The gameplay is clunky at best. Do not expect a smooth input response as almost everything you do has a delay that "kinda" works.

Practically everything in the game can be customized to match your playstyle almost perfectly.
There are three main gameplay options you will need to choose between.

• Arcade, very similar to looter shooters like The Division.
  
• Immersive, makes the game like Wildlands but also comes with several more options to make it more immersive.
  
• Conquest, a mix of both.

My favorite of the three would have to be Conquest with all immersive features enabled & all possible arcade/interface options turned off.

Gear Level is kinda pointless having it off as it just makes the enemies the same level as you. However, you can now pickup enemy weapons allowing you to perform on site procurement runs. I would recommend getting your gear level to 150 first as one of the base requirements for entering the raid is having a gear level of 150. If you have no interest in the raid then just ignore gear level.

Setting the game to its highest difficulty "Extreme", Does not really do much of anything as the game is balanced around Gear Level. The only real difference you will notice is the high amount of damage you now receive when hit. With GL off, the enemies have the same behavior as if you were the same exact GL as them.

If you have done the raid multiple times to reach GL300 then the game kinda enters this very easy mode as the enemies in the open world all of a sudden can't seem to hit you at all & seemingly drop in 1 hit no matter where you shoot em. The AI drones also recieve a similar scaling which also makes them rather simple to destroy.

This means that the only way to make the game more difficult, is to turn Gear Level on & purposely use lower Gl equipment to stay below the enemy. A fun thing to try is to sneak around with GL 1 gear with everything cranked to max.

On-foot movement is rather buggy when attempting to navigate any non-flat surface that appears to have a larger value than ±45 degrees. Thankfully the gunplay is considerably smooth compared to everything else in both first & third person modes which makes the clunkiness a bit more bearable.

The weapons in-game use a semi-dumbed down version of Wildlands ballistics. Targets tend to disappear after 500 meters. When you fire your weapon you will always see a tracer. That tracer ain't even your actual bullet. It's just a cosmetic effect that tells you the general area your bullet went which is absolutely stupid. You will always see your bullet hit first from the particles that shoot up while you can still watch the tracer travel in the same general direction your actual bullet went but hit somewhere completely different.

The game does not tell you the bullet velocity for any weapon so you will have to mess around with them until you find one that is right for you. Bullet drop is displayed as a slider statistic under the Range stat, so you will have to get use to knowing what they mean by trying each one out. The recoil stat is also a slider but means absolutely nothing. It's either bugged or does not work correctly at all.

While you can play the game as an immersive type shooter. The weapons are still stuck with their former Looter Shooter Passive/Active Bonuses. This means that some weapons will have higher damage than what their actual stats say. Some will have higher damage to drones while others will allow u to move faster.

Unfortunately you cannot holster weapons like in Wildlands. Therefore you cannot perform hand to hand take downs. You cannot even perform CQC on people with the weapon you have equipped either. There are instead only 2 types of blades you can choose from. Curved blades & straight blades. All straight blades have the same exact set of animations, as well as all curved blades. So you are stuck watching the same animation over & over.

The game has multiple different animations for blades that you can trigger from sloped surfaces, bushes, prone position & when the enemy is already alerted to your presence. However the chances of you seeing these are practically non existent as you will never really find yourself in these positions without wasting huge amounts of time trying to set it up. You are better off just shooting the enemy rather than waiting for one of these moments.

These animations can go on for quite a long time as well... They are focused on trying to be stylish/cool instead of trying to incapacitate a human as effeciently as possible.

A unique feature this game has that I have not seen else where yet is that when aiming in third person while moving around corners your character will auto lean their upper body around the corner just enough so that the barrel of your weapon won't hit the wall when fired. This gives you a clear shot of any targets without exposing your full body to them. It's a neat little feature that makes stealth much better.

Stealth is the only one thing that even slightly made me play this game at all. If stealth didn't exist I would have refunded this day 1. If you are a player who enjoys stealth in any form then get this game.

The stealth has been heavily improved from wildlands. Offering multiple different alert phases where the enemies need to have observed & verified your location 100% to know your position. They also need to communicate with others about your current location, instead of everyone just magically knowing exactly where you are. There are several story/side missions where the AI is scripted to know were you are at all times but that's the only time you will see this happen.

The enemies themselves are generic at best & can all be killed in 1 shot to the head. The only enemies that might give you trouble will be the AI drones. In Conquest mode, you are finally up against an actual military force that can require you to finally use gadgets that you would otherwise never touch.

All forms of vehicular transport in this game is absolute trash. They make the vehicles in Wildlands look like masterpieces in comparison. The handling & feedback is an absolute joke. They do not feel or sound like vehicles at all. Reverting them back to the way they were in Wildlands would be a direct upgrade.

The audio in the game is about as good as it's going to get. There was nothing good or bad about it. The only thing that stuck out to me was in one of the last updates the game recieved they added the M110. It's the best sounding weapon in the game, both suppressed & unsuppressed.

The game has a significant amount of content (100+ hours) for you to play through & complete. Unfortunately the games support was officially ended several months ago, so we will not be receiving any new expansions anytime soon it seems. This means that an entire island to the bottom right of the map still can't be accessed.

The story for this game is bad. I didn't like a single thing about it. It's clear that the game was never properly finished on release, & has been stuck in that same state ever since. The only thing they have done is slowly backtrack the arcade/lootn'shoot side of the game & introduced features that wildlands had, along with all the immersive features under that mode. They were basically polishing a turd for three years.

Visually the game looks fantastic. The amount of work they put into the ambient occlusion & screen space effects to get it looking this good is impressive (I hate AO & SS effects). The game can be run on either Vulkan or DX11. Vulkan use to be the best option but now it seems DX11 is the most optimized.

If you do decide to run Vulkan & run into any issues try & set Terrain Quality to Very High, Sun Shadows & Volumetric Fog to Ultra. Everything else can be what ever you like. Make sure Temporal Injection is off for best image quality. Use DLDSR (nvidia) to further improve the games visuals as it helps remove the ghosting effects left behind by the games TAA.

Resident Evil 4 Remake preserves the original’s fun gameplay and b-grade story, while adding new features, mechanics, and challenges that make it more fun than the original. The visuals are gorgeous, the sound is average, and the optimization is excellent. The only minor flaws is that U3 is removed and the disappointing voice acting for some characters. Overall, Resident Evil 4 Remake is a masterpiece. It's a must-play for fans of the original game and newcomers alike.

The gameplay is amazing and surpasses my expectations based on previous releases. The new mechanics let you parry or evade almost any attack. This eliminates the luck factor. A perfect parry at the right moment will stagger the enemy. You can then use a melee attack to hit multiple foes. This creates opportunities to wipe out groups of enemies with parry and melee skills like in the original game. But much better.

A new feature in the game is the durability of the knife(s). If you use your knife to parry or attack enemies, it will wear down over time. You can find other knives in the game world or repair and upgrade your own knife at the merchant’s shop.

I preferred playing with Mouse and Keyboard after some simple tweaks. The only issue was “Press E to crouch”, which I easily fixed. I also changed sprint from toggle to hold for a better experience. The input response is flawless. Leon moves realistically when walking and swiftly when running. He feels amazing to control and navigate the world.

Damaging enemies can feel a bit bullet spongy near the start of the game as they barely provide any feedback to getting shot. Staggering an enemy usually requires 2-3 shots to the head or limbs with handguns. However this can be alleviated once you meet the merchant and begin tuning your weapon damage.

One of the drawbacks of the game is the lack of feedback when shooting enemies. They seem to shrug off bullets easily, especially at the beginning, and only stagger after a few shots to the head or limbs with handguns. This makes combat feel less satisfying and more tedious. Fortunately, this issue can be mitigated by upgrading your weapon damage with the help of the merchant you encounter later in the game.

The Merchant returns with more goods and a new feature. You can earn spinals by doing assignments for him in the world. Spinals can then be exchange with him for unique items. I prefer his original VA over this new one, but I don't mind it that much.

