A few insights from my RE 4 remake run on Hardcore.
A few insights from my RE 4 remake run on Hardcore.
***Caution, some Minor (non story related) Spoilers***
I've already completed a standard mode run, and I must admit, I'm quite impressed by this updated version. I’d say it’s the top remake I’ve ever experienced. They’ve maintained some of the original epic confrontations or kept them very close, yet much of the experience feels refreshed, making each session unpredictable.
When compared to the criticisms I've encountered about the new sneak kill feature, I was taken aback by how widely it’s implemented, even when certain foes in the same area have already spotted you. I successfully executed a stealth kill on a Brute at the farm just before entering the village during my initial run. However, on this particular playthrough at the fish farm, I didn’t receive the stealth prompt when approaching one from behind, possibly because I was facing someone with a crossbow overhead.
The enemy behavior in this version is quite intricate; sometimes enemies at the opposite end of the fish farm will appear before you, while others emerge as you approach or even reappear at the start point while scavenging. This complexity pushes you to adapt your tactics more often.
Using a knife becomes more essential here, as it allows for effective stealth kills. I sometimes hesitate to block attacks out of fear they might reduce its effectiveness, but I’m unsure if blocking actually harms it. Ultimately, I managed to secure enough knife durability at the fish farm—just enough to break on the final encounter after a close fight while mutating.
You’ll also find backup knives such as boot knives and kitchen knives, though they degrade faster and offer less power. These can be repurposed to craft bolts for the new Bolt Thrower.
This initial version blends stealth and direct combat, with the latter featuring a ladder top choke point. I often enjoy watching the larger Brutes lose their footing and fall off the ledge after being hit with shotgun rounds. It’s easier to dodge obstacles in the lake when facing Del Lago, as the boat responds much more quickly. He can swiftly turn around and charge at the vessel, so you must be prepared or risk damage. You also can’t swim to the boat if knocked out by the boss or stumps, which is why avoiding capsizing is crucial. It’s surprising how this character began as a tiny salamander!
Looking through the fish farm for boat fuel while battling Del Lago!
This one I label Mining For Some Heart-Pounding Gold. The flash bang proves useful when dealing with the first tough encounter involving mutating dogs. However, I later realized I missed the recipe to craft them. It starts as a search for a Small Key needed to unlock a drawer containing the loot. Small Keys are often overlooked in this game, yet they cleverly conceal valuable treasures that can accumulate if you overlook them.
Revisiting the Lakeside Settlement for loot!
Initially, I thought the game omitted the dog you could rescue from a bear trap, who later assists in defeating the boss. Turns out he was placed there slightly later. This is where I wished I had a flash grenade or two to execute quick melee attacks after stunning him. In reality, I only took damage because I wasn’t patient enough to let him approach before moving to the other side. I managed to coordinate well during the first half of the fight, but adjusting your pace when he moves around is essential—otherwise you pay the price. The final time he struck me, he instantly pounced from the opposite side, and I didn’t anticipate it. Fortunately, I had plenty of eggs from my flock at the chicken farm across the lake!
Overcoming the first giant El Gigante!
BTW, I ran additional tests on sneak killing Brutes and confirmed that even if another enemy is in sight while you attempt it, without alerting them, you won't trigger the prompt. However, if you manage to avoid detection during the attempt, you can still successfully perform a sneak kill in Hardcore mode. I appreciate this formula—it's quite different from the cheap hive mind AI many games rely on. I believe it makes sense for zombies to sometimes be a bit confused when only one of their kind is around an enemy. I've also captured more footage, such as navigating back through the Village at night after rescuing Ashley, mostly using stealth techniques even with a Brute involved.
This upcoming collection of three videos guides you through the conclusion of Chapter 5, revisiting key locations such as The Village (ending with Savage Mutt) and The Farm, and wrapping up with Stand Your Ground.
