Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 4 had one of the more unusual review-history events in this library: a genuinely excellent, widely beloved remake that briefly, seriously stumbled three years after launch — not because of anything wrong with the game itself, but because of a decision made in a boardroom that players felt in their frame rate. Understanding both halves of that story is worth doing properly.

A remake that earns its acclaim

The core case for this game isn't complicated: reviewers across three years consistently describe it as a masterful modernization of one of the most influential action-horror games ever made, improving pacing, combat feel and atmosphere while preserving what made the 2005 original a landmark. "What happens when you remake the greatest game ever? You get the greatest game ever, again," reads one of the most-upvoted reviews in the game's history — a strong claim, but one echoed consistently across thousands of others. This isn't a case that needs much defending; the remake's quality is close to consensus among its reviewers.

What happened in early 2026

Here's the specific, well-documented episode worth telling precisely. In early February 2026, Capcom replaced the game's existing Denuvo protection with a new anti-tamper system called Enigma, applied retroactively to a release that was already three years old and had long since been cracked by pirates. Independent benchmarking, including from Digital Foundry, confirmed the change caused a roughly 20% performance drop, particularly during action-heavy sequences. Reviewers reacted immediately and in large numbers: "You just added DRM software that may decrease performance of the game up to 30%. Are you insane?" reads one of the most-upvoted negative reviews from that period, quoting Gabe Newell's famous line about piracy being a service problem back at Capcom directly. Fifty- nine of the 100 most-upvoted negative reviews in this game's entire history are dated 2026, an extraordinary concentration for a three-year-old title, reflecting just how sharply and immediately the community reacted.

A genuine, fast resolution

What makes this story worth telling in full rather than just as a black mark: Capcom reversed the decision quickly. Twenty-eight days after Enigma was added, Capcom removed it entirely, and the game has run without additional DRM since. Reviewers noticed and credited the change directly — one review from March 2026, with 425 votes, opens: "I've been waiting since 2023 for this moment: DRM-free at last," describing finally buying the game specifically because the change had been reversed. Another jokes that their PC "no longer has the burning smell" after the removal. Recent sentiment confirms this resolution stuck: 96 of the 100 most recent English reviews sampled for this piece are positive, matching the lifetime figure almost exactly, evidence that the controversy is now resolved history rather than an ongoing concern for anyone buying today.

Reading the completion data

With 46 tracked achievements, the completion curve reflects the remake's accessible but substantial campaign. Early story milestones sit between 72% and 86%, showing the vast majority of buyers make real progress into the game. The rarest achievements, tied to harder difficulty completions and challenge-run conditions, fall to 5-7%, reflecting the smaller committed core who push into the game's toughest optional content.

8.5 out of 10. Resident Evil 4 remains one of the finest remakes in the survival horror genre, and that reputation is well earned independent of anything discussed above. The score accounts for a real, well-documented, and thankfully brief controversy — Capcom's decision to retroactively add performance-degrading DRM to an already-established game, and the community backlash that followed — while recognizing that Capcom's swift, thorough reversal within a month is itself a meaningful, positive data point. Buy it with confidence; the version you'll download today is the one reviewers are currently, and overwhelmingly, praising.