Resident Evil 4 is partying like it's 2011 with a deluge of day-one DLC

1 year ago 123

Next Generation de-yassified and sleazy looking Luis Sera looking at the camera with his mouth open

(Image credit: Capcom)

As reported by GamesRadar (opens in new tab), eagle-eyed users on ResetEra (opens in new tab) noticed a Microsoft Store listing for a "Resident Evil 4 Treasure Map Expansion (opens in new tab)," seemingly part of the game's Digital Deluxe Edition. The content pack's description reads: "Discover the hidden treasures that await! With this map, additional treasures will be placed throughout the game. Some of these treasures can only be obtained by this method."

A quick perusal of RE4's Microsoft Store page (opens in new tab) reveals a total of 13 different content packs, presumably available separately in addition to being bundled in the $70 Digital Deluxe version. These packs include mostly outfits and cosmetic options, but also two new weapons and the aforementioned treasure map.

We've been living in the age of the $70 Digital Deluxe Edition for a good long while now, but doesn't this example seem particularly… odious? I'm not exactly railing against the heavens that my $60 isn't enough to get me "Romantic (opens in new tab)" or "Casual" outfits for 21st century brain trust Leon Kennedy and Ashley Graham, it just makes me feel tired and old. I'm flashing back to all the cross promotion armor and day-one DLC we were faced with during BioWare's peak productivity period under EA ownership. You know, your Blood Dragon Armor(s) (opens in new tab), Warden's Keep, Inferno Armor, Zaeed⁠—The Price of Revenge (opens in new tab): pure, unadulterated content.

It's not precisely clear what the Treasure Map Expansion's vaunted treasures entail, but my guess is it's more vendor trash to sell to my beloved Scottish pirate merchant in exchange for dubious firearm modifications. In most states of the Union outside Texas, it is highly illegal to give a strange masked man a "spinel" in exchange for a high-capacity magazine, and RE4's set in the firearm-averse European Union!

I find I have a particular distaste for those premium weapons as well⁠—the Sentinel Nine pistol (opens in new tab), seemingly based on Leon's gun from one of those CGI Resident Evil movies, and the Skull Shaker shotgun (opens in new tab), an admittedly pretty dope Winchester 1887 lever-action shotgun. Like any good Digital Deluxe weapon, you just get them for free at the first save point instead of having them organically combined with the game's progression, and I'd argue these freebies clash with RE4's perfectly calibrated pacing and itemization.

But who am I kidding with all this grousing, I'll still buy Resident Evil 4 for the fourth time when it comes out on March 23, even though I find that unfurling scroll of "premium content" so tiresome. No Digital Deluxe handgun on Earth could ever hold a candle to my precious Red9 (opens in new tab).

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch.