Some Tid Bits of My RE 4 Remake Playthrough on Hardcore.

[Frag Maniac]

***Warning, some Minor (non story related) Spoilers***

I have already finished a playthrough on Standard mode, and I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised by this remake. I would go as far as saying it's the best remake I've ever played. They've kept some of the classic battles the same or very similar, but much of the game is so reinvented it keeps you guessing on your first playthrough.

Compared to the negatives I've read about the new sneak kill option, I was surprised it can be used in a lot of places, even after some enemies in the same area have spotted you. I even stealth killed a Brute at the farm just before the village on my first playthrough. At the fish farm on this playthrough though, I did not get the stealth kill prompt when sneaking up behind one, though it may have been that I was in view of a guy with a crossbow up high.

The enemy AI is fairly complex in that sometimes the enemies at the other end of the fish farm for example will be already spawned by the time you take out the ones on the opposite end you start at. Other times they will spawn in at the other end as you approach it, and they can also spawn in back at the starting end as you circle back while scavenging.

Knife strategy comes into play more in this remake, since you can do a fair bit of sneak killing with it. At times I am reluctant to block attacks for fear of it wearing down the knife, but I'm not sure if blocks even damage it. I wound up with just enough knife stability at the fish farm though, as it literally broke on the very last enemy after killing her as she was trying to mutate. You also have backup knives you can find like boot knives and kitchen knives, but they wear faster and aren't as powerful. The backup knives can also be used to make bolts for the new Bolt Thrower.

This first one is a mix of stealth and open combat, the latter of which utilizes a ladder top choke point. I can never get enough of seeing the burly Brutes lose their balance and fall off the ledge after I pummel them with shotgun rounds. It feels easier to avoid the stumps in the lake when battling Del Lago in this remake, as the boat steers a LOT more responsively. He can very quickly turn 180 and lunge at the boat though, so you must be ready for that or the boat will take damage. You also can't swim to the boat if you get knocked out of it by the boss or hitting stumps, which is why it's important to avoid capsizing. It's hard to believe this guy started life as a miniscule salamander!

Searching the fish farm for boat fuel, and battling Del Lago!

This one I call Mining For Some Heart Palpitating Gold. The flash bang comes in really handy here to deal with this first nasty encounter with mutating dogs. However I had later come to regret that I neglected to buy the recipe to craft them. This starts out as a backtrack to find a Small Key to unlock a drawer that has the treasure. Small Keys are one of the things in this game that are seemingly simple, with less valuable treasure to find, yet they cleverly hide them and that treasure can add up if you miss it.

Revisiting the Lakeside Settlement for loot!

At first I thought they left out the dog that you can rescue from a bear trap, whom then later comes to help you with this boss. It turned out they just put him in a bit later in a different spot. This is where I was wishing I had a flash grenade or two to get in one or two easy melee attacks after stunning him with them. In reality though, the only reason I took damage from him was I wasn't patient enough to let him come near me at one end before running to the other. I had that in sync pretty well the first half of the fight, but you need to change up your pacing if he stumbles around, I didn't, and paid for it. However the final time he damaged me he nearly instantly pounced on me from the other end, I did NOT see that coming. Luckily I had plenty of eggs from my feathered friends at the chicken farm on the other side of the lake!

Defeating the first giant El Gigante!

 

[Frag Maniac]

BTW, I did some more testing on sneak killing Brutes and have verified that if another enemy is seeing you while you try it, despite the Brute not being alerted, you won't get the prompt. If not seen by another while trying it though you can definitely sneak kill Brutes on Hardcore mode too.

I like this formula, it's not at all like the cheap hive mind AI many games use, and I think it's befitting zombies to be a bit clueless at times if only one of their kind sees an enemy. I have recorded some more footage, including passing back through the Village at night after rescuing Ashley, and it's mostly done with stealth, including a Brute.

 

[Frag Maniac]

This next set of 3 videos takes you to the end of Chapter 5 with The Church, revisiting The Village (ending with Savage Mutt) and the The Farm, and finishing with Stand Your Ground.

The Church

This is really hard if not impossible to do with complete stealth, but I sufficed with not alerting the enemies in the church itself. If you can manage that, which is not hard, you can take on a couple isolated foes overtly, then make a mad dash for it if spotted again. I'm not sure if Ashley is visible or invisible to enemies, but sometimes I wish she'd get right behind me when I'm trying not to be seen by passing foes. Truth be told it's kind of worth it just to hear her classic Valley Girl-esque line, "Oh my GOD, what's WRONG with these people", when we get spotted. Oddly enough as I was backtracking off capture afterward to see if I could access the lake again to fish some bass for free healing, it was easy to take out all those remaining with stealth. It's not accessible though, as the cliff edge scaffolding collapses when you get back to the church.

