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One of the most impressive mod projects going is Resident Evil 4‘s HD Project, a replacement texture pack which is so dedicated to the original look that the makers have even tracked down and rephotographed some of the buildings Capcom photographed for their original textures. After six years, the mod is nearing completion and… now here come rumours that Capcom are planning a full remake of RE4. While I wouldn’t expect the mod to give up, I am still glad to hear them shrug off the rumours and say ye olde RE4 still deserves a makeover.
Rumours earlier this month said that Capcom had started production on a full remake of RE4. They’re only rumours for now, but it does seem inevitable considering how popular Capcom’s recent RE remakes have been.
Albert Marin, one of the two fellas behind the project, addressed the remake rumours in a blog post on Saturday:
“Right now it’s just a rumour, but I don’t really care if it’s done or not. Capcom’s latest remakes are way different from the original versions. The original game will still be unique and worthy of a remastered version.”
Capcom have been changing Resident Evil a fair bit as they go back round, making them play more like modern third-person shooters than ye olde fixed-camera survival horror games. RE4 is one of the games which defined that new style of shooter, pushing the series far deeper into shooty action, but it feels very much of its time now and Capcom will surely fiddle a fair bit when/if they reach it.
Marin also shared a video showing their current version of Chapter 4-4, the bit with the final boss battle before Leon leaves the castle:
The team are taking another polish pass at the whole game since the version released in 2018. Tweaks include redoing a few textures, re-rendering cutscenes at high resolutions, tweaking lighting, and updating enemies. It looks great.
Unlike some texture packs, the RE4 HD Project still looks like RE4. It preserves the sharpened, contrast-y style of Capcom’s original work, just with more detail. Capcom may have chosen that style partially in response to technical limitations of the time but it was how the game looked, and how I want the game to still look. And the team have even fixed some of Capcom’s mistakes, going into the geometry to address a few glitches and quirks from the original. It’s mighty impressive.
You can follow the mod’s progress on their blog and Twitter. If you want to get really specific, they are also publicly tracking progress on individual rooms.
The rumour mill has also been grinding out rumours about Resident Evil 8, including that it’ll be another first-person one and will have… werewolves? Sure, why not, all’s fair in the world of bioweapons.