About three years after I graduated, I returned to the city where I went to University. Immediately after arriving, I embarked on an early-evening pilgrimage of sorts, my only goal to wander once familiar paths in an attempt to capture a spark of the life I no longer lived. As I ambled past houses that used to be homes, local haunts and darkened lecture halls, it was the differences that stood out the most. Pubs with names I didn’t recognise. Shops in locations that were more convenient than the ones I used to rely upon. Huge buildings that had seemingly sprung out of deserted scrubland. The city felt intimate yet alien. I was both a stranger and a local, a foreigner in a place I’d once adored.
I was thinking about this experience a lot when I was invited to play a short hands-on demo of Capcom’s upcoming Resident Evil 4 remake. Here is a remake of my favourite game ever made, a title I have replayed countless times in the 17 years since its original debut, and all I can do is think about the little things. Tiny alterations that feel much larger when surrounded by something so immediately recognisable. This was the same Resident Evil 4 I’ve always known, but one that feels bigger, better and more dynamic. I left my session excited to play more, cautiously optimistic that Capcom may be in the process of crafting their best remake to date.