Resident Evil 4 Remake

Gold Edition, and the maths is not close. Capcom defines Gold as the base game plus Separate Ways plus the Extra DLC Pack — nine items covering costume sets for Leon and Ashley, the Sentinel Nine and Skull Shaker weapons, a treasure map expansion, sunglasses and an original-soundtrack swap. At list, Gold is $49.99 while Standard plus Separate Ways bought separately comes to $49.98, so the extras pack is effectively free. During the sale running as this was written the gap inverts outright: Gold at $14.99 against $19.98 for the same two pieces apart. The old Deluxe Edition is delisted. The only other route is the Resident Evil Remake Trilogy, worth it only if you want RE2 and RE3 as well.

Source: Capcom

Worth playing, not worth buying on its own. It is a three-to-five hour Ada Wong campaign built around a grappling hook, and much of it restores material that was in the 2005 game and cut from the 2023 base version. Destructoid's read is that Capcom "adds in content from the OG that's missing from the 2023 version and does it in a pretty sleek way that doesn't allow those portions to overstay their welcome." Steam buyers put it at 95.4% positive across 8,391 reviews. The catch is pricing: Separate Ways was included free in the original RE4, costs $9.99 here, and is the one item on the store page that never discounts — even during a 75% sale. Get it inside Gold Edition instead.

Source: Destructoid

Both are on Steam and both are cheap, so this is a taste question rather than a budget one — the 2014 HD re-release of the 2005 game sits at 94.4% positive across 77,527 reviews. The remake plays better but is a genuinely different game: it drops an entire boss fight, removes Ashley's health bar, puts durability on Leon's knife, adds side quests and crafting, and cuts setpieces including the giant stone robot along with much of the camp dialogue. Its biggest addition is the knife parry. Notably, PC Gamer scored the remake 80 and still preferred the original. If what you want is the 2005 game's tone and pacing, buy the 2005 game.

Source: Screen Rant

Less than the Resident Evil name suggests, and that is by design. GamesRadar+'s side-by-side against the RE2 remake concedes RE2 is the better horror game while RE4 wins on action-adventure sprawl, and PC Gamer's review frames it simply as a remake of one of the best action games ever made. The loop is crowd control, parries and suplexes rather than scarcity and dread. If you want the shooting without the tension, Assisted difficulty turns on aim assist, crafts more ammo, auto-recovers health at DANGER status and cuts Merchant prices. One thing to know before you take it: you can drop from Standard to Assisted at any game-over screen, but you cannot switch back.

Source: GamesRadar+

No DRM, and yes it runs. RE4 shipped with Denuvo; Capcom later swapped it for The Enigma Protector, which was widely blamed for degraded performance on Windows and on Linux and SteamOS alike. Enigma was removed in March 2026, and the Steam store page now lists no third-party DRM notice — only an agreement to a third-party EULA. The game is Steam Deck Verified. The practical consequence is that most performance advice for this game written between 2023 and early 2026 describes a build that no longer exists, so old threads recommending workarounds are worth ignoring.

Source: GamingOnLinux