Resident Evil 4 - Chainsaw Demo - Opinion Piece (Playstation 5)

This past year seems to have been the time for pointless remakes of horror video games, with The Last of Us and Dead Space remakes already out, and a remake of Resident Evil 4 on the horizon. I may sound old fashioned but I'm very much of the mind that these remakes are pointless, I would personally much prefer newer entries in all three of those series than to play through an experience I'm already familiar with yet again. Saying that, I do intend to eventually get these remakes, but it has gotten to the point where I'm priced out the market, I refuse to pay £60 to £70 for a video game, especially when in this instance you can get the originals for dirt cheap.
Anyway, all of that is to say that a week last Thursday a demo for the Resident Evil 4 remake was released, fittingly titled Chainsaw Demo. Would it be enough to sway my mind and build up some excitement.

In a word, no. The demo takes place at virtually the very start of the game, and has Leon Kennedy arriving at a remote village. Originally he had headed there to try and locate the President's daughter, who had been kidnapped, but his more immediate concern is to locate the two cops that he had been travelling with. Aside from things looking a bit nicer, this follows a similar path. You go into a house where you find an infected man who attacks you, then you head to the village and witness a cop being burnt alive. After a bit of a running battle with infected villagers, a chainsaw wielding maniac makes an appearance. Finally, just as things are most desperate, a church bell rings and the murderous people suddenly become docile and walk off.

I haven't played the original in a while so I'm sure I'm remembering it looked better than it actually does, but I can't say I was blown away by the graphics here. They are certainly nice, light and shadow especially, but some of the textures in the zoomed in moments looked quite blurry and flat. I had expected the time to be evening, as I had heard they had changed it from pure daytime, instead, at least for this section, it was darker, but still daytime, more of a late afternoon feel. Locations were full of detail, but I could not shake the overwhelming feeling of familiarity. Much of the village appeared to be set out identically to the original, and the enemies A.I didn't feel too evolved.

It seems people have been reacting favourably to the demo, to me I just wasn't blown away by it. I stand by my opinion that this game just didn't need remaking. It may be graphically superior, but the familiar feeling just didn't go away. I tried the demo twice before deleting it. The first time was late last night, my tired brain assumed I had to get killed by the chainsaw man to end the game, obviously that wasn't the case. I played it again today and raced through, finishing the whole thing in just over eleven minutes.
I will eventually get the game, but when it is on sale, it may well turn out to be stunning, but from this little taste Resident Evil 4 didn't do anything to change my mind.