I played Resident Evil when I was a child on the starting on the PS1 with Resident Evil 3. I fell in love with this series and played all the games.
I remember playing this game back on GameCube and not liking it so much. I mean, it wasn’t a bad game. But it did not feel like Resident Evil to me.
Recently, I played 7 and 8 which where really good. They feel different than Resident Evil, but they were scary and I enjoyed these games a lot. Still not as good as the classics or the RE2 and RE3 remake.
So what is it about Resident Evil 4? Well, it feels like an action game and less a survivor horror game. It was a linear experience of just moving forward. It lost the metroidvania part of RE for the most part.
I know this game is loved by many and I can understand why it is loved. It is a genuinely good game. It just should not be a Resident Evil game.
Personally I think that the newer games may be spoiling you with how they combine action and horror. Back when I played it, the survival horror theme was very real. So many new horrors in that game.
And the story is RE at its core but played loosely. It was the last game to be very goofy in the franchise really. Unless we count punching boulders.
So yeah the combat takes a front seat but the shift was necessary. The old mechanics were dated and making RE3 pt 2 may have killed the franchise. So I’m glad how it turned out even if it is very linear.