Unfortunately, while the visuals were able to make the transition just fine, the audio is a different story. Regardless, if you’re looking to play the sharpest version of this classic, then this is the version to get. With that said, this is a nine year old game, so even though the visuals are crisper and there are enhanced textures, it still looks a bit flat. Having played this on a 2560×1440 monitor at max settings, which includes up to 8x anti-aliasing and some rather interesting post processing effects, it runs at a silky smooth sixty frames per second and includes more defined texture work.
This is a big deal for the game as it was never built with these in mind, but Capcom has done a solid job in bringing the series into the HD era properly.
The biggest differences between the original version of Resident Evil 4, or even the HD re-releases on PS3 and Xbox 360, is that the PC edition includes a much smoother frame rate and true native high resolution support. While you won’t be able to walk while aiming, it’s the heart-pounding situations and grotesque monsters Leon will find himself encountering that will keep gamers on the edge of their seats. This surprisingly lengthy experience, spanning upwards of 20 hours for just one playthrough, has a phenomenal pace that keeps things interesting and some of the most satisfying gameplay elements available. So if you’ve played Resident Evil 4 in the past, just know that not a lot has changed with the Ultimate HD Edition. While the mechanics of this nine year old title feel obviously a little dated at times, namely for its unfortunate quicktime events and stiff controls, it still holds up well in 2014. Without Shinji Mikami and Capcom’s influence, we would have never seen games such as Gears of War, or at least not to the degree it found success. While the story is just out of this world in many different ways, Resident Evil 4 has had an incredible influence on the industry, inspiring how most third person shooters are played today. It’s no longer the slow paced and mindless creatures we’ve become accustomed to these are smarter and more agile enemies that will quickly take Leon down. Crazed villagers infected with a new virus called Las Plagas, giving them supernatural abilities, including replacing their heads with some sort of parasite being, fill the void zombies left behind, making combat far more interesting. Kennedy, a survivor of Raccoon City and one of the protagonists of Resident Evil 2, is tasked with rescuing the President’s kidnapped daughter in some rural Spanish village. The plot, like any game in the series, is pretty ridiculous. The Japanese developer has gone back to the source material with the Ultimate HD Edition, adding a bevy of new additions and modern standards that should hopefully have diehard fans trekking Leon’s journey once more.
While the title has been on PC in the past, it was a poorly optimized port that didn’t utilize the platform’s true potential. It has been nearly ten years since the fourth iteration into the popular survival horror franchise has hit the market, but that isn’t stopping Capcom from re-releasing the game on every platform possible.