History NightmareFuel / ResidentEvil4Remake

--> '''Ashley:''' I'm done with armor!\\

* The Verdugo; oh dear god, the Verdugo. For veteran players, they know what's in store when they come upon a recognizable hallway immediately after the throne room. Except this time it's a lot more tense and foreboding; you're making your way down a hallway, dimly lit with nitrogen showers set up throughout the area. There's no enemies, not even one. Yet you can't shake the feeling something is watching you, growling in the darkness. If you look up, you can even see ''something'' moving inhumanly fast in the duct work above you. It's only when you go to the far end of the hallway and reactivate the power, that it shows itself: the Verdugo, one of Salazar's imposing bodyguards. Essentially a Xenomorph Expy, the Verdugo absolutely towers over you and is basically bulletproof except for it's head, but it makes up for that by being incredibly agile and having a prehensile tail with a lot of range.

* The Garradors have new upgrades

* Part of Chapter 9 is Ashley's playable solo section when she's separated from Leon, and her section is a bit more cramped at places. The only things she's armed with in the remake is a blue-light lantern that can temporarily freeze the Armor Plagas in place, unlike the lanterns that she could throw at the zealots chasing after her in the original and quick-time events. She has to go through a library maze in the dark, tight staircases, and then a mausoleum to find the Salazar family crest, all the while having to dodge the Armor Plagas.
--> '''Ashley:''' I'm done with armor!\\
''(immediately goes into the mausoleum with the crest ''filled'' with active Armor Plagas)''\\
'''Ashley:''' [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe Didn't I just say I'm done?!]]

* El Gigante has gotten a clear upgrade from his [=RE4=] incarnation. Gone is the slow, lumbering giant. El Gigante now moves with surprising speed for its size and strength, straight up busting out through its gates to kill you as soon as it is woken up, and featuring attacks where it will sprint at you in an effort to flatten you like a pancake.

* Plaga Type Cs can now crawl into Ganados to hijack their body. Lovely.
* The Garradors. Dear God the Garradors.

** If a Garrador kills Leon, you are treated to a lovely animation where it uses its blades to visibly chop him in half. Lovely.

* The house siege is far more frantic this time, with mobs of Ganados charging in, and all the time you can hear the mob's chanting, and it gets ''increasingly loud'' as the siege goes on. To expand on this, from the moment Leon rescues Ashley from the Church, Saddler telepathically reaches out to the villagers and orders them to recapture them both. From that moment onward, until you escape from the House Siege, every single Ganado you encounter will be chanting the same line, over and over again: "Aprisa, aprisa, se escapan los corderitos, perseguidles, guiadles hacia el perdon infinito" (In English this means "Hurry, hurry, the little lambs are fleeing, chase them, guide them towards infinite forgiveness). The thing is, they will absolutely NOT.STOP.CHANTING this mantra. They won't stop when they spot you, they won't stop as they attack you, they won't stop as you kill them and they succumb to their wounds. The chant itself is entoned in this emotionless monotone at first, but as the House Siege escalates, the chants become louder, and louder, more violent, and more impassionate. By the time you're in the last minute of the siege, the mob is basically screaming their lungs out, all of them, at the same time. Even for those who don't speak Spanish, it's an incredibly unnerving experience, but for those who actually do speak Spanish, that last minute is downright ''horrifying''. What only adds to this further is that unlike the original, Leon and Luis don't just outlast the Ganados until they decide to retreat; instead, they have to be bailed out by Ashley finding a secret passage as the Ganados continue to pour in with no end in sight.

* The house siege is far more frantic this time, with mobs of Ganados charging in, and all the time you can hear the mob's chanting, and it gets ''increasingly loud'' as the siege goes on. To expand on this, from the moment Leon rescues Ashley from the Church, Saddler telepathically reaches out to the villagers and orders them to recapture them both. From that moment onward, until you escape from the House Siege, every single Ganado you encounter will be chanting the same line, over and over again: "Aprisa, aprisa, se escapan los corderitos, perseguidles, guiadles hacia el perdon infinito" (In English this means "Hurry, hurry, the little lambs are fleeing, chase them, guide them towards infinite forgiveness). The thing is, they will absolutely NOT.STOP.CHANTING this mantra. They won't stop when they spot you, they won't stop as they attack you, they won't stop as you kill them and they succumb to their wounds. The chant itself is entoned in this emotionless monotone at first, but as the House Siege escalates, the chants become louder, and louder, more violent, and more impassionate. By the time you're in the last minute of the siege, the mob is basically screaming their lungs out, all of them, at the same time. Even for those who don't speak Spanish, it's an incredibly unnerving experience, but for those who actually do speak Spanish, that last minute is downright ''horrifying''.

