Awesome / Resident Evil 4 (Remake)

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

The original Resident Evil 4 is full of awesome, and the remake is no different.

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In General

"Hey, it's that dog."

• The knife has been reworked, with one aspect being the ability to parry attacks. This makes sense when its an axe or another knife, but as shown at the very end of the gameplay trailer, Leon can pull a Raiden and parry chainsaws.
  • The actual game takes it to ridiculous levels, allowing a player with good reflexes to feel like a complete badass with a ludicrous number of attacks they can parry. Hatchets, pitchforks, machetes and torches? You can parry those. Bladed plagas tentacles, Garrador's Wolverine Claws and even the Verdugo's powerful armored strikes? Parry them too. Bare limbs from soldiers and Regeneradors? Tear them clean off with a single, well placed swing. The Brute's machine-gun-like barrage of crossbolts!? No match for your trusty knife.
• The whole shooting range has received an overhaul for the remake, going from a slightly dour experience to a kind of pirate theme park attraction. If you get a bonus round the whole place goes wild! With dancing coloured lights, energetic flamenco music (which is a triumphant return of the opening music from the original game), Ashley, Luis, and the Merchant all cheering for you as you take down targets.
  Merchant: It's a bullet bonanza! Fire everything you got.

Story

Chapter 1

• At the Hunter's Lodge when meeting the first Ganado, we get to see just how much Leon has improved in the six years since the Raccoon City incident and the fruits of the government training when Leon deflects the Ganado's axe with his knife and then performing a Roundhouse Kick strong enough to send the Ganado to the wall and break its neck. It really shows to the player that Leon is no longer that rookie cop anymore and has taken a level in badass.

Chapter 2

• After Leon wakes up and interrogates Luis, they team up to strangle a Ganado with the same chains they're imprisoned with.
  • Leon in particular is nothing short of badass this entire scene and Luis is just following his lead. Leon figures out how to rip the chain off from the hinge in the ceiling, saves Luis by yanking the chain, is the one who manages to wrap the chain around the Ganado's neck, and then executes a stylish maneuver with his knee to jerk the chain hard enough to snap the Ganado's neck, all while maintaining a cool, stoic demeanor.

Chapter 3

• The Del Lago boss fight is even more challenging and intimidating then in the original, but it's still immensely satisfying to finally slay the beast Moby-Dick style with nothing but a harpoon.

Chapter 4

• Despite many people's fears, the dog is alive, just stuck in a beartrap outside Méndez's house in Chapter 3, rather than the one at the beginning of the game like in the original. If you save it, then just as in the original, it'll show up to help with the El Gigante, letting out an echoing howl to herald its arrival as lightning strikes behind it. Over the top? Yes. Badass? Hell yes. During the fight, it even manages to clamp its jaws down on the giant's heel for several seconds, goading it into running right into a wall and bringing rocks down on its head.
  Leon: That's what I'm talking about! Good boy!
• In the original, Ashley's reaction to Leon's first rescue of her is to throw a piece of wood and huddle in a corner. Not this time around; She attempts to attack Leon with a candelabra. It's a small moment, but enough to show that Ashley is no longer the meek load that she was in the original game.

Chapter 5

• The cabin siege with Luis, finally giving Leon and the player a partner to fight alongside with (aside from the dog in the El Gigante fight). Despite being surrounded and out-numbered, both of them prevailed against the mob long enough for Ashley to find an escape route to safety. Luis set the stage well in the start of the battle to show what kind of stakes the two men fought against and barely won.
  Luis: Hordes of them against two of us. Oh, and let's not forget - the mob is made up of monsters.

Chapter 6

• As Leon goes to grab an item he needs, a pair of chainsaws to either side pierce the wall in front of him, and start to close in on his neck. Leon could take a step back... or he can backflip off the wall.

Chapter 7

• Leon and Ashley enter the castle and, as they proceed, are greeted with catapult-operating cultists trying to blow them up. Eventually you find the cannon and raise it up to ground level, where you can finally turn the tables by blasting those annoying Los Illuminados Zealots with cannonballs and destroy the gate leading to the courtyard. Furthermore, you can lure enemies into the blast radius of the catapults and let your own foes kill each other!
  • Even more awesome once you get the Gamebreaking Hand Cannon as you can destroy the catapults with just a few shots from it without needing to hit them with the cannon and save yourself a lot of grief.

