 3 remake of 2020. Occasionally Leon must solve a puzzle to reach a new area.

  Kazunori Kadoi supervised the gameplay, and his biggest concern was Leon's knife. Leon can now move and fire at the same time. That lets him dodge attacks while shooting and reload on the run. He can also use melee attacks to hurt enemies and push them away. A new parry lets him block, counterattack and finish off downed enemies with the knife. Unlike the original, the knife has a durability meter. When it breaks, the player must visit the Merchant to repair it or raise its durability. Leon can carry several knives with different attributes.

  As in the original, an attaché case holds the inventory, and the Merchant buys, upgrades and trades items. New to the remake is a crafting system, which turns collected resources into items and ammunition.

  The original game fitted every weapon with a laser sight. The remake replaced it with a reticule to help with aiming. To please fans who preferred the laser, Capcom offered it as an attachment early in the game. A new weapon, the bolt thrower, is a crossbow that kills enemies stealthily.

  The Ganados, the infected enemies, were reworked to be more dangerous. Players are pushed to use the environment against them, by igniting flammable objects or barricading doors and windows. The game remembers these changes, so moved or destroyed objects are still there when the player returns. When a Ganado grabs Leon, the player can press buttons or use the knife to break free.

  The Ganados are known for the moment when a Plaga parasite erupts from the body. The developers reshaped that moment into a gameplay problem. A host now drops to the floor and convulses before erupting. This forces the player to ignore nearby enemies and rush to kill the downed Ganado, which creates risk.

  The Separate Ways add-on plays much the same, with one addition. A grappling hook lets Ada reach places that were out of range and strike enemies from a distance. A particular charm lets her rip shields away from certain enemies. Ada also carries the Internal Retinal Inquiry System, known as I.R.I.S, which reveals clues invisible to the naked eye.

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• 6. Voices and Faces

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  Lily Gao became the English-language voice of Ada Wong, replacing Jolene Andersen. She had already played the character in the 2021 film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Some players were unhappy with her performance and harassed her on social media. Gao deleted her Instagram posts, and later answered her critics directly: "My Ada is a survivor. She is unpredictable, resilient, and absolutely not a stereotype."

  Other roles were more settled. The Japanese voice actors for Leon and Ada in the Resident Evil 2 remake returned. Nick Apostolides came back from the same remake to voice Leon in English. D.C. Douglas, the long-time English voice of Wesker, did not return. Craig Burnatowski took over the role.

  As with earlier Resident Evil remakes, a second cast supplied likenesses, 3D modeling and performance capture. The Dutch model Ella Freya provided the face of Ashley, while Genevieve Buechner gave her voice. Players would not see any of these performances until a first teaser trailer appeared.

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• 7. Trailers and Add-ons

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  On the 3rd of June 2022, the first teaser trailer appeared during PlayStation's State of Play presentation. A second trailer and more gameplay followed at a showcase in October 2022. Preorders included Leon's briefcase and Leon's handgun ammo as charms.

  The third trailer debuted at another State of Play on the 23rd of February 2023. Preview footage had drawn criticism for its rain effects. Producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi responded that Capcom would release a patch on launch day to change them.

  On the 9th of March 2023, a Capcom Spotlight livestream announced a playable demo. It was released immediately afterwards for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S. On the 20th of March 2023, Capcom released three television commercials in Japan. They parodied the anime series World Masterpiece Theater and were made with Nippon Animation, the studio behind that series. A collector's edition for the console versions included a Leon figurine, a hardcover artbook, a village map poster and a digital soundtrack.

  The full game arrived on the 24th of March 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S. PS VR2 support was listed as coming later.

  On the 7th of April 2023, the Mercenaries minigame was released as free downloadable content. In it, players kill as many enemies as they can before a time limit runs out. Capcom added microtransactions the same day, letting players pay extra to upgrade weapons faster.

  On the 14th of September 2023, another State of Play announced Separate Ways, a paid side story featuring Ada Wong, Luis and Albert Wesker. It came out on the 21st of September 2023, alongside a title update for Mercenaries. Capcom also showed Separate Ways at Tokyo Game Show 2023. A free VR mode followed on the 8th of December 2023. Versions for iOS, iPadOS and macOS arrived on the 20th of December 2023.

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• 8. Praise and Sales

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  Metacritic summed up the critical response as "universal acclaim." On OpenCritic, 98% of 193 critic reviews recommended the game. The Separate Ways add-on fared slightly less strongly. Metacritic called its reviews "generally favorable," and 96% of 57 OpenCritic critics recommended it.

  Several critics gave perfect scores. VG247 praised the new weapon handling and the escort sections with Ashley. The Guardian also awarded a perfect score and singled out the camera and the weapons that the Merchant provides. Shacknews admired the Krauser fight. The original leaned heavily on quick time events there, while the remake offers a fully player-controlled knife duel that deepens the characters' stories. The Daily Telegraph found the Regenerators scarier than before, with fights well balanced against puzzles. PCMag liked that Capcom improved the combat and added more horror.

  Writing for IGN, Tristan Ogilvie said that "at every step of the journey there are enhancements, both big and small." GameSpot's Kurt Indovina welcomed the improved characterizations of Leon, Ashley and the Merchant, and said Leon now "acts like a human being." GameRevolution called Ashley the weakest point of the original and said the remake lets her bond with Leon develop properly. Game Informer said her redesign helped reduce her original sexualization. GamesRadar+ found the RE Engine visuals impressive, though it felt the combat still had problems and most bosses were easy.

  Not every critic agreed. Zoey Handley of Destructoid said the remake did not fix some weaker aspects of the original, calling it "just as atonal as it was originally." Handley felt that the best section was the first entry into the village, and that it never reached that height again.

  Awards followed. The game was nominated for the Golden Joystick Award for Ultimate Game of the Year and for The Game Award for Game of the Year.

  Sales were fast. The game sold more than 3 million copies in its first two days and 4 million in its first two weeks. In Japan, it was the best-selling retail game in its first week, with 89,662 copies on PlayStation 5 and 85,371 on PlayStation 4. It passed 5 million by July 2023 and reached 6.48 million by December. It was the 13th best-selling video game in the United States in 2023. Totals then climbed to 7 million by March 2024, over 8 million by October, and over 9 million by December. By April 2025 it had sold 10 million copies. That made it the fastest-selling Resident Evil game until Resident Evil Requiem passed it in 2026. By May 2026, Resident Evil 4 had sold 13.60 million copies.

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