seperate ways is eally what i wanted resident evil 4 remake to be, it takes the framework of the setting and some plot bits but mostly just does its own original thing, more similar to my favourite of the recent resi games, resident evil 3 remake than it is to the basegame of resi 4 remake. it has some similar bits structurally, like the hedgemaze chase and it lifts some things missing from 4 like the gondola and the drill and puts them in, but most of this is just original stuff and its really good original stuff, there's entire new original areas here, one even heavily inspired specifically by the live action movies with its own original boss and setpieces, there's a bunch of those here, a seemingly attack on titan inspired boss fight, a cenepide boss with minions and even just small things like different enemy placements and new abilities and weapons really make this feel so much more fresh than anything in the main game did for me, even with its changes, it feels more special to me and comes across as the better game partially for it, though the rest of it being amazing helps too.

the gameplay here is honestly a lot better than 4 remake, it's not quite as good as the original 4 for me on account mostly of how much harder i find aiming here compared to both 4 ps2 and 4 wii, though i do think changes like the grapple for melee and adding it to the environment in a few areas, plus the unlockable ability to rip shields away with it just gives the combat a bit of ease for me compared to the basegame, melee felt hard to use there because of how quick enemies recovered and how close you had to be, but here it's not as much of an issue and it makes it flow a lot better for me on top iof just being far more fun, ada's kit is much better than leons not accounting for the lower weapon count. it helps her levels are all really good, while some of them are just levels from the main campaign, the original ones are great, the movie inspired level i mentioned especially because it plays so differently from the rest of the game and feels like downright uncharted terratory and it's also just much better than the similar but kind of meh new castle segment from the basegame, you even have some new cliffside stuff and a few lil new castle bits, they're all good expansions on the world.

the story changes are also really good, expanding on certain characters role in the game was pretty clever and the whole story is very different from the original mode, it feels like a whole new direction and the way it sets up a 5 remake is also really cool, plus adding in *spoilers* the subplot about ada also being infected was amazing, it added a lot of urgency that i think the mode really needed and the way it incorporated stuff from older builds of resi, like the blue flames, fog and the hallucinations from the cancelled versions was really clever, i wish we could have had even more of that! the decision to have a recurring boss with the black robe was also really cool and the reveal of him *as* U3 was also just a moment that made me smile a lot, his final form as the centepede with glowing eye weakpoints felt right out of the best of resi and it was probably the boss highlight for me, outside of maybe the chase in the comms facility, that whole area was probably the highlight i think, the atmosphere is the game at its scariest and it was just a very cool looking area, reminded me a lot of the HIVE from the first movie, which i think is intentional design. i do wish we had more of ada interacting with the side-cast though, she's done well here and has one of my fav designs for her and i love her VA, it sounds like this is just another day for ada and she's bored of the whole thing, it's so cool! and she has some fun interaction when they do come up with wesker and luis, though it would have been nice to see an interaction or two more with ramon and ashley, or even saddler outside of her one big fight with him. there's also a really good ost here too, tons of remixes from the original game, including the merchant theme and the save theme which play when talking to him and when saving at the typewriter, they're honestly the games best songs.

it's nice and short too, it's long for the price, with about 5 hours on hardcore mode and this is great, it's a fun weekend game and every chunk of it is great, you even get a lot of replay value with side missions, unlockable difficulties and costumes and even some weapons and you have a lot of game here. you even have some new mercs characters too! ada has her campaign kit and she's my new main, wesker is here and he's a melee focused character with a glass canon style as, as far as i can find he cant actually heal, at least i could never get any healing items dropped and you also get suit leon and dress ada as alts with their own movesets which ads a ton to do, you even get a new stage with the docks from the endgame! these are a free patch though, so you don't need seperate ways for this, but i find they go well together. the dlc is well worth it, for me i think it saved the remake overall and is honestly worth buying the whole game for alone, it feels like a full new mini-resi game and i love it for that, i just wish the main game felt as fresh as this did.