Chapter 8

• Leon reaches the bindery inside the castle and is held at gunpoint by Ada... and proceeds to disarm her though she quickly regains control of the situation. But then they trade blows and Leon gets the upper hand in their brief scuffle by holding her at knifepoint.
• Unlike the original game, an armored El Gigante shows up in the castle, attacking Leon at the battlement roof. After having to deal with Zealots and the monster throwing rocks at him, you get to take down the beast with another round of cannonballs. It later comes from a chasm to drag Leon down with him, though he quickly avoids it and jumps off its armored head to proceed further inside the castle.

Chapter 9

• Leon gets caught in a trap by the cultists, who raise up a cage from the ground to lock him up, with enemies showing up to kill him. What does Leon do? He goes full John Wick on their asses, shooting to death the mooks on the ground and on the balcony above with stunning precision while using his other hand to stab a nearby henchman with his knife. And then using said stabbed mook as a human shield for a crossbow shot. The harsh government training paid off really well.
• As Ashley escapes some cultists, she takes a brief moment to compose herself before starting her gameplay section. She does so by taking Leon's words to heart as she takes a moment to concentrate even though cultists keep banging on the door she just locked, and it shows how much more capable Ashley becomes this time around.
  Ashley: I won't run.

Chapter 11

• The whole chapter is a big one for Luis Serra-Navarro. Luis in the original was a plucky researcher that worked with Los Illuminados and only showed up sporadically before being unceremoniously killed off by Saddler. Here, Luis' skills as a fighter, only before hinted in the cabin siege, gets more screen-time fighting with Leon against the Ganados and El Gigantes in the mines, able to coordinate alongside the more-skilled Leon to defeat their foes. It helps that, canonically, Luis is doing all this with simply the Red 9 handgun and a bundle of dynamite, contrasting with Leon who at this point can be a Walking Armory.
• Gone is the annoying multiple cutscene button prompts; the fight against Krauser this time is a real-time knife vs knife gameplay, combining every melee technique you have accumulated so far.
  • Like Leon, Krauser can actually parry Leon's attacks and follows up just as quickly as his student is.
  • Luis, having just been fatally stabbed In the Back by Krauser moments before, saves Leon by shooting Krauser's knife with his pistol, causing him to flinch, and in turn forcing Krauser to flee. Bonus points for Luis doing it while Krauser was mid-swing, which is difficult enough for someone to do in real life, without having to worry about injuries. A closer look on the position of the sparks reveals that Luis was actually aiming for Krauser's head and only the blade saved Krauser there, which, for a dying person, is no less impressive. And doing this with the least accurate handgun in the game on top of all that (which players can attest to, as the minecart section forces it on you)!

Chapter 12

• Before the final fight with Salazar, he attempts to lecture Leon on rejecting Saddler's "gift" (the Plagas parasite). Leon, at this point sick of him, shoots Salazar to shut him up. After listening to him taunt you all the way through the castle, it's very satisfying.
  Salazar: Such a fool, Mr. Kennedy. To be bestowed with Lord Saddler's grace...
  Leon: (sighs) You Talk Too Much! (draws his handgun and shoots Salazar in the chest)
  Salazar: ...and yet fail to- (gets hit by Leon's gunfire) You vulgar, utterly uncivilized- (gets hit in the forehead) -mongrel... (falls)
• The fight with Salazar is a lot more bombastic in terms of gameplay and atmosphere compared to the original, with a rising orchestral note playing in the background as Leon faces off the mutated Salazar. It helps that Salazar's fighting style is more exciting than his original version's, which was simply anchored in a single position in the room. The remake Salazar moves rapidly and forces Leon to keep his toes to make sure Salazar doesn't spew acid at his location nor chomps down on him with his mutated form.

Chapter 14

• Ashley, of all people, can kill a Regenerador/Iron Maiden. Should the player lure it towards the bridge while Ashley is holding it up on the other side, she'll let go of the valve and cause the bridge to collapse, having it fall to its demise.
  Ashley: How do you like this?
• Upon reaching the crane, Ashley wastes no time manning it and using the wrecking ball to demolish the stone wall blocking the way out. If you play your cards right, Ashley will even help kill some enemies in the way of the wrecking ball's path!
  • Right after this point, during the ride up the elevator, Ashley talks about how it might be a fun idea to consider becoming an agent herself. While it's obviously idle chatter for the moment and Leon simply humors her without exactly encouraging her (remember the training from hell he endured), it's quite a change of pace compared the previous Ashley, who relied on Leon from practically start to finish; this Ashley has become a newborn survivor who wants to actually keep what she's learned on the way.
• Ashley manages to resist the influence just long enough to pull away and shoot two minions on either side of Leon, so that by the time Saddler overrides her and trains her aim back to Leon again, the gun luckily goes *click!* and jams. Considering how frightened and upset she was the first time Saddler forced her to attack Leon with his own weapon, it nicely shows that for as understandably terrified as she is by the nightmare she's trapped in, Ashley is whole lot stronger and braver than she looks.

