We all know that Resident Evil 4 is one of the best action games of all time, but those muddy textures definitely looked a lot better back in 2005.
Luckily for PC players, however, an extremely ambitious HD remaster of the game has finally reached 1.0, and it overhauls every visual aspect of the game to a frankly baffling extent. It's almost certainly the best way to play RE4 in 2022, unless you really want to put on that VR headset.
Looking good —
The Resident Evil 4 HD Project first started in 2014, and it was developed mostly by two guys named Albert and Cris — with the help of coders like "Son of Persia." The original goal of the mod was to upgrade the game's textures to high definition.
Over time, however, its remit expanded to include models, menus, cutscenes, lighting, visual effects, and pretty much everything about how the game looks. In many cases, Albert was even able to find the original references that Capcom used to make the textures, such as a wall from Raglan Castle in Wales that he says is used in multiple Resident Evil games. According to an interview with The Verge, Albert has put in over 9,000 hours of work into the project.
A gamble worth taking —
I personally played a "draft" version of the mod during my latest RE4 playthrough a few years ago, and it looked great even then. In order to play the mod, you must own the "ultimate HD edition" on Steam (which is currently on sale at Fanatical for $5), then download the 39 GB mod and install it. There's a step-by-step guide on the mod's webpage if you're stuck, but it's pretty self-explanatory if you're familiar with modding old games. Just don't forget about the 4 GB patch, it's important.
There's more goodies here, too: Capcom is supportive of the project, even going so far as to pin a thread about the mod on RE4's official Steam forums. Download away!
