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It's been over two years since the last game in the well-known Resident Evil series came out for the Gamecube. And, ever since the remake of the first Resident Evil game and its prequel, Resident Evil 0, both came out, they've been unrivaled by almost every console game when it came to the survival/horror aspect of those two games (not to mention the pretty graphics that both games possessed). You'd think that, with Resident Evil 4, Capcom would play it safe and keep the same gameplay formula that pretty much every third-person Resident Evil game succeeded with...right? Wrong. Resident Evil 4 improves upon the previous games to the point where fans of the previous games will completely forget about them and everyone else will be so mesmerized by what the latest game in the series has to offer that they will join the Resident Evil bandwagon. Resident Evil 4 is, so far, 2005's Game of the Year, and it seems that it's likely to stay that way for the next 10 1/2 months.
In the sixth game in the series (not including the first-person RE games), Resident Evil 2 fans will be re-acquainted with former Raccoon City Police Department police officer Leon S. Kennedy. The last time we checked on him, Claire Redfield, a girl, and himself escaped the zombie-infested city shortly after defeating the Tyrant and reaching the city limits. "Six years have passed since that horrendous incident," Leon says as he explains what happened between the year of 1998 (when the events of RE2 occurred) and present day. Apparently, after the U.S. government found out what Umbrella Corporation, the company behind the viruses that caused people to turn into zombies and other hideous creatures, the government broke off all connections with Umbrella, causing the corporate giant's downfall. Kennedy has moved on since then, becoming an agent working under the direct order of the President of the United States. And, wouldn't you know, we once again catch Leon on his first day on the job. The President assigned Leon to keep an eye on his daughter, Ashley, but wouldn't you know it, Ashley was captured and taken to a small village in Europe (it can easily be assumed that it takes place in Spain), and Leon is sent to infiltrate the village, find Ashley, and take her back to the west. Unfortunately, this small village just so happens to be filled with--not zombies--but savage villagers that, not unlike the zombies, put killing you as their highest priority. Poor Leon...
The game is divided into six chapters, and a lot of things happen in each chapter, and you'll have come across quite a few characters, too. One of the "good" guys you'll meet is Luis Sera, a former police officer for Spain. Very shortly after you meet Luis, you'll be introduced to Mendez, the chief of this village of savages that you've stormed your way into. Shortly after, you'll meet Lord Saddler, the man behind all this madness. There are quite a few other memorable antagonists that you'll meet, and they all play essential roles, much like Saddler and Mendez.
Don't worry, though: the moment that you first meet Ashley isn't too distant from the time that you start the game. When you do meet her, however, you're going to be spending a lot of the remainder of the game protecting her while dealing with your adversaries. The problem is that, not only will they hurt her, but since Saddler has some plans involving Ashley, he needs her alive, so some enemies will try to grab her and take her to the nearest door that leads to another area. If she dies or an enemy succeeds in reaching the entrance to another area with Ashley on his shoulders, the mission is failed.
Speaking of failed missions, RE4 makes playing through the game much less painful by creating a checkpoint every time you enter a new area. So, if you've died or failed your mission, and you were last at a checkpoint rather than at a typewriter, you will start from the last checkpoint. Checkpoints are also made during long areas that require a lot of work, especially boss fights that require a lot of time and luck to progress through.
And, speaking of boss fights, Resident Evil 4 has some memorable boss fights. In the first two chapters, you'll face off against a gigantic sea creature named Del Lago and a giant humanoid resembling the troll from The Lord of the Rings named El Gigante. Each boss fight each have significantly different patterns when it comes to defeating these bosses. For example, you're tethered to Del Lago when you fight it due to your anchor being latched onto the huge creature, and you're forced to throw harpoons at it while evading the surrounding foliage as well as the Del Lago lunges at your boat. The battle is very fun, very memorable, and prepares you well for the boss battles ahead, for there are many of them in Resident Evil 4. The game even comes with a couple of fun minigames that are unlocked when you beat the game, but what they are...well, you can find that out for yourself.
And not only is RE4's story engaging and suspenseful, but the gameplay is innovative and works very well, too. One major change to the gameplay is that the days of prerendered backgrounds are over: everything you see in the game is rendered in real-time, and therefore, the fixed camera angles are gone, which also allowed the environments to expand: right from the start, Resident Evil fans and newcomers to the franchise will both be impressed by the large-scale outdoor setting that just seems to expand on and on before the disc finally has to load the next area, which takes an incredibly small amount of time considering just how much surface area is in each area and just how much happens in each area. The point of explaining all the visual changes, however, is that the camera angles are now very, very flexible: the camera, by default, is behind Leon. The camera zooms in behind Leon's head when he aims his weapon, and the camera can shift around with the use of the C stick. The camera also changes during basic in-game cinematics, such as when Leon is running from a moving boulder or when Leon is clinging onto the edge of a cliff.
Another major change is the context-sensitive style that RE4 possesses. The A button can do a lot: you can jump down platforms, kick down doors, knock down ladders, jump out of windows, and do tons of other stuff just with the A button. The context-sensitive style is an essential part of the gameplay, and makes the game natural to play with the Gamecube controller while making it damn fun to play. The third change made is that, now, every shot counts: shoot an enemy in the head, and chances are that it will blow up and instantly kill them, but shoot an enemy in the leg, and they'll fall down and stay down for a moment, which is useful for when that certain enemy is not your biggest worry at the moment. Lastly, the game has added a feature that has been seen in very few games before it, if there are any at all: even the cinematics have interactivity in them, forcing you to comply to the respective button presses in order to survive many of the situations that you face during those cinematics. The lesson behind that? Don't ever put your controller down--well, at least until you've turned the game off.
All of these additions pretty much perfect the gameplay, and that, along with the great boss fights and the fun minigames, boost the replay value by a fair amount. If you liked the game the first time around, there's little doubt that you will enjoy playing it a second time. The only drawback to the game is its difficulty, as it increases as you delve deeper into the game and, perhaps in a few occasions, you'll run out of ammo and have to resort to slashing your adversary with your knife. However, that does not change the fact that the gameplay is pretty much perfect.
You know what else is perfect? The graphics. As it was mentioned before, the game is fully rendered in real-time, and the graphics have improved upon the RE1 remake's and RE0's to the point where the game arguably has the best graphics ever seen on a console game. The lighting is balanced exceptionally well: there is never too much light in the game, yet there are never areas that are too dark. The textures are modelled very well, and the skins are clean and crisp. The game, simply put, looks perfect.
The audio is also exceptional. All of the voices are very well-done. Not only that, but they're believable: Ashley sounds like a 20-year-old girl, Lord Saddler sounds like a sadistic cult leader, and Leon sounds like a man his age (he looks like he's around the age of 24, but the game does not reveal how old he is). The sound effects and music also add to the game's horror, with the forever gut-wrenching roar of a chainsaw being heard in the distance with the shrieks of violins playing in the background. It's the audio, more than anything, that defines what is so scary about Resident Evil 4. Dark corridors have never been anymore scarier to walk through than they are in RE4.
In case you skipped through the past 1,600+ words above this paragraph, Resident Evil 4 is the epitome of the perfect video game. It contains several refinements to what was already a great gameplay formula, along with mesmerizing graphics, truly immersive sound, and an engaging and eye-catching story. Folks, if you were looking for not only the best survival/horror game ever made, and not only what is arguably the best game to ever grace the Gamecube platform, but one of the best action/adventure games of this current era of video games, your search is now over. -- Troy Matautia, PGNx Media
---- Jan 14, 2005
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