How Resident Evil 4 Remake Reimagines Horror Games
Have you ever been scared by a video game? I definitely have! One of my favorite horror experiences comes from the Resident Evil series. When I first played Resident Evil 4 Remake, I was enamored by the thrill. A primary reason for these feelings was the atmosphere. This is accomplished through sounds, visuals, gameplay, enemy design, and level design. Horror games may have a difficult time accomplishing being scary due to one of these factors not hitting as hard as it should.
The atmosphere is something that horror games should try to prioritize in order to be scary, and the way game designers do it is very different, for example, from the way horror movie directors accomplish the same goal. In a horror movie, it’s the viewer and main characters versus the monster or threat. It’s a two-against-one scenario, but only two entities actually matter, as the viewer is rooting for the main characters, not interacting with them. In horror games, however, it’s a one-against-one scenario where the player is the main character, and you are tasked to get to the end of the game. The goal of the developers and designers is to get you so immersed in the world of horror that you keep going back to it and eventually finish the game and defeat the evil. The difference between games and other horror media is in that versus scenario. Since you are the character trying not to be killed by the monster, the viewing aspect is taken away entirely, and the player is put into the mindset of “I must win.” You have to defeat the monster, not someone the main character met in the movie, not someone you’re reading about. It’s you.
What is Resident Evil 4?
Developed and released by Capcom in 2005, the original Resident Evil 4 was regarded by critics and fans as the best Resident Evil game to date, directing the series from survival horror to action survival horror, with intense and exciting setpieces scattered throughout the experience. Your goal in Resident Evil 4 is to save Ashley Graham, the daughter of the President of the United States, from her captors, who are located in Spain. Leon, after starting a new job as a police officer in Resident Evil 2, has been promoted to a federal agent after the traumatic events of Racoon City in 1998. Over the course of the game, you explore various locations that are perfect fits for horror media, such as a forest and a castle. Ever since 2005, people have adored Resident Evil 4, and when Capcom started remaking the older games, people around the world expected a remake of one of the survival horror genre’s best-in-class games. When that remake was eventually released in 2023, it was as if 2005 happened all over again due to review sites and players regarding the game as a masterpiece. There are many reasons why this occurred, and one of them is the presentation, combining audio and visuals to create fear.
Sound Design and Visuals
Sound designers are one of the unsung hero groups of video game design. Their work can elevate a scene or experience to glorious heights without us even noticing it. Here, look at the very beginning of Resident Evil 4 Remake. When watching the video below, think about all of the different sounds you hear.
The sound design really adds to the immersion. When playing the game for the first time, the sound of the harsh wind and the cacophony of crows really emphasizes how far from society Leon really is. He’s in a country he’s never been to, in a forest at night, alone. One of the choices that I believe the developers had in mind was in regard to the sound of the crows. If you listen back (0:05–0:06), you not only hear the call of a crow but the distance of a crow. It sounds as if the crow heard Leon walking through the forest and is flying away to the left. The crow isn’t even visible to the player at all, but so much information is conveyed through sound. The locationality of the birds made me feel that the forest I was about to go through is vast and expansive.
Resident Evil 4 Remake’s visuals come out swinging right out of the gate. This forest section is creepy, with flies and other bugs buzzing over a rotting deer corpse. As you traverse further into the forest, you enter a house.
Inside the house, Leon asks an older man if he has seen the police officers that took him to the forest. After Leon is ignored, he sees this: a bloody police badge, the same badge owned by one of the officers that dropped him off in Spain.
In this scene, there is no music until the mysterious man tries to attack Leon with an axe as sharp but intense melodies start to introduce themselves to your ears.
This scene is so tense due to the way it’s presented. Leon being ignored when asking about the officer adds more mystery to the interaction between the two. It creates conflict in our brains with the thought that a call must always get a response, as the scene comes to a climax when Leon kicks the man to the wall. The controller constantly buzzing to create a sense of realism also enhances this moment.
The quality of the scenes isn’t the only aspect of the presentation that shines throughout the game. The side of the presentation that leans more technical, such as lighting and effects like fog, makes the entire game feel spooky. For example, here are some screenshots from Pushsquare’s Resident Evil 4 Remake walkthrough that highlights some of the moments where the artist’s skills are showcased well.
