Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways Review

Separate Ways is the newest, and presumably final, chapter to the Resident Evil 4 story, following Ada’s exploits throughout the game while giving a deeper look into her story, relationships and mindset, and it does so masterfully. I love both the original and the remake of Resident Evil 4, yet Separate Ways always just felt like an obstacle to get over to unlock new things in the original. Here, however, it manages to fit into the world incredibly well, expanding on the original both narratively and mechanically. Ada plays largely the same as Leon, except for one large facet: the grapple gun. This opens up a lot of new avenues in both the exploration and combat aspects, as you can get to new areas with it that you couldn’t before, while also being able to melee attack enemies from a distance.

The story remains largely unchanged but expanded in many ways. We see Ada’s relationship with both Luis, who also gets a lot of nice depth here, along with Wesker, and how her personal beliefs clash and interact with these people. I did find the performances to be mostly adequate: Ada’s lines often felt a little flat, but not awful. The most impactful changes come towards the end of the campaign, adding certain parts that were omitted from the base game, such as the battle with U3 and even the laser room, which is just as charming as ever. There are also some new locations within both the castle and island segments of the games, which help reduce the feeling of repetition when played soon after the base game.

The gameplay improvements are essentially the same as the base game, but with the grapple gun, as stated previously. New areas are fun to explore, yet feel a lot more linear overall compared to the main campaign, which was a missed opportunity as the grapple gun opens up many avenues for exploration yet only works in a few areas. The merchant also makes his return, with new requests for Ada — essentially small side missions — which reward spinels. A few of which are incredibly charming. Some consist of destroying Blue Medallions, while others are more specific, such as the request to reclaim and sell a “stolen” jacket, which turns out to be Leon’s jacket after he loses it. It’s charming and adds a little extra content to consider while going through the game, which is a plus. Separate Ways also carries over the replayability of the base game, adding the traditional Resident-Evil-style challenges for beating the game in a variety of ways, which will amp up the runtime.

My initial playthrough only took around three hours, so these challenges are a nice touch. Upon completing these challenges, you unlock a variety of new things, such as new weapons for use in Separate Ways, new outfits for Ada, Luis, and Wesker, including Ada and Luis’ classic outfits, along with other smaller accessories similar to those found in the base game.

Separate Ways is a fantastic addition to the game, and while relatively short, its replayability makes up for that. If you’re a fan of Resident Evil 4 and want to get all the story details or just have more of the brilliant gameplay, this is a great purchase.