The Resident Evil 4 Remake would be a special “upgrade” for various reasons. The first is the simplest. This was a remake of arguably the most popular game in the franchise. The game had already been ported to numerous systems over the years because more and more people wanted to try it out. Even when releasing new mainline titles, they were still porting the game. The second reason the game’s remake was special was that it would be on the PS5, and thus it could be rendered in a way that wasn’t possible on previous systems from past generations.
On the PlayStation Blog, the Capcom team detailed why they pushed the PS5 so far and got the results that fans are in awe of.
For Director Yasuhiro Ampo, he noted that the PS5’s ability to read data faster than anything else could allow for more to be done with the title:
“The enhanced data reading speed allows the game to handle higher volumes of assets, while also generating richer graphics and reducing loading times. Immersive horror is one of the key elements for the Resident Evil series, so it’s extremely beneficial that players can remain uninterrupted during their gameplay even during scene transitions.”
A fair thing to note, as the franchise has had to “limit” what they did in the past, so with the PS5, they almost have no limits given what we’ve seen the console do. Another example of this was found with the sound director, who noted that the team used the PS5’s 3D audio feature to create layered dynamic sounds that would make you feel on edge even when no overt music was playing. They wanted to use the sound to help you dive into the experience more, which worked.
The art director of the game, Hirofumi Nakaoka, used the PS5’s graphical power to bring out the detail and terror of the world without resulting in basic things like “making it darker.”
“While preserving the distinctiveness of each defining area – which is at the heart of the original Resident Evil 4 – we modernized each location to accommodate the PS5’s capabilities, so that players will feel the chilling isolation when exploring the secluded European village surrounded by a forest.”
The team used light and shadows to make every environment realistic and horrifying. If nothing else, the Resident Evil 4 Remake shows what happens when the right team uses the PS5 to the fullest.
