| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 5 | 9.10 |
| Overall | 9.10 |
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$10?! For this?! I feel i should give Capcom more money out of respect. Separate Ways is the RE4 expansion that tells the story from Ada’s point of view. Originally included in the PS2 version of RE4 it’s become a part of every RE4 release since. The OG Separate Ways had some cool moments but it was clearly a step down from the base game. The remake of Separate Ways is a big improvement coming to the table with some impressive new setpieces and boss battles all held together with the fantastic RE4 combat system. The most surprising thing is the length, coming in at about 5-6 hours this “expansion” is bigger than many RE games including the recent RE3 remake and one character run of RE2. Now yes it does reuse a load of RE4 locations but it does so in a way to have new encounters and gameplay twists. For those 5-6 hours the intensity and creativity feels like a perfect extension of the base game. I don’t think it ever reaches the highs of the main campaign, that game is too perfect, but it definitely fits into the middle quality stuff which is still better than nearly any action game. I loved how creative some moments got, right from the bat there is a new (well new to the gameplay, we see it before) monster giving chase to Ada with some cool visual effects that lead to a thrilling boss battle. El Gigante makes a return but this time you battle him at the farm with every building completely destructible. Ada has her hookshot which allows her to reach rooftops and far areas and you can zip to roofs as the giant starts to tear down the houses piece by piece. Well known locations like the hedge maze are remixed and make use of Ada’s quicker mobility with the hookshot. It’s not all reused areas though, many of the cut locations from the original RE4 make their return in this expansion. Stuff like the Nosvistador sewer sequence is expanded upon in a whole new area. The most egregious cut from the original, the loss of “It” or U-3 boss battle is thankfully recreated in this game. While that battle is intense and a whole lot of fun, I felt the original still did it better. There are some great surprises later on as well, this add on is one hell of a ride. Ada doesn’t get the full arsenal that Leon gets but she has a few new tricks. One of the coolest is the ability to rip shields off enemies with the hook shot. A crossbow with explosive arrows is added to the weapon roster, it’s very powerful and much better to use than the mine gun. Outside of that it’s pretty much the same as base game, which is fine, it’s top of genre level combat. Ada gets more fleshed out in the story here. Most of the time she is the hard exterior cool spy that tries to never show weakness but this story allows us to see cracks in her persona. Moments of caring, moments of doubt, it’s subtle but it’s there. The voice actress Lily Gao grew on me as the game went on, she won’t ever replace Cahill for me but it works. Luis gets some more backstory as well, but the most surprising addition is Wesker being much more involved, which of course I loved. I did not like Krauser getting the boot, he doesn’t play any role in this expansion which is a shame cause I enjoyed his part in the original. Oh I have to mention the music! They went all out to create some killer tracks, really exciting music that fits into the old school RE music vibe. One of the best pieces is a remix of Ada’s theme from RE2. While not exactly included with the $10 expansion, the same update added Ada and Wesker into Mercenaries for free, so to me it’s part of the new content. Ads plays like Ada, nothing special there. It’s Wesker that steals the show, it’s basically easy mode, as it should be! Wesker has a totally unique power mode where you basically go beserk and do matrix kung fu instant kill attacks on everything. Oh and he can deflect any attack with his hand resulting in an instant kill counter. The final Mercs level, the docks, was also included, finally RE4 is complete. Separate Ways is a fantastic game. The fact that it is just an expansion and uses so many parts of RE4 is the only reason it’s not going to be talked about as one of the better RE games ever. If RE4 didn’t exist and this came out alone I think it could be a top 6 RE game. It’s by far the greatest RE expansion ever. I think it’s easily better than RE3 remake, hell I could argue it’s better than 7 and 8, but those being full original games make that a hard sell. What matters is that it is more of RE4 remake, which is one of the greatest games ever made, the quality is still there. Buy this, don’t even think about it. |
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Posted by Dvader Tue, 26 Sep 2023 09:03:48
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