The Church
Achieving complete stealth here is quite challenging, but I managed to avoid alerting the adversaries inside the church. If you can pull off that, you can confront a few enemies openly, then quickly retreat if spotted again. I’m uncertain whether Ashley remains hidden from enemies, but sometimes I wish she’d stay close behind me when I try to remain unnoticed by nearby foes. Honestly, it’s worth it just to hear her iconic Valley Girl line, “Oh my GOD, what’s WRONG with these people,” when we’re caught. Interestingly, during my post-capture return to the church to fish for bass and heal, I could easily eliminate all remaining threats using stealth. Unfortunately, the cliff edge scaffolding collapses upon my return, making it inaccessible.
Village Revisited
As promised, I aimed to demonstrate that significant portions of the game can be tackled effectively with stealth. I successfully eliminated seven out of the eleven enemies using sneaky kills. Three more could also be taken quietly, though timing is tricky. The segment ends with a scene called Savage Mutt—a particularly aggressive mutating dog with high health and a long, damaging tentacle attack.
Farm Revisited/Stand Your Ground
I’m disappointed that after several attempts I only managed a solid start with four stealth kills, then my stealth ratio dropped compared to The Village, leading me down a path I shouldn’t have taken and wasting a lot of ammunition on the last three encounters. It’s wise to pause and observe which enemies you can see before deciding your route, as those visible foes might spot you. The segments after the Church in The Village and Farm are crucial because they require strong preparation for Stand Your Ground, helping defend against waves immediately following the church area.
The only advantage I had for Stand Your Ground was my handgun ammo, which I used extensively—about half of the battle. I also crafted shotgun shells and took effective shots from above to assist Luis. I managed to use a few grenades and two flashbangs; one even allowed me to melee-kill a Brute. My biggest issue was staying too long upstairs due to limited space, which left me vulnerable and risked Luis’s safety if I didn’t get help.
Next up is facing the Chainsaw Sisters in Chapter 6, and I’m concerned I might run out of ammo. I’ll likely invest in the final Power upgrade on the Riot Shotgun, as it’s a weapon I prefer to use at the end.
I reached that point for a few reasons. Not just because I don’t mind going through all the details or watching the videos, but since I recently bought RE4 and wanted to try it out, I got distracted by Diablo 4’s release.
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Lots of people have shared similar thoughts about RE4, which is why I decided to buy it.
Spoiler alert:
The only RE I’ve ever played was the original... on the original PlayStation in 1996.
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This remake definitely needs spoiler alerts, as it changes a lot from the original. I've heard similar comments about the new Dead Space version too, so we'll find out if RE4 Remake stays my favorite after trying the zombie take on the space theme.
Chapter 6 contains two concise videos lasting ten minutes each. It features intense boss battles against the Bella "Chainsaw" Sisters and Mendez, the Village Chief. Preparing in advance is essential for a safer approach, enabling you to open doors quickly and reach gas lamps to slow down pursuers. The strategy works well even when resources are limited after the Stand Your Ground encounter. Running toward the edge of the area allows enemies to retreat, providing cover and time to reload or switch weapons. This tactic is especially useful if you're low on supplies. The fight against Mendez is particularly challenging; he poses a single difficult attack that requires precise timing to avoid. I prepared with a tri-blend herb to boost my health, which also helps me survive the Novistador giant flying bugs. In my current setup—Stingray rifle, Blacktail handgun, and Broken Butterfly magnum—I carry flash bangs for extra defense. During the final run-through, I successfully stunned and killed four bugs with a single flash bang and knife. I’ve upgraded the Blacktail and Stingray but not the magnum, though it was on sale with free ammo. If I hadn’t invested in the TMP earlier, I might have managed to boost the Blacktail and Stingray’s power, but I’m keeping an eye out for useful Novistadors that can’t be stunned. The castle also offers ample loot to fund further upgrades.
I now have my first clip from my new PC. It's in 4K @ 60 FPS with HDR, but I've found something I didn't expect.
Firstly, apologies if you don't have an HDR capable display, but I was hoping I could get at least some whom aren't setup for it to weigh in on whether it looks acceptable, or washed out, and whether adjusting color saturation and brightness helps (I understand if you don't care to).
