Resident Evil 4

We are not the biggest fans of the Resident Evil series, don't get us wrong it is a great franchise, but the whole experience was getting a little stale on us. Resident Evil 4 then, represents the greatest change to the franchise since its inception. This is no longer a fixed-camera pre-rendered job, RE4 is a full on 3D adventure packed to the rafters with great features, stunning gameplay and edge-of-the-seat action.

It is six years after the events of Resident Evil 2 and Umbrella are ruined. When the T-Virus was released into Raccoon City, the American government destroyed the location and severed all ties with Umbrella. Before you could say 'Argh Zombie' Umbrella faded away into obscurity. To tie in nicely with all of this Leon S. Kennedy now works for the US government as a hugely trained agent (more than convenient). We join the game as he is dispatched on a classified mission to return the President's kidnapped daughter from the depths of Europe.

The story is told through a number of cut-scenes, and Capcom have gone to huge lengths to make them all fit together into a cohesive story. The cut-scenes blend into the main game seamlessly as the compelling story of RE4 unwinds before your very eyes. The dialogue is all nice and fast, and whilst the lines might sometimes make you raise an eyebrow disapprovingly for the most part they are excellent. The game starts off at the same point as the E3 2004 demo, standing in very remote and rural location, in the middle of a woodland looking straight towards a rather suspicious and run-down looking house. So, in true RE tradition, what is the best plan of action? Go and visit the suspicious looking house, of course!

 

Before you have even settled into your seat you are being attacked by the occupant of said house with an axe, the learning curve is just a little bit more than steep. Making a running jump out the window you will soon discover that your current place of occupancy is not just home to one madman...but a whole population of them...

Where this game really differs from it's predecessors is in that none of the enemies are zombies. This means they are no longer slow, shuffling, mumbling idiots. They don't just stumble towards you in enclosed spaces. They are super-clever, super-quick, team working, bloodthirsty maniacs. Due to this extra bit of pace and intelligence the game RE4 never really slows down...ever. Your life is permanently under threat and you can't really stop to think for a minute. We made the mistake of taking shelter in a house in the early parts of the games to have a minute to plan what to do next. The villagers started to work out how to get in and before we could even get out they had got in, the result...You're Dead...

One worry we did have with the introduction of the full-on 3D environments was the lack of the scare factor. Thankfully, any worries of that are removed thanks to some ingenious little additions. People hide in the shadows out of your view, and as you walk past they spring out at you, as we have already mentioned they will kick open doors and chase after you...and just in case super-intelligent villagers aren't enough for you, RE4 features the biggest selection of beasts and monsters we have ever seen in a survival horror game. The game doesn't even wait for the bosses to come around before it presents you with a truly terrifying proposition. At one point you find yourself trapped in a hedge maze and slowly realise you're not alone; nay, there are rabid beasts after you and with no clear way out, the fear factor really kicks in!

Things are only made worse when you have to control the weaponless Ashley (the President's daughter who you are on a mission to save). All you have is a torch...all you have against you is...everything. This calls for a totally different gameplay approach, whilst you have to be a bit cautious with what you do playing as Leon, when you are in control of Ashley you can't make one single mistake.

One gripe that we always had with previous was the control system. The brilliant suspense and tension took precedence over ease of control, indeed, the bugger of a system seemed to be made bad to make the game a more terrifying and tense experience. This time things are a little different, mostly thanks to the free-roaming nature of the game. Holding down the control stick will make you walk, hold B at the same time and you will run, so no change there. The biggest advantage in RE4 is the addition of a context-sensitive action button (A). Depending on what situation you are in the function of this button will change. It makes playing the game fairer, more diverse and simply better. With this new addition a whole new potential opens up in the game. You can jump through windows, jump off roof-tops, deal with enemies in new and innovative ways and even ride in a mine cart!

 

The camera might be 'free-roaming', but in all honesty, it really isn't. Your view of the game is from behind whomever you are controlling, so should someone, or something, make a move for your from behind, you might just be in for a surprise. The best bit of the new control/camera system comes with the addition of a free-aim option. By tapping the R-Trigger you can aim freely (rather than the default auto-aim the game provides) meaning you can target specific body parts! If RE4 was gory before, it is now one of the most violent and repulsive games ever created (Postal and Manhunt ignored). You can aim at feet, arms, legs, groins, necks, heads...every single part of ever enemