I just played Resident Evil 4 and Death Stranding on iPhone — this is a game changer
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I’ve played games on Macs and iPhones before, but these past weeks have flipped the script on an age-old conversation. My fondest memories of gaming on Apple desktops are a bit old, and include getting scurvy and diphtheria in The Oregon Trail on much older Macs in my youth. iPhone gaming is a bit more recent, as I’ve spent time obsessed with the side-scroller Canabalt and puzzlers like Threes. But I don’t really love those games anymore (no offense to my friends who seem terminally addicted to Marvel Snap), and I’ve found myself looking for the kind of narrative-focused triple-A titles that were absent on Apple devices for years.
Earlier this week, I got hands-on previews of two of the biggest games coming soon to Apple devices: the Resident Evil 4 remake (from earlier this year) and Death Stranding Director’s Cut (from 2021). While these games aren’t exactly new, they do show off how much has changed in Apple’s gaming landscape. I’ve waited what feels like decades for Mac games that match what we’re getting on console and PC, and my early looks at these heavy hitters have me plenty excited for the future of gaming on the Mac. Here’s why.
Resident Evil 4 Remake
Leon S. Kennedy’s descent into an infected sector of Spain comes to iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max as well as Apple Silicon iPads and Macs on Dec. 20, and the early version I saw played really smoothly. As Leon made his way around a confusing village, I was surprised that this game ran so well on both an iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPad Air. This early build could benefit from some finishing touches, as Leon’s hair didn’t look as neat on the iPad as on other devices. That being said, you’ll be able to fully tweak the game’s graphical settings to your liking, just like you would on the PC version.
As a Resident Evil fan who inexplicably missed RE4 the first time around (maybe a low-level T-Virus knocked me out between the early games and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard), I’m eager to give it a go on the many Apple-made devices I’ve got lying around the house. I say “many” because RE4 will support cross-platform progress, so you can pick up where you left off on the Mac over on your iPhone or iPad. I recommend you use a Backbone One controller to play the game as it was meant to be played and not with touchscreen controls. That said, if you play it on an iPad, there are a ton of customization options available to rearrange the virtual controller’s buttons to suit your preference.
Death Stranding Director’s Cut
Hideo Kojima’s breathtaking dystopia Death Stranding is one of those games that I keep meaning to play more of. Its gameplay mechanics require you to move deliveryman Sam Bridges, played by Norman Reedus (“The Walking Dead”), with a lot of focus and intent as he navigates a landscape where even the slightest reckless move will cause him to fall over as he transports packages around a land filled with grotesqueries.
Hilariously, playing that PS5 game on an iPhone 15 Pro Max (again with the Backbone One), I ran into the same problem — through no fault of the hardware or game. I was, as I’m known to do, just rushing it. And in that moment, I smirked at how such a demanding game can have the same experience on such a smaller screen than my LG C2 OLED TV.
Death Stranding Director’s Cut is expected to release on Macs, iPads and iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max by the end of 2023. It also looked fantastic running on a Mac Mini M2 connected to a gigantic TV, which made me wonder when the Apple TV 4K is going to get an M-class Apple chip to evolve for this latest generation of games.
Tom Clancy’s The Division Resurgence
Third-person shooter The Division Resurgence from Ubisoft performed smoothly on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and impressed as I played a co-op mission with my colleague Mike Andronico sitting next to me on a sofa on another (wirelessly connected) iPhone 15 Pro Max.
This one, though, feels a little too cluttered with menus and interface buttons. I didn’t get to try it out with a Backbone One, which will hopefully make it feel a little less overwrought. The Division Resurgence hits iOS and Android in 2024.
Sonic Dream Team
Apple Arcade-exclusive Sonic Dream Team — yes, a Sonic game is an Apple exclusive — is a trippy-looking title coming on Dec. 5. In our gameplay time, everything looked bright and smooth and fun. Well, except getting used to flying Amy Rose around the air.
It’s a 3D Sonic title that feels unlike any game I’ve seen in Sonic’s history, partially because the camera is zoomed so far back. This feels much more in line with what Apple Arcade has delivered in the past, as it’s not especially taxing on hardware, and offers fun for all ages.
The takeaway
While Apple previously offered No Man’s Sky and Resident Evil Village ports for the Mac, this latest batch of games instills a new sense of excitement for what the Cupertino-based company’s hardware can do. Apple’s essentially on a hero’s journey to make its hardware truly sit alongside the PCs and consoles that come to mind when you think gaming. We’re not yet at the day I hope for as a Mac and iPhone user, where triple-A games get released on Apple hardware alongside those aforementioned gaming machines — but that future has never seemed more possible than right now.
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