Demon's Souls Review

Right, well after so many revisitational posts...its time for something new! :-)

So, yep for a change I thought I would do a new post with NEW content (honest!) and this post is actually one I am quite pleased to bring to this blog as it is based on the one Souls video game I had still yet to play up until now. And that game is of course the one that kicked off the whole Souls franchise, which is Demon's Souls.

Now to play Demon's Souls these days, it isn't as straightforward as the other games in the series as it is a PS3 exclusive game only, so I would either need to get a PS3 (which I don't have) or download the game files or buy a copy of the PS3 disc and run it on a PC based emulator.  This makes it the most difficult and least accessible entry in the Souls series to play, which is unfortunate given it was the one game that started it all off.

Now, I was reluctant to download the game files online as I've seen a bunch of virus warnings on certain websites (could be fakes or hoaxes but didn't want to take the risk!) so I took the safer route of buying the actual PS3 game disc off eBay and running it on the PC emulator called RPSC3. You do of course need a pretty good spec PC to do so but thankfully mine is decent enough and met the requirements and I thankfully managed after some tinkering to get the game running pretty well and have since finished it.

Anyway...with that rather long-winded intro out the way let's take a closer look at this classic game that started off Souls universe and see how it stacks up 11 years on...

And I will say a little about the story below, so the usual warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD (BUT NOT TOO MANY!)

STORY

So to save time on me typing the story synopsis, here's a decent size snippet of it from Wikipedia

"In ancient times, Boletaria was attacked by a being called the Old One due to the abuse of forbidden Soul Art magic, with the world being almost lost in a magical "Deep Fog" filled with soul-eating demons. The Old One was eventually lulled into slumber, saving Boletaria and populating the damaged world with special humans called Monumentals. In the game's present, Boletaria's ruler King Allant has restored Soul Arts and consequently awoken the Old One and its demon army within the fog. Boletaria is now being consumed by demons, with those humans without souls turning into insane monsters. Players take the role of an adventurer entering the fog engulfing Boletaria. After being killed, the player wakes up in the Nexus and meets a benevolent demon called the Maiden in Black, as well as various other characters.

Now bound to the Nexus until the Old One is returned to slumber, the player travels to five regions of Boletaria, killing the powerful demons controlling those areas and absorbing their souls to increase their power so they can face King Allant".

THOUGHTS

Well, after having played the Dark Souls trilogy that was inspired by this title and given the many thousands of hours I must have poured into those 3 games, I'm happy to say that Demon's Souls is every bit as good and as addictive as those games in itself. And it certainly makes sense that Demon's Souls would be an excellent game given that it started the whole series off and the game is filled with great concepts an ideas, not to mention impressive (albeit dated) visuals and creative, varied environments. Top all of this off also with some very challenging areas, enemies and very satisfying combat then you have a high quality game in Demon's Souls that is well worth looking at.

GAMEPLAY

Now this section will be quite big of course and I will split it as usual like my other game reviews into sub-sections below.

MOVEMENT

Starting with movement, the game follows much the same system as the Souls games that succeed it with a third person perspective view that can be rotated 360 degrees to see the character face on or from behind. The player can also do the usual actions such as attack, run, sprint, walk (of course!) and in addition that was never included in the other Souls games, your character can even climb up ledges! Now, you can't do this all the time but you can do it at certain areas in the game and it makes you wonder just why didn't the game director/creator, Hidetaka Miyazaki bring that mechanic into the sequels?!

CHARACTER CLASSES AND STATS

Next is of course your character classes and stats, which are of course very important and have a big impact on your overall progression throughout the game. Starting with classes, you have 10 different types to choose from that include a warrior, knight, magician (sorcerer in the sequels), priest (cleric in the sequels), hunter and a wanderer and these can be either male or female. These classes will all have their own individual characteristics that are determined by their stats and these can be altered as you progress through the game and this will also grant them usage of different weapons, spells and other items in the game.

As for the stats, similar to the other Souls games you have a set number that are much the same that include vitality, endurance, strength, intelligence, magic and faith. Vitality, endurance and strength are pretty much self-explanatory whereas other stats such as intelligence affect the amount of spells magic spells you can hold and the magic stat determines the power, which increases as you level up that stat itself. Faith is also much the same in that when you level it up you will gain access to more slots and it will boost the strength of offensive miracles or also increase the requirements needed to use these miracles.

There are also some additional stats that would feature in the other Souls game too such as luck, which boosts your item obtainability from fallen enemies as you can increase it. And of course there is dexterity, which is used to handle certain weapons that requirement more refined skill to use such as spears, bows, halberds or katanas.

And before moving on, its worth mentioning of course that these stats are levelled via the NPC known as the Maiden in Black, who appears in the game's main hub, the Nexus, which I will mention in a bit. 

WEAPONS

And this brings us onto weapons and there are plenty of weapons to be found in Demon's Souls just like in the other games in the series and some of these appear in the other Souls games too.

So, similar to the Dark Souls trilogy, you have different classes of weapons such as straight swords, large swords (which are the equivalent of great swords in the sequels) spears, hammers (including clubs I think), bows (including crossbows), katanas, daggers, curved swords (that inflict bleed damage) and axes. And these weapons all have varying requirements when it comes to strength and dexterity although I don't think they require intelligence or faith like some of them do in the Dark Souls trilogy.

There are also a selection of shields in the game too, which you character will use for defence and to block attacks (as you do with a shield!). Again there are different classes of shield such as small, standard and large with a mixture of wood, leather and metal shields with varying degrees of resistance and effectiveness for physical and elemental damage. 

You can still of course use these weapons even if you do meet the requirements for them but it just means, like the DS trilogy you cannot use them effectively until you meet those requirements. However some of these weapons, especially weapons such as large swords, can be used if you meet the dexterity requirement for them and will allow to use them two-handed with most strength weapons proving most effective being held with two hands anyway.

ARMOUR

As for armour there is actually a surprisingly small amount of armour sets in the game with just 18 in total to be found and every class has their own individual set. The armour sets can range from very light for characters such as magicians and hunters to the more heavy sets worn by knights and priests. Again the weight factor of the sets will also impact on your equipment load as you will fat roll (i.e. roll slowly) if you are wearing a heavier and don't have sufficient endurance to wear it. 

COMBAT

As for the combat again it is very similar to the following Souls games in that your character uses a mix of defense and offense when taking down enemies with a weapon and shield. You can also as a caster (mage or priest) use spells to take down enemies at range or use a bow or cross-bow to do the same. The game also introduces the parry and riposte system where you can use your shield deflect an enemy's attack and follow it up with a deadly finishing move and addition to this you can get behind enemies and backstab them.

THE NEXUS

And then we get to what is the game's central hub, which is known as the Nexus and is like Firelink Shrine in the sequels (or Majula in the Dark Souls II) where your character can level up their stats (via the Maiden in Black) talk to other non-playable characters (i.e. NPCs) and purchase items and upgrade weapons. The Nexus also features what appear to be five headstones that allow the player access to different worlds that are the main playable areas of the game but in order to access them you need to talk a specific NPC (the Monumental) to do so.

