Capcom has been known to make liberal changes and additions in its Resident Evil remakes, and while it looks like the upcoming Resident Evil 4 is going to be a much more faithful reimagination of the original than its predecessors have been, it’s still going to be an expanded and enhanced experience in a number of ways. That, interestingly enough, will also entail new enemies, one of which has been revealed by Capcom as part of Game Informer’s ongoing exclusive coverage of the game.
Known as The Brute, this new enemy is a massive, muscular villager that wields a suitably large sledgehammer in combat and wears a dead cow’s head as a mask. Check out the video below to see the terrifying new foe in action.
Speaking to Game Informer, art director Hirofumi Nakaoka also spoke about the process of designing the enemy and explained why he was created in the first place. “The background of creating this character wasn’t that we just wanted to add a new character,” he said. “This character was created later in development. Towards the very end of development. So basically the game was pretty much complete. You could play through the game at that point.
“But playing through the game, we felt there were some parts where we wanted a different enemy, a stronger, tougher enemy, maybe swinging around something like a hammer. It was a conversation with the gameplay side where we needed this type of enemy. And that’s really where this character came from. We didn’t just make a new character because we wanted a new character.”
And why exactly does The Brute wear a cow’s head? Nakaoka explains part of the reason was that the development team wanted to add “a little more of a Los Illuminados-inspired religious horror motif”, and that The Brute ended up taking on the form of the Resident Evil universe’s interpretation of what a minotaur-like enemy would be.
Other new details on Resident Evil 4 have also recently emerged, detailing its removal of QTEs, changes made to Ashley’s gameplay, and more.
Resident Evil 4 launches on March 24 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PC. Additional information on the game is allegedly coming later this month, with leaks claiming that Capcom has a behind-closed-doors media event scheduled.