The shooting range has been overhauled and is more rewarding than before. You can complete different challenges which reward tokens. Tokens can be used on a slot machine that gives you charms. Charms can be attached to your attache case (a max of three) to get various benefits, such as more crafting resources, health boosts, trade perks and a movement speed boost. The charms are also the original RE4 models which is neat :)

Inventory management is very similar to the original game. You can arrange items in a grid-based attache case which can later be expanded in size via the merchant. However, you can also get new attache cases that provide their own unique bonuses.

Treasures are more varied and universal in this game. Some of them are improved versions of the originals. The former treasures with gem slots have been changed to be compatible with their new universal two shaped slot system. I like this system better than the original. But I do miss the bug eyes gems.

Crafting is more flexible and convenient than ever. You can drag and drop items in your inventory to merge them, select an item to see its specific recipes, or use the dedicated crafting menu to view all possible combinations.

The game has beautiful graphics and a consistent architectural style. However, I wish it had more brightness and contrast. Most of the locations are too dark to appreciate the details. This seems to be a common issue with RE Engine games, except for some examples like RE Village and Devil May Cry 5 that show how well the engine can handle daylight scenes.

Screen Space Reflections have a serious issue. They create a ghosting artifact effect on any surface that uses them. This problem has persisted since the RE2 remake. I recommend turning them off.

Ray tracing is disappointing and buggy in this game. It only affects the reflections, which are often inaccurate and distracting. It does not improve the visuals much. It also causes the game to crash for me, even though it does not impact my performance. The game uses AMDs CACAO for ambient occlusion instead of RT, which looks great.

The only downside I see from the other RT features been removed is that the games lighting does not look nearly as good as RE8 did with its ray traced lighting simulating its reflections/refractions against everything.

Cinematography lacks cinematic quality and coherence. Capcom seems to have lost its ability to craft amazing visuals, audio and editing like in the original RE4 and RE5. This game only has a few scenes that stand out, and they might be accidental attempts to mimic the originals.

The original game had amazing weapon reload animations that gave a sense of satisfaction to the player. Leon would reload each of his weapons with style and flair, making them feel unique. Unfortunately, this game has sacrificed that quality for realism. The reload animations are bland and generic.

The audio is nothing to write home about. The weapon sounds are great and enhance the combat. Everything else is typical RE game sound effects. The soundtrack is bland and uninspired. It sounds like an instrumental mashup of previous RE7, RE2R, RE3R, and RE8 tracks with the original RE4 tracks. I might just mute the music and play my own tunes. But they did give an option to use the original RE4 Audio instead of the new one, which is nice.

The new voice actors for all of the characters are disappointing compared to the original. They sound unenthusiastic and poorly written. The original cast is much better than the new remake cast. Only Leon and Luis sound decent. Ashley is mediocre. The worst ones are Salazar, Saddler and Krauser’s new VAs. They are downgraded.

The game preserves most of the original content. For every cut, there is a substitute. Almost all substitutes are superior to the original. Some areas were sadly removed entirely. These include the gondola ride before the castle, some parts of the underground and castle exterior, Laser Room and U3 fight.

I disliked the changes they made to Salazar. He looks and acts worse in every way. The original is much better. Saddler is also ruined into a weird occultist. His theatrics are over the top. He is not better than the original, except for his final transformation. This part is actually better. Krauser wears a tactical vest now. It makes him look worse visually, but he is still the same character.

The story is identical to the original. The only thing I disliked is the extra writing for characters. The original didn’t need this because the story was clearly a silly homage to b-grade action films. They prioritized fun over realism. It should have stayed that way. I guess they wanted to follow the dark realistic theme since RE7. It would have been better to hire the team who wrote and directed Devil May Cry 5 for RE4.

The optimization is excellent for the visual quality. I’ve had no performance issues except for setting volumetric fog to the highest level. Lowering it one notch made the game run smoothly. I can't perceive any difference between these two values.

The game has more replayability than any previous RE game at launch. With any future DLC, the content will surpass even RE7. It has the challenges and point shop from the RE2/3 remakes. It also has many features from RE NET so you can view more data about your playthroughs without using a web browser to sign into Capcom’s stats website.

One of the highlights of this game for me is finally getting to see Wesker in the RE Engine. :)