Face-Off: Resident Evil HD Remaster

Shinji Mikami’s horror classic rises to current-gen platforms and PC this week in what is undoubtedly a definitive release of the game – a remaster that polishes the already superb 2002 GameCube remake for a new generation. As shown from our early PS4 hands-on, character models are redesigned, the mansion’s lighting model is overhauled, and certain backdrops get the full, polygonal 3D treatment. But with a PC release also let loose, is it possible to edge its visuals any further at max settings?

Stitched back together through Capcom’s MT Framework engine (marked by distinctive .arc container files in the Steam directory), the remaster’s graphics options are on the slim side for PC. As most backdrops and cut-scenes are pre-baked at 1920×1080, the resolution slider simply re-scales assets to your screen’s preferred output, with no real change to detail. But for true geometric elements, such as characters, inventory screens, and remodeled 3D areas (one favourite being the cellar), a boost to higher resolutions goes a long way to sharpening the presentation.

The result falls close to the native 1080p delivery on PS4 and Xbox One. However, one PC plus point is in its anti-aliasing settings, ranging between a standard FXAA mode (as used on consoles), FXAA3, and a more refined FXAA3 HQ preset. This flexibility makes sense for PC gaming, where typically sitting closer to a monitor reveals the details lost in the console approach. It’s a sharper, clearer image on PC’s maximum settings, despite the variable quality of the assets themselves.

Alternative comparison:

Resident Evil HD Remaster: PlayStation 4 vs Xbox One

Consoles also miss out on the PC’s high shadow settings. Based on comparison shots, the PS4 offers an equivalent to the PC’s medium setting, slightly blurring the lines across dynamic shadows. Xbox One goes one setting lower than this, matching the low preset on PC with visible banding, still softer edges and more flickering to shadow lines across moving characters. Thankfully, the core lighting engine is intact across all three versions, as is the newly added bloom effect on chandeliers and lamps – making shadows fall at more logical angles than the GameCube release. However there’s a provable tail-off in quality between these three releases, ending with the Xbox One version. Does the reduction in shadow quality actually make that much of a difference to overall image quality? Well, few scenes have real-time shadows as the dominant element on-screen, and in many cases the camera angles present shadows in a manner that makes the difference difficult to pick up on. It’s more of a technical curiosity as opposed to anything that may impact your enjoyment of the game.