Overview
Growing up I never knew there was an Easy mode for Resident Evil 4. Not that I needed one, however, I decided to give it a playthrough and discovered that there were significant changes made. You will be surprised to see what was changed.This information was pulled from my reddit post I made of this a few months back. If there is anything I missed, please let me know!P.S This isnt to hate on people who use Easy Mode, I just thought it was interesting.
Difficulty and Enemy Behaviour
Who would have guessed that selecting easy mode made the enemies easier, right? Anyway here are some of the changes I noticed.
-You start with the Shotgun (The shotgun is not present in the village house)
-Enemy health is slightly reduced.
-Enemies will not run unless they are a significant distance from you.
-They throw weapons less often.
-You take less damage from hits and damage is consistent throughout the game due to the lack of dynamic difficulty.
-Enemies drop more health and ammo.
-The chances of causing Plagas Heads are lower.
-Quick-time events requires less inputs to complete. A LOT less inputs.
Map & Pacing Changes
This is by far what changes the most on easy mode. A lot of areas are cut, important areas that I usually associated with when I am reminded of this game.
The Castle Gate key is not required to enter and the door that would normally be passed through to find it is “Blocked from the other side”. Chapter 2-1
The section in the Maze garden with the caged dogs is completely removed. Chapter 3-2
Only the Kings grail is required to pass through as the Queen will already have hers. This skips the section with the revolving door knights where the chest is in the middle. Chapter 4-1
You will only fight 1 garrador at the section where you would normally fight 2. Chapter 4-1
The chainsaw guy will not be there at the part in the mines where you must use dymamite to blow up the rock Chapter 4-3
The section where you would normally be trapped and have to shoot the red lights has also been removed. Chapter 4-3
The bridge section on chapter 4-1 the one where you have to destroy the blocks of wood blocking the gears to operate it, This is completely skipped, just like the Maze section. This scene is also interesting because it uses a pre rendered cutscene to show it and it looks ripped straight from what I believe to be the PS2 version, instead of the In-game engine. Enemies are also not waiting outside the entrance to the next section of the game