Resident Evil 4(2023) - Separate Ways Review

I have seen a number of people clowning on this expansion for the fact that you have to pay $10($13 in my case) for it but the thing is, the original version of the Separate Ways expansion was nothing more than a blatant cash grab to entice Gamecube owners to get the PS2 version of RE4 2005, but that's the thing, the original version of Separate Ways was basically that. It was dull and hastly put together with not a whole lot going on. I can barely even recall it.

Now this new version of the expansion is not only much longer but it also works as a good extension of the base game. Were you one of those RE4 2005 players who missed the U3 boss, ski lift and the laser room sequences? Well this expansion has it. There is even sections exclusive to this version like U3 being a hallucinated stalker monster, Ada getting chased by another monster in a laboratory, her having an automated grapple gun where you can get close in and attack far away enemies and reach high up places.

The grapple gun helps Ada be different Leon in some ways. The expansion might be a repurposed asset use of the base game but it does a good job at remixing those sections. That terrible trebucent section with Leon can be bypassed mostly with the rundimentary stealth mechanics, giving stealth a geniune use if it is only for one section. There is even moments where the game does a better job at intersecting with the main story like going to the Chruch and hearing Ashley trying to get out, how you get to build the materials for when Luis makes the antidote for Las Plagas which brings back the maze sequence in an interesting way, and you even get to slowly play your part in helping helping Leon defeat Saddler in a tense and rather challenging timed sequence.

There are also things the expansion does better than the base game like the pointless open world mostly being gone and now you can buy the stock for weapons like the TMP rather than do those pointless fetch quests, now all those points do is just unlock jewels and extras rather than weapon specific upgrades.

Everything the base game excelled at like situational depth and a variety of scenarios where you have to kill waves of enemies in is all here like killing two Chainsaw enemies before escaping the factory, dealing with a fire archer while infected knight armors are attacking you, dodging laser turrets while enemies are attacking and more. You also fight Regenarators later in SW.

While it has all the base game's strengths, it also has it's weaknesses.

First of all the voice actor for Ada I didn't mind in the base game was rather dull here. Every line said by her had the same dull and flat expression, with this sort of thing I am not sure if the actor, the voice director or external factors were at play unless if I know the behind the scenes shennigans.

The story also isn't that great but no suprise since it's RE but now I am questioning why didn't Wesker just invade the Island and solo Los Illuminados himself instead of relying on Ada so much. Does Wesker even have superpowers? The expansion and the "rebooted" RE canon has yet to make it clear or how Wesker just keeps announcing his doomsday plan like some kind of showboat. Not only that how does RE4 which was already a side story to the overall RE canon still connect to the rebooted timeline? If Wesker can handle himself on the Island he doesn't even need someone like Ada's help. 

Some gameplay issues is that the sniper especially in closed space when dealing with the Regenarators can be a pain in the ass. This might be a non issue on PC but analog stick aiming for the sniper with enemies that close the gap very quickly like the Reginators and when they can do a lot of damage to you can make them a geniune pain to fight when losing so much sniper ammo and not hitting their weak spots due to unreliable stick aiming. 

The ammo system I am not big on especially during the El Gigante fight where it had good verticality but was ruined by the lack of ammo and nothing for me to craft. It did become less of an issue the more the game went on after upgrading my weapons but the inital lack of ammo during the early game was pretty annoying. I would also just prefer the game to spawn more ammo rather than craft them. I don't dislike it but crafting is more fitting in a surivival horror RE since you can pick what ammo out of your limited pool to create.

Issues exclusive to the expansion is that the laser room sequence was also pretty bad and out of place, it's the only geniune QTE in the game and considering how encounters like the Krauser knife fight was reimagined as a proper gameplay sequence in the base game, things like this stand out all the more. The original monster was completely pointless and could've been cut out entirely and you would've gotten the same game. Also, the final timed part at the end of the expansion I can picture being frustrating if I died to it multiple times, I knew where I was going during it, but other players might not be so lucky. 

Overall, this was a great expansion to a remake I had no high expectations for. Who cares if it costs $10 and isn't free? This is some of the best DLC you can find right now.