NON-PLAYABLE CHARACTERS (NPCs)

Then there are the NPCs, who like in the other Souls games can help your character along the way and offer different things such as the Nexus blacksmith, Ed, who can upgrade your weapons and purchase weapons and other items form. There is also an NPC, which can store items and weapons for you if you become over-burdened with your equipment load and this can happen quite often in the game as you pick up items throughout. Then there are NPCs you can purchase spells or miracles from that you find as you travel through the worlds and you can also trade boss souls with them for additional spells/miracles.

Then of course we have the Maiden in Black, who levels up your character and she also plays a pinnacle role in the end of the game but I won't say much more than that! Plus I cannot forget to mention the one and only Patches, who features in just about EVERY Souls game (bar Dark Souls II that is!). Patches if you don't know is basically a sneaky and untrustworthy merchant, who will screw you over at any given opportunity but can later on sell you stuff that is of good use such as healing items, arrows and rings.  

CHARACTER AND WORLD TENDENCY

Another key aspect of the game is to do with your character and world tendencies.

Starting with character tendency, this affects your character directly based on your choices throughout the game to either help NPC's or kill them or invade online players and kill them. So, essentially you will have either a black or white tendency with the black tendency it reduces your health to 45% and your attack power is increased as an invading black phantom.  White tendency however will increase the player's attack power in Soul form and it will also increase your attack power as a blue phantom (i.e. where you assist other online players to fight bosses).

As for the world tendency, this directly affects the difficulty level of events that take place in the game's different worlds and are specific to that world. So, essentially if you stay in human form and keep dying then this will lead toward the world tendency turning black, which in turn strengthen enemies HP and attack power but they will end up dropping more souls when they die and you will have a better chance at obtaining rare items. Your character's maximum HP will reduce in Soul form also, which can makes thing very challenging indeed! There will also be more black phantoms of standard enemies that appear at different areas in that world as well to challenge you.

As for white world tendency, enemies will have less HP and attack power and will reduce the chance of dropping rare items but they should still provide health items when they are killed. Your attack power is also increased when in soul form and can go up in increments based on how white the world becomes.

SOUL AND BODY FORM

And this brings me onto the two different forms your player can take, which are soul and body form as both these forms have different effects on gameplay.

Starting with soul form, the player will have reduced health but they can as previously mentioned have more attack power in this form based on your world tendency as it will be more if it is white and less if black. They will also appear more ethereal than they would in body form and one benefit also is that they make no noise when they move around. When you are in body form however you will have full health but you will do less damage than in soul form and you will also make audible noise when you move.

ARCHSTONES 

Another key aspect of the game are the archstones, which your character will use to travel between the different worlds and the Nexus and there are often more than one to be found in each world. Each world will begin with one each but as you defeat bosses, more will appear as you progress and they can allow you to checkpoint your progress in the worlds as you make your way through them. You can also use what is known as shards of archstone, that are the equivalent of your homeward bone from Dark Souls that can return you to the Nexus at any time.  

ENEMIES AND BOSSES

Moving onto the enemies there are is plenty of variety here with no shortage for your character to fight against that range from your low level scrubs that are the dreglings up to red eye knights. There are also some really annoying enemies called fat officials, who are appear in a couple of the worlds who armed with whips or axes and can throw fireballs at you. Plus there are also plenty of monster/creature type enemies such as giant bugs, rockworms, gargoyles, man centipedes, storm beasts and of course your typical rabid dogs!

There are also hybrid-human enemies such as mind flayers, who are essentially octopus headed magicians that can deal out some pretty nasty damage, shadow lurkers, who are like ghostly spirits that deal out magic damage and of course we have armoured skeletons, who can really mess you up with their falchions (i.e. a curved sword that deal heavy bleed damage!). So there are certainly plenty of bad guys here to keep you on your toes and will test you throughout the game.

There are also another type of enemy in the game that are NPC invaders, who appear as red phantoms and they can interrupt your progress at different times in the game. The invaders will vary in challenge as you progress and their presence can also be affected by the world tendency of the game as they will often appear more if you have a black world tendency than white.

Boss wise there are plenty on display here and they of course will allow the player to regain their body form if they were in soul form when the boss is defeated. The bosses will of course drop a high number of souls as well as their own soul, which can be traded with the magician or priest NPC's for special spells/miracles. Bosses also come in different types such as humans and monsters and there is plenty of variety on display here in the game in that regard.

The bosses definitely vary in their challenge level and I have to say that most of them are pretty easy in comparison to the rest of the bosses found in the Dark Souls trilogy but some of them are pretty interesting in their design all the same.

RINGS 

Then there are the rings in the game, which just like in the other Souls games, grant the character different abilities and resistances and they can equip two at a time. There are 26 rings in total in the game and as a few examples there is the Cling Ring, which can be used to boost your HP when you are in soul form and the regenerator ring, which slowly recovers your health over time. Other rings also include the Thief Ring, which enables you to become harder for enemies to detect, Ring of Magical Sharpness, which boosts your magic power but also lowers your magic defense and the last one I will mention is The Ring of Herculean Strength, which boosts your equipment load similar to Havel's Ring in the sequels.

WEAPON UPGRADE STONES

Next we have the stones used for upgrading weapons and there is a big variety of stones to be found throughout the game that all have different properties and can add various effects to weapons such as infuse them with fire, magic, bleed or poison.

There are too many to mention here to go through them all but the two primary types of stone you will use in the game are hardstone and sharpstone and they can fully upgrade your weapons from its base level up to +10. These types of stone however are the basic upgrade paths and will not add any additional elemental effects to weapons.

Starting with hardstone, this is used to upgrade weapons such as straight swords, axes, hammers, bows and even shields and they come in different varities that are shards, large shards, chunks and pure stone (maxes out the weapon to +10). So, basically hardstone would be used to mainly upgrade strength based weapons as opposed to dex based ones. As for sharpstone, this is used to upgrade weapons such as spears, curved swords, katanas, daggers and rapiers, which are all pretty much dexterity based weapons. Again similar to hardstone, sharpstone comes in varieties of shard, large shards, chunks and pure stone.   

CONSUMABLE SOULS AND ITEMS

And last of all for the gameplay section, I will mention a bit about the consumable items in the game as well as souls that you can collect throughout. To start with the consumable souls, these are often found on dead bodies and will range in the number of souls they give you from as little as 200 up to 10,000 souls. These are very handy for boosting your souls count when you might be low and want to purchase items or even uprgade weapons or level up.

As for the consumable items there are plenty also to be found in the game and primary ones are for healing your health but some can also be used to cure status ailments such as poison or toxicity. The healing items vary from the smallest, which are Crescent Moon Grass alway up to New Moon Grass, which completely restores your health. As for the status healing items there are three usable ones here that are Widow Lotus that cures the plague, Royal Lotus, which cures poison and Soldier Lotus that cures bleeding.

