Resident Evil 4 (2005)

REZI-DENT EVE-ILL FOUR

Too cool for school agent of renown and ex-STARS rookie cop takes his near drape haircut on a traipse through a fictionalized Spanish countryside. His mission: save the daughter of the President of The United States of America. The outcome: he escapes with Ashley, the aforementioned daughter, on a jet ski (???) while avoiding questions on his relationship status from a teenage girl we are to understand is crushing on him.

My take on this won't be unique, but it might be good to know for context that I'm playing this game 15 years after it's initial release. perhaps you could have pieced that together by the fact that I'm posting this in the year TWENTY TWENTY, but I you never know, you know? The campy b-movie tone from the first game is intact but many aspects of 'survival horror' have been replaced by 'survival action'. I make this distinction because this game is not spooky or scary in anyway like this first. I wonder if this is largely due to the fact that the visuals after 15 years leave something to be desired. But I can confirm that I've felt some chills and spooks in games with less fidelity, so I chalk it up to the game's reliance on action over scare and some weird quirks that pull you out of the experience. I'll give you a couple of examples. Imagine if you will, there's a man in a trench coat and a portable blue flamed brazier that is willing to trade valuables you find along your way for weapons you'll need. Leon never questions the fact that the guy shows up just when you need him and in areas that Leon had to fight so hard to gain access to. This guy never helps Leon out. Maybe he could have sent him a message once in a while saying 'Hey, I know a great way to get past these town folk infected with Las Plagas, check your e-mail for a map.'. Also, am I to expect Leon is carrying around this giant attache case filled with herbs and guns? I say this to the point that there was an opportunity to lean into the survival aspects and say only let Leon take a handful of weapons and resources at any given time.

Even with those inconsistencies in mind, It felt like they leaned a little too heavily into the action movie aspects especially with the sequence where you are attacking a fortification with the cover from a helicopter. It felt like a scene out of Commando and John Matrix was waiting in the wings for support. The minute to minute gameplay is quite slow paced and deliberate compared to a full blown action game which is welcome as it never makes the game's sequences too difficult. Despite the action focus of the game, if you were at all questioning whether this earned the Resident Evil title, you can put that to bed right now. You've got some inventory management, we go to a lab, there's some crazy people who believe turning themselves into grotesque creatures is the next form of evolution. Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my dislike of the 'babysitter' mechanic on show during large stretches of this game. It's not quite as frustrating or charming as it's implementation in ICO, however there were many times were I directed Ashley to hide in a dumpster, and considered leaving her there. It would be amazing if a prompt popped up saying 'You're leaving the area, do you wish to continue? Ashley will likely die, and you'll fail your mission. Continue: yes/no?' I would have hit YES and watched that cut scene of Leon strutting into the sunset with glee. That would have been my canonical ending.

Too long, didn't read: overall the game holds up. The tone might not be for you, but if you accept this is the new tone for the Resident Evil universe, you'll enjoy the minute to minute gameplay.

I was ready to delete the game and never play it again just after about 15 minutes into the game. I was that annoyed with it at first. Luckily I didn't because it turned out to be quite an enjoyable game. After you get used to the problems.

So starting with the bad. The controls are awful - I mean they are in a classic resident evil style but somehow I expected it to be better. It's not that old of a game now. The camera is all over the place and the fact that it's moving independently from the movement makes it really frustrating at first. On top of that there is no strafing, meaning that dodging or avoiding enemies is a nightmare. And you can't shoot while walking.

To top that off just after the intro you encounter one of the most difficult levels in the entire game. You're stuck with just your gun and a horde of "zombies" going after you which you have to hold off for a certain amount of time. Definitely not an easy task to do.

But it gets better and once you get used to the controls and how to handle everything the game actually starts being enjoyable.

The story is not worth mentioning because it's rather silly. You are a bodyguard trying to find the presidents daughter in assume what is Italy. You follow the rumours that's she is in a remote village. You go in. And you get to fight off hordes of zombies and monsters to save her. Well, not technically zombies but close enough. That's the whole story - silly but does the job.

The level design is really nice. The enemies are varied enough to enjoy and the whole campaign feels just right in the length. There is always a sensation of you running out of ammo which makes you save it all up and use different weapons on different occasions. Apart from wonky controls and lack of ability to walk and shout, and strafing the combat feels nice and tactical.

There is a problem where you can skip a very important item once or twice that makes the game extremely harder but having learned two hours later I was really not happy to re-do the whole thing and I pushed on. The ammo got even scarcer but I managed to get through it which gave me even more satisfaction. The game is hard on times but it's fair.

Overall I really enjoyed it and I'm glad I stuck out the first part out.