Sunday, September 22nd. Resident Evil 4 Remake's masterful pacing.

God I love Resident Evil 4 Remake.

I haven't really played the original, so I can't say what belongs to which game. All I can wholeheartedly say is that on its own, I specifically love Resident Evil 4 Remake.

Of course, there are many aspects to love here. The detailed graphics and artstyle, the characters and voice acting, the boss encounters and their music. But I wanted to write something about just how damn excellent the game is with its pacing.

Resident Evil 4 Remake's campaign reminds me of the singleplayer campaigns of old. Games like earlier Call of Dutys and Halos. Specifically in how many unique locations, enemies, and encounters were created in such a small place.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 comes to mind here. I know every single mission and their layout, practically every room in that campaign. It's a very, very short campaign, but so diverse. You start in the Middle East, then in the peaks of the Himalayas, then in a Russian airport, then in Rio, then in American suburbs, then in an oil rig, then in a Russian Gulag. It just keeps on going, with every mission putting you somewhere new. The enemies don't really change, but the arenas do. You remember where to hunker down for cover in every room, where snipers and vehicles will spawn.

And of course, Resident Evil 4 Remake is a master of this sort of pacing. It is excellent in delivering chapters packed with awesome encounters, setpieces, bosses, and cutscenes.

Like let's take chapter 2, for example. You start in a factory basement, with all of your gear taken away as a prisoner.

1. After you recover your gear, you are introduced to the merchant, teaching you about buying items and upgrades, repairing your knife, selling treasures and old key items, and his special trade system using Spinels and sidequests. He also had a sidequest where you backtrack to the factory to kill rats.
2. Once you've hopefully upgraded and purchased a sniper rifle, you proceed to the valley. An encounter of rickety scaffolding. Narrow walkways, a lot of locked doors, and an absurd amount of enemies. I think there might be over 30 or so enemies in this arena alone. This is what I would say is the third major battle of the game, where you are running around trying to manage your resources while fighting enemies from all directions. This area is also very notorious from the first game.
3. You return to the merchant and open a door with a key from the valley. You have some hallways with a few enemies and bear traps, which are a bit of a break from massive crowds. However, at the end of this linear section, you have a chainsaw villager. He is an intimidating opponent that, if he hits you, will oneshot you. He is the miniboss that guards the way forward. You fought him in the village, but you probably didn't kill him there, just barely surviving the encounter. Now you are mostly forced to finally down him. Additionally, there are a few sneaky beartraps in the dark grass, and two enemies that spawn behind you when you engage him, spicing up this encounter.
4. After the chainsaw man, you proceed into the chief's manor. You have to navigate bear traps, and enter through the side entrance. There is a single enemy, in the toilet, which is very funny. After some light puzzle solving, the enemy comes back as a zombie and surprises you. You open a door with a small puzzle, and complete the chapter.

The first section of the game has you breaking out of the factory using nothing but scavenged kitchen knives, tutorializing melee combat, stealth kills, and parrying.

I wouldn't necessarily say chapter 2 is my favorite chapter in the game, but it has a lot of great elements here. The melee only section lets you really stock up on knives, the valley has all sorts of routes and ways you can tackle it, and then the chainsaw villager can actually be dodged and ran past with some bravery. The chapter starts with a memorable cutscene of Leon and Luis chained together, and ends with Leon getting choked out by Chief Mendez, saved by Ada in the last second.

And I could say the same about every chapter in the game. Like chapter 11, in the mines. Leon and Luis team up to climb up from the mines back to the castle. You start with a shooting range, with new minigames that let you hear Luis' unique commentary. Then you have a big brawl fighting villagers and two chainsaw villagers. After that, you have a funny opportunity to die from standing too close to dynamite. And right after that, you have a boss fight against two El Gigantes. Following that is two hilariously cartoony minecart sections, and then a gauntlet of fighting Novistador bug enemies in a spiral cave. Lastly, you have a boss fight against Krauser, using only your knife.

So yeah, I highly encourage people play this game and study it. Nowadays it probably takes a lot of effort to create this much density of unique arenas, encounters, cutscenes, and gradual gameplay progression. But man, it makes for such a special experience, with good replayability too, just to go on this thrill ride one more time.