Resident Evil 4 Remake The Mercenaries Review

Initial Release Date: March 23, 2023

Publishers: Capcom, Capcom U.S.A., Inc., CE EUROPE LIMITED

Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows

Genres: Survival Horror, Shooter, Action

Mode: Single-Player Arcade Score Mode

Introduction

I’m reviewing this as a standalone DLC for reference. Resident Evil Mercenaries is a spin-off game-mode found throughout some Resident Evil games of past years such as Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 5, 6 and RE 2 Remake amongst others. The just of The Mercenaries mode is to kill as many enemies as possible which increases your time on the map further increasing said score.

It’s basic old fashion arcade-esque fun. It’s simple, addicting yet challenging. The review I will be going over is for the recent Resident Evil 4 Remake‘s the Mercenaries. As for my past gameplay experiences with Resident Evil The Mercenaries includes Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 6 with that coop version. Honestly, i never spent much time playing The Mercenaries due to my busy schedule.

Presentation

I played Resident Evil 4 Remake The Mercenaries on my Playstation 5 which had a recent update that fixed some of it’s version IQ issues. It’s weird to say The Mercenaries mode had a better IQ then the campaign (I beaten the campaign prior to the update) that’s the case for me.

So yeah, technically Resident Evil 4 Remake The Mercenaries looked really good and ran at a solid 60 frames per second. Some quality of life changes are evident from the campaign version for obvious reasons. For instance the menus are different and you can’t pause The Mercenaries once in-game. Think of it like a Dark Souls pause.

Gameplay

Gameplay is predicated on high scoring multipliers using green and yellow orbs scattered throughout the map that can increase your “Mayhem Mode”. Mayhem Mode depends on the character (I played as both Leon and Luis). Get 100,000+ points with Leon to unlock Luis.

Luis had dynamite when you activate his Mayhem Mode. Regardless, whoever you pick goes into berserk mode firing weapons super fast with high critical damage. Loadouts were different for both Leon S. Kennedy and Luis Serra Navarro. Luis starts with a Red-9 and bat for melee.

Leon had a Riot shotgun and combat knife. Gameplay from a control perspective was tight, snappy and responsive just like in the campaign. Difference is the campaign moved slower. In The Mercenaries everything is sped up due to time constraints.

I liked the arcade’s pace of Mercenaries as it’s a nice change of pace from the campaign. What I don’t like is the content. It’s lacking. I understand Capcom will roll out DLC characters and Maps that you will probably have to pay for in the future.

Three maps and four characters at the start isn’t impressive for such an amazing game as Resident Evil 4 Remake was. The three maps are Village, Castle and Island. All three have distinct visual settings and offer you plentiful chokepoints to score massive points. overall.

Visuals/Graphics

Like I said earlier the visuals in my case were actually better in The Mercenaries than the main campaign due to the recent update rollout. The maps, characters and enemies has nice IQ while running at sixty frames per second.

Sound/Music

Music is fast paced 1980’s action hero tunes with an announcer blaring out stats and “START” at the beginning of the match. Sound design was good like in the campaign. In regards to various Las Plagas Villagers, Cultists and soldiers they looked great as well..

Tips and Tricks

Use each map’s chokepoints and collect Mayhem Mode power-up orbs along with the green health orbs. Line up your headshots with sniper rifles to get multiple headshot kills for maximum points. Also, stay alive

Final Verdict

Resident Evil 4 Remake The Mercenaries is free DLC featuring four starting characters and three playable maps. Content just isn’t there yet but hey, it’s free with a super small download size.