Other consumable featured also help restore your magic power and there are two such items that can do this that are Fresh Spice and Old Spice. Fresh Spice will only recover a small amount of your magic power whereas Old Space will recover a larger amount of it. These items can also be purchased from different NPC merchants in the game.

GRAPHICS

Finally moving onto the game's graphics, well its safe to say that Demon's Souls graphics are easily the most dated looking of all the Souls games, especially given as it was initially released on the PS3. However even by PS3 standards, the graphics are still a bit behind the times but I guess this might have come down to the budget limitations available to the developers at the time.

Regardless of this though, Demon's Souls graphics still show an impressive variety in their area design with five different worlds to explore they all look quite different from each other and there is no doubt that the visual design of the Nexus itself is truly stunning. In fact when you look at Dark Souls III, its safe to say that its re-design of Firelink Shrine was easily based on the Nexus from Demon's Souls but the Nexus in my opinion is way cooler looking.

Character model wise however there is no doubt that the game is very dated looking as these characters would pass off more for a PS2 game than a PS3 one as they look OK but very much dated by today's standards and especially even the PS3's top tier titles of the time. The same can also be said for the enemies as they do look pretty rough and undefined and not a patch on the later games visual designs in that regard.

All the same, the graphics for Demon's Souls are far from bad and they show plenty of variety and creativity in their design but its safe to say that graphically it is the weakest of the Souls games.

MUSIC

As for the music, the game features a pretty good score by Shunsuke Kida and it is largely very orchestral and features choral sections also very much like the Souls scores that would follow it but I would still say that the Dark Souls trilogy's music scores were far more memorable than this one here. Regardless of that though there are still some good themes here that include the themes for the bosses, Armour Spider, Tower Knight and my favourite is Maiden Astraea, which is quite different from the rest of score and is easily the real standout of the soundtrack.

FLAWS

So finally moving onto the flaws section. Does Demon's Souls have any? Yep it does but I have to be fair to some of these flaws I will mention as this was the first game in the Souls series, so its only fair to expect that they would need to iron any of the issues featured here in future games.

Anyway with that said, I would begin by saying that one thing that is a bit annoying and a drawback is to do with the equipment load system, which is inferior to the Souls trilogy's. And the reason why is because you can only carry so many items before you get the annoying message "you cannot carry this item. It would overburden you" comes up! Now, the way to deal with this would be either drop the item to pick up the other one, or head back to the Nexus deposit your items with the NPC that stores them for you, Stockpile Thomas.

However, if you there are several items you want to hold onto while you are in one of the worlds and you need to sacrifice some, it can be a real pain in the ass when this overburdening message comes up. Suffice to say, I was glad to see that this issue was successfully rectified in the sequels as all you had to do was equip or unequip items without having to drop them off at a specific NPC but here it is a bit of a nuisance.

Another issue is to do with the World Tendency concept, which if you are new to the game then its something that might trip you up as it did in my first playthrough (which the save file got corrupted for, so I had to start a 2nd playthrough to finish the game!). And the main problem with this is if you stay in body form and keep dying, the world tendency will turn black as mentioned in my WT section and the enemies become stronger and harder to kill and your max health is reduced in soul form. So, this is a real pain in the asss if you get stuck in such as situation and it can also force to deal with an extra bunch of in-game invaders who also have more health! So, in short you really need to take care when you play this game at first and if in doubt, just stay in soul form to avoid this trap.

Something else that bugged me in the game was to do with how the Maiden in Black keeps changing her position every time you travel back to the Nexus and given it is a pretty big place, its easy to lose track of where she is! I mean one minute she's at the bottom of the stairs and the next she is right up the top where you can't see here without running around or she might sitting down in a crouched pose! So, I wish they would have limited the amount of positions she can move to when you travel back to the Nexus to make your life just that bit easier to find her and level up.

Another problem found was to do with the lack of archstones at times in the game, which can cause much frustration in certain areas, particularly in the Tower of Latria world, as I had found myself having to do a massive runback from the second archstone to try and progress through the swamp area and up the top. However, when I did this one time, I was killed enroute to the top by a gargoyle and another time I carelessly jumped off a lift taking me up, which meant I had to start all over again! So, the lack of archstones really does force you to be extra careful in these areas, which can also be pretty challenging.

Then there is of course the issue relating to the sheer amount of upgrade stones throughout the game as there simply too many to choose from and they are quite confusing in what some of them even do! In fact I think overall there are 16 different types of stone to be found in the game, which is too many if you have ask me and serve more to confuse the player than help them.

Another thing that might also be a big problem in the game is that there is no forgiveness system like there is in the Dark Souls games, where you can be pardoned for your sins if your accidentally attack an NPC either in the Nexus or in the worlds. And if you make this mistake that means you are pretty much scuppered with dealing with that NPC, so if you e.g. unwittingly attack the magician, Freke, then he will refuse to deal with you and will try and kill you instead, leaving you no choice but to kill him. So, if you are a mage then that's you pretty much screwed!

I also noticed in the game that there are certain weapons that cannot be upgraded, which I found a bit annoying such as the crossbows and certain shields like the leather ones. Now I can sort of see the point of not necessarily wanting to upgrade a leather shield but a crossbow?! I mean come on! A crossbow can be a pretty essential weapon in the Souls series and to not allow it to be upgraded is frankly ridiculous! So, I'm not sure what the game director, Hidetaka Miyazaki's logic was here when he made these upgrade decisions in this game.  

And last of all is to do with the game's difficulty level, which it has to be said is pretty uneven overall and the main reason for this is because the standard enemies and areas tend provide the game's main challenge but most of the game's bosses are far too easy. Now, the Dark Souls trilogy and even Bloodborne are well noted for their share of difficult boss fights but here in Demon's Souls, you could potentially beat most of the bosses in just one try!

So, for me its actually one of the more disappointing aspects of the game as some of the boss designs are pretty cool but its a real letdown when you end up beating them so easily. I mean the final boss of the game, King Allant, who is essentially a large grub is ridiculously easy as you can even just finish him off with magic spells without even going anywhere near him! However, its safe to say that apart from Soul of Cinder of Dark Souls III and of course Isshin from Sekiro, FromSoft's end game bosses have been pretty easy. However with King Allant here, you are a given a boss that is WAY too easy and I couldn't see anyone really struggle with him at all!

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So to finally sum up, Demon's Souls is an excellent and very enjoyable role play game that kicked off a great series of games and I was quite pleased to find out this game is just as addictive as its successors. And the game's visual design, combat, enemy variety are all great and like the other Souls games, it has great replayability thanks to being able to create different classes of character with a whole host of weapons and spells available to them.

The game's visuals are of course pretty dated looking by today's standards and yes there are still some issues with its gameplay that would thankfully be ironed out in the following Souls games. However that aside, it was great to finally get a chance to play this game and to complete my Souls experience. Let's hope one day that the game will get a much deserved remaster but until then, I'm quite happy to relive it again using the emulator version and its certainly worth revisting.

Right, so that is FINALLY the end of the review and I will be back sometime hopefully before the month is finished.

Till then its bye for now!

