Vortex Gaming

· For this comparison, both games were played on PC at 4K resolution with maximum graphics settings.
· Upscaling options like DLSS or AI frame generation tools were disabled for a close comparison.
· Post-processing effects such as motion blur and chromatic aberration were also disabled to provide clean images for comparison.

· Leon's design in Resident Evil Requiem is similar to RE4's, featuring a fur-collared leather jacket and dark tactical gear.
· Requiem's Leon has an older, more fatigued-looking face and a slightly more disheveled hairstyle than RE4.
· Since the RE4 Remake is a relatively recent title, the quality difference isn't as stark as the comparison between RE2 and Requiem.
· The resolution of clothing and Leon's skin textures are similar, but the material choices used for Requiem's new Leon model are more impressive.
· The black leather jacket, in particular, stands out with excellent wrinkle details.
· Leon's skin features superior subsurface scattering, which helps to hide the 'orange peel' effect seen in RE4, giving him a much more natural appearance.
· Hair rendering was impressive in RE4, but it's further enhanced in Requiem with more individual strands rendered and an added glowing effect when light is obscured, interacting realistically with light.

· Both games boast fantastic quality, but the enemies featured are vastly different from each other.
· RE4's enemies are a combination of simple villagers, cultists, and monsters infected by the parasitic Plaga virus.
· Defeated enemies often sprout grotesque appendages from their necks, adding elements of John Carpenter's 'The Thing' to Resident Evil's traditional Romero-style zombie horror.
· Requiem leans closer to a more classic zombie aesthetic, giving off a 'Crazies' vibe, especially in how enemies convulse and retain habits from their past lives.
· In terms of artistic style, RE4 feels slightly superior, offering more original design decisions for NPCs and greater variety.
· In terms of overall detail and complexity, Requiem boasts much better models and much smoother animation loops.
· Requiem offers a wider variety of enemies throughout the game, and its enhanced gore system and improved ragdoll physics help to compensate for the less creative designs of standard zombies.

· Both Resident Evil 4 and Requiem offer a variety of explorable locations through their respective storylines, paying homage to classic elements of the series while also exploring new styles of locations to advance the franchise.
· RE4 showcased a vastly different environmental style from its predecessors, taking players to more natural and expansive spaces, including lush forests, villages in the Spanish countryside, and even an old medieval castle.
· RE4 pays homage to horror classics like 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness,' presenting a different direction from the traditional zombie movie inspirations used in RE 1-3.
· Requiem incorporates more subtle references to classic films and leans on its own extensive franchise history rather than building its world around cinematic references.
· Requiem features a recreation of the entire police station from Resident Evil 2.
· The game features a more confined introductory sequence similar to what was seen in RE7, and the second act uses interconnected hospital spaces, reminiscent of the style of the original three games.
· The third act builds upon the type of environments seen in RE4, including fun environmental elements like collapsing floors.
· Comparing these locations from a graphical perspective, it's hard to say one is definitively better than the other.
· The environments in Resident Evil 4 Remake are truly beautiful, with an incredible amount of detail packed into every frame.
· While one could argue that Requiem's final act lacks detail due to the desolate spaces of the city, this is an intentional design choice given that the city was bombed years ago.
· The geometric complexity of the environments is also difficult to judge.
· RE4's more natural settings help to showcase fantastic texture displacement for muddy surfaces, as well as parallax occlusion mapping and tessellation.
· Brickwork on wall surfaces and rocky cliffs similarly benefit, helping to transform the many deep ravines players explore throughout the game.
· The detail added by Capcom truly makes RE4 stand out.
· Every hut, shack, and structure is filled with appropriate decorations for its location, fully immersing players in this cult-dominated village and castle from beginning to end.
· Requiem continues this trend with very intentional decorations in every space of the hospital, urban ruins, and secret labs.
· Due to the more indoor and urban-centric choice of locations, there isn't a clear demonstration of geometric improvements for cliffs, mud, or lush forests, but there are clear indications that the technology has been carried over and slightly advanced.
· This is particularly evident in the brickwork around the city and the debris piled up everywhere.
· The texture resolution of all texture maps in the game maintains high fidelity, further emphasized by Requiem's improved lighting design.

· Requiem begins to surpass RE4 in lighting design.
· RE4 relies almost entirely on baked lighting effects, where indirect lighting is fully pre-calculated rather than rendered in real-time.
· Auxiliary rays, bloom, and specular effects are added to enhance the cinematic atmosphere.
· This often results in overly strong contrast between light and dark, heavily obscuring shadowed corners.
· It leads to an over-reliance on light probes and other light sources to guide players through very dark environments.
· Given that Resident Evil is a horror game, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
· Capcom provides enough light when needed, using this balance of light and dark to deliver all the horror required.
· RE4 excels at using lighting sources to build tension.
· Requiem uses lighting in more meaningful ways, in some cases even integrating it directly into gameplay mechanics.
· Lighting on PC utilizes path tracing technology, contributing to a much more realistic lighting design than RE4.
· Dark corners are still shrouded in darkness, but light can be seen reflecting more accurately than before, depending on the light source.
· Light gradually diminishes with distance instead of the abrupt cut-off seen in RE4.
· Requiem's reflections also utilize path tracing, making them much more accurate than the ray-traced reflections occasionally seen in RE4.
· To emphasize this, many of Requiem's environments feature more reflective surfaces like mirrors, wet floors, marble, and other materials, further showcasing the technology.
· Overall, Requiem's lighting is more realistic than RE4's intentional cinematic style.
· Both games were carefully crafted around their respective lighting decisions, so this isn't necessarily a drawback.
· Due to the significantly different lighting approaches, shadows are also handled differently.
· RE4's shadows mostly consist of large shadow maps and dynamic shadow mapping for larger objects like character models.
· Generally, Leon's shadow projection is strongly defined and has varying quality levels with distance, providing appropriate depth with elements like contact shadows to maximize performance.
· Since much of RE4 is cast in darkness, this method allows for impressive environmental design that works with the game's lighting direction.
· In Requiem's more accurate lighting, shadows must also be rendered more precisely, requiring ray-traced shadows for accurate occlusion and placement, especially with multiple light sources and reflective surfaces.
· Shadow projections have proper penumbras instead of the forced effects of RE4.

· Differences in other effects are not very noticeable.
· Fire alpha layers used for torches or specific action moments look decent in both games.
· Requiem's rain effects are definitely improved, but this is due to more realistic lighting and reflective surfaces.
· RE4's artistic style can be seen to emphasize rainy moments better than anything in Requiem.
· Since RE4 takes a more action-oriented approach throughout its campaign, it tends to reveal particle density more than Requiem.
· There was a brief introduction to sound comparison, but no specific comparison details were provided.

· Resident Evil Requiem is a fantastic new series that combines the gameplay of classic Resident Evil 1 and 2 with the more action-oriented style and direction of RE4.
· Graphically, it's a significant advancement, especially considering its more realistic lighting and shadow direction.
· Object models, environments, and effects in both games surpass their competitors in the field and feel almost on par.
· Character models are undoubtedly improved thanks to more realistic lighting technology and fantastic new hair rendering.
· Choosing between the two games depends on what the player is looking for.
· RE4 is a more action-centric game with a very well-implemented progression system built into one expansive but more linear setting.
· Requiem feels like it combines two game styles into one, so if you don't like one style, you might like the other.