Review Resident Evil 4 Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Genre: Action/Adventure Release Date: January 2005 Platform: (version reviewed), Review by March 18, 2005		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

There are some games with such a large following, that they have inspired their own sub-genres and clones. News of another sequel usually causes upheaval in the gaming world, and so did the announcement of Resident Evil 4 (RE4). As it is one of my favorite game series, I couldn’t wait to lay my hands on this newest installment – sixth, not counting the side-games like Outbreak or Survivor. At the same time, promises of a “whole new innovative” gameplay, along with the recent disappointment of Silent Hill 4, made me very skeptic about this new release. Thankfully, my worries did not come true!

RE4 returns an old friend, ex-Raccoon City policeman Leon Kennedy. Now he’s employed by the US president as a special agent to protect his daughter, Ashley Graham. Leon never did have lady luck on his side though – on the contrary she obviously loves to torture him! Not only did the Raccoon City incident (see Resident Evil 2) happen on his first day on duty for the R.P.D., this time the president’s daughter is kidnapped before his first day at work and his first assignment is to pilot her safe return. Now he must travel all the way to Europe, specifically to a rural village in Spain, where she was last sighted (The game never mentions the name of the country, but Spain is easily deduced by the locals’ language, the name of the village (“Pueblo”) and the local currency, the Pesetas – which should be Euros since all this is happening in 2004, but I guess “Pesetas” sounds more exotic!).

The game begins outside the village where Ashley was last sighted. Leon has been escorted there by the local officials - an event that is shown as an intro to the game and where one can hear some of gaming’s cheesiest dialogs ever (also a precursor of how dialogs will be throughout the whole game)! Events soon become complicated as Leon encounters a villager who looks like a normal person (or as Leon states, “he is not a zombie”), but he is extremely aggressive and very resistant to any attacks. Leon will soon realize that the whole village’s inhabitants are that way. As Leon attempts to discover what is wrong with the villagers, he uncovers sinister new mysteries: What is the La Plagas parasite? Who are the Los Illuminados? What is their involvement? Was Ashley’s kidnapping coincidental or does it have any relevance to what is happening to the village? Was there somebody else behind it? And, since this is RE after all, does Umbrella have anything to do with any of this?

After the game loads, you will be presented with two trailers that consist of some of the game’s cutscenes, as well as actual gameplay, and are an essential watch, since they serve as a foreshadowing for what is about to follow. For the RE series has been changed… A lot!

The first major change is the camera angles – or should I say angle. RE4 features only one camera, set right behind and slightly to the side of Leon. This new camera implementation has its advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that there are no more disorienting camera changes. Also, there are no more cases of running towards the camera having no idea what lies ahead. So two major problems that exist in several survival horror games have been eliminated. On the other hand, now it is impossible to know what is happening behind Leon – something that used to be very useful in older RE games, especially when enemies were coming from everywhere. In general though, the new camera implementation works very well.

The gameplay has also been completely redone. Forget what you know from the previous five games of the series. RE4 puts a lot of weight on action, and, trust me, if you want action, you won’t be disappointed. The game puts you in deep water right from the very beginning. Before you even know which key does what, you’ll be swarmed by raging villagers, having at you with pitchforks, knives, torches and numerous other implements. And before you can even have time to recover from that attack, a masked freak wielding a chainsaw, like he came right out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, will just slice your head right off if you’re not careful! As you progress through the game, Leon will acquire more and stronger weapons, as well as more health. That will balance things, but there will always be places where action will simply be frantic – a couple of times to the point of annoying. The difficulty curve of RE4 is very peculiar, and you should not feel overwhelmed in the beginning.

The action parts of the game include some novelties as well. There are several places that are booby-trapped, either with explosives or with bear traps. Those will take lots of health away from Leon and should be avoided at all costs. There are also sequences where Leon needs to dodge, duck, jump, or run away from certain situations. At the moment such an act needs to be performed, the keys needed to be pressed will appear on the screen. Those are L+R or A+B to dodge, duck, jump and frantic pressing of A or B to climb, cut, swim or run. Really fast reflexes are needed in those cases, since, as soon as the message appears on screen, only fractions of a second are available to perform the action. Failing to do so will result in more or less damage, according to the situation, and some times instant death.

Of course, a RE game would not fail to feature a good selection of “bosses”, and RE4 really stands out in this area. Some of the most impressive and most challenging bosses ever make their appearance so be ready for some extreme fighting! Again, the peculiar difficulty curve appears, with the first boss being out of the norm, and requiring unique methods to deal with. The rest of the bosses are more or less towards the regular side, but that doesn’t mean they will be a walk in the park either.

