Resident Evil 4 is everything you need from a game and stands out as the best game of its generation. (SPOILERS)
You play as Leon S Kennedy, a US police officer who was stationed as the president of the united states body guard. You have been sent to a remote town in Spain to search for the daughter of the President 'Ashley Graham' who was kidnapped a few days before the beginning of the game.
You are escorted to the the entrance of the town by two spanish 'policia' officers and their car. Upon arrival you recieve your first of many encounters with one of the 'los illuminados'. An innocent village person mutated by the Parasite that feeds, grows, controls, and lives within their bodies. After a narrow escape, the police officers in the car are pushed of the cliff by a group of the los illuminados, and you are forced to fight them.
Later on you discover Hunnigan, Leons cooperative who gives him handy information about his surroundings and where he will have to go. The further the story progress's, the more in depth things become, introducing newer and newer characters that are allways relevant to the story. Their are never any moments were random characters are thrown into the game for you take partake in combat with without thier being any meaning for thier attacks. Thiers allways a motif, and it all links to create one intense, exiting and engaging story.
The new innovative 'over the shoulder' view that was included in 'resi 4' has a very nice feel to it and with the laser targeting on the PS2, GC and PC versions, you can be suprisingly accurate without any form of 'tight' or 'jerky' feeling. The over the shoulder camera view became more popular with remakes for 'Deadrising' and later used in the next resident evil game instead of returning to its original birds eye view routes, which I personally found irritating for the angle could sometimes get frustrating and you end up going round corners you never knew were there.
The customization is limited, but then again there isn't really much of a point. There are multiple different costume choices after completing certain tasks such as completing the game or beating mercenaries. But what is really impressive is the big array of weapons to choose from. Theres almost 4 or 5 different weapons in each category, Pistols, SMG's, Launchers, Specials and so on. Very few can have attachments, but those that can are normally the better of the category. And the simple 'stock' attachments for guns like the red9 and the TMP really show to be usefull as the game progresses.
Bugs are pretty much non existent. PC mod's aside, the version I am reviews has virtually no bugs I have seen or witnessed up to this day. Bearing in mind I've completed this game 183 times. Yes 183, no typo, I honestly love this game and still play it to this day.
Whilst porting the game over to the ps2, the game kept its remarkably fluent and simple controls, and now offers high definition widescreen without the letterbox's as the gamecube did. Theres also a fair few extras thrown into the ps2 version. The most noticable and probably the most clever is seperate ways. Seperate ways is a new game entirely, and it follows the same story from the view of leon's old friend ada wong who he suspected to be dead after the incident in resident evil 2. There are moments were you see leon run across the screen in the distance, Reminding yourself of the times in the main story you were actually playing that part.
The other main extra is the PRL 412 which is a special weapon that is exclusive to the playstation 2 but then later released on the Wii version in 2007. This astonishingly powerful weapon has two different fire modes which can be toggled by holding the fire button; Stun And Kill. This has infinite amunition and is a one hit kill in most cases.
If I was to compare the graphics of this to latest games out at this present time that would be cruel. Instead I will compare it to games of that time and console. To put it straight forward, its amazing. Definitely the best looking PS2 game out their. Faces look detailed, the textures are nice to look at and the scenes with overly sized bosses, parasites popping out of peoples heads, pulling off those perfect headshots, all looks nice to look at. Graphics is definitely one of the uncountable strong points of this game. There was a little lighting problem as it was a port from the gamecube version, but you won't notice it when playing unless paying very close attention to every little detail.
The music in this game suits the genre well, the eery, creepy and subtle sounds that make you constantly turn round checking theres no los ganados slowly creeping up behind you. And the suspense if your caught unawares is unbelievably big. The whole atmosphere of this game is created by the creepy music and sounds it produces, and because it has surround sound capabilities, you can be even more freaked out!
A music soundtrack CD titles 'Biohazard 4 Soundtrack' Was released in japan in December 2005 for those eager resi fans who wanted to get their hands on a copy just before christmas. Pretty handy marketing strategy I say. The CD included 62 different tracks and a 48 page visual art booklet with those pointless notes page at the back of books. This was for 2,500 yen, Whether it was released in the US or the UK I'm not sure.
As any game, a games replay value is usually varied from person to person depending on the time they have, their determination to get 100% completion or their gaming class (casual, pro, hardcore). But this game in general does have a very high replay value and I still gladly pick up this game again and again. Some people may want to unlock all the special weapons to completely dominate, others may want to find the location of every single peice of treasure which is no simple task, but can be done as I've found out. Or you could use a strategy guide to find the treasures, I didn't. The multiple difficulty levels can keep you coming back to beat it on the highest difficulty which in this case is the infamous Pro difficulty. These difficulties differ from loosing more health, less access to ammo and starting off with a smaller amount of health, ammo and even guns.
Mercenaries adds to this. Mercenaries is a mini-game unlocked after completing the main story on any difficulty. Mercenaries requires you to beat as many enemies as possible within a time limit before your chopper comes to evacuate you. You must do this without dying and using the most creative ways and weapons. Once you recieve 5 star on each character with each map, you can unlock the hand cannon, a magnum with unlimited ammo and a monster of a gun only merely beaten by the exclusive PRL 412. This is yet another motif to beat through the game many times.
Resident Evil 4 set itself a high bar to beat with resident evil 5, a bar which was never rose, this game is still inferior in most ways besides the obvious graphical changes. The bar remains there until capcom come up with something new. It achieves to deliver in all areas and will have you constantly grinding to complete everything without fail. Anyone should play, resident evil fan or not. And if your not, you soon will be. This is truly the peak of the previous generation consoles, it doesn't get any better than this.
Story: 10
Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 9.5
Sound: 10
Replay Value: 10
Final Score: 10/10