Right ok back the Blog Odyssey, review time! Yep this blog is really a review fest, but here is a little something different, this time its on another game, and I've chosen one of the all time great fps horror games in recent years, Resident Evil 4. Resident Evil 4 (or RE4 for short) originally came out on the Nintendo Gamecube, and it totally revoltionised the series, as the environments were no longer static 2D backdrops, the characters were now in a fully three dimensional summersive environment.
So a little bit about the story, which begins with an agent Leon S.Kennedy, who was a protagonist in Resident Evil 2, sent on a mission to rescue the daughter of the president of the USA, Ashley Graham, who has been kidnapped by a cult. Leon tracks Ashley to a rural village in Spain, where he soon encounters some hostile villagers, who appear to be infected with a virus, which is soon revealed to be called the "Los Plagas", the villagers are known as the "los ganados" (Spanish for enlighted ones). On finding Ashley, Leon is captured by the village leader, Bitores Mendez, who injects with the los plagas virus, a mind controlling parasite, as has Ashley. Leon soon escapes and goes after Ashley and finds her in a chapel, only to be faced by the leader of the Illuminados, Osmund Saddler, who intends to use Ashley's infection, once she returns to America to infect the population and cause disaster. On their journey they encounter more illuminados, and Ashley is soon re-captured and taken to an island research facility, where Leon confronts an old enemy and does what he has to do to stop the evil that threatens to infect the world.
Resident Evil 4, while it didn't exactly re-invent the wheel in terms of gaming, it certainly reinvented the game series, by allowing the movement to be more free flow than before, as we had the static shots of the characters running down corridors, rather than a proper three dimensional environment. It also allows Leon's character to interact with his environment, such as kicking doors open, kicking ladders down or pushing them up, and leaping over fences, or ducking and hiding behind walls. The combat system was also given a real overhaul as now Leon can use a selection of weapons, and has a gun which has a laser sighting attached to make it easier to target enemies. The game also has scripted moments where the player has to rapidly press a sequence of buttons to avoid the character from being killed, which also adds a bit more tension to the proceedings, as well making counter attacks to close quarter attacks from baddies. You also even get a selection of attache cases, which range from small to extra large, so you can carry more items as you progress.
Gameplay wise the game is terrific and the control system is very easy to use, and in the context of the action, it lets you get into things really easily, and there is also an upgrade system for the weapons you buy. And a notable feature of the game is of course the travelling merchant who offers you a series of weapons and items to stock up on, and for some reason the traveller is a cockney, who flashes his coat, showing you his items, saying "Welcome!" and "what are you sellin?" or "what are you buyin??". There are also moments in the game where you can play as Ashley, when Leon is trapped in a room, and you need her to crawl through spaces to access other rooms, in these moments however Ashely has no weapons, but they aren't really needed.
And what help makes Resident Evil 4 so good is its baddies, and with the new free expansive environment it allows more room for loads of enemies on the screen all at once. The spanish villagers, who move in groups slowly towards you are very creepy, and the los illimunados priests are without a doubt one of the creepiest game villains you will ever come across in any game, particularly the slow way thye creep towards you, and the low chanting they do. And that is one of the successes of the terror aspect of the game, is that baddies come in at you from all sides. There are other enemies as well, not just in human form, as you also got some large insects, or mutated humans who take the form of large insects, as well as a massive cave trolls, who try to flatten you. You also get a kind of leatherface character (the main baddie from the 1970s horror film, Texas Chainsaw Massacre) who charges at you with a chainsaw, and naturally you have to run for your life or your character will get chopped.
The music in Resident Evil always plays an important part and here we get another excellent score, which is intense, scary, creepy and generally really good. It also updates the sound of the series, rather than the cheesy kind of 90s synth type of music that was used in some of the previous scores. Graphics wise the game for its time looks great, although as time has moved on you could say that it looks rather dated and lacks the detailed and more advanced visuals you get nowadays in games, even in Resident Evil 5, where the graphics got a real overhaul in HD, they looked even better. The character models are actually pretty good for their time, as Leon and Ashley both look the part and its a step up from the previous games visuals.
Perhaps though if I am being critical about the game, one thing I could say about the combat system is that it doesn't let you stock up on ammo, when you go to visit the merchant, as you need to either upgrade your weapon's capacity to refill it, or pick up the ammo left from dead baddies. And it would makes things a bit easier if that was the case, and I guess that's always been an issue with the RE series, especially in the early games where ammo was very sparse. And there will be moments in this game where you will get that aswell, when you face off loads of baddies and you are low on ammo. Its the one part of the series that has never been remedied in that respect, and it remains the same here, which can be an annoyance especially given the amount of baddies in the game.
Difficulty wise Resident Evil 4 is far from easy, and will pose a fair challenge at times, and the toughest part of the game by far for me was facing Leon's old foe, Jack Krauser, who has lightning reflexes and keeps shooting at you, and you have to try and dodge his attacks by hand or gunfire, as he hides in different locations at the research island grounds. In fact I found myself getting killed repeatedly by the guy which was a real pain in the ass after a while! So you have to try and conserve your ammo in taking him down. There are other bosses in the game which can present a bit of a test as well, such as the cave trolls who keep stomping at you in the scene where you are trapped in the furnace, and you need to trying to open a pit to drop them in lava.
So overall Resident Evil 4 is a great game and one of the best, if not the best in the Resident Evil series, and if you are a fan of the series and haven't even tried it yet, give it a go! (its only been about 7 years!).
Riight so on that note, I shall say byeeeeeeeeeeee.....................................e.
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