Secondly, the first recommendations I was seeing for 4K bitrate on YouTube said 48-54 Mb/s, though I ended up finding that was for streaming and that YT recommends up to 85 Mb/s for 4K HDR uploads.
This clip is compressed in Avidemux using the HEVC 2.65 codec at 55 Mb/s. It's just over 9 min long and the file size is roughly 3.5GB before uploading. The really unexpected thing is the 1440p res on YT looks better to me than the 4K. In fact it's very close to the look of the raw capture clip.
I should note as well that I set ShadowPlay to 70 Mb/s at 4K, but the raw clip shows just under 62 Mb/s bitrate being applied. I don't know if this is a limitation of the game, or ShadowPlay deciding more wasn't needed.
I use the :53-:54 sec mark of the video to compare, as there is a bright brazier on the floor to the right as you enter a hallway, who's light bloom looks a bit grainy. I may consider disabling bloom in game, but would like your opinion on how it looks at both res on your end.
I don't know what it is with the 1440p res, but it may end up being a godsend on editing and uploading time. HEVC encodes WAY faster than the 2 pass x264 I was using, and I could just resize the 4K clip to 1440p and not have to wait for it to process to 4K.
BTW, I'm assessing the quality via my new 42" OLED display, which is native 3840x2160 res, so it seems really odd the 1440p viewer res looks better. It could just be that there's not enough bitrate applied for 4K, but I think more people use 1440p on YT than 4K anyway.
If you choose to view it, please try it in both 1440p and 4K (not Auto), at full screen, and mention what size screen you have. If any of you would like to view without an HDR display, please comment on color saturation and brightness, and the clarity or lack of at the :53 sec mark.
There was a bit of a disparity in brightness between how it looked in game, and how the clips played in MPC-BE with the HDR option enabled. Even more so in Avidemux, which also supports HDR, but not as well. Oddly enough the variances evened out with the end result on YT. Meaning the brightness bump I made at the :08 sec mark to avoid black crush in game, looked acceptable on YT (on my end anyway). Would like feedback on that as well
RE 4 Remake - Castle Entrance - 4K HDR
What makes me hopeful this clip might actually look acceptable even to those without HDR displays is I am viewing it without HDR turned on in W11, and it still has higher dynamic range colors, bright lights, and jet black shadows. That however could be more due to YT's support for it.
---CONTAINS SPOILERS---
I now have the complete Castle segment done, and this time I captured pretty much everything. I did whole chapter videos this time. Since there's only really 3 major segments of this game, Village, Castle, and Island, there's nearly 5 hrs total of video here, averaging roughly 58 min each. However most of them average more like 51.5 min, as Chapter 9 is extra long, especially if you backtrack for treasure that isn't accessible until you get keys for it.
Gameplay wise I am not bothering with anymore Shooting Ranges, as they take a fair bit of added time, and I don't feel any other charms are necessary. I'm sticking with the three I have, Green Herb (15% more GH recovery), Handgun Ammo (30% more HA crafted), and Merchant (5% off weapon upgrades). The fact that these are random make them unpredictable and often a waste of time.
As with the two test videos above, these will be in HDR. I settled on setting ShadowPlay to 1440p at 50Mb/s, and using 30,000 bitrate HEVC compression at Constant bitrate. This is MUCH more manageable for me since the compression time takes only half as long as the length of each video, and the file size is WAY less than 4K, so much quicker to upload on my slow 5Mb Up speed. 1440p is more accessible for most regarding res and ISP speeds too.
I have also tested playback on my end, and these do not look washed out for me even if I have HDR in Windows turned off, which is typically needed to be on to see things in HDR on my display for any videos or net content on the PC input. They DO look slightly darker though, so a bit less detailed in dark areas unless you turn up brightness a bit if you lack an HDR capable display. However if your display is not lacking in brightness, that may not be necessary.
I labeled these using the location and objective of the starting point of each chapter.
Chapter 7 - Entrance / Head for the Courtyard
Here we encounter the infamous fireball catapult Zealots, after being greeted by the first head popper in this level trying to give us a sermon in a small chapel, then the cheeky Ramon Salazar, followed by a very nasty Garrador in the dungeon.
