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!
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