Virtual reality is improving visibly, but the technical gap with the classic video game has yet to be bridged. But let's admit that we find it strangely pleasant to retrace the history of video games with a viewer on our head, because that's what we're doing. Fascinated by the undeniable power of VR, even more so by the cable-free one that Oculus Quest offers, we live in this strange situation in which past and future coexist in ambiguous harmony. Technically, VR is two generations behind, but for everything else it is two generations ahead: in the review of Resident Evil 4 VR for Oculus Quest we will find out how this is possible.
A Lion from another time
Resident Evil 4 VR it is the same game as always, identical in all respects to the version released on GameCube in 2005, except for the additional contents such as the Mercenaries mode and the mini-story dedicated to Ada. The graphics are cleaner, there has been a slight restoration over time of which you can see the results here too, albeit with a totally different perspective, but the bulk of the work has been done to adapt the gameplay to the wonders of virtual reality . And from this point of view there is really nothing to complain about, thanks to the skill of the team that embarked on this adventure, but also to a game that just can't stop surprising. Who would have thought that Resident Evil 4 would have been so comfortable in such a different context?
Some sequences of the original game really seem to have been designed from the very first moment for virtual reality, so much we enjoyed reliving them by riding Eye Quest 2. The first assault in the village is nothing short of crazy, when you find yourself in the arena with El Gigante you feel really in danger, oppressed, defenseless, so much so that you would like to tear the viewer off your head to catch your breath. It is not so much fear, but there is also that, but a kind of fun overdose. It helps a lot this thing of not having threads in the middle, especially in a game that intelligently embraces VR fully, thus allowing you to control the two hands of the protagonist independently (which paradoxically does not happen in the PSVR version of the most recent Resident Evil 7). There are also less fun sections, where the potential of virtual reality remains a bit with the brake on, in this case every time we find ourselves in the boat (who has played it knows, others will notice), but not c 'is a single moment in gameplay where this Resident Evil 4 VR doesn't work.
Hands
The hands of Leon, the protagonist, are our hands and the most common objects will all be physically reachable without having to enter any menu: if you want to extract the gun just bring your hand towards the holster, if you want a grenade just take an imaginary one from the our back. The placement of each instrument is well thought out and there is no type of overlap, instead present in other games that adopt a similar system.
The player is then given complete freedom of engagement, this means that he can hold the gun with one hand and the knife in the other, shoot while throwing grenades, run, turn around, climb over looking for some flying headshot that will thin out the crowd of fanatics behind us. We could not understand how much they worked onEnemy AI, or on their number, in order to make the same situations faced in 2005 work so well in virtual reality; the first-person view, being so central to the action, made it difficult to compare the old Resident Evil 4 with this reincarnation. At a normal level the game seemed well balanced, with some tearing upwards in the moments where the action was made and becomes more intense, however nothing unsurpassed after a handful of attempts.
Maledette cut-scene
There's only one downside to this single but ubiquitous Resident Evil 4 VR: the cut-scenes aren't meant for VR, and they're also frequent at several points in the game. It happens practically in all products not designed for this technology, but adapted secondarily, this because it would be a very long job to rework them so thoroughly, sometimes impossible. The fact remains that feeling snatched away from the action in such a brutal way, to be slapped in an awkward front row at the cinema almost hurts and in Resident Evil 4 VR it happens a lot. Other than that, reliving such a classic in virtual reality was an electrifying experience, as different as it was the same as we remembered it. After all, a masterpiece is forever.
Comment
Tested version PC Windows Resources4Gaming.com8.5
Readers (9)8.7
Your voteResident Evil 4 VR is a really very good adaptation, doing more would risk ruining a classic and no one in their right mind would want such a thing. Between past and future, the Capcom game is a perfect example of the present of virtual reality: technical from 2010, ideas for 2030.
PRO
- Perfectly at home in VR
- The graphics are also strong
- Interaction at the highest levels with the two independent hands
- Old cut-scenes don't work in VR ...
- ... and not even the old Quick Time Events
