In my opinion, Resident Evil 4 is neither a bad game nor a good one. I will analyze the reasoning with arguments below. It has some common elements with the old ones, such as some beloved characters like Leon, Ada, some members of STARS, and some mechanisms that remind you a little of Resident Evil 0, 1, 2, 3. However, I believe that they are presented in a way that leans more towards action horror, deviating from the series' usual survival horror atmosphere. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but it feels somewhat distant from the previous games (now we have kicks and various other mechanisms that you will see in the game). Additionally, a major drawback of the game is that it lacks almost any puzzles (at most 6-7, which are also easy to solve. Many times, I felt like they were just inserted into the scenario to say, "look, we included puzzles"). The Resident Evil games that we grew up with and loved had these two elements: a tremendous sense of horror survival and challenging puzzles.
I will not mention the general handling as a negative, as when I played the game on the GameCube, it was revolutionary for its time. It should have been improved with the remastered version, but that's a different discussion. However, as we all understand while playing the game, we realize why they made it that way back then. The gameplay and the enemies move according to the player's movements, allowing for convenient gameplay.
Another huge drawback for me is the story of the game itself, as well as the people infected with parasites that you kill, which are essentially not called zombies like in the previous games of the series. They send only one capable police officer or, as they say, a private detective, to the island to save the president's daughter (it is extreme to send only one person to an island with so many dangers). The story simply throws us onto the island, we defeat everyone slowly or quickly, and achieve our goal. It takes the story directly from Part A to a linear Part B, throwing in some mediocre twists (which were actually quite good for that time, I must admit) and "zombies" along the way. Leon Kennedy, although my favorite character, seems cool in a way that makes him invincible throughout the game, which can be tiring in comparison to, for example, RE2. And Ada, as usual, randomly appears, says something snobby, and leaves. You understand what I mean - a very weak storyline (you could say that the Resident Evil games never had a great storyline, but they had decent and logically constructed ones, not just randomly sending someone to an island without any explanation to fight a cult that controls the minds of the inhabitants and transforms them into monsters due to parasites. We moved away from the virus and zombies).
Now let's talk about the other side, for that time (2005), it seemed like a game that was trying to innovate in the already existing dynamics of these games, perhaps leaving its mark even today on other games like The Evil Within, which was made by the same producer, as well as other horror games of the later generation. Looking back, the gameplay was fantastic and it was a great learning experience. With the modern means, however, not anymore (but I remind you that the game is a remastered version and not a remake), so I respect that from me. Also, a tremendously positive aspect is the variety of weapons as you can add things to them like scopes, making the action even richer.
In summary, I do not blame the people who believe that 4 is the beginning of the downfall in the series' later course (completely shifting to the action aspect in 5 and 6 and ruining what the previous titles of the games we all loved built) but also those who generally consider it a good game. However, as I mentioned above, I consider myself ABSOLUTELY on the side of the first opinion and I have given you my arguments as to WHY. RATINGS:
Resident Evil 4 in 2005 - - > 7
Resident Evil 4 remastered ps4 - - > 6.5