I kinda disagree. It could have been way worse. Remember: Devil May Cry was originally being built as the 4th Resident Evil installment. It got so off the rails, it became its own thing with a new name.

What we actually got with 4 was different, yeah. But not that different. The story and lore already were over the top and written like a cheesy action movie; 4 made the game play match the tone the story was setting. It wasn't perfect. It's a lot faster paced, which takes away a bit of the horror; but the newer ones recently follow almost the same format as 4, though in 1st person and with a slower pacing that brings back the same feeling of "I gotta hurry the fuck up and run" that the original tank controls conveyed.

It has all the same elements that the first 3 had, just with a lot more combat with the action being put first instead of the horror.

Personally I think that the newer games may be spoiling you with how they combine action and horror. Back when I played it, the survival horror theme was very real. So many new horrors in that game.

And the story is RE at its core but played loosely. It was the last game to be very goofy in the franchise really. Unless we count punching boulders.

So yeah the combat takes a front seat but the shift was necessary. The old mechanics were dated and making RE3 pt 2 may have killed the franchise. So I’m glad how it turned out even if it is very linear.

I like RE4 a lot, but I wish they had released this version instead.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Mgl5EcwMOj0

This looked like a continuation of what the first RE remake started. Much more horror-focused, more realistic and less campy. I still watch this trailer every once in a while to torture myself over what might have been.

But I don't think that game would have been as commercially successful as the RE4 we did get. The shift to more action definitely brought in more players, but a lot of classic Resident Evil fans felt alienated at the time.

After Résident Evil Zero and the first remake on GameCube it started being another kind of games. Resident Evil 4 lost me even if I finished it just to really try it..