Resident Evil 4's tank controls were not, and are not, a problem

First thing's first: tank controls are not necessarily difficult to use. I’ll be the first to admit that, in 2023, they’re not what our brains have been relentlessly programmed to expect from modern games. Yet, with a little patience, stand to shoot mechanics are wholly immersive – something that Resident Evil 4 (2005) would not be the same without.

When I replayed Resident Evil 4 last year, don't get me wrong, the controls felt off. As someone whose main shooters at the time were PC games (Valorant and Escape from Tarkov), you could argue that getting through the first village was a challenge in and of itself while I adjusted to the controls. But that’s all it is; a matter of adjusting.

In 2023, many would argue the controls for RE4 feel clunky. Even the Resident Evil 4 Remake feels tanky, despite the fact we can now move and shoot at the same time. That said, this is not a detriment to the gameplay experience. If anything, it’s one small challenge to overcome that later results in an incredibly tense Resident Evil adventure.

More often than not, it’s not the tank controls people are necessarily frustrated with in the original Resident Evil 4. It’s more so how the camera accompanies us, and how you have to wrestle with it. Especially in Resident Evil 4’s third-person perspective, trying to shoot when you aren’t entirely sure where the camera is going to snap to can feel uncomfortable. Honestly, I truly believe that is the crux of the issue for people that still bemoan how the game handles. This isn’t meant to be a comfortable, pray-and-spray experience; it’s meant to be tense, tactical, and sometimes terrifying.

There’s no denying that an awkward camera snap might be the difference between life or death, but we need to remember that Resident Evil 4 is not a through-and-through action shooter; it is a survival horror game, too. Think about the game’s tone, horrifying enemies (see: Regeneradores), and the Las Plagas threat to humanity at hand. The stand to shoot mechanics employed are not about making the game realistic, or even true of the mission to save the US President’s daughter. If anything, they force you into a fight-or-flight response when decisions need to be made, enhancing the pressure that the game puts on you.

That, in a survival horror title, makes perfect sense. All in all, the controls for Resident Evil 4 feel genius, more than anything, and even today are far from outdated. It’s an intentional design choice that works in RE4’s favour, and while rejuvenated in Resident Evil 4 Remake, you might sometimes find yourself missing those "clunky" tank controls.

You might also think of Leon Kennedy as nothing more than a himbo, a rookie cop dropping quips whenever he can get the chance, but RE4 is a hell of a lot more complex than that. That over-the-shoulder perspective and the need to stand and shoot is not an outdated obstacle by any means, simply a small challenge to overcome that goes a long way to making the game work as it does. It lets you see Leon, it makes you weigh up shooting versus strafing. It puts his survival in your hands in a way that is visible, and heavy, and obvious.

Being able to move and shoot would strip the game of its intensity; there’s an emphasis on fast decisions and good precision. After all, the chances of you getting a run-and-gun headshot while moving are slim, and being able to masterfully precision-shoot axes and crossbows from the hands of Ganados is a pretty rewarding feeling – and something that Resident Evil 4 encourages and rewards with the game’s ranking system.

Resident Evil 4 is crowned one of the best survival-horror-meets-action games of all time, and for good reason. The control scheme that people love to complain about plays just one small part in exactly why the game is so effective at enthralling its players. While these tank controls may have evolved in Resident Evil 4 Remake, the essence of them remains. For the better, may I add.

Capcom deserves more credit for this intentional well-realised design choice. Sure, Resident Evil 4 might not initially feel as good in 2023 (unless it’s the Remake we’re talking about), but can we agree that tank controls are a small hurdle to overcome for a fantastic gameplay experience? I think so.