Village Revisited

As promised, I was determined to show here that some fairly important segments can be played mostly with stealth. I was able to rack up 7 of the 11 foes with sneak kills. It's possible to do 3 of the other 4 with stealth as well, but can be hard to judge the timing. This ends with a Request called Savage Mutt, which is a particularly nasty mutating dog that's very dodgy with loads of health and a very nasty and extra long tentacle strike.

Farm Revisited/Stand Your Ground

I'm a bit upset that after a few tries I finally got a REALLY good start with 4 back to back sneak kills, but then I ended up taking my covert to overt ratio lower than The Village going a direction I shouldn't have and wasting lots of ammo on the last 3. It really pays to take a few seconds and peek to see what direction foes you CAN see are facing before taking an unsure path assuming the ones you can see will spot you. The reason The Village and Farm after the Church are fairly important segments as I said is you have the fairly tough Stand Your Ground segment to defend the house against waves right after it, and it's helpful to be well stocked for it.

The one thing I DID have in good supply for Stand Your Ground was handgun ammo, which I made pretty good use of for what seemed like over half of the battle. I was also able to craft some shotgun shells and got in some good shots with it upstairs to help Luis when he went up there. I also made good use of a couple grenades and 2 flash bangs, one of which allowed me to melee kill a Brute. Where I ran into trouble was staying upstairs too long where there's less room, and took lots of damage, but I was worried Luis would get killed if I left him up there without help.

Next I have to take on the dreaded Chainsaw Sisters in Chapter 6, and I'm worried I won't have enough ammo. I will likely pay for that final Power upgrade on the Riot Shotgun though, since it's a weapon I prefer to keep to the end anyhow.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

***Warning, some Minor (non story related) Spoilers***

I have already finished a playthrough on Standard mode, and I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised by this remake. I would go as far as saying it's the best remake I've ever played. They've kept some of the classic battles the same or very similar, but much of the game is so reinvented it keeps you guessing on your first playthrough.

That's as far as I got... not because I don't want to read all about it or watch the videos but because I recently purchased RE4 and have been wanting to play it but got sidetracked with Diablo 4's release.

I've heard a lot of similar comments about RE4 which is why I bought it.

Spoiler alert:

The only RE I've ever played was the original... on the original Playstation in 1996.

 

[Frag Maniac]

That's as far as I got... not because I don't want to read all about it or watch the videos but because I recently purchased RE4 and have been wanting to play it but got sidetracked with Diablo 4's release.

I've heard a lot of similar comments about RE4 which is why I bought it.

Spoiler alert:

The only RE I've ever played was the original... on the original Playstation in 1996.

Yeah this remake really warrants spoiler warnings, because it's so different from the original. I hear the same thing about the new Dead Space remake though, so we shall see if RE4 Remake remains my fave after having a go at the space version of zombies.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Here's Chapter 6, it's a short one with just two 10 min videos, but it packs a punch with boss fights against the Bella "Chainsaw" Sisters, and Mendez, the Village Chief.

Bella Sisters

I decided to include the very necessary prep for this fight to allow a safer, more effective strategy of breaking two doors open to facilitate a dash to a couple gas lamps that can be used to burn and slow enemies chasing you. I didn't make the best use of the first one, but got the sisters caught up in the 2nd. The other added beauty of this method is when you run to the edge of the area, the enemies, including even the Bella Sisters, retreat making it safer and allowing time to reload and switch weapons. This method is also very good if you are low on resources from the Stand Your Ground fight. It ends with a mad dash to escape the Village Chief and more crazed Ganados.

Defeat Mendez

This is a much tougher fight against the Village Chief Mendez. He has one attack that is particularly hard to avoid unless you manage a well timed drop to the lower area to avoid him. All others are relatively easy to see coming by comparison. I had planned to use the one tri-blend herb I had on hand anyway, as they also raise your overall health capacity.