* The house siege is far more frantic this time, with mobs of Ganados charging in, and all the time you can hear the mob's chanting, and it gets ''increasingly loud'' as the siege goes on.
** To expand on this, from the moment Leon rescues Ashley from the Church, Saddler telepathically reaches out to the villagers and orders them to recapture them both. From that moment onward, until you escape from the House Siege, every single Ganado you encounter will be chanting the same line, over and over again: "Aprisa, aprisa, se escapan los corderitos, perseguidles, guiadles hacia el perdon infinito" (In English this means "Hurry, hurry, the little lambs are fleeing, chase them, guide them towards infinite forgiveness). The thing is, they will absolutely NOT.STOP.CHANTING this mantra. They won't stop when they spot you, they won't stop as they attack you, they won't stop as you kill them and they succumb to their wounds. The chant itself is entoned in this emotionless monotone at first, but as the House Siege escalates, the chants become louder, and louder, more violent, and more impassionate. By the time you're in the last minute of the siege, the mob is basically screaming their lungs out, all of them, at the same time. Even for those who don't speak Spanish, it's an incredibly unnerving experience, but for those who actually do speak Spanish, that last minute is downright ''horrifying''.

* The Novistadors now camouflage themselves into the environment and ambush you. What’s most horrifying about this is that they are clearly fairly intelligent. Far from blind aggression, they do not reveal themselves they are within killing range of you.

* El Gigante has gotten a clear upgrade from his RE4 incarnation. Gone is the slow, lumbering giant. El Gigante now moves with surprising speed for its size and strength, straight up busting out through its gates to kill you as soon as it is woken up, and featuring attacks where it will sprint at you in an effort to flatten you like a pancake.

* Everything about Regenerators got amped up in this game:

* One Regenerator encountered later acts like the others, prompting Leon to take out the Plasgas like normal. Except, it ''regenerates into an Iron Maiden'', and once the last Plagas is taken out, it explodes, sending its needles flying that can hurt Leon if he's too close or isn't behind cover.

* Other than looking far more uglier and horrifying than their original incarnation, the Regenerators here are ''a lot faster'', running up to Leon if they catch sight of him. Trying to take out the Plagas inside them after getting the thermal scope isn't as easy either, given their faster mobility and constant leaping after dismembering their legs.

* An x-ray scan of a Regenerator reveals that the monster's skull is mostly hollow space. There are fragmented portions of skull tissue that are hap hazardly held together by loose strands of muscle. The emphasis seems to be that the mutation cares less about higher brain function, but purely on the elastic expansion of the Regenerator's facial tissue, allowing it to expand its jaw as wide as possible for maximum bite pressure.
* The Las Plagas regeneration cores that were previously invisible to the naked eye in the original, can now be exposed by enough gun fire. The thermal scope in both the original and the remake show the Plagas cores glowing at a higher temperature than the rest of the body, and now you learn why: the regeneration cores glow as if they were radioactive power cores, suggesting that the immense energy necessary to regenerate at rapid speeds is burning the Regenerator's insides like a fire.
* The more realistic shadow and lighting allows the player to get a greater appreciation for how bright the Regenerator's eyes glow. In the darkness of the lab's hallways, you can see the Regenerator's eyes stand out in the darkness, as the rest of its body is barely visible. It makes the predatory nature of the monster's gaze all the more effective.

* One Regenerator encountered later acts like the others, prompting Leon to take out the Plasgas like normal. Except, it ''regenerates into an Iron Maiden'', and once the last Plasgas is taken out, it explodes, sending its needles flying that can hurt Leon if he's too close or isn't behind cover.

* Courtesy of the RE Engine, as always. The level of gore and viscera was already disturbing in the original ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', but much like the preceding [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake two]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Remake remakes]], plus ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'', and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage'', the details are ramped up to realistic levels:

** The remake does a better job of conveying just how badly the Las Plagas has robbed the villagers of their humanity. In the original, their expressions were hostile, like that of an angry predator, which is menacing in its own way. The remake still has some of that angry predator energy, but some of the Ganados just flat out have no expression, there is nothing in their eyes but a hollow, soulless gaze. This is best indicated in the bell scene, where the Ganado that locks the church door stares at Leon with a piercing, hollow gaze as if he were staring ''right through Leon'' rather than actually paying attention to him. The Las Plagas parasite obviously views Leon as a threat and would still attack him, but that hollow stare gives off the impression that the human is really just a meat puppet for a monster that has no soul or personality of its own.

