Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways fresh footage shows Ada in action

Resident Evil 4's brilliant Separate Ways campaign starring fan-favourite Ada Wong has now been confirmed for launch as DLC for Capcom's equally brilliant Resi 4 remake. And today, we can now bring you more of a look at what to expect.

Looking at the brand new footage, Ada seems to play very similarly to Leon, with the new parry mechanic very much in action, R2 knife opportunities to silence downed enemies, and silent knife takedowns for unaware ganados. The big difference for Ada, however, is that she comes equipped with her trademark grappling gun for tackling enemies at a distance and reaching new locations. Using the grappling gun to initiate a melee attack in particular looks a lot of fun, and it's also worthwhile noting that it seems grappling to a distant location can be immediately followed up with a melee attack to nearby enemies upon landing.

The grappling gun adds some much-needed spice to what would otherwise be a retread of familiar locations. It's really fun to see Ada zipping around Leon's old stomping grounds of the castle ramparts and the village outskirts. Keeping distance from enemies by whizzing from one tower to another and plugging them with bullets from afar seems just as viable as grappling them in the chest and zooming in for a brutal up close kick to the head. It's nice to see a tool that is believably useful for both traversal and combat, especially one that allows Ada to execute her literally every single move with pure style. If Leon is the internet's babygirl, then Ada is most definitely Mother.

Ada might help Leon out if it benefits her in the long run, but Ada is here on her own mission. As in the original Separate Ways, she's been employed by favourite Resident Evil bad guy Albert Wesker to retrieve something valuable and destroy anyone or anything that gets in her way, but also just like the original game Ada doesn't always play by Wesker's rules.

There does seem to be a bit of a divergence from the story of the original DLC, however, in that at the end of the new Separate Ways trailer it's hinted that Ada has been infected with the virus, which didn't happen originally. We'll be interested to see how that changes up some of the events to come.

Other new additions include requests like the ones seen in the main campaign of the remake. Ada too can destroy blue medallions for rewards.

The gameplay section that perhaps had us most excited for the DLC features Ada facing off against El Gigante, swinging from rooftop to rooftop to keep out of harm’s way, before using the grappling gun to tumble through the air like Spider-Man, slashing and swinging around to get to the parasite on its back. If all the boss fights in the DLC are like this, sign us up right now.

So what else do we want to see from this Separate Ways reimagining? Well, a nice long runtime for one, and more time with some of the game's iconic characters. Ada will almost certainly be having to babysit Luis to some extent, and we're looking forward to seeing more interaction between those two. Getting a bit more Wesker screentime will be very interesting too - he featured more in the remake so it's possible we're gearing up to seeing him in an even bigger role in the DLC.

Could either Luis or Wesker possibly be featured in a playable role? That would certainly be unexpected. But Wesker as a playable character becomes a slightly more viable theory when you factor in that both he and Ada will be be added to The Mercenaries mode, as part of a free update for the base game launching on the same day as Separate Ways, 21st September. While Separate Ways needs to be bought separately, Ada and Wesker's appearance in the Mercenaries mode is a free update.

But back to Separate Ways. We'd love to see more Luis and just generally more interesting character moments. There has been some criticism of Ada's depiction in the main game, more specifically that her interactions with other characters have been quite flat and emotionless. Though you could say that her delivery is deliberate so as to keep everyone - Leon included - at arm's length, which makes sense for a double-crossing spy, it seemed a bit of a shame to lose Ada's turns at being sassy, flirty, funny, and sarcastic, with effortless quips in the original game all reasons why she's so many people's favourite character in the whole of the Resident Evil franchise. Maybe expanding her role in Separate Ways, showing her in more vulnerable moments, allowing her to let her guard down - especially if she's been infected - will mean we get to see more of the real Ada, and see her real personality shine through.

More content we'd love to see includes encounters that were cut from the main game, such as the U3 boss fight. We saw in the gameplay footage provided to us that it looks like the second Verdugo is on Ada's trail so there will almost certainly be some sort of showdown there. Will she use her infected status to gain the trust of some individuals - maybe even big cheese Mendez - to infiltrate Illuminados ranks from the inside? Will we see another Krauser showdown? Obviously there are things that narratively Separate Ways simply has to do in order too line up with the events of the main game, but there are also some big gaps to be filled creatively, and hopefully Capcom takes the opportunity to do just that.