So I'm now at the Castle and have the Stingray rifle, Blacktail handgun, and Broken Butterfly magnum. I also have some flash bangs I didn't use that will come in handy against the Novistador giant flying bugs. Last play through I was able to stun and kill 4 of them at once just with one flash bang and the knife. I have only afforded one power upgrade each on the Blacktail and Stingray so far, and none on the magnum, but the magnum was on a special offer at a lower price with free ammo, so I didn't want to pass that up. If I'd not purchased the TMP and maxed it's power earlier, which still sits in storage, I'd probably have been able to at least max the power on the Blacktail and Stingray, but I'm thinking it will come in handy for any stray Novistadors I can't stun with the flash bangs. The Castle also has plenty of treasure to make money for upgrades too.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I now have my first clip from my new PC. It's in 4K @ 60 FPS with HDR, but I've found something I didn't expect.

Firstly, apologies if you don't have an HDR capable display, but I was hoping I could get at least some whom aren't setup for it to weigh in on whether it looks acceptable, or washed out, and whether adjusting color saturation and brightness helps (I understand if you don't care to).

Secondly, the first recommendations I was seeing for 4K bitrate on YouTube said 48-54 Mb/s, though I ended up finding that was for streaming and that YT recommends up to 85 Mb/s for 4K HDR uploads.

This clip is compressed in Avidemux using the HEVC 2.65 codec at 55 Mb/s. It's just over 9 min long and the file size is roughly 3.5GB before uploading. The really unexpected thing is the 1440p res on YT looks better to me than the 4K. In fact it's very close to the look of the raw capture clip.

I should note as well that I set ShadowPlay to 70 Mb/s at 4K, but the raw clip shows just under 62 Mb/s bitrate being applied. I don't know if this is a limitation of the game, or ShadowPlay deciding more wasn't needed.

I use the :53-:54 sec mark of the video to compare, as there is a bright brazier on the floor to the right as you enter a hallway, who's light bloom looks a bit grainy. I may consider disabling bloom in game, but would like your opinion on how it looks at both res on your end.

I don't know what it is with the 1440p res, but it may end up being a godsend on editing and uploading time. HEVC encodes WAY faster than the 2 pass x264 I was using, and I could just resize the 4K clip to 1440p and not have to wait for it to process to 4K.

BTW, I'm assessing the quality via my new 42" OLED display, which is native 3840x2160 res, so it seems really odd the 1440p viewer res looks better. It could just be that there's not enough bitrate applied for 4K, but I think more people use 1440p on YT than 4K anyway.

If you choose to view it, please try it in both 1440p and 4K (not Auto), at full screen, and mention what size screen you have. If any of you would like to view without an HDR display, please comment on color saturation and brightness, and the clarity or lack of at the :53 sec mark.

There was a bit of a disparity in brightness between how it looked in game, and how the clips played in MPC-BE with the HDR option enabled. Even more so in Avidemux, which also supports HDR, but not as well. Oddly enough the variances evened out with the end result on YT. Meaning the brightness bump I made at the :08 sec mark to avoid black crush in game, looked acceptable on YT (on my end anyway). Would like feedback on that as well

RE 4 Remake - Castle Entrance - 4K HDR

What makes me hopeful this clip might actually look acceptable even to those without HDR displays is I am viewing it without HDR turned on in W11, and it still has higher dynamic range colors, bright lights, and jet black shadows. That however could be more due to YT's support for it.

 

[Frag Maniac]

---CONTAINS SPOILERS---

I now have the complete Castle segment done, and this time I captured pretty much everything. I did whole chapter videos this time. Since there's only really 3 major segments of this game, Village, Castle, and Island, there's nearly 5 hrs total of video here, averaging roughly 58 min each. However most of them average more like 51.5 min, as Chapter 9 is extra long, especially if you backtrack for treasure that isn't accessible until you get keys for it.

Gameplay wise I am not bothering with anymore Shooting Ranges, as they take a fair bit of added time, and I don't feel any other charms are necessary. I'm sticking with the three I have, Green Herb (15% more GH recovery), Handgun Ammo (30% more HA crafted), and Merchant (5% off weapon upgrades). The fact that these are random make them unpredictable and often a waste of time.

As with the two test videos above, these will be in HDR. I settled on setting ShadowPlay to 1440p at 50Mb/s, and using 30,000 bitrate HEVC compression at Constant bitrate. This is MUCH more manageable for me since the compression time takes only half as long as the length of each video, and the file size is WAY less than 4K, so much quicker to upload on my slow 5Mb Up speed. 1440p is more accessible for most regarding res and ISP speeds too.

