I don't share quite the same love for Resident Evil 4 as many readers no doubt do: In fact, I was one of those finger-waggers complaining that its success led to the series' creative drift for the next decade or so. Nevertheless, I believe that PC ports of vintage games should be the very best representations of these games, and the Resident Evil 4 that arrived on Steam in 2014 just wasn't that.
It lacked graphics customisation options, and the textures were only marginally cleaner than those of the original GameCube game that came out nine years earlier. The fan-funded Resident Evil 4 HD Project—which started way back in 2014—is finally about to put that right, announcing that version 1.0 is coming February 2 2022 (thanks, RPS).
The project is a huge texture and asset overhaul for the PC version of Resident Evil 4, recreating the textures for every wall, book, mouldy fruit, suit of armour and character in the game. If you want some idea of the commitment involved, one of the creators Albert Marin actually retraced Capcom's footsteps to locations like Raglan Castle in Wales and the Palau Güell in Barcelona to photograph many of the same textures used in the original game, but at much higher resolutions.
Version 1.0 will not only include the untold thousands of textures retouched and created from scratch over the years, but plenty of other improvements too. The original 512 x 336 videos have all been remastered and scaled properly for HD screens, FoV options have been added, and even little things like the GameCube version's Depth of Field effect (which was removed for the PC version) have been reinstated.
Just feast your eyes on these screenies...
Between them, Albert and Cris have poured about 13,000 hours into the project, covering nearly half of the estimated $31,000 expenses (donors contributed $16,000). Of course, the PC is home to many wonderful projects like this, but may my eyes be blinded if this isn't among the best of them.
In fact, now that Capcom have mysteriously removed the 'Ultimate HD Edition' suffix from the Steam version of Resident Evil 4, maybe they should bequeath that title to these guys? They've really earned it.