Doctor Who - Terror of the Autons Review (Revisited) "I am usually referred to as the Master!"

Right, OK! Its hold my hands up time as I yet again delve into a previous post, which I have already done a revisit of but as I have recently re-watched the content of the post in question, I figured I would still add a few extra details to my previous review. And the review in question is the classic Doctor Who story, Terror of the Autons from the Jon Pertwee era.

So, after almost 50 years how does this story hold up??? Well, let's take yet another look and find out...

And the usual is coming up....

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!

STORY 

So, the story begins with the renegade Time Lord, the Master (Roger Delgado) landing on Earth where he steals the only existing Nestene energy unit and uses it to transmit a signal into space from a radio telescope.  The Doctor and his new assistant Jo Grant (Katy Manning) investigate the theft of the energy unit and soon arrive at the radio telescope where the Doctor receives a warning from a Time Lord (David Garth) that the Master has arrived on Earth.  The Time Lord also tells the Doctor about a bomb that the Master has planted inside the operation room of the radio telescope centre, which the Doctor manages to diffuse.   

The Master meanwhile has taken over a plastics factory, run by Rex Farrel (Michael Wisher) who he uses his powers of hypnosis to control him, and creates Autons at the factory.  The Master makes several attempts to kill the Doctor and Jo all of which fail, firstly by hypnotising Jo into carrying a bomb back to UNIT HQ, and then also by trying to strangle him by using a radio controlled signal to cause the telephone flex wrap around the Doctor's neck.

The Doctor also dedcues that the Master who has been using the Autons to distribute plastic daffodils around the country, plans to set off a radio signal, one of which shoots out a plastic cover which nearly suffocates Jo but he saves her, and there are reports of deaths around the country.  The Doctor then travels back to the radio telescope where the Master is intent on re-opening the signal to let the Auton invasion through, and its up to the Doctor to stop him and put an end to the Nestene threat once and for all..... 

THOUGHTS 

Terror of the Autons it has to be said remains something of a landmark in the show's history on two counts in that it for one introduced the "UNIT family" with the newly introduced Jo Grant and Captain Mike Yates, and also one of the Doctor's most memorable enemies, the Master.  The Master is of course one of the best enemies to come out of the series in quite some time as he is a charismatic villain who is every bit as clever as the Doctor.

Terrence Dicks the series script editor also alluded to the Master being the Doctor's equivalent of Sherlock Holmes's arch enemy, Moriarty and there are definitely similarities to be found for sure between these characters.  The story was also quite important as it saw the show make changes for the better as it needed a revamp after the Quartermass style doom and gloom of Pertwee's first season, although it was a very good season in its own right, the show needed to lighten the tone and pace of what went before and Barry Letts and Terrence Dicks both made the right choice in doing so.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers also!)

Performance wise the story is also pretty good and Jon Pertwee by this time has started to begin to grow into his role and he even makes the Doctor a bit more light-hearted than before.  Jon's take on the Doctor here is however a bit more arrogant than what went before but he does have some fun with it as well and he has plenty of good moments in the story.

And as for a few examples there is the scene where the Doctor first meets Jo Grant and he dismisses her at first mistaking her to be the tea lady by saying without looking at her "No tea today, thank you!".  But after Jo accidentally ruins the Doctor's experiment when it catches fire she uses a fire extinguisher to put it out and the Doctor berates her by saying "Three months of delicate work and now look at it, you ham-fisted bun vendor!".

Then there is the scene where the Doctor is visited by one of the Time Lords who warns him that the Master has arrived on Earth and the Doctor arrogantly says "I refuse to be worried by a renegade like the Master!  He's... he's an unimaginative plodder!".  But then the Doctor shortly afterward has to diffuse a bomb planted by the Master in the radio telescope centre and Captain Yates walks in as the Doc attempts diffuse it.  And Yates say to the Doctor "What's that?" and the Doctor says "A bomb" and Yates asks "A bomb?  Is it diffused?" and the Doctor removes the bomb from its casing and looks up at Yates and says "It is now!".   

Another fun moment comes when the Doctor lays into an official from the Ministry, Brownrose and he angrily says to him "Who's in charge of you pen pushers these days?!  Old Tubby Rowlands, is it?!" and Brownrose says "Lord Rowlands is the head of our department".  And the Doctor says "I was saying to him in the club only the other day.  Wrong sort of chap is creeping into your club, Tubby, I said!".

Another good scene comes when the Doctor and the Brigadier enter Farrell's factory office and find it is deserted and the Doctor notices a safe at the end of the room and tries to open it and when he does he finds an Auton in there and yells to the Brigadier "LOOK OUT!!! AUTON!!" as it fires a shot from its handgun, the Brig ducks and the Doctor quickly kicks the safe shut and locks it.  And the Doctor then turns to the Brig and almost smiles and says "They're remarkably persistent aren't they?!".

Then there is the scene where the Doctor is confronted by the Master who turns up at his lab and the Doctor holds the Master's TARDIS dematerialisation circuit.  And the Doctor warns him "If you fire that thing, you will never be able to leave this planet!" and as the Master threatens to kill Jo if he doesn't hand it over, the Doctor thinks about it and says "Touche!" and readies himself to hand it over but is stopped by Jo, who tells the Master the Brig will bomb the quarry.            

WARNING: THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IS A BIT OF A SPOILER!

And last of all is the final scene of the story where after the Master evades capture and Jo mentions how the Doctor had stolen the Master's dematerialisation circuit. So, Jo says of the Master "And now he's stuck on Earth" and the Doctor says "Yes, I'm afraid so" and the Brigadier asks "Do you think he'll turn up again?" and the Doctor says "Bound to" and Jo says "You don't sound very worried" and the Doctor says with a smile "I'm not. As a matter of fact, I'm rather looking forward to it!".

And then we have Roger Delgado, who is terrific as the Doctor's arch enemy, the Master.  Delgado brought a great deal of sly and sinster charm to the character while at the same time effortlessly conveying the Master's evil and ruthless nature.

Delgado has plenty of highlights of his own in the story such as his first one where the Master arrives on Earth in his TARDIS (taking the form of a horsebox) and he confronts a circus master, Rossini.  And Rossini asks the Master "Who the heck are you?" and the Master says "I am usually referred to as the Master" and Rossini says "Oh, is that so?!" and the Master says "Universally!". 

Then there is the scene where one of Rex's father's business partners, McDermott (Harry Towb) meets with the Master at the factory and the Master insists that McDermott sit in a big black plastic chair.  And the Master barks at McDermott to "Sit down, man!" and as McDermott does the chair engulfs and kills him and the Master stops Rex from doing anything and says "No!  I will not tolerate his insolence!".  And the Master then tells Rex "The human body has a basic weakness.  One which I will exploit to assist in the destruction of humanity!".

And further to this scene Delgado has an amusing moment when Rex's father, Farrel Sr (Stephen Jack) shows up and the Master explains to Farrel about how McDermott died and says "Yes he just sat down in this chair and... slipped away".  And later after Farrel leaves the factory, the Master puts one of his plastic dolls in Farrel's car and he says to Farrel "I insist.  I'm simply trying out a new product!" only later it comes to life and kills Farrel.

