Resident Evil 4 Remake Slammed On Steam For New DRM That Makes The Game Run Worse

The Resident Evil 4 remake came out three years ago, so you’d think its performance on PC would be pretty locked in at this point. Instead, Capcom recently swapped out the game’s DRM for new anti-tamper software and the horror shooter is running noticeably worse as a result.

The impact of a recent switch from Denuvo DRM to Enigma DRM was recorded last week in one YouTube video published by user ItalicMaze. Using a mod that allows you to restore the game’s previous version, the video compares the two and shows the framerate dropping from over 140 in the earlier version to in the low 90s in the updated release, with both running on similar settings. The drop-off was even worse when Leon was in more action-heavy moments with lots of enemies.

Digital Foundry circled back on February 11 and posted its own assessment, essentially backing up the preliminary data. Using specific settings to try to isolate the load on the CPU, the outlet found that the new DRM was likely causing increased strain. “In this scenario, an average 1.9ms of CPU time is sucked out of the game-which is pretty shocking,” wrote Richard Leadbetter. “Immediately after the intro, we move into gameplay where the deficit shifts to a 20 percent drop in performance.”

He calls the result “not acceptable” and points to a larger issue of publishers treating PC versions of games as “mutable testbeds” they can constantly iterate on, sometimes without regard for how changes will impact the overall user experience. The group also notes that when DRM is used, its resource requirements should be budgeted into the game’s performance targets from the start, rather than being something added on top at the end that leads to a subpar experience.

Steam users have been venting that exact frustration on the game’s store page with hundreds of negative reviews published over the last week. The Resident Evil 4 remake still has a rating of “Very Positive,” but the mini-protest has already dropped it from a previous peak of 96 percent positive down to 82 percent. A few points more and it’ll drop into the dreaded “yellow” territory of Steam user review ratings.

With Resident Evil Requiem right around the corner, all eyes will be on whether one of the most wishlisted games on Steam can avoid the PC performance debacle of last year’s Capcom blockbuster Monster Hunter Wilds. That game has finally turned a corner but it took nearly a year to get decent framerates on anything but top-tier rigs.