I revisited Resident Evil 4 and ...issues revisting games!

I really loved the game back when it came out on the Gamecube almost 10 years ago. I remember it being really fun. It was quite a departure from the first few RE games. Better control, over-the-shoulder aiming, better save system (no ribbons), better inventory system (organize by size, not number of items), realistic graphics as well. I got stuck at a boss about halfway through and walked away in frustration. I finally went back to it yesterday to see if I could make some progress.

I tend to do this with a lot of games. I get stuck in an area and move on to a newer game, occasionally revisting the game. But the probem is, is that I was playing these games often and STILL got stuck. Going back to these games years later is suicide. Not only do you have to relearn the controls but also where you were in the map, story and how the inventory system works. THEN your old save usually left you where you originally got stuck. You forget your original strategies that were sort of working at the time and now have to get slaughtered repeatedly like a sheep to the wolves. Not fun!

So, I got back into RE4 and played around with the map, inventory, save system and even visited the vendor ("What R you Buyin'?). But when I began to move I realized the controls were not as fluid as I remember. Still seemed to have tank controls. I enetered the boss area and proceeded to "try" to "fight" the boss monsters. I couldn't aim, could barely move and died quickly. Many times.

I loved the game, and plan to try again but either I'm much older and do not have the patience or the game doesn't hold up as well with the wanky controls and such.

Does anyone else have these similar issues when you revist other games after a long abscence?

I played President Evil 4 only after I had already played President Evil 5 and so yeah everything was definitely a step backwards Sound, Graphics, Ganeplay, Level and Enemy Designs and Encounters even the Interface..

Anway which Boss are you stuck at ? At somepoint in the game The Rocket Launcher should become Available to buy from the merchant you can also find it somewhere but that I don't remember where..... anyway just blast the Boss with a Rocket Launcher.... thats how I got passed the Midget.

Couldn't finish the game on the GameCube. Bought it for the Wii and fell in love with it hardcore. Played Resident Evil 5 on the 360 and damn near burst in tears... sad stinging tears.

@JustPlainLucas:

Thats what happens when you play a Co-Op all by yourself..... I reccomend you recruit a wingman in preparation for President Evil Revelations 2

"President Evil" Ha!!

I never replayed Resident Evil 4 since I finished it on the PS2 ... to me the game was very easy but very tense in some section ( like those monster that you need to lure with sound or the Alien-shaped monster that shase you in some kind of labotary ( you need to dodgo his tail from time to time and you don't have that much time to react ) ... I remember at first I had a very hard time with that game until I started back again and took the time to find tresure scatered around ... do that and you'll have so much money you will be able to buy every weapons, upgrade and whatnot which turn this game into a 3rd person shooter ... it is sad there is no survival in that.

As for how I feel playing back games, well I'm ok with it as I do play retro games from time to time

Sorry, but survival horror works best when you're alone.

@JustPlainLucas:

And Co-Op works better when you're not alone....

@Coco_pierrot:

You mean that monster that you have to survive not kill ?

Its abit tricky but you can kill it with the Infinite Rocket Launcher.

But it dilutes the tension and atmosphere. I'd rather be alone.

@JustPlainLucas:

For you perhaps....

For other people it enhances it.... Paranoia and Fear can be Contagious under the right circumstances....

After All we can still watch a Horror movie in a cinema with a butt load of other people and still be scared shitless.....

Yes, but cinema is passive. With a game, you're making your own decisions. You're setting your own pace. You're absorbing information according to your own tempo. Yes, for me, tension and atmosphere is ruined when I'm playing with someone else, because I have someone always talking in my ear, distracting me, wanting me to keep up with him, or slow down if I'm going too far ahead of him.

@JustPlainLucas:

Meh... survival horror isn't all that interactive either.... in order to get that precious tension they have to limit your actions and resources.... effectively its the passivity that makes horror games scary..... atleast thats the theory.... I find this to be more tedious than tense...

Fact is theres no rules when it comes to Horror..... Co-Op can work with horror....