And lastly there is the scene where the Master finally confronts the Doctor in person in the last episode of the story and the Master delights in mocking the Doctor by saying "You see, Doctor, you're my intellectual equal.  Almost!  I have so few worthy opponents.  When they've gone, I always miss them".  And as the Doctor tells the Master that he has his dematerialisation circuit for his TARDIS and if the Master kills him he will never leave Earth.  

However the Master threatens the Doctor saying "You underestimate me, Doctor. Let me be quite plain. Either you hand that unit over to me now, or I kill Miss Grant!" so the Doctor gives in and is ready hand over the circuit and says "Touche!".  However Jo says that the Master is beaten as the Brigadier is going to bomb the caravan much to the Doctor's disapproval, who shouts "JO!!" and the Master grins and says "Oh. There's been a slight change of plan, Doctor. I've decided to let you live, for a little while!". 

Katy Manning also makes a good impression in her debut as Jo Grant even if she does have some cheesy moments in her performance and it also clear from the get go that Katy and Jon shared a nice chemistry with one another on screen.

Katy still has some good moments such as her first scene where she corrects the Doctor who mistakes her for the tea lady "I'm not the tea lady.  I'm your new assistant!" and the Doctor looks on disbelief and says "Oh, no!". Jo continues undeterred and tells the Doctor "The brigadier asked me to come along and introduce myself, Doctor. Josephine Grant" and the Doctor says "How do you, Miss Grant? I don't really think you're suitable" but Jo tells him "I'm a fully qualified agent. Cryptology, safe breaking, explosives..." and the Doctor interrupts and says "Fire fighting?!". The Doctor then tries to let her down gently and says "I'm sorry, my dear, but what I need is a scientist" and Jo cheerily says "I took general science at A-level" and the Doctor says to her "Yes, I'm sure you did, but even so" and Jo apologetically tells him "I'm sorry I ruined your experiment" and the Doctor gives her a smile and says "That's all right". 

Then we have the scene where asks the Doctor about the Nestenes and she asks "What is a Nestene?" and the Doctor tells her "Ask Captain Yates. He had the job of clearing up the mess last time" but Yates struggles to tell Jo "Its a bit difficult to explain really". So, the Doctor tells Jo "The Nestenes are a ruthless intelligent alien lifeform" and Jo asks "Well, what did they look like?" and the Doctor says "Well I expect myself they are analogous to a cepholapod" and Jo asks "What's a cepholapod?" and the Doctor tells her "An octopus. I thought you said you took an A-level in science" and Jo admits "I didn't say I passed!". 

Then there is the scene where Jo complains to Mike about how she has messed things up by nearly blowing up the Doctor and the others with the bomb that the Master had given her after he hypnotised her.

So, in the scene Jo says to Mike "Life's just wonderful!" and Yates says to her "Easy, love" but Jo continues "I've really got off to a terrific start, haven't I? I find the man everybody's looking for, I forget where he is and I end up by trying to blow you all sky high!".  And Yates tries to appease her by saying "No one's blaming you" but Jo continues "Oh no! You all just tell me to keep out of the way. I'm not a child, you know!" and Yates snaps at her "Well, you're acting like one!".  And as Yates reassures to try and not force herself to remember where the Master is located (due to her hypnosis she can't remember) he says "Just do as the Brigadier says" and Jo smiles "Yes, of course, you're quite right" but by her expression we can see she has something else in mind.  

And lastly there is the scene where the Doctor and Jo are trying to figure what sets off the plastic daffodils to potentially kill its victims. So, in the scene the Doctor asks Jo to stall the Brigadier's airstrike on the Master's tour bus that has the Autons and Farrel onboard. So, Jo get's on the radio to the Brig and says "Hello, Greyhound. This is Trap One. Do you read me, over?" but at that point the daffodil starts to turn and the Doctor says to her "Jo, look!" and he deduces that the short wave radio triggered it off.

So, as it moves, the Doctor paces around trying to suss out how the signal will be sent to trigger them all off and Jo moves closer to the daffodil and she says "It seems to be looking for something" and the Doctor warns Jo "Jo, be careful" but Jo get's closer and the Doctor warns her louder "Jo!!". However, the daffodil suddenly shoots out a liquid that covers Jo's nose and mouth and quickly hardens into a plastic film, so the Doctor quickly sprays an aeorsol on in and manages to pull it off Jo, who gasps for breath. The Doctor grabs her and asks "You all right?" and Jo gasps for air and says "Just a bit short of breath! What happened?" and the Doctor shows her the film and says how it covered her nose and mouth and she would have been dead in under 10 minutes. The Doctor then asks Jo to check with the minister, Brownrose to see if any daffodils were at the scenes of the victims and he asks "You all right?" and Jo says "Fine, Doctor and thank you".

As for the supporting cast members, Nicholas Courtney is great again as the Brigadier and he enjoys some good bantering moments with the Doctor.

And to mention a few of his scene there is the one when the Brigadier tries to persuade the Doctor to give Jo a chance as his new assistant.  And the Brigadier tells the Doctor "What you need, Doctor, as Miss Shaw herself so often remarked, is someone to pass you your test tubes and to tell you how brilliant you are!  Miss Grant will fulfill that function admirably".

Then there is the scene where the Brigadier has a staff meeting and goes over what their plan of action will be to find the Master and the Doctor clearly isn't interested.  And the Brigadier sums by saying "I therefore propose that we redouble our security here and concentrate on finding the Master's headquarters" and the Doctor mockingly says "Well on that brilliant conclusion why don't you get on with it!".  And the Brig then says "Any further comments, Doctor?!" and the Doctor says as he walks off "I'll let you know as soon as I think of any!".

Another good scene from Nick is where the Brigadier insists that he and the Doctor visit Farrel's factory together but the Doctor complains about the lack of lab equipment to the Brigadier that would help him analyse the plastic doll further.

So, the Doctor complains to the Brigadier and says "You should keep this place better supplied! I cannot work without proper equipment!" and the Brigadier says "I'm very sorrry, Doctor". So, the Doctor relents a little and says "Just as well. It will give me more time to look at Mr Farrel's plastic factory". So, as the Doctor makes to go, the Brigadier stops him and says "Now just a moment, Doctor. I'm aware for your preference for acting as a one-man band, but this does happen to be a UNIT operation!". However the Doctor begins to argue with the Brigadier and says "Lethbridge Stewart, I can assure you..." and Yates interrupts and says "He's right you know, Doctor. I better come with you". But then the Brig interrupts Yates and says "No! I shall accompany the Doctor. I'm not entirely deskbound yet, you know!" and as Yates tries to protest, the Brig shouts at him "That will do, Captain Yates! May I remind you that you are duty officer today!".

