The invisible controller

There’s a prevailing fashionable philosophy in motion recreation design that claims that the controller ought to “disappear.” You need to really feel like you’re doing one thing once you press a button and the character on the display screen responds. You need to map “wanting round” and “strolling” to 2 totally different sticks as a result of we glance round and stroll on the identical time. You need to put “shoot” on a set off as a result of it feels a bit like pulling the set off on a gun. You shouldn’t have your character cease in place each time they prepared their gun, as a result of holding a gun doesn’t incapacitate the legs.

And but, Resident Evil 4, among the many most celebrated motion video games ever made, breaks each one in every of these guidelines. It continually emphasizes the break between the participant and the character. The presence of the controller is all the time felt. The motion is weird and unnatural. In recent times, it’s been topic to some criticism (IGN’s evaluate of the remake says the unique recreation’s star “struggles to get round as if he’s sporting an previous pair of thin denims that haven’t match him since his police academy days”). When the remake demo was launched, I heard no scarcity of reward for the brand new, extra conventional dual-stick controls, normally accompanied by the phrase “they mounted the controls” or one thing comparable.

However right here’s the factor: Resident Evil 4‘s controls had been already excellent.

Feeling the worry

The primary three Resident Evil video games are sometimes celebrated (and typically derided) for his or her weird management schemes. These are video games about rookie cops and civilians tossed into the deep finish of a zombie apocalypse. They’re not sprinting by means of motion sequences, they’re scrambling after they attain for his or her weapons. In fact they transfer as if they’re being managed by somebody who can’t see the top of the hallway. They’re scared. The sport desires you to really feel that worry, and it communicates it by forcing you to fumble with the controller, by drawing consideration to the inherent clumsiness of enjoying a online game and likening it to the inherent clumsiness of being terrified. 

Feeling the controller is feeling the worry. It’s feeling the bounds on what the medium will permit. It’s feeling what the characters actually can’t do, feeling the precise wall that stands between them and survival.

However Leon Kennedy (not less than by the start of Resident Evil 4) is a distinct type of protagonist. He’s an motion hero. The opening minutes of RE4 set up that Leon’s right here to save lots of the president’s daughter, and he doesn’t care what number of zombies and zombie-adjacent locals he must roundhouse to do it. So why is his motion so bizarre?

Bother in kickass paradise

Resident Evil 4 is an “motion recreation” in that its protagonist is an motion star. When he’s shipped off to Spain, he’s assured in his talents. He already shooed the zombies out of 1 police station, and he’s been in Cool Man College coaching alongside guys named stuff like “Jack Krauser” ever since. He’s rolling into a brand new nation with a shiny new over-the-shoulder digital camera that communicates confidence and charm.

Then he runs into hazard and completely freezes. Leon is out of his aspect in RE4. He’s extra swish than he was again in Raccoon Metropolis, however as he rapidly and aptly notes, he’s not coping with the identical zombies this time round. He’s discovered a cool roundhouse kick, and he strikes like he’s in his personal pores and skin, however warning mechanically takes over when it’s time to open hearth. He can really feel the controller. When he’s established management over a state of affairs, he can easily dash forward and begin throwing kicks and punches, however normally he’s frozen in place, firing his gun with shaky hesitation.

The Resident Evil video games have all the time been good at speaking character beats by means of management schemes, and RE4 does that expertly. Leon is a lot extra snug right here, and you’ll really feel that consolation within the new stage of management he has over his motion and his gunplay. However he’s nonetheless scared, and you’ll nonetheless really feel that worry once you really feel what he can’t do. The horror on show could be fairly schlocky, however it’s genuinely efficient at establishing stress.

Frightful future

I’ve performed the Resident Evil 4 demo just a few occasions. I prefer it quite a bit! However it’s, not less than within the small section that I’ve truly skilled, a “good” motion recreation in a means that the unique merely wasn’t. Leon Kennedy is correct at house perfect-parrying his enemies, sprinting as he weapons down cultists, and pulling off sick stunts with out breaking a sweat. It feels surprisingly pure. In reality, I can barely really feel the controller. I’m unsure if I really like that.

To be clear, I don’t doubt that the Resident Evil 4 remake can seize the majesty of the unique recreation. The remakes of RE2 and RE3 are each phenomenal items of design, they usually each dramatically overhaul their respective authentic video games’ management schemes. I’m positive the most recent remake will probably be simply high-quality. However once I hear folks discuss the way in which it adjustments the sport’s controls, as if these adjustments are each obligatory and unequivocally “higher,” I simply really feel slightly unhappy. Resident Evil 4 might need good controls now, however it additionally had nice controls then.