Resident Evil 4 Remake on Switch 2 Is Capcom’s First Disappointment This Year

No matter how frequently I dive back in, the opening chapter of Resident Evil 4 never fails to put me on edge. It is rarely just one element at play—rather, it is a masterclass in tension, blending oppressive atmosphere, ambush-ready threats lurking around every corner, and the looming psychological terror of the Chainsaw Guy. Even though I know precisely how to handle him, he still manages to make my skin crawl. Having recently spent time with the Switch 2 port of the Resident Evil 4 remake, I found that the only thing more jittery than my own nerves is the software itself. Unlike the majority of Capcom’s remarkably smooth Switch 2 catalog this year, the game struggles noticeably in handheld mode, though performance stabilizes considerably when docked.

The Resident Evil 4 remake functions equally as a thematic successor to the Resident Evil 2 reimagining and a narrative bridge to Resident Evil Requiem. Looking back—context that wasn’t available prior to Requiem—it is fascinating to see how Capcom subtly reframed Leon S. Kennedy’s enduring Raccoon City trauma as fertile groundwork for his later years. Now acting as a U.S. government operative rather than a rookie cop, he is dispatched to the isolated Spanish countryside on a mission to rescue the president’s daughter from a sinister, parasitic cult.

This modernized version introduces several thoughtful narrative adjustments and fresh cinematic moments, most of which land effectively to smooth out the occasionally breakneck pacing of the 2005 original. A few additions, however, lean a bit too heavily into meta-commentary. When voice actor Nick Apostolides delivers a knowing “Here we go” right before the iconic village assault—the chaotic sequence that culminates in the face-off with the Chainsaw Guy—it feels less like Leon speaking to himself and more like Capcom winking directly at the audience.

Questionable dialogue aside, the Resident Evil 4 remake fiercely retains the beating heart of the original. Action and horror exist in a perpetual, thrilling tug-of-war. Leon gains access to a robust arsenal much earlier this time around, complete with a swift roundhouse kick to capitalize on staggered foes. The temptation to sprint past adversaries to conserve precious ammunition is constantly tested; instead, the design encourages you to mow them down and ruthlessly stomp their remnants into the pavement. Capcom engineered these encounters to feel frantic and suffocating, even with Leon’s formidable combat skills. Stumbling into a mob of infected zealots carries just as much dread as facing down a solitary, grotesque zombie within the blood-slicked corridors of the Raccoon City Police Department.

Yet, the Switch 2 version’s technical performance is stubbornly inconsistent. Micro-stutters frequently plague handheld play, particularly when a horde of mutated villagers converges on Leon, though occasional hiccups happen seemingly at random. The camera shudders slightly whenever it is rotated, and I noticed frequent stuttering while merely traversing the dirt paths leading up to the village. Fortunately, because this is an aggressive “run-and-gun” affair rather than a slow-paced stealth journey, these performance dips rarely compromise your survival. Still, they are profoundly irritating—and frankly disappointing—given how flawlessly Resident Evil Requiem runs in the system’s portable format.

Another impossible-to-ignore visual drawback in handheld mode is an overarching softness and blurriness. While titles like Requiem and the Final Fantasy 7 Remake maintain clean presentations—aside from minor DLSS shimmering concentrated strictly around character hair—that artifacting blankets nearly every surface in RE4‘s portable setup, proving particularly harsh on dense foliage, which dominates the game’s opening hours. Furthermore, texture pop-in is a persistent nuisance; you will jog down a rocky trail only for the environmental geometry to abruptly sharpen the closer you approach. While far from entirely unplayable, it is frequently an eyesore. To be fair, this flaw is not exclusive to Nintendo’s hardware; having experienced it on portable PCs as well, the Resident Evil 4 remake looks rather rough on both the Steam Deck and the ROG Ally.

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Fortunately, nearly all of these shortcomings vanish when playing in docked mode, asset pop-in notwithstanding. Resident Evil 4 looks striking on a television screen, even with minor lingering artifacting. While my adrenaline was pumping just as frantically, I did not encounter a single stutter while docked. Furthermore, the game benefits tremendously from proper HDR support on Switch 2—an advantage absent on certain handheld PCs. The lighting model genuinely shines with HDR enabled, delivering rich contrast without the glaring, washed-out high-brightness sheen that frequently plagues devices like the Steam Deck.

While I would ideally prefer to experience every modern Resident Evil installment on a handheld screen, this particular entry forces me to make an exception. It leaves me—one of the few vocal Monster Hunter Wilds enthusiasts I know—feeling a bit anxious about that upcoming port as well. With any luck, Capcom can issue patches to iron out the Resident Evil 4 remake’s rough edges, while hopefully using that extra time to ensure Wilds arrives in a much smoother state.

Resident Evil 3 Remake finds its handheld paradise on Switch 2

Just maybe consider avoiding playing it docked

Source: Polygon