Resident Evil 4, and by extension the franchise as a whole, falls into the category of horror games that let players defend themselves. When beset by Resident Evil's Umbrella biomutants, zombies, and crazed villagers, it is nice to know that most of the main protagonists can always fall back on an assortment of weapons and tools. The franchise may have started as a pure survival horror, but it has dipped into the action genre at times.
Resident Evil's shift to full-on action can be traced to the original Resident Evil 4. The franchise was falling into a bit of a rut with spin-offs like Resident Evil Survivor and Resident Evil Zero, but instead of going back to its survival horror roots, Capcom decided to embrace Resident Evil's campiness and focus on action. The Leon in the Resident Evil 4 remake still has access to a massive arsenal like in the original, but the developers have borrowed some ideas from another game when it comes to how he wields them.
Resident Evil 4's Attache Case Makes Leon a One-Man Army
The Resident Evil 4 remake brings back the iconic Attache Case. It is in this white-collar worker's container where players can store all their usable items in a grid system. Healing items, grenades, ammo, and most importantly, weapons and their attachments can be placed in this case that Leon never carries around in the game world. Bigger cases can be purchased from Resident Evil 4's Merchant over the course of the game, which allows Leon to carry larger and more numerous items.
As long as players sort the contents of Resident Evil's Attache Case correctly, they can outfit Leon with as many weapons as possible. This means that they aren't limited to the 4 weapons slots available in the Resident Evil 2 or Resident Evil 3 remakes. Because of this, Leon is more flexible when it comes to combat. Carrying more than 4 weapons at a single time is also great when it comes to immersion. Since players can switch between various weapons using a grid-like weapon wheel, they don't have to pause the game to open their Attache Case.
Resident Evil 4's Weapon Wheel Looks A Lot Like The One In The Last Of Us Games
Those who have played Naughty Dog's The Last of Us games will immediately take to the Resident Evil 4 remake's weapon wheel. By pressing the arrow buttons more than once in a single direction on controllers, players can quickly rummage through Leon's Attache Case for the right weapon. They can sort Resident Evil 4's Sniper Rifle so it takes more button inputs to pull out (which is ideal since the weapon is supposed to be used at a safe distance), or they can set up the Shotgun to be immediately accessible with a single button press to quickly deal with close-range threats.
The controls are still the same on mouse and keyboard, meaning players still need to hotkey weapons to their desired keys or scroll through all their weapons, but those on controllers will find it much easier to swap Leon's weapons at a moment's notice. This ease of access was also what The Last of Us's weapon wheel was built around. To keep players immersed in the dangerous world of The Last of Us, Naughty Dog developed all of the game's systems to work in real time.
This includes the crafting system, picking up and examining items, and even the weapon wheel. The Resident Evil 4 remake picked a good inspiration to base its weapons wheel on, and it would be nice to see the game incorporate more real-time elements. Using the Attache Case and crafting system whilst Ganados are actively chasing Leon would heighten the tension and add more strategic elements to the game, further driving home the point that players aren't welcome in th world.
Resident Evil 4 releases on March 24, 2023, on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