Most of this chapter however takes place in the challenging Water Hall area, where flash bangs for head poppers, and pillar cover for flame bolt crossbow Zealots come in handy. The latter of which can be tricky when corpses fall into you during close combat.
Exiting this area then takes you to the courtyard, where Baby Eagle flies the coop.
Chapter 8 - Battlements Entrance / Find Ashley
This chapter has a fight in the Wine Cellar with a Summoner and his Zealots, the first encounter in the game with Ada Wong, a rather hectic fight along the Castle Battlements wall with a giant, ending with finding poor Ashley in tears over hurting Leon.
This is a short level with both stealth and chaos. The Battlements are also one of the areas in the game that can deceive you into thinking it requires backtracking to retrieve treasures, as it did me. Instead there's a way to get them all, even with the giant active.
Chapter 9 - Courtyard / Head to the Ballroom
This chapter starts with a mad dash around the courtyard maze being chased by feral dogs that can pop heads, then battles off side rooms of the Grand Hall with a Summoner and his Zealots, and several head popping Knights, while obtaining 3 statue heads.
The Grand Hall is the main hub for this level, and there is also a LOT of treasure that can be had here, and in prior areas, as you don't get the "Cubic Device" until you beat the aforementioned Knights. The Battlements backtracking was my bad though.
Chapter 10 - Grand Hall / Head for the Throne Room
The first area of this level is the Ballroom and it's 3 dozen or so Novistadors (big flying bugs). I usually handle the first part of the Ballroom with a lot of flash bangs, which can stun 3 at a time and leave them vulnerable to knife kills. I was short on ammo and no flash bangs, but made it.
The next area is the Antechamber, which is very challenging as it has two Garradors, and waves of Zealots. I was handling it well until toward the end when I made a couple mistakes going loud shooting Zealots in unwise spots, which got me hacked a lot.
Next we meet up with Ramon again, who's commanding his henchmen to infect Ashley, before having you dropped in a pit. Then it's a fairly easy fight with four Novistadors, finishing with a crazy dance with the rather nasty and relentless Verdugo.
I generally treat the Verdugo segment as a survive and loot scenario, as killing it wastes far too much ammo. I was doing fine, dodging his attacks, getting in freeze/kick combos, and looting everything, until it ended with a cutscene robbing my freeze.
Chapter 11 - Underground Tunnel / Make Your Way to the Surface
This starts with a good battle in a mine against a lot of Ganados, and a male and female Chainsaw wielder. I used a trick this time I hadn't before shooting 3 Bolt Thrower mines way across to the upper tunnel opening enemies emerge from once you drop down.
The mines helped, and took a good chunk out of the Chainsaw guy's health. I used one mine again just after crossing the bridge you lower, which killed two Ganodos that often head pop. The Chainsaw gal though took a LOT to kill, including two Heavy nades.
After this is the romp with the two giants in the big round foundry room, which weren't too much trouble. Once Luis ran to get the dynamite pack though, the bigger armored giant easily caught up to me and smacked me really hard a couple times!
Then there's the mine cart ride, the Novistadors in the Hive, and the first fight with Krauser after he kills Luis. I'm a bit disappointed the cart ride now is just a glorified shooting gallery of sorts. In the original enemies could hop into your cart.
Chapter 12 - Hive / Make Your Way to the Surface
This is the shortest Castle level, at just over a half hour. After the elevator ride up, you take a gondola to the Clock Tower. I like most of how the Clock Tower is different now, including the flame throwing statue of Ramon, but it has one treasure that is very hard to find, which I missed. It's still fun to drop the ball on pursuing enemies once you get to the lever to do so with though!
This chapter ends with a showdown with Ramon, and it is a MUCH harder fight than in the original game. He is FAR more mobile, and his attacks are much more deadly. I was frankly worried I would not have enough ammo. I saved ammo a bit by taking out the three Zealots on the way to the fight with one Heavy nade, then careful use of the big pillar on the stairs made fighting him easier.