GameCube owners of all ages and shapes have been harassed one time or another about how “kiddy” their console is. They have grown to earn a stereotypical gesture, officially being branded as “kiddy” gamers. What those Nintendo haters don’t realize, however, is that nearly every exclusive M-rated game Nintendo manages to get their hands on has always been of exquisite quality and performance. While the remake to the original Resident Evil and Resident Evil Zero featured outdated play controls, they were still among the better M-rated games this generation. The newest entry in the long-running Resident Evil series, Resident Evil 4, takes not only the series to new heights, but it takes the entire survival-horror genre to new depths as well. Resident Evil 4 stars Leon Kennedy, the new S.T.A.R.S. agent who just happened to have a bad first day because of a certain “incident” that happened to him in Raccoon City—a city infected by the evil acts of the Umbrella Corporation—an establishment dedicated in experimenting with biohazardous material eventually leading to the birth of the undead. Resident Evil 4 takes place years after the events headed by the Umbrella Corporation in Raccoon City. Leon Kennedy is now a federal government agent on a mission to rescue the president’s daughter where his adventure finally begins at a very murky wood. Most games in this genre require your expertise of the environments around you. All the Resident Evil games require this kind of knowledge, and Resident Evil 4 is no different. During the game, you’ll cross murky woods, go through a haunted house, sail through shallow waters, and discover more mysteries about the inhabitants around the village. There aren’t anymore pre-rendered backgrounds in which you have to watch your character run around aimlessly from a third-person view and suddenly get popped by a monster from behind like previous Resident Evil games. All of this happens in an over-the-shoulder view. This is new to the Resident Evil series, and it really gives a lot more freedom to the player now that you can see everything as the camera just follows Leon around the screen. Of course, with a new perspective, there’s a new way to play the game. Unlike previous RE games, you no longer have the auto-aim button. Aiming is simply done by holding the C-stick and moving the left analog stick to whichever direction—which can also be inverted. Wherever the red dot is on the screen is where Leon will be shooting. When you’re facing a crazed villager, the enemy will act depending on its feeling. For example, if you shot the enemy in the leg, the enemy will start to slouch and move more slowly in its pursuit of you. If you’ve played any of the previous Resident Evil games, or any survival-horror game for that matter, you’re likely to be surprised by the AI of the enemies in the game. In other games, you can run away and choose to panic. In RE4, sure, you can run; you’ll get hurt anyway. If you decide to hide in a house, the villagers will tear down the doors and windows hoping to kill you. Fortunately, in the event that a villager is too close to you, there’s an action button that can appear on the screen. By hitting A at the right time, Leon can super kick any of the enemies and blast them at a pretty good distance. For some reason or another, it’s even stronger than some of your weapon’s attacks. That way of fighting, sadly, won’t work against a crazed enemy with a chainsaw in hand. If you’re not careful, you’ll watch your head fall and roll to the ground as the game will yell “Game Over”. It’s either that or be eaten by a vicious mountain troll—as you can tell by now, it’s not easy to survive in this game. Other than the smart AI, the game still has some cheap tricks up its sleeve to try to kill you. Sometimes you’ll die for completely no reason. Why? You weren’t paying attention. During the game’s many short cutscenes, you can’t just choose to grab a soda—there’ll often times be an action button to hit to make you seem like you’re really Leon and everything will be happening to you. Not many games have this kind of option, and it really sets a tone for RE4’s authenticity to the horror genre. As you progress through the story, you’ll know that rescuing the president’s daughter isn’t the main objective. In fact, you’ll do that pretty early in the game. After you rescue her, the game pretty much takes a turn in which it’s also your job to protect her. Pretty much like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time; you can’t leave her alone in certain places. In fact, if you let something grab her and take her out of the room, it’s automatically a Game Over. While it may seem like a difficult task since enemies lurk around every corner, another character will accompany your cause. (To avoid huge spoilers, that person won’t be identified.) Eventually you’ll be able to team up to perform specific tasks much like REmake and REZero. While the game definitely uses an entirely different control scheme, the rest of the RE trademarks are still there. Ammunition will always be scarce, so it’ll be best to conserve your ammo throughout the game. You’ll also have limited space to store your weapons, items, and ammunition, so a lot of the game will require you to mix and match different objects just to make use of new items. Quite a few of those objects, especially the weaponry, will never be seen again, so you’ll have to sacrifice things wisely. Fortunately, in various areas throughout the game, a merchant will be around to sell you health items, weapons, ammunition, and even additional storage space for your items. Still, that won’t prevent you from deciding on which things to leave behind when the time comes. The game does have its flaws though. Even if the controls are the best out of any game of its genre, they’re still not that friendly—from an action gamer’s point of view. The inability to strafe or shoot while running brings the game down a bit, but when thinking about it—if it were to have those options, it would be more of an action game. The other flaw to the game is the camera, which can be in unnecessary angles at certain times, especially against a horde of enemies. Other than that, Resident Evil 4 is just one of those games that remains totally manageable from a gameplay viewpoint. Resident Evil 4’s visuals are drop dead gorgeous. From the swamps to the fallen leaves in the woods, everything in Resident Evil 4 just looks totally lifelike. Every villager looks different and has his own way of doing things, and that all works for the best. The water effects look stunning, the murky look to everything makes it feel like a horror game, and everything will just make you feel like you’re alone on the hunt. The sound can be judged from a differed point of view. While the gunshots to the president’s daughter’s cries for help sound pretty good, it really does get annoying when the villagers start speaking their native tongue. Nobody really knows what language it is, but they’ll keep saying the same things over and over—especially if you’re one of those people who get so scared that they remain in the same place throughout the entire gaming moment. Whether it was meant to be like that or it was just a forgotten code, it’s a little more weird than scary. Other than all that, the voice acting is superbly done. You can’t ask anymore from a game in terms of audio. Resident Evil 4 has been in development since the announcement of the “Capcom 5.” While two of those fives games were cancelled, Capcom should be damn proud of what Resident Evil 4 accomplished. Resident Evil 4 brought in a new control scheme and, at the same time, stayed true to its formula. The depth in this game is amazing, and once you start the game, you’ll be hooked. Everything from the game’s plot to the game’s visuals is top notch, and the length isn’t bad as well. Your GameCube should be starving for some good, scary action about now. Even if you don't like or haven't tried any of the Resident Evil games, this is a must-play. So by all means, this two-disc exclusive is worth every penny and is definitely the best console game so far this year.
The Resident Evil franchise has always been hailed and criticized by fans and critics alike. Ever since their debut on the Playstation almost 10 years ago, the Resident Evil games have always sported amazing visuals and ... Read Full Review
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