I have also tested playback on my end, and these do not look washed out for me even if I have HDR in Windows turned off, which is typically needed to be on to see things in HDR on my display for any videos or net content on the PC input. They DO look slightly darker though, so a bit less detailed in dark areas unless you turn up brightness a bit if you lack an HDR capable display. However if your display is not lacking in brightness, that may not be necessary.

I labeled these using the location and objective of the starting point of each chapter.

Chapter 7 - Entrance / Head for the Courtyard

Here we encounter the infamous fireball catapult Zealots, after being greeted by the first head popper in this level trying to give us a sermon in a small chapel, then the cheeky Ramon Salazar, followed by a very nasty Garrador in the dungeon.

Most of this chapter however takes place in the challenging Water Hall area, where flash bangs for head poppers, and pillar cover for flame bolt crossbow Zealots come in handy. The latter of which can be tricky when corpses fall into you during close combat.

Exiting this area then takes you to the courtyard, where Baby Eagle flies the coop.

Chapter 8 - Battlements Entrance / Find Ashley

This chapter has a fight in the Wine Cellar with a Summoner and his Zealots, the first encounter in the game with Ada Wong, a rather hectic fight along the Castle Battlements wall with a giant, ending with finding poor Ashley in tears over hurting Leon.

This is a short level with both stealth and chaos. The Battlements are also one of the areas in the game that can deceive you into thinking it requires backtracking to retrieve treasures, as it did me. Instead there's a way to get them all, even with the giant active.

Chapter 9 - Courtyard / Head to the Ballroom

This chapter starts with a mad dash around the courtyard maze being chased by feral dogs that can pop heads, then battles off side rooms of the Grand Hall with a Summoner and his Zealots, and several head popping Knights, while obtaining 3 statue heads.

The Grand Hall is the main hub for this level, and there is also a LOT of treasure that can be had here, and in prior areas, as you don't get the "Cubic Device" until you beat the aforementioned Knights. The Battlements backtracking was my bad though.

Chapter 10 - Grand Hall / Head for the Throne Room

The first area of this level is the Ballroom and it's 3 dozen or so Novistadors (big flying bugs). I usually handle the first part of the Ballroom with a lot of flash bangs, which can stun 3 at a time and leave them vulnerable to knife kills. I was short on ammo and no flash bangs, but made it.

The next area is the Antechamber, which is very challenging as it has two Garradors, and waves of Zealots. I was handling it well until toward the end when I made a couple mistakes going loud shooting Zealots in unwise spots, which got me hacked a lot.

Next we meet up with Ramon again, who's commanding his henchmen to infect Ashley, before having you dropped in a pit. Then it's a fairly easy fight with four Novistadors, finishing with a crazy dance with the rather nasty and relentless Verdugo.

I generally treat the Verdugo segment as a survive and loot scenario, as killing it wastes far too much ammo. I was doing fine, dodging his attacks, getting in freeze/kick combos, and looting everything, until it ended with a cutscene robbing my freeze.

Chapter 11 - Underground Tunnel / Make Your Way to the Surface

This starts with a good battle in a mine against a lot of Ganados, and a male and female Chainsaw wielder. I used a trick this time I hadn't before shooting 3 Bolt Thrower mines way across to the upper tunnel opening enemies emerge from once you drop down.

The mines helped, and took a good chunk out of the Chainsaw guy's health. I used one mine again just after crossing the bridge you lower, which killed two Ganodos that often head pop. The Chainsaw gal though took a LOT to kill, including two Heavy nades.

After this is the romp with the two giants in the big round foundry room, which weren't too much trouble. Once Luis ran to get the dynamite pack though, the bigger armored giant easily caught up to me and smacked me really hard a couple times!

Then there's the mine cart ride, the Novistadors in the Hive, and the first fight with Krauser after he kills Luis. I'm a bit disappointed the cart ride now is just a glorified shooting gallery of sorts. In the original enemies could hop into your cart.

Chapter 12 - Hive / Make Your Way to the Surface

This is the shortest Castle level, at just over a half hour. After the elevator ride up, you take a gondola to the Clock Tower. I like most of how the Clock Tower is different now, including the flame throwing statue of Ramon, but it has one treasure that is very hard to find, which I missed. It's still fun to drop the ball on pursuing enemies once you get to the lever to do so with though!

This chapter ends with a showdown with Ramon, and it is a MUCH harder fight than in the original game. He is FAR more mobile, and his attacks are much more deadly. I was frankly worried I would not have enough ammo. I saved ammo a bit by taking out the three Zealots on the way to the fight with one Heavy nade, then careful use of the big pillar on the stairs made fighting him easier.