And lastly there is the scene where the Brigadier saves the Doctor from being strangled by the telephone cable that wraps around him as it is activated by the Master over the phone.  And as the Brigadier pulls out the telephone line, it makes the cable go limp and the Brig asks the Doctor "You all right, Doctor?" and the Doctor wearily says "More or less" and the Brigadier says "I'm afraid I cut your connection!" and the Doctor says "Oh, very amusing!".The Brigadier then asks the Doctor "What happened?" and the Doctor says "Remember what I told you, Brigadier. The Nestenes can put life into anything plastic" and he brings up the phone's flex to prove his point and says "Anything at all!" and the Brigadier tells the Doctor "I see. And there's a lot of plastic around".

Richard Franklin also does very well in his debut appearance as Captain Mike Yates, who would become a regular of the UNIT days and he too has some good moments.

And I will mention a couple such as the one where Mike tries to comfort Jo when she is frustrated she cannot remember anything after her being hypnotised by the Master and trying to blow them up as a result with a bomb.

So, Jo sighs and says "Oh, everything is just wonderful!" and Yates says to her "Easy, love" and Jo continues on ranting "I've really got off a terrific start. I find the man everyone is looking for, I forget where he is and I end up trying to blow you all sky high!". Yates then says "No one's blaming you" and Jo says "Oh, no! You all just keep telling me to keep out of the way! I'm not a child you know!" and Yates firmly says "But you're acting like one!". Jo, then stops and says apologetically "I'm sorry. But only if I could show them" and Yates reassuringly says to her "Don't try. Just do as the Brigadier says" and Jo suddenly gives him a coy grin and says "Yes, of course. You're quite right".

And lastly there is the scene where Yates attempts to make some cocoa with the Doctor's bunsen burner. So, Yates says to Jo "Until you've had a mug of army cocoa, you just haven't lived" and Jo says to Yates "You know, I don't think the Doctor would approve of that" and Yates asks "What?" and Jo tells him  "Making free with his bunsen burner!". So, Yates tells Jo "Then he shouldn't go off gallavanting leave me stuck here" and Jo says "I'm stuck here too" and Yates patronisingly says "Oh, well that's different, isn't it? I'll just go and fetch the gubbins!".

Michael Wisher also provides a very good performance as the weak willed factory owner, Rex Farrel who falls under the Master's control and he conveys Farrel's emotional conflict very well.

And Wisher has a few scenes worth mention such as the one where Farrel's business partner, McDermott (Harry Towb) visits the factory to find out what is going on.

So, in the scene Farrel tells McDermott of the Master "He's taking over our entire production at the moment" and McDermott asks Farrel to look through a file of orders to say if the Master is there. So, Farrel does so but cannot find a card and he looks puzzled and says "I don't understand. There should be a card for him!" and he touches his head in frustration. McDermott then suggests that Farrel take a few days off as he looks stressed and he will call Farrel's dad to come back in to run the business. However, Farrel takes offence of this and angrily tells McDermott "May I remind,  Mr McDermott that my father is retired! I'm running this place now".

McDermott however tries to appease Farrel by reminding him that he remembered Farrel as a child, which makes Farrel become snappy and he shouts "Alright! There's no need to go over THAT again!". McDermott then says to Farrel "Sorry, Rex. But I made a promise to your father I would" but Farrel shouts "There's no need to bring father into it!". Farrel then calms down and says to McDermott "Look, I'll go fetch him. He's only down in the lab" and McDermott asks "Who?" and Farrel smiles and says "Colonel Masters, of course! He'll explain everything" and then leaves. 

Then there is the scene where after McDermott meets a sticky end after his discussion with the Master by sitting in a plastic inflatible chair that suffocates him to death. So, after McDermott is bumped off, Farrel calmly flicks a switch on his intercom and asks his secretary outside "Sylvia, will you check Mr McDermott entitlement to termination of employment please?". The Master then says "Its a very clumsy product this. You can see now why this while product has to be changed" and Farrel calmly says "Oh, I don't know. It seems very effective to me".

John Baskcomb is also very good in his role as the sleazy circus ringmaster, Rossini who falls under the control of the Master, who he uses as a heavy.

And I will mention just one of his scenes and its the one where the Doctor is captured by Rossini's strongarm man, Tony (Roy Stewart). So, in the scene, the Doctor is tied to a chair in Rossini's caravan and Rossini asks the Doctor "What's your name?" and the Doctor says "Smith" and Rossini sharply says "Smith?! You've got no imagination! Try again, Mr Smith!". Rossini then asks the Doctor "Why were you so interested in my friend's horsebox?" and the Doctor asks "What's your friends name?" and Rossini tells him "His name is none of your business!" and the Doctor sarcily says "Strange name!".

Rossini then has Tony twist the Doctor's arm to force him to talk and Rossini tells the Doctor "He'll snap your arm like a twig! Tony don't talk much but he's strong!" so the Doctor gives in and says "Its alright, old chap! I'm perfectly prepared to answer your questions!" and Rossini signals Tony to release the Doctor. So, the Doctor asks "And what was the question?" and Rossini asks him again "My friend's horsebox. Why were you so interested in it?" and the Doctor tells him "I was listening for certain vibrations" and Rossini says "Hmmm, I don't think my friend is going to like you" and the Doctor says "I'm sure of it!".

So, Rossini has Tony search the Doctor's pockets and he brings out a photo of the missing research scientist Phillips and Rossini looks at it closely. So, the Doctor asks "Do you recognise that man?" and Rossini tells him "Maybe" and the Doctor warns Rossini "That photo is of a missing government scientist. If you have had anything to do with concealing him then you are in very serious trouble" and Rossini steps up to the Doctor and tells him "Someone's in trouble all right, Doctor, but it isn't me!".  

Stephen Jack also does pretty well in his role as Farrel Sr, who is brought in on hearing the trouble at his factory and he confronts the Master.

So, I will mention two of his scenes, one being where the Farrel Sr confronts the Master and he demands to know what is going on. So, Farrel Sr says to his son "You'll carry on on the lines I laid down, or I'll come out of retirement and do the job myself. I'm not past it, you know!". The Master then interrupts and says "Allow me to explain, Mr Farrel" and Farrel Sr says "I'd very much be obliged if you would". So, the Master "The changes that I have suggested are for the good of the factory. Now you must trust me, there's nothing to worry about..." and he tries to hypnotise Farrel Sr. However, Farrel Sr manages to resist the Master's attempt and he says irritably "There's a great deal to worry about, sir! And frankly, the thing that worries me most is your presence here!". So, as the Master almost hits Farrel Sr, Farrel stops him and the Master instead congratulates Farrel Sr on resisting him and walks out.

So, after the Master leaves, Farrel Sr says to his son "Damned impertinence! Rex, you better go home. I'll see to things here" but Farrel says "No, please! I can manage things" and Farrel Sr then says "All right. I'll give you till tomorrow. And by then I want this Masters fellow out of here and production back to normal". 