These three screenshots showcase how visually stunning the game can be, but what if the game could look appealing without being able to see much at all? Pictured below is a screenshot I took while playing. Leon is located inside the basement of the first house he enters. He pulls out his flashlight to see better in the darkness, tunneling his vision.
The flashlight’s tunnel vision adds to the uncertainty, which is an overall theme of Resident Evil 4 Remake. I didn’t feel the chill of uncertainty throughout my first time playing the game only because of the presentation. Another way the game created fear is the gameplay.
Gameplay
Resident Evil 4 Remake is a third-person, over-the-shoulder camera, action survival horror game. Your mission is to save Ashley Graham from her captors in a remote forest in Spain. Leon starts off with a pistol and a knife, and as he explores the world, he can collect new guns, such as shotguns, and healing items, like green herbs.
In chapter 4 of the game, Leon finally encounters Ashley, and now the player is tasked to protect her as you traverse Spain. Ashley can’t fight, and the player won’t just get a game over if Leon dies. If Ashley dies or she gets captured, you have to try again.
A good way to think about Resident Evil 4 Remake’s gameplay is like a tug of war. In a normal tug of war, two teams of equal numbers of people try and pull the middle of the rope over to one team’s side. In this example, Ashley is the middle of the rope. In Resident Evil 4 Remake, Leon is on one side, and seven of the cultists who captured Ashley are on the other. However, in this analogy, Leon has the power of seven people. You may think that there would be a draw, as the pulling power of both teams is equal. In most circumstances of the game, that is correct. The game is very balanced in how resources spawn, what enemies are capable of, and what tools Leon can use against the enemies. When Ashley gets thrown into the equation, the game doesn’t get more difficult, per se, but it becomes different. Instead of there being one straight rope, the gameplay is as if the right side has one rope, but the moment the rope passes the middle point, it splits off into two ropes, forming a Y shape. Leon has to pull the rope with both of his arms, making it so that his body and muscles have to multitask. He still has the strength of seven people, so the balance is still even, which is great for the design of the game. This makes it so that the gameplay is all down to the player’s skill at shooting, managing resources like health, grenades, and ammo, as well as making sure Ashley is in the right place at the right time so she isn’t captured (or accidentally shot by Leon).
I really enjoy this type of Y-shaped design, as instead of the difficulty ramping up at this point of the game, the player has more to manage, which adds to the anxiety of surviving; the player’s focus in their brain constantly shifting around. Adding onto the already scary tone, this makes Resident Evil 4 Remake’s gameplay an achievement of a design experience.
Enemy Design
In most media, especially horror media, there’s always an enemy or opposing force that the player must overcome. In Resident Evil 4 Remake, the number of different enemies is staggering. In every chapter, there’s something new to encounter, which keeps the game very fresh. Let’s look at some enemies which elevate the moments they are introduced in.
Chainsaw Man
Chainsaw Man is introduced in chapter 1 of the game, where Leon is fighting off an entire village of zombie villagers. After surviving for a few minutes, out comes the chainsaw man. He has a lot of health, a very strong weapon, and teaches the player a vital mechanic of the game. Leons knife isn’t just used for stabbing; it’s also used for parrying.
In the clip above, you can see the prompt for the player to hit L1.
For a first-time player such as myself, I was encouraged to press this button when prompted, and when I did, Leon pulls out his knife and stops the chainsaw from cutting him in half. This interaction wasn’t just exhilarating for me but stressful. After you parry the chainsaw, both Leon and Chainsaw Man are back in neutral positions. This gives the player options, as they can run away or shoot him again, but what if another villager attacks? All of these three situations are brought up due to the aftermath of the parry; the thrill of it all really makes me love this moment and this enemy.
