This is not the greatest game ever. This is a tribute

After 18 years away, the revving chainsaws of RE4 are back to haunt you.

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 forwardthinking and complete that they shape entire corners of the games industry. In the case of Resident Evil 4, every thirdperson game since has worn its love for Capcom’s masterpiece on its overthe-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 Resident Evil 4 Remake 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.

For those who have completed the original game, hardcore difficulty level is recommended. The name is certainly fitting—I must have died in this encounter six times before beginning to figure out the endless tricks baked into Leon’s moveset and the enemy’s behavior. One difference you’ll notice almost immediately on this difficulty level is that running away is not quite the god-tier strategy it once was. These ganados don’t just run after you, but they will catch you and inflict grievous damage. One thing you’ll soon realize in this game it’s that, after the rather flavorless Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Capcom has rediscovered the joy of killing players brutally.