The original Resident Evil 4 is a great game, but did you know that it changed the series in more ways than meets the eye?

Resident Evil 4 Remake has already arrived and is becoming one of the most powerful releases of the year, and is not for less. After having been able to try it, I have no doubt that all survival horror fans will love it. Even with the arrival of this incredible new vision, the original has aged like fine wine, and has a look that is much more modern than its 2023 version.

As you begin this terrifying adventure, you are given a choice between three difficulty options. The easy, the normal and the difficult are the three ways to play that we are used to seeing in video games. Nothing out of the ordinary, video games have made us take this type of menu for granted. Resident Evil 4 did not stop there, but went further.

When we started a game (and selected the difficulty in the NTSC-J and PAL versions), it could seem that all the fish were already sold. The “cattle” were after you, phrases like “Behind you, asshole”, “You can run, but you can’t hide” or “It’s time to smash”, and could be more or less complicated depending on your choices. But what if the game was too easy or difficult for you? The title itself was in charge of improving your experience.

Part of the genius of Resident Evil 4 lies in what we call adaptive difficulty. Within a series of parameters, if you were doing very well, the title began to be harder on you; whereas, if Leon’s USAadventure was getting the better of you, the difficulty was starting to drop. These settings were independent of the difficulty mode you are playing, so even easy mode I had an intensity scale for you.

By increasing or increasing the parameters of the game, the creators of Capcom took care that you had enemies more or less aggressive, your more or less powerful bullets, and even the objects varied in quantity and quality, in addition to their characteristics. This all changed based on the needs you were demonstrating at that point in the game.

Resident Evil 4 was by no means the first video game to use this technique. Its origins can be traced even until the 80s, with the title Zanac, from the MSX and Famicom. Despite not having invented anything, Capcom’s survival horror is one of the most famous examples of this technology, and since then it has permeated the entire desEsports Extrasof the franchise.

The official Resident Evil 5 guide warns us that the game has 10 difficulty intensities that are distributed among the different modes, something that was also seen in Resident Evil 7 and the rest of the subsequent games in the saga. With none of the titles prior to Resident Evil 4 having adopted this, it is understood that this was aturning point for the Japanese franchise.

Since its release, many other horror titles have adopted this desEsports Extrasphilosophy. The Dead Space trilogy used similar mechanics to the Capcom title, while FEAR made its enemies adapt to your usual strategies thanks to its amazing and advanced artificial intelligence. Even Outlast is more generous with you depending on how many batteries you need. The dynamic difficulty is everywhere, although it is often hidden very well.

Resident Evil 4 game did much more to give his saga a facelift and turn it into a franchise more oriented towards action and shooting. He changed the way we perceive the difficulty in it and our experiences in their games, as well as in various horror successors. Not for nothing is it one of the most influential video games within the horror genre, and this is just one of the merits that have elevated it to the video game pantheon.

In 3D PC Games | Resident Evil 4 Remake dates Mercenaries Mode as a free update