And lastly there is the scene where Farrel returns to his home and tells his wife, Mrs Farrel about the Master and Farrel's irrational behaviour. So, Mrs Farrel in the scene says to Farrel Sr "Poor McDermott. Rex must have been in terrible shock" and Farrel Sr tells her "On the contrary. When I walked in he was just carrying on with his work as if nothing happened!". Mrs Farrel then responds in surprise "Oh, John no!" and Farrel tells her "And this Colonel Masters was just as unconcerned. Frankly, they both seemed quite inhuman!". Mrs Farrel then insistantly says "You will have Rex get rid of that man!" and Farrel Sr firmly tells her "I most certainly will! Frankly, I just didn't take the chap or his repulsive toy. Now look at that!" and he shows her the ugly plastic doll the Master gave him.

And not long after just before the doll springs to life and makes its move to kill Farrel Sr, he says to his wife "Its the boy's attitude I can't understand" and Mrs Farrel says "It certainly doesn't sound like my Rex. Oh, well I'll go and make the coffee" and she heads into the kitchen. So, Farrel then sits back with his newspaper and he says to himself of his son's attitude "Its beyond me!" just before that creepy little doll heads for him...

And last of all John Levene provides his usual solid turn as the ever trusty Sergeant Benton although his role at this point is still pretty small but he would go on to get more screen time as the season went on, particularly in this season's finale, The Daemons.

However with that said I will mention one of John's scenes and that's the one where the Doctor narrowly avoids the UNIT team all being blown up by a bomb brought to them by a hypnotised Jo.

So, the Doctor grabs the bomb just in time and chucks it out the window just before we hear a loud explosion. So, Benton tells the Doctor "Strewth! There's going to be some complaints about that, you know, Doctor" and the Doctor sharply tells Benton "My dear, Sergeant. If that box hadn't been tied, you wouldn't be here to receive any complaints!" and Benton says "Yes, sir. I mean no, sir!". 

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC     

Getting onto the producer/director, Barry Letts does a good job here with the story as he once again takes on the dual mantle of producting and directing the story (although only crew were allowed only one credit at a time back then on screen).

Letts again provides the story with a good mix of fun and drama and he also allows for some memorable scenes such as the fight scene in the quarry where the UNIT soldiers fight the two Autons dressed as policemen.  And Mike Yates get's into their car and knocks one of them off the top of the quarry cliff and it falls way down but it soon get's up again like nothing happened.

As for the score, it was by the regular series composer back then, Dudley Simpson and he provides a score which is done all on synthesizers, and the Master's theme itself is very effective, memorable and spooky sounding.  In fact the whole of the 8th season of the show was done using synthesizers, all scored by Dudley Simpson, who later complained to Barry Letts that he founded it exhausting having to perform the music that way.  So in future seasons, Simpson resorted to using other musicians and more traditional instruments as well as combination of synthesizers.

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain some spoilers!) 

As for Terror of the Autons flaws..... well it has to be said there are a few niggles to be found here.

For starters the Autons themselves are a bit disappointing here and their facial masks are a pretty crap in comparison to the classic, creepy mannequin masks they had in Spearhead from Space.  So when it comes to the scene where the Doctor pulls one of the Auton's human masks off whilst he and Jo are in the car, it is replaced by a pretty poor looking marble like mask with hollows for the eyes and you can obviously still see the actor's real face behind it!

Another flaw comes in the form of the Master's sudden change of allegiances (PLOT SPOILER HERE!!!!) when he agrees to help the Doctor prevent the Nestenes from invading Earth simply by the Doctor saying to him "do you really think that thing will distinguish between you and us?!" yet he had spent all that time ensuring they would make it to Earth!  And in this moment its almost like the Master all of a sudden had to admit to it like "Oh wait I hadn't thought of it like that!" which in a way quickly negates all the Master had been up to on Earth up to that point and its pretty much a cop-out way for the story to finish off the Nestene menace.      

Another niggle of the story is of course the overuse of CSO (Colour Separartion Overlay) which was heavily used in the 1970s to superimpose backgrounds or to create background effects with people in shot and its safe to say that in Doctor Who they overused it to the hilt!  And yeah its OK to use it for certain background shots such as the Master climbing up the research centre tower, but he even goes as far as to use it to create a CSO kitchen!

And regarding the CSO kitchen, it makes its appearance in the scene when Farrel's wife suddenly turns around as she hears something, which turns out to be ugly plastic doll springing to life which goes on to kill off Farrel.  However at this point you have to ask: why didn't they simply use a kitchen set?!  Surely it wouldn't have cost as much as that to build one even back then!  But nope instead we get treated to the single worst piece of CSO ever used on TV!

And another thing that bothered me about this story was to do with the Master's weapon, the tissue compression eliminator gun he uses to shrink the scientist, Goodge (played by Andrew Staines) as it is simply never explaind what the gun is.  So instead all we get is that one scene where the Master uses it on Goodge and then later we see the Doctor open the lunchbox to find Goodge's miniaturised dead body inside it and no follow up to explain anything about what happened.  In fact I don't think there was any mention made of the Master's weapon and its effects until the Tom Baker story, "The Deadly Assassin" where the Doctor refers to the effect as "matter condensation". 

And last of all I felt at times in this story the Doctor does occassionally verge on being a bit obnoxious as he berates the Brigadier and others around him and even has a pop at Jo at the begining. This is especially notable in the scene where the Doctor rants on at the civil servant, Brownrose and he calls him a "pen pusher" and refers to Brownrose's boss as "Tubby Rowlands" and how the "wrong sort of chap is getting into your lot, Tubby". It also kind of highlights how the Doctor may have a tendency to bullshit people by saying that how he spoke to "Tubby" the other day at his club when he most likely has never been anywhere near Rowland's club in the first place!

And further to this there is also the moment where the Doctor berates the Brigadier for his lack of lab supplies that would help him analyse the Nestene plastic doll. And its moments like this that make the Doctor seem a bit childish and ungrateful as well as bit obnoxious and we all know the Doctor has moments like this but they really are more prevalent here in this story.  

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So to sum up, Terror of the Autons ceratinly made its mark in the show's history with the introduction of the Master and the UNIT family and as such it helps make this a very enjoyable and memorable story.  And its from here that the Pertwee era would be properly defined and it paved the way for the tone of the rest of that era of the show.

The performances are also pretty good overall with Roger Delgado providing the standout role as the Master but Katy Manning and Richard Franklin also do very well in their new respective roles as Jo Grant and Captain Yates.

And yes the story has some problems as mentioned above with the CSO, not to mention this time around the "title" enemy, the Autons, are in fact the weakest thing about the story itself as they are simply not that compelling this time round.  Although to be fair the Autons smiley masks are still quite creepy and prove to be a bit more effective than the marble-esque masks that we see them in.

So overall, "Terror of the Autons" is another strong story from the Pertwee era and one of my favourite stories of that time and if you are a fan of the original show and like the Pertwee years, this one is well worth a look.

Right, so that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post.

Till then its bye for now!

Resident Evil 4 Review

Well, its time for another post, which is once again something of a revisitation of a previous one. However this was one of my very first posts on the blog and I figured it was time it was given a real overhaul and the post in question is survival horror classic video game, Resident Evil 4. And I've recently been replaying this game, so I figured it was time to take another look at this one.