The worst part of the game though is when Leon will have Ashley with him as they attempt to escape. Ashley is a real pain to carry around and can easily be awarded the “Miss No Brains 21st Century” award. Leon will have to protect her at all costs, so that she won’t take enough damage and die, or that she will not be abducted by the enemy while he is fighting somewhere else. The problem is, she will do absolutely nothing to defend herself. If an enemy is coming towards her, she won’t even try to run away – she’ll just stay there screeching “Heeeelp, Leeeeooon, Heeeelp”. Don’t ever think of letting her walk where booby traps are laid. If there is one single booby trap somewhere in the screen, be sure she’ll walk right into it! On the upside, she is very fast when following Leon, so there are no annoying instances of having to stop every 30 seconds and wait for her to catch up. Oh, and don’t even try to look up her skirt, unless you want to be called a pervert right to your face!!!

The controls have not changed too much from the previous games of the series. The biggest change is that the knife is always equipped, along with the main weapon. An Attack is now performed by getting either weapon ready, pressing R for the main weapon or L for the knife. As opposed to the previous REs, aiming is done manually and is very crucial. Each weapon is equipped with a laser point and when it is ready (R button pressed), the C analog stick can be used to aim and then the A button (the action button) to shoot. Exceptions to this are sniping weapons and the rocket launcher, which, when the R button is pressed, go into first person mode, through the viewfinder. The amount of damage inflicted on the enemy is determined by where on their body they got hit. A shot at the legs will make them fall on the ground, while a good head shot is very likely to blow their head away! Sometimes this will not be so good, as you will find out later in the game, but it will always be a pleasure to watch! Some shots that don’t kill the enemy will disorient them, and if Leon is close a message will appear on screen to press A to kick. Doing so, Leon will perform an impressive kick that will cause a big amount of damage, or even blow some heads away! Kick might be replaced by “supplex”, which will make Leon perform a wrestling move with his legs, throwing the enemy away. I only saw this happen once though.

When it comes to weapons, RE4’s arsenal is by far the most impressive of all the RE games. Leon has at his disposal all kinds of handguns, shotguns, rifles, magnums, grenades and more. This time though, only the handgun that Leon starts the game with, a plain shotgun and the Broken Butterfly magnum can be found laying around. Everything else has to be bought from The Merchant.

The Merchant is a dark and ominous looking guy, wearing a hooded cloak and a blue mask and without his help you can forget about making much progress in the game. From him you can buy all weapons available, except grenades. Not all in the beginning though, as he starts with a low stock that gets renewed the further you are in the game. He can also tune up your weapons, making them more powerful, faster, reducing their reload time and increasing their ammo capacity. Each weapon can be tuned up to a certain point, and when this point is reached, the merchant can perform an exclusive and very expensive tune up beyond the weapons limits, that will make it a weapon beyond your wildest dreams! Just reach the exclusive tune up of the Broken Butterfly magnum, and you’ll remember my advice! Tuning up your weapons is extremely essential and can make the difference between an easy going game or a nightmare!

Unfortunately, the merchant does not carry any ammo or grenades, so you will have to do with what you find yourself. RE4 is a very generous game though, when it comes to ammo and grenades, and you should never be left without, unless you are unbelievably wasteful or a really bad shot! Along with ammo, the most important items needed in order to survive are health items (in the form of herbs, first aid sprays, eggs and fish!), money and treasures. All items can be found laying around, or hidden in crates, barrels or chests. Also, some enemies leave items behind after they are killed.

Herbs come in three kinds: green, which restores some health, red, which is combined with green to restore full health, and yellow, which is combined with green to restore health and increase Leon’s max health points, making him able to endure more damage. First aid sprays can also be bought by the merchant, but are very overpriced, so it’s best to try and suffice with what can be found. Eggs are laid by chickens (!) and come in three kinds: white (restores a tiny fraction of health), brown (restores more health) and gold (restores full health). Some snakes that are found around the game (usually hidden in crates or barrels, ready to attack) also leave chicken eggs behind when they are killed. Fish can be shot in the water and then picked up and eaten (raw!). All health items can also be used on Ashley, with the same results.

Money is of course used to purchase items from the merchant, who will also buy any treasures you have. Treasures are not useful for anything else, so it’s best to be sold as soon as there’s a chance. Be aware though, that some treasures can be combined and then be sold for higher prices than they would sell individually. Examining treasures will tell you if there’s something missing or if an item looks like a part of something bigger, which will mean that particular treasure can be combined with something else. The merchant sells special maps that mark all the treasures in an area, and they could prove to be a very good investment!

