The Las Plagas virus from Resident Evil 4 Remake is the scariest member of the series, and perhaps even more terrifying than Cordyceps from The Last of Us.

 

In the world of video games, zombies have been present since the early 1980s, for example in the Atari 2600 game Entombed, where you had to escape from a catacomb full of zombies. Over the past four decades, many games have used zombies as antagonists, and more and more diverse types have appeared. In Resident Evil 4 Remake, the zombies are victims of Las Plagas parasites, which are perhaps even scarier than the Cordyceps parasites of The Last of Us.

In Resident Evil 4 Remake, players will encounter multiple Las Plagas parasites, each scarier than the last. In the course of the game, it is revealed that the parasite first came to light in a mountainous area of Spain and was hidden underground by the Salazar family for over a thousand years.

The nest was eventually disturbed by Osmund Saddler, who then injected the newly hatched Plagues into the bodies of nearby villagers, promising to cure them of their “madness”. Within days, the Plaga evolved, engulfing the central nervous system and taking control of the villagers’ bodies. The Plagas parasite increases the strength and aggressiveness of the infected person, while reducing their ability to think, effectively turning them into zombies.

Over time, Osmund’s research team developed stronger versions of the Las Plagas parasite, eliminating the weaknesses found in the original strains. These experiments led to the creation of terrifying monsters such as the flying Novistador, the mutated Verdugo, and the nearly invincible Regenerators. Also, a new type of Plaga has been created that does not need to enter the body and can control the host just by clinging to its back and digging its needle-like legs into its spine.

Compared to the other parasitic viruses in Resident Evil, Las Plagas is perhaps the scariest. Resident Evil’s most iconic virus, the T-Virus, lacks the violence of Las Plagas and simply turns victims into mindless zombies. Although stronger versions of the T-Virus can create formidable opponents such as Tyrant, Mr. X, and Nemesis.

The Las Plagas parasite can even be compared to the latest popular video game infection, Cordyceps from The Last of Us. In 2013’s The Last of Us, a Cordyceps fungal infection spreads rapidly through the body and attaches itself to a person’s central nervous system. However, the Cordyceps infection in The Last of Us does not require a parasite injection, and a single scratch, bite, or consumption of infected food is enough to spread it, which is much easier to catch than Las Plagasa in Resident Evil 4 Remake. A Cordyceps infection can also create its own terrifying monsters, such as Stalkers, Clickers, and Bloaters, which originate from the same Cordyceps infection only after prolonged exposure.

The comparison between the Las Plagas parasite from Resident Evil and the Cordyceps from The Last of Us is intriguing, as both parasites are capable of terrorizing people and turning them into terrifying creatures. Although the Cordyceps parasite spreads more easily, Las Plagas is also a huge threat, as it can strengthen infected individuals and make them more aggressive.

In order to compare the parasites in the two games, there is also a table in the Gamerant article on the subject.

Spreadsheet:

Resident Evil 4	The Last of Us
Las Plagas	Cordyceps
Fictive parasite	Real mushroom
Living in human bodies	Living outside people’s bodies
Has mutagenic properties	Has mutagenic properties
Responsible for infecting opponents	Responsible for infecting people

In Resident Evil 4, we can meet enemies infected with the Las Plagas parasite, who appear in an increasingly frightening form throughout the game. The Las Plagas parasite, by the way, is a fictional parasite in the Resident Evil games that has many variants and has mutagenic properties when living in the human body. And in the game Last of Us, the fungus Cordyceps causes the infection of people. Resident Evil 4 Remake is a prime example of how to make a zombie game even scarier and more interesting.

The game is available now on PC, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles.

Source: GameRant