Chapter 15

• Mike is back! Compared to the original where he shows up and meet Leon before shredding apart Ganados, his arrival in the remake is like The Cavalry moment as Leon encounters an outpost of RPG-wielding Ganados and machine gun mounts. The gatling gun and rocket fire that appear overhead and clears the way is just enough to give players that Heroic Second Wind needed to fight through the defenses.
• Ada's Big Damn Hero moment coming in the last second to just unload all of her submachine grounds to stun Saddler long enough for Leon to escape with Ashley. She even covers their escape by shooting down a giant statue to stop Saddler from following them.
• Despite being the sickest he's ever been from the infection, Leon manages to push forward to Luis' lab despite Saddler still messing with his head and the agony of his infection, all while carrying Ashley. He holds on just long enough to free Ashley from the parasite.

Chapter 16

• It's offscreen due to Leon being unconscious, but somehow, Ashley manages to hoist a 70-75kg Leon onto the operating chair by herself. Not only that, she also manages to figure out how the console works to operate on Leon and get his parasite removed, too.
• The final battle with Saddler manages to be even more of a spectacle than the original, with a bombastic orchestral rendition of his original boss music as Saddler rants at length about his twisted version of world peace, summoning swarms of Novistadors and descending into insane cackling as you whittle away at his health until he falls over the side of the platform... Only to reemerge with a second form that's little more than a swirling mass of tentacles with his main body in an impenetrable cocoon. Then Ada tosses you the rocket launcher. But unlike the original game, it still isn't enough to kill Saddler. However, what it does do is leave Saddler vulnerable long enough that Leon is able to run right up to Saddler, snap off the tentacle holding his staff and then stab him in the eye with it.
  Leon: I'll give you a holy body!
• While running to the jetski with Ashley we see all the Ganados squirming the ground being killed off due to loosing their parasites after Saddler's death. Unlike in the original canon where some of the infected on the mainlaind are still alive and functioning, Leon has successfully eradicated Las Plagas from Valdelobos. The nightmare is finally over!

Separate Ways

• Ada's special knife animations against each boss when the prompt appears are quite awesome, all leveraging the momentum Ada has with her grappling hook to slice the boss weak spot. Special mention to the El Gigante in Chapter 3 where the knife animation looks like something out of Attack on Titan.
• Ada finally takes down Pesanta in its U-3 form after it had been constantly hounding her, and vindictively stomps on the parasite that Pesanta had infected her with at the beginning of her campaign after coughing it out.
• Separate Ways reveal that the medicine Luis provides to Leon and Ashley wasn't something created in a lab, but medicine Luis synthesizes on the spot in the castle after Los Iluminados burns up his laboratory in the castle. With Ada's encouragement, he devises a plan quickly from what he knows of the castle's inventory for Ada to retrieve specific items he knows has necessary components and re-creates the medicine with a portable lab workshop. It is a mark to Luis' brilliance and aptitude that this all works out and the medicine gives Leon, Ashley, and Ada extra time needed to power through their Las Plagas infection towards a cure.
• A detail highlighted by Separate Ways is just how fast Leon is mowing through Los Illuminados. One good example is Leon's battle with Salazar, which Ada witnesses the beginning of, and by the time she makes it to the docks with only an elevator ride and a few Ganados later, Leon is already catching up to her. The entire Saddler boss fight from beginning to end is also implied to be just around 5 minutes given the timer Ada has to retrieve the rocket launcher and deliver it to Leon.
• Ada's handling of the laser hallway on the island, especially the second one with the monster Martinico right behind her. She gracefully dodges the first few moving set only for the last, impossible to dodge, grid laser to show up while she's in midair. In a literal split-second reaction timing, she utilizes her grappling hook to propel past the grid lasers while in the middle of its formation to just barely slip through and avoid becoming Ludicrous Gibs that Martinico becomes.
• Ada battles Saddler in his human form and takes him down in style. Swinging on her grappling hook, she knocks a pillar down on top of him. He smashes it to pieces with his tentacles but is left reeling in the dust cloud, which is when Ada charges out of the cloud like a ninja to slash his throat.

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