Resident Evil 4is not known to be one of the scarierResident Evilentries, but it certainly has enemies and encounters that propel it to a much more horrifying degree. The originalResident Evil’s remake is still widely considered to be the scariest in the franchise, withResident Evil 7having eclipsed it in terms of horror for a lot of fans due to its obvious emphasis on terror and dread.Resident Evil 7is still as bombastic as any otherResident Evilgame, but it certainly does not have as much camp as an installment such asResident Evil 4, whose horror is matched equally by its campiness.
Indeed,Resident Evil 4is an impossible cocktail of survival-horror, camp, and action that somehow blends together well to create a wonderful experience. Because of this unique genre blend working as effectively as it does,theResident Evil 4remakewas a highly contentious concept for fans to wrap their heads around. If the remake took too much of its natural essence away in a reimagining, it would not feel at all likeResident Evil4. Still, peculiar moments occur naturally in gameplay anyway, and one terrifying encounter is inadvertently made silly with puzzles strewn about.
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Resident Evil 4 Remake Has Many Diverse Puzzles
Puzzles were a considerable part of the originalResident Evil 4, though the game is not necessarily known for having the best puzzles in the franchise. Fans have not been particularly fond of the sliding puzzle featured in the sequence where Ashley is playable, for example, and even though there is an easy solution to it that is obviously not known until players learn how to complete it the first time.
This puzzle is thankfully omitted from the remake. However,theResident Evil 4remake features a ton of puzzles in its three distinct regions, including mini-puzzles for its Cubic key. The remake’s puzzles are also a great mixture of simple solution puzzles, such as only having to read a nearby document to know what the solution is, and puzzles that players can brute force with enough patience.
Many puzzles are straightforward enough once players have the requisite items needed to unlock something, though the hexagonal lake puzzle can prove troublesome if players lose their footing and realign the pieces in a strange order. It is great to see thatResident Evilis still emphasizing puzzles as a key part of gameplay because that is not only a franchise staple, but a wonderful way fortheResident Evil 4remake’s gameplayto be broken up between fending off mobs of ganados and zealots.
Resident Evil 4 Remake’s Power Circuit Puzzles Make for Awkward Regenerador Encounters
Unfortunately, there is one puzzle in particular that completely dilutes any tension that a particularly horrifying encounter could have otherwise had. On the island,when players first encounter a Regenerador, they must sprint back-and-forth through tight corridors while bypassing locked areas in order to stamp new access tiers onto a keycard. This requires players to find power circuit control devices that emanate a dull green glow and rewire them to allow power to flow through all available channels.
This puzzle can take quite a bit of time since rewiring one circuit may lose power to a previous circuit and so forth, but the good news is that interacting with the puzzle takes players out of real-time gameplay, similar to when players interact withtheResident Evil 2remake’s chess plug socketsor medallion statues. The reason why this is unfortunate, then, is because that whisks players out of the horrifying encounter they were in, and fans are left to imagine that the Regeneradors in the room with them must wait patiently until they have finished the puzzle.
Resident Evil 4is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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