While average frame rates remained relatively similar between the retail and fixed versions, the 1% and 0.1% lows saw measurable improvements in the fixed version. This translated to a smoother experience during chaotic combat sequences, such as the initial village siege.

The story of the Resident Evil 4 Remake "crackfix" is a well-known saga in the gaming piracy community, primarily centered around the controversial hacker known as The Initial Release

However, the release of the crackfix also brought the performance debate regarding DRM to the forefront. One of the primary arguments against Denuvo is the claim that it degrades game performance by burdening the CPU with continuous decryption checks. For many PC gamers, the Empress crackfix became the benchmark for this argument. Users conducted extensive comparisons between the legitimate, DRM-laden version of the game and the cracked version. While results often varied based on hardware configurations, the narrative within the community solidified the idea that the cracked version offered a "cleaner" experience—free from potential stuttering or input lag caused by anti-tamper software. This positioned Empress not just as a software pirate, but, controversially, as a consumer advocate providing a product superior to the one sold legally.

When the initial crack for Resident Evil 4 Remake was released by the scene group