Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 Remake modernizes some now-dated gameplay tropes
Enlarge / Leon brings a knife to a zombie fight.
Game design has come a long way since Resident Evil 4 first hit the GameCube and PlayStation 2 in 2005. That's why the upcoming remake of the game, highlighted during Capcom's Resident Evil Showcase Thursday night, will be "modernizing the playfeel," according to producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, by updating mechanics that might seem dated to a modern audience.
Watching gameplay footage from that event, one of the most immediately apparent changes is the ability to move and shoot at the same time, something that was previously possible only in the recent virtual reality version of the game. That might seem like a necessary part of any action-oriented third-person shooter today, but Resident Evil 4 still had one foot in the more awkward "stand your ground" shooting of its PlayStation 1 predecessors when it launched. The more modern control scheme should make the remake feel a bit more dynamic.
The new footage also showed off Leon's new knife parry move, which lets him fend off attacks from encroaching undead Ganados with a quick slash. Even the fearsome Chainsaw Man can be temporarily held off with a well-timed parry.