As for someone talking in your ear then just mute them.

"Hey. I need an herb. Hello? HELLOOOOOOO? ... Great. I'm dead. Why didn't give you me an herb?"

*unmutes*

"Huh? Oh, sorry, you were muted."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"What?! Where?! Is there a monster?"

"No, I spilled my Mountain Dew!"

"*sigh* Muting you again."

@JustPlainLucas:

Then unplug your head start.... you know there are Diegetic methods of communication.... use them.....

@Lulu_Lulu:

Well you have some chances to slow it down with nitrogen at that moment I think you can kill it with the rocket luncher if you have enough ammo I never went back far enough to test that. I remember that I unlocked the infinite rocket luncher and the infinite Thompson but it turn the game into a joke.

@Coco_pierrot:

Yeah I hate it when they do that..... I also really really dislike the Ugrade feature aswell...

@Lulu_Lulu:

Well I think they added two Ada Wong mini quest and the survival thingy where you need to find clock to have a chance to make a high score over the GameCube version. I did enjoy the two Ada Wong mini quest but they strangely doesn't fit together maybe it is because one is before RE4 while the other is during RE4 or something like that.

But those infinite ammo guns you can unlock is pretty much like in any other RE where you can unlock guns like that but those RE still had the puzzle to get throught while RE4 was only a 3rd person shooter

@Coco_pierrot:

Ah yes... Assignment Ada and Seperate Ways.... they had fewer cutscenes... infact they seemed like a stripped down version of the main campaign..... we're those really add ons.... I thought they were already in the game when it released....

@Lulu_Lulu:

A quick research told me that for the PS2 version and all the other port they made they added "Seperate Ways" and unlockable costumes and a weapon not found in the original GameCube version. Seperate Ways is the longer Ada Qong quest where it shed some light on a few life saving moment Leon experience. The Other mini quest with Ada Wong was apparently in the original game.

Yes, you absolutely can kill Verdugo (there's even an achievement for it in the HD editions) although killing him is optional and probably not worth the resources on a first playthrough. While frozen he takes triple damage and a rocket launch hit while frozen will kill him instantly.

I don't think you understand what these words mean. I think you are trying to imply non-verbal communication but even that doesn't make a lot of sense.

@evilcalvin:

Whether or not I have a hard time going back depends on what kind of game it is, how complex it is and how anachronistic the gameplay is. Some game types are timeless (like fighting games or schumps) and after only a few minutes of play I feel like I'm right back to where I used to be, skill-wise. Other game types like RPGs might have complex objectives or story elements and without context the player can be completely lost. Games like The Witcher might be hard to come back to after even a few weeks abscence much less a few years.

While other types of games are just simply hard to go back to because of anachronistic gameplay elements. Go back and play any of the original FPS titles like Doom where you had no ability to strafe to get an idea of what I mean. I picked up the MGS HD collection and found MGS2 and found the fixed camera angles to be pretty frustrating. I had forgotten how much of a quantum leap forward MGS3 and onwards were in terms of stealth gameplay.

For RE4, though, I do not have this problem. I loved that game and I put quite a lot of hours into the original and the Wii re-release and I've since put 30 hours into the PC HD remake. It didn't take very long to get back into the groove of this game and while it would have been nice to be able to strafe and move at least a little while aiming this game does so many other things right that I don't mind these two minor issues. Besides these two points and a few low res textures (even in the HD version) this game plays a lot like a modern game.

-Byshop

@Coco_pierrot:

Such a shame... they missed an Oppertunity for Co-Op...

@Byshop:

I definitely don't mean non-verbal communication..... and maybe Diegetic isn't the right word but its close enough.... unless you don't know what I mean...

I initially felt the controls in RE4 were slightly box-like after a long time playing Resident Evil Revelations. However, after a while I got into my old groove again and was comfortable with them, and I still think RE4 is the best Resident Evil game. I don't have problems revisiting games so much, if they're games I played a lot back then, because I'm so used to them I'm still as good even after years.