* The Chainsaw Demo recreates the opening gameplay sequence of the original game right up to the village fight, giving some extra context to the Showplay trailer. The Ganado whose neck was so broken where tendrils of the Las Plagas is sticking out was the very first villager that Leon meets and then kicked into the wall when the said Ganado tried to attack him and retaliated in self-defense. The second police officer escort Leon heard over the radio is later burned alive right in front of him. Get caught by Dr. Salvador, he can jam the chainsaw right through Leon's chest as one of the many death animations. If a sufficiently-damaged Leon gets grabbed in the front, he'll [[EyeScream have his eyes gouged out by the attacking villager's thumbs]] instead of choking and slamming him through the ground. The random Mad Chainsaw difficulty accessed by starting a new play of the demo doesn't just make the villagers far less likely to get stunned, but there's an increase number of them, and Dr. Salvador becomes ''Super'' Salvador with a chainsaw that has ''sparks'' flying from its blade.

The [[NightmareFuel/ResidentEvil4 original RE4]] may have started the shift to focusing a bit more on action, but this remake is just as terrifying because '''''it is still a horror game at its roots'''''.

* From the showplay trailer, the first house is [[NothingIsScarier seemingly empty at first]] after leaving the slightly foggy forest, before Leon discovers the first body of one of his police escorts down in the dark basement, and then hearing the panicked screaming of the second officer over the radio before he gets cut off. Leon later encounters his first Ganado, whose neck is broken (as a result of Leon kicking his head into a wall) to the point of barely hanging on, tiny tendrils of the Plagas peeking out as it tries to strangle him. When he reaches back up the main floor, Leon turns off his flashlight and crouches behind the corner upon seeing more Ganados enter, hinting at the stealth system. Even with the scrambling action that is the initial fight in the village [[DaylightHorror taking place during the day]], the atmosphere of tense horror is far more prevalent than the original.
* The village itself is familiar mostly in layout, [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand yet tweaked to be different]]. Worse, the villagers have gotten smarter in the remake - one will actually straight-up ''ambush'' Leon in a surprise attack, and in the big village fight, they'll ''actively coordinate together'' while attacking Leon, like grabbing him and holding him in place so as to allow Dr. Salvador more time to get to him. Where most buildings are typically indestructible, Dr. Salvador [[https://youtu.be/qxGPoaHow7E?t=859 can actually cut down parts of a building's roof]] if you're on top. Not even the [[https://youtu.be/qxGPoaHow7E?t=822 bell tower is safe]], where it'll collapse.
* Enemies are already a bit more horrifying thanks to the RE Engine. From the trailer, there's Dr. Salvador, who had a somewhat human face behind his mask in the original, now clearly has a skinned face with far-apart (or disembodied) eyes peering through the holes now. There's also a Ganado whose neck is so broken from being kicked into a wall that his head is on the verge of falling off, glimpses of little thin Las Plagas tentacles coming out of his face and neck wounds.
* The Chainsaw Demo recreates the opening gameplay sequence of the original game right up to the village fight, giving some extra context to the Showplay trailer. The Ganados whose neck was so broken where tendrils of the Las Plagas is sticking out was the very first villager that Leon meets and then kicked into the wall when the Ganados tried to attack him. The second officer escort Leon heard over the radio is later burned alive right in front of Leon. Get caught by Dr. Salvador, he can jam the chainsaw right through Leon's chest as one of the many death animations. If a sufficiently-damaged Leon gets grabbed in the front, he'll [[EyeScream have his eyes gouged out by the attacking villager's thumbs]] instead of choking and slamming him around. The random Mad Chainsaw difficulty accessed by starting a new play of the demo doesn't just make the villagers far less likely to get stunned, but there's an increase number of them, and Dr. Salvador becomes ''Super'' Salvador with a chainsaw that has ''sparks'' flying from its blade.

The [[NightmareFuel/ResidentEvil4 original RE4]] may have started the shift to focusing a bit more on action, but this remake is just as terrifying because '''it is still a horror game at its roots'''.

* From the showplay trailer, the first house is [[NothingIsScarier seemingly empty at first]] after leaving the slightly foggy forest, before Leon discovers the first body of one of his police escorts down in the dark basement, and then hearing the panicked screaming of the second officer over the radio before he gets cut off. Leon later encounters his first Ganado, whose neck is broken to the point of barely hanging on, tiny tendrils of the Plagas peeking out as it tries to strangle him. When he reaches back up the main floor, Leon turns off his flashlight and crouches behind the corner upon seeing more Ganados enter, hinting at the stealth system. Even with the scrambling action that is the initial fight in the village [[DaylightHorror taking place during the day]], the atmosphere of tense horror is far more prevalent than the original.