Garrador
The garrador (roughly meaning clawing in Spanish) is introduced in one of the scariest parts of the game. Leon falls down into the lower part of a dungeon after obtaining a key. As he gets his bearings and turns around to find a way out, he sees a garrador’s face, its teeth, and gums highlighted by Leon’s flashlight — a plagued man with eyes sealed shut and claws longer than its torso. As Leon attempts to leave the section of the dungeon, the garrador breaks free and tries to chase after him. The aspect of this that really brings this encounter to the next level is the garrador's blindness. It can’t see you, but it can hear you, so the player has to make sure they are sneaking around behind the monster to hit the weak point on the back. It feels very engaging and frightening to swiftly swerve around the room, making sure it doesn’t hear you.
Verdugo
Verdugo was definitely one of the scariest enemies in the entire game, which accredits his name, which means executioner in Spanish. Leon is exploring an underground lab, and as he activates the power, this terrifying creature crawls through the vents of the lab, showcased in a first-person perspective. The player has no idea what’s about to attack them as they hear crawling and growling from the beast. In order to kill it, you have to freeze it using buttons throughout the lab that makes frozen gas shoot out. This enemy is one of my favorites because of how I defeated it. As you are running around the lab, Leon has to flip a switch to activate an elevator. As I was trying to escape Verdugo, I flipped the switch and ran around the lab, avoiding tail swipes as I went. I was so scared, so engrossed in my escape, that I didn’t even think about what I could do to stop it. I could only think about running. The ambiance of the lab, combined with the terror of the creature in front of me, made this part of the game exceedingly enjoyable and scary. In the end, my brain could only think about running, so I didn’t kill him, even though I could have; I just escaped in the elevator. The elevator ride up was unsettling, as I felt I just escaped a near-death experience.
Overall, the enemies of Resident Evil 4 Remake strike the right balance between being scary to look at and engaging to fight against. As Resident Evil 4 Remake’s Art Director Hirofumi Nakaoka said in an interview with Game Informer, “One of the defining art characteristics of the original Resident Evil 4 is the characters”, and I believe he and his team translated that energy perfectly into the remake.
Level Design
The locales you explore throughout Leon’s journey are horrifying, interesting to explore, and exactly what a game like this needs. There are 16 chapters in the game, but chapter 13 is particularly filled with fear.
Chapter 13
Chapter 13 was one of the many moments during the game in which I started to get really scared. Following his arrival on a nearby island where Ashley is located, Leon arrives in an underground lab. He explores for a bit and sees something scurrying around but doesn’t get a good look. Leon explores further and finds a frozen person on a stretcher with a parasite sticking out of it. Reading a journal on a table gives him the information that after a scientist combined a parasite and a person, its body could regenerate extremely quickly, calling it the regenerador. On the fourth page, the journal says that the creature escaped.
Attempting to leave the room, Leon encounters the regenerador, a slim and slimy creature with elongated arms and knife-like teeth. The player will most likely attempt to shoot it countless times but to no avail. Running around this lab, upgrading keycards in order to escape, really freaked me out. I couldn’t kill the abomination; I could only run around the claustrophobic lab, finding new rooms I could open with my keycard. Eventually, as I explore the dark lab, light as scarce as water in a desert, I come across a chamber with large pods hanging from the ceiling, the room covered in icicles as if Christmas had come early. As Leon inserts his keycard into a slot in a machine, another regenerador emerges from a pod, forcing the player to run and run for even longer as the machine upgrades his only way of escape: the keycard.
Everything about this encounter made me appreciate the game even more. The setup is amazing, and I was in awe of the ways the game designers captivated me.
Conclusion
Resident Evil 4 Remake is a game that is extremely special because it completely changed how I view horror games. From a young age, I was usually not too keen on playing these kinds of games, but now, my eyes have been opened to all kinds of games, no matter the genre. I went into Resident Evil 4 Remake, ready for the nightmare, and came out feeling enthralled by horror. From the monsters to the environments, Resident Evil 4 Remake is a horror masterpiece, which I heavily recommend to everyone. Resident Evil 4 Remake brings fear and anxiety to the forefront while also making the experience feel like an action movie, as Leon spits out quip after quip as if he was trained by Spider-Man. Even though the game has the persistent feeling of uncertainty, it never gets to a point where it becomes too much to handle. If you are looking for a fun, exciting story of overcoming the darkness ahead, with gameplay tuned to near perfection, I would heavily suggest you play this game.