The RE4 remake is very well done and keeps a more consistently tense feeling while playing - they did a hell of a job making Salazar in particular feel more threatening, even the vestiges of his more childish antics and his projected insecurity have a very disturbing undercurrent - but in taking itself more seriously it feels like it lost a bit of the original's charm.
The portrayal of Krauser and conclusion of his fight has a lot more emotional weight to it now, too even if mechanically it is far more annoying and makes the subtly alluded to weakness to knife fighting less optimal. I’ll admit his “rookie” routine was trite and grating but in the end when he sees where their values diverged and his grab for power he treated as an awakening to reality’s cruelty lost against Leon’s simple human conviction and request for a proper end had real meaning. Saddler conversely feels a bit more one note. Sure, the idea he was holding Ashley for a ransom he absolutely did not need and would be better served letting Leon “rescue” her before finding out about her infection was gratefully sidestepped but his religious overtones were at the same time somehow blunted. He did not seem like someone who believed in what he did. The idea that his followers actually believe in him rather than being physically unable to defy him was buried entirely and the documents you can pick up in the original exploring his thoughts and genuine sadness at the loss of his inner circle and the limitations of the Plagas in regards to altering personality no longer exist somewhat contradicting his gloating and bombast when addressing Leon directly. Truly personal, hidden thoughts and rationale. It also downplays the “purge” of the villagers conducted in the orginal and all its implications, which incidentally makes the overabundance of skulls and bones and freshly severed body parts lying about completely senseless without drawing a hell of a lot more police attention than the opening alludes to.
The less flirty interaction between Leon and Ada can be taken a lot of ways, they're clearly more uncertain of each other and it's interesting to see her shades of moral grayness between what she says to Leon leaning towards the selfish pragmatic and cynical but conversely still slipping him some help even when it doesn't benefit her and what she does in the ending. Notably the relative emotional coldness can also be interpreted as an unwillingness to lead him on or emotionally manipulate Leon even if she's still using him to her ends. A boundary of... well I don't think trust is quite the right word. Apparantly the voice actress for Ada in the remake has caught a lot of flak for not playing into the honeypot role. That’s dumb in my opinion. No, scratch that, it is not mere opinion but objectively stupid the hate she’s getting at least in her interactions with Leon since he of all people would have perfect reason to be suspicious of "horny bard” behaviour. A deliberate contrast between how she acted with traumatized Leon and how she acted with womanizing (as a coping mechanism? Unclear.) Louis might have been a missed opportunity that could have added real spice and intrigue and further ambiguity to her true intentions but just shitting on overall being more reserved? Dumb.
... Luis kind of rubs me wrong way now, though. He comes across less the sad clown who realized how much harm his work and passion have done despite the innocence behind them and more the smug asshole looking to get off scott free willing to use whatever and whoever is at hand. Also a slight change in events from the original makes it seem like he was less interested in helping if bolting immediately could have been an option and it was just interests aligning to make an escape plan B severely undercutting the impact of the risks he takes helping you. You get a bit more screen time with him, can have each other's backs in more gameplay which should build more emotional investment in him... But like I said he doesn't sit right with me. It's almost antagonistic. His last heroic act can be chalked up to spite more easily than any real desire to help anyone and it feels like he was done a disservice.
On the mechanical side I hate that the non-bonus knives break (seriously Leon parries a chainsaw with paring knives instead of getting out of the fucking way?! RE6 might have been stupid in every other aspect but its dodge/counter system and penalties for low stamina made some sense) screwing over sneaking tactics that *should* save resources when backstabs illogically consume a huge amount of knife durability even compared to trying to fight head-on with them and the crafting system is implemented poorly. Your already limited storage now needs to accommodate resources that take up more space than the ammo you can convert it to and doesn't spawn with the consistency to really rely on it without frequently swapping between the black and classic attache cases and one of those is a pre-order bonus I’m not entirely sure is implemented in the general game. Also it mucks up the previous system that increases the probability of ammo dropping for weapons you frequently used and made sure something you could defend yourself with would be popping up when you needed it most. And to top off the new pile of inconveniences despite now having a storage system you can't store excess ammo, grenades, crafting material, crappy little fruit knives, or healing items other than first aid sprays for when you know you're about to go into an absolute meat grinder and you don’t have quite the right combination of materials to make the items you actually need and they’re taking up so much space you can no longer pick up immediately usable stuff which the new system will spawn less of since you have so much crap in your inventory already.
Personal tip: The bolt thrower can be your best friend. Performance wise it's not really any better than a pistol but you can get your bolts back and a silent weapon should never be underestimated. You can thin out stragglers before encountering a horde and clear out camoflauged Novistadors potentially without triggering the others to jump you. What you’d use a pistol for the bolt thrower does handily, just keep in mind there seems to be a limit to how many shot bolts can be retrieved at one time making it entirely inappropriate for high-health enemies. My personal preference for handguns was the Punisher/Five seveN which combined with inherently superior accuracy and handling was more efficient against multiple enemies than singular (Red9 no longer holds it’s godly status) so I found it to hold a certain synergy. I'd recommend center mass or kneecaps over headshots with the bolt thrower to make sure bolts don't go too high to recover if you miss and again keep it for pre-horde wanderers or those damned roving dogs and Novistadors in camoflauge. Or crows, surrounding crows do not react allowing you to reap full rewards. The secondary exploding mines used right can trivialize a horde when you know it's coming. Just mind Ashley's AI. She might be less annoying now and doesn't fall into the single most idiotic trap devised by a human mind but she's not exactly any better at keeping out of your firing lane.
Uhm. Okay. Gamer mode off.
