The remake of “Resident Evil 4,” released last month, is something of a minor miracle. A remake of one of the most beloved games ever made, retailing for a full $60 when the original usually goes for around $5, was an act of incredible hubris. Even with the excellent remakes of “Resident Evil 2” and “Resident Evil 3” in mind, part of me fully expected the game to be a mess.
But when it was released it was lauded. Reviews were positively glowing, and after playing through about half of it, I understand why. It’s a truly impressive reimagining of an already perfect game.
But two weeks after the game came out, it received a bizarre update. The first half of the update was the new wave-shooter mode, “The Mercenaries” - this bit isn’t very weird; “The Mercenaries” is a bit of a “Resident Evil” staple. The strange part was that the update also introduced eleven pieces of paid DLC called “Exclusive Upgrade Tickets.”
Exclusive Upgrades in “Resident Evil 4” are weapon-specific upgrades that can be purchased by completing some very arduous in-game tasks. They come with huge boosts in power which are balanced by the huge amount of effort the player needs to put in to unlock them. If you prefer, though, you can now unlock any of these upgrades just by paying $3.
This is far from the most egregious example of pay-to-win microtransactions out there. There’s no loot box gambling involved, the game isn’t multiplayer so you’ll never get a significant edge over any other human beings by paying money and you can unlock the Exclusive Upgrades through regular play. All told it’s actually a rather inoffensive way to implement gameplay-altering microtransactions.
But here’s the thing: gameplay-altering microtransactions are almost invariably considered a bad thing. Nearly all of them exist somewhere on a sliding scale of badness. And “Resident Evil 4” didn’t have gameplay-altering microtransactions before this - at least not on this level. There were a few pre-order bonuses and DLC weapons, but their impact on the moment-to-moment gameplay was negligible. All other DLC was exclusively cosmetic. The Exclusive Upgrade Tickets allow players to skip a truly enormous portion of the game by paying real money, and that feature wasn’t present at the launch or in review copies of the game.
This represents a significant ethical conundrum for modern digital release strategies. What happens when a feature in a game is added, without warning, after release? What happens when it’s something as questionable as a pay-to-win mechanic? That significantly altered the way I personally view “Resident Evil 4” as someone who purchased it at launch, and I imagine it would significantly alter the way certain critics might review or score the game as well.
Patches have become commonplace in the digital era. As the scope of games grows, it becomes harder and harder to prevent bugs from slipping through the cracks, and standard digital releases can respond to this issue with frequent updates. In some cases, brand new content can be added after release (like “The Mercenaries”). But when that same concept is used to make a game actively worse after it’s received significant praise, one has to wonder where the boundaries ought to be placed.
“Resident Evil 4” is still a good game. Nothing about the base experience has changed at all. But the decision to wait until the game had received significant praise before slipping in a wildly unpopular mechanic for the sake of profit has left me with complicated feelings.
Sorrel Kerr-Jung is a sophomore studying virtual reality game development at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnist do not reflect those of The Post. Do you agree? Tell Sorrel by tweeting her at @sorrelkj.
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