That doesn't mean I don't have problems with old-gen games though. Sometimes I don't enjoy a PS1 or Genesis game that I'm playing now but didn't grow up with because the technical limitations and less fluid controls make me impatient, and with no childhood affinity for them I enjoy them less. But lots of times I'm lucky and do enjoy them.

@Byshop:

I was playing the GameCube version so I'm not sure if the WII version fixed the controls at all. Probably not.

I agree that RE4 is the best. I just have a huge problem jumping back into games. I am going to try again. I hope I progress as I really loved what I had played.

My problem is that I play games and don't finish them. I either get stuck, frustrated, or a newer (or older game) interests me. I have such a backlog of unfinished games. The only games I truly finished is Metal Gear Solid and Suikoden. Oddly from roughly the same time. There might be a few others like Parasite Eve. I have tons from post PS1 so its not that I quit playing. Is it that games are getting more open world, or am I do I have a bad case of ADD?

Dunno ! I have finished many games in my life but I don't buy a lot of game either until ressently with a lot better income and I find that it isn't as fun.

Honestly, I just don't want to rely on someone else, and I certainly don't want someone else relying on me. I know you love your co-op, but for me personally it has absolutely zero place in survival horror.

@JustPlainLucas:

It does.... you just don't like it....

It happens.... its not the end of the world....

@Lulu_Lulu: I agree with RE5 having better graphics&controls but RE4 is so long and so varied you can't even compare it to RE5.. if it wasn't for co-op RE5 is worse than separate ways its so short&forgettable.

@torenojohn7:

See..... Co-Op saves the day.... ;)

Yeah, its pretty hard to go back to games after you haven't played them in a while. Thats why I always try to beat them in one shot.

@refresh220:

By "a while" I hope you mean atleast a Decade..... don t break my heart by saying you mean less than a year.... :(

@Lulu_Lulu: It depends i played RE6 in 2012 and i REALLY don't want to play that game ever again.. i'd rather re-play original RE games with inverted tank controls and with the original load times of the PS1 hardware...

@torenojohn7:

My biggest issue with President Evil 6 is the Co-Op wasn't as important as it was in 5.... yhe game was easily managable all on your own.... you can do almost everything by yourself..... and you are fotced to have the same weapons.

I agree 100% with a lot of games and Resident Evil 4 in particular.

I only thought the game was ok when I first played it on the Gamecube, I like the Resident Evil Remake better because that was survival horror one of my favourite genres, Resident Evil 4 is not survival horror.

Anyway I revisited the game a year back and found it didn't control very fluid, I kept getting killed by regular zombies because I could not move round well enough.

Another example of this, I revisited "Prisoner of War" on my Xbox, when I first played it I had no problem with the controls. When I revisited I couldn't do the first mission, I could barely move.

RE4 is my favorite game. It was my first game on ps2 as a kid. Love that s*t. I still play it often. RE series failed miserably after that game RE5 was boring and RE6 was plain terrible.

I also had this issue with ninja gaiden 2. Pause and imagine that for a second. Ninja gaiden is the type of game that you get better at and hone your skills from the first mission all the way to the last.

Well I actually made it to the very end of the game and just couldn't beat him. I put the game away for years and then tried to play one day to kill him and just put the game away for good but ummm that was a very bad idea because I had forgotten simple skills that could mean the difference between life and death in a tight situation.

So I started the game again all the way from the beginning (this is a huge deal for me because I like to finish games I buy and only play thru them once because I just have so many on back log I never have time for replays) after I had already put all that time in the first place but that helped me and I beat the game finally.

Resident evil isn't that hard in comparison to ninja gaiden 2 so I'd just restart again from beginning if I was you.

I revisited RE4 just last year in 2014, and enjoyed it just as much as I did in 2005. It has aged very well. The tank controls isn't an issue at all, since the whole game design perfectly suits it. RE4 is still one of the finest examples of game design to this day.