Huge weapons, ammo, grenades, keys, treasures, herbs, fish! How can someone carry all that around? Well, Leon will solve this problem using an attaché case. In this case he will store everything except money, treasures and key items (which are stored separately, with no storage limit). The case can only hold a certain amount of things, and that combined with the fact that ammo comes in packs (e.g. handgun ammo comes in packs of 50 max, so if you have 180, you’ll have 3 packs of 50 and a pack of 30), makes inventory management a necessity. This time there are no “magically communicating boxes” that can store your items, and if an item is dropped it disappears and cannot be picked up again – a very bad idea on the part of the programmers. The case that Leon holds in the beginning is pretty small and does not hold many things (thankfully it holds more than the inventories in the previous REs), but later on, the merchant will have bigger cases in stock, making life easier. No matter how big a case you have though, you will never have enough space!

The adventuring parts of the game are still there, more or less in the same amount and levels as in the previous games of the series, but the action, existing in such large quantities, definitely prevails. In between shooting and fighting, there is some exploring, where important items as well as messages and documents can be found. Exploring is made easier this time though, since, wherever there is a hotspot, a message to press the A button will appear on screen. There are also a couple of puzzles here and there, from the very simple “find the key-item and use it properly” to some logical puzzles, like creating a colored symbol by merging three other single colored symbols. Nothing really challenging, just some moments that will break the tension. And, of course, the good old typewriters, where the game can be saved, couldn’t have been left out. I am totally against the consolish idea of save-points. I find not letting the player save wherever they want entirely pointless and I am really clueless how such a ridiculous saving method caught on. At least there are continue points in case Leon dies, that usually will bring him back to a point that’s further than where the last typewriter was found. Finally, there is no need for ink ribbons anymore (hallelujah!), so one can save as many times as they want.

Presentation-wise RE4 scores really high! I don’t really know what the capabilities of the Gamecube are, but RE4 probably pushes it to its limits. Superb scenery, covered with beautiful autumn colors, nicely designed indoor areas, dark underground places are parts of where Leon shall tread. All characters are designed in high detail, with their facial expressions changing when they get hit or killed – seeing a villager falling down screaming with his arm extended towards you makes you feel redeemed! On the down side, severe clipping seems to be the standard these days, and RE4 is no exception - to the point where I witnessed Leon’s head disappear inside a tree! I presume that it is completely inevitable, otherwise I can’t see how, after so many years of 3D evolution, clipping still mars the finest of games. The music follows the graphics’ high standards, featuring some beautiful tunes – the experienced ears will pick out some themes inspired by the older RE games. It also helps build the tension, since it gets more intense when danger lies around, keeping you at the edge of your seat. The voice acting is pretty good too, for what it is – cheesy! If you like those action shows or movies with the cool hero that always comes up with “those lines”, you’re going to have lots of fun listening to the dialog and how it’s presented! Leon plays the role of one of those cool action movie heroes perfectly, while Ashley flawlessly delivers the role of the brainless wonder with her screechy voice and her lines – especially during the unbelievable ending sequence, which you have to experience in order to believe!

Overall, the whole atmosphere works very well, although it scores pretty low in the scare department. RE4 is definitely the least scary of the series, and among the least scary survival horror games – it is actually very hard to call it a survival horror game. The game depends on the frantic action, some really menacing enemies and amazing boss fights to build up the tension – where it succeeds greatly. But scary it is not.

So what is the word that can describe RE4 best? Addiction! Pure and simple! Once you get into the game, it’s going to be very hard to let go. There were times, while playing the game, that I totally ignored my stomach’s violin concert, and refused to get off the chair to get something to eat. There were times that I refused to answer mother nature’s calls until I was in a do or die situation. Yes, it’s that addictive! At this moment, as I am finishing this review, I am playing for the third time in a row! Now that’s something very few games have managed. And to make things more interesting, RE4 has some surprises up its sleeve, which make replaying a pure enjoyment. If you have any kind of social life, be careful before starting this game!

Keeping in mind the fact that RE4 has changed a lot towards the action genre, it turned out to be more than a pleasant surprise. If you are an adventurer who does not like frantic situations and hates reflexes and trigger fingers, you will probably not like this game – play Code Veronica instead, if you want to try out a Resident Evil game. If you are a Resident Evil fan, and are very skeptic about the whole new look and feel of RE4, don’t worry and give it a try. Chances are you are going to love it! If you are after a horror game, RE4 might disappoint you in that area. If you are after a really good game, regardless the genre, RE4 is definitely for you! Had RE4 performed a little better in the scare department, and lost a few really annoying and frustrating moments, we would be talking about the best survival horror game around. Now, we are talking about a great and highly addictive action game, with a hint of adventure, which is definitely worth playing – more than once!

Comparing the Playstation 2 version of Resident Evil 4 to the Gamecube one

Final Grade: A-
Final Grade: A
(find out more about our grading system)