So, after 15 years, how does Resident Evil 4 stack up??? Well, let's stock up on guns and ammo and take another look and find out!

And the usual warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

So the story begins with an agent Leon S.Kennedy, who was the main protagonist in Resident Evil 2, sent on a mission to rescue the daughter of the President of the United States, Ashley Graham, who has been kidnapped by a religious 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...

THOUGHTS

Resident Evil 4, while it didn't exactly re-invent the wheel in terms of gaming, it certainly reinvented the game series. And it achieved this by allowing the movement to be more free flowing than before, as we had the static shots of the characters running down corridors, rather than a proper three dimensional environment in all the previous games up to this point.

The game is also more heavily action orientated than its predecessors as Leon will face a horde of infected human enemies as well as various other horrors on the way, which makes for a pretty intense experience. Resident Evil 4 was also a pioneer in terms of a game mechanic that we have come to know as "quick time events" where the player has to mash a series of buttons in order to perform an action to dodge an attack or run away from enemies or objects such as boulders. So, there is plenty of innovation on display here with RE4 and it was certainly a game that would shape future gaming in terms of its use of QTE mechanic.

GAMEPLAY 

So to look at the gameplay in more detail, I will split it into sub-sections below.

CHARACTER MOVEMENT

As for the character movement, this is definitely one of the biggest changes to the game where Leon's character can actually 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. Also with the use of quick time events, Leon will be forced to perform quick actions in order to avoid being hit or killed. The game does use a similar third-person perspective like the games before it but the camera angle is no longer fixed as Leon can look around more with an over the shoulder view of the character.

COMBAT 

As for the combat system, it was also given a real overhaul as Leon can now 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 use the previously mentioned quick time events mechanic by rapidly pressing a sequence of buttons to avoid Leon from being attacked or killed. Leo can also use this to break free from enemies who grab him and he can perform a counter kick attack to knock back foes who try to attack Ashley. 

TRAVELLING MERCHANT

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 additional items become available as the game progresses. You can also tune up your weapons to upgrade their firepower and ammo capacity too, which comes in handy as the enemies get tougher and more varied. 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??" depending on your choice.

PLAYING AS ASHLEY 

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 she can use healing items. Ashley however can throw oil lamps at a few enemies she will encounter to finish them off as she progresses through her short playable section. 

ENEMIES 

As for enemies, RE4 has its fair share and with the new free expansive environment it allows more room for alot more 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 the creep towards you, and the low voice 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 although that can also be a pain! 

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 Leon will face a nasty death by decapitation!

There are a few bosses in the game as well who are a largely monster based but there are some human ones as well and they can be pretty challenging to deal with at times although not Dark Souls levels of difficulty of course, which is just aswell!

MUSIC 

The music in Resident Evil always plays an important part and here we get another excellent score by Misao Senbongi, which is intense, scary, creepy and generally pretty 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. So, overall its a very appropriate score for the game's tone and it also has a very eerie quality to it especially in the moments when you fight against the Los Illumunados cultists in the large castle.  

GRAPHICS 

Graphics wise the game for its time looks pretty good although as time has moved on its fair to say that it looks rather dated and lacks the detailed and more advanced visuals you get nowadays in games. And that's where the graphics do suffer a bit in terms of the environmental detail as the texture backgrounds look pretty basic and undefined. However on the PS4 Pro version I am currently playing, the character models definitely look alot crisper and more defined than before, so that's a plus.

FLAWS 

As for flaws...yep RE4 does have some of course.

And for starters one of the main issues is to do with how the game 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. To be fair however, you will get plenty of ammo from fallen enemies and there are also some breakable boxes, crates and even vases that contain plenty of ammo.

Another issue I found and its a sizeable one is to do with the game's camera angles as they can be pretty annoying and restrictive even though it is an improvement on the static fixed angles in the previous games. However it has to be said that the camera angles at certain moments are pretty weird where you are forced to look up as Leon is running and when you want to look around the angle of view tends to be always be pretty limited. 

This also brings me onto another issue, which is to do with the amount of enemies onscreen, which at times can be overwhelming and the somewhat limited camera angles can make this a pest when you are aiming at them with enemies from front and behind coming at you, its easy to get attacked either side. There are also times where Leon is forced to basically just round around in circles to get away from the enemies and try and get a good vantage point to shoot them and this is particularly annoying in sequences such as the one where Leon has to shoot some infected armoured knights where there is very little free space for him to manoeuver.

I also found some of the boss fights to be a bit annoying as well where you think you are done but there is the pesky second phase, which leaves with very little to no health items before you are finished. In fact the game contains ones of the most annoying bosses in the series, 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 basically.

And I cannot forget to mention what I think must be one of the, if not the MOST annoying boss fights in the game and that's the one with the two giant trolls in the furnace! Man that fight is one giant pain in the ass! The fight itself of course sees you having to defeat two big trolls as they stomp around the furnace and one of them you can open a trap door to drop him into the lava but the OTHER one you need to kill yourself.

Now, I spent a good few attempts trying to kill this guy and I burned through all of my ammo to do so and still could not kill him! In the end though I used the rocket launcher and managed to finish him off alot quicker once you have exposed his virus tentacles, you can just shove a rocket up its ass and that's him done! However, I must have spent nearly an hour before this trying to beat this guy and it was utterly infuriating but it does show once again the rocket launcher is the most broken OP weapon in the Resident Evil series! 

And this brings me onto another issue to do with the quick time events and that is to do with how the onscreen prompts for the QTE's keep coming up with different button combos, which can be very annoying and distracting to deal with. And I found it to be especially annoying during the troll fight where it told me once I could attack the tentacles of the troll, I had to use the X button instead of the square one and I found it too easy to press the wrong one, which caused the troll to push off Leon and I had to start all over again trying to shoot him! So, the inconsistent nature of the QTE button combos are very annoying in this game.

And lastly I think its safe to say that the game itself is just a bit too long winded as there must be easily over 20 hours of gameplay here. Now that actually does sound good on paper but there are certain sections of the game that feel pretty drawn out, especially early on where Leon has to navigate his way through the Ganados villages. Not only that but there are many sections where you get the same enemies popping up time and time again where it eventually starts to get a little tedious. In fact with the RE4 remake coming in a couple of years time, it will be interesting to see how they can try and condense the game's run time because it is pretty hefty as it is. 

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Resident Evil 4 remains an excellent video game and one of the best in the Ressie Evil series for sure with its impressive overhaul in terms of its graphics, action and movement, it feels like a more fluid, free flowing experience to its predecessors. It does of course have some issues however regarding the somewhat limited camera angles, awkward QTE and aiming system and overwhelming amount of enemies aswell as its overlong running time.

However, despite all these issues, this is still a game that holds up very well after 15 years and its still worth checking out regardless of which version you play but one piece of advice I will give you, is DO NOT play this game on the PC using a keyboard and mouse as its god awful! This is for sure a game you can only really play using a controller so mouse and WASD keyboard users beware!

Right, that's it for now and I will be back sometime later this month with another post.

Till, then take care and I'll see you later!