You don't need zombies to make a fantastic Resident Evil.
Zombies lovers might be disappointed at first, because instead of a sluggish horde of brain-eating idiots, our hero Leon S. Kennedy has to wade through an army of maniac, east-european villagers armed with pitch forks, axes and chain saws. To make matters worse, he has to find and thereafter baby-sit Ashley, a young woman who happens to be the president's dear daughter, who was kidnapped by an unknown cult. Of course, with this being a Resident Evil game, there also has to be some sort of virus involved in the incident and while the story is not quite an award-winning tale, it's entertaining enough that I would not want to spoil anything.
Not only the bewildered setting is quite the change from its predecessors, the gameplay also has experienced major overhauls, starting with a 3rd person over-the-shoulder camera instead of fixed camera angles. This fixes a lot of the cumbersome controls that plagued the series ever since the first game, although running and turning can still feel a bit too slow, especially since much of the combat is at very close range. You aim by holding R1, at which point the camera will zoom in closer to Leon's shoulder and a laser conveniently attached to your weapon of choice will show your exact target. The game gets a great inside-the-action feel with this technique, but it's not without problems as you can't walk or strafe while you aim and shoot, which is quite unfortunate for a game that's mostly about confined areas filled with dozens of enemies closing in on you. Additionally, Leon's head will fill a big portion of the screen, preventing you from getting the full view on your surroundings.
Accompanying the shooting action of the game are a couple of puzzle sequences that mostly revolve around switches to open up certain areas you couldn't access prior. In that regard, the game is very linear, but involves quite a bit of backtracking and at the end of the about 15-20 hours it will take you the first time, you'll certainly feel you covered a lot of ground. You might also come across a few cut scenes and while in other games you'd tend to sit back and watch, Resident Evil 4 forces you to stay on your toes, because quick time events will require you to press certain buttons in order to keep Leon alive through some of the devilish traps.
Resident Evil 4's gameplay focuses mainly on action and while the environments like foggy forests, (not so) abandoned mines and ancient castles are certainly creepy at first, you'll soon lay off the initial thrill as you get used to the goings-on, and therefore pretty much gets rid of the “horror” in “survival horror”. Still, blasting heads of your enemies with powerful shotguns, pistols and rifles is a great deal of fun, and should they get too close and personal, you can always give them a quick knife cut in the chest or a round-house kick in the face. To keep the game from getting too monotonous when you're killing the same-looking villagers and cloak-wearing cultists (aside from the casual “monsters” later in the game), the developers added a couple of challenging boss battles that make for a nice diversion.
Following you around to the oddest locals is a mysterious salesman, where you can trade your found treasures for life preserving goods like ammo or weapon upgrades. A friendlier face is special agent Ada Wong, who comes to Leon's aid at several points in the game and while it's puzzling at first as to what she is up to, the PS2 version lets you find out in a couple of uniquely designed missions. Her campaign is noticeably shorter than the main storyline and you'll often pass through the same environments, but she carries a few special gadgets to maneuver around obstacles and enemies alike, which makes for a find change of pace for the most part.
It's quite an achievement to have such a great-looking game on the PS2 and while there have been a few cuts from the GameCube version, the overall presentation is still intact and makes for some of the best graphics on the PS2. Likewise the sound is thrilling as you fire bullet after bullet into your enemies while they scream and shout in Spanish. You could argue though that some of the phrases the villagers utter repeat a tad too often and parts of the dialog could have been better. The soundtrack is subtle, but manages to create an unsettling atmosphere, lacks a bit of variation however.
There still are a few rough edges to the gameplay and the controls, and one could argue that the game lost a bit too much of its Resident Evil flair, but all said and done, Resident Evil 4 is a excellent action game start to finish and packs quite a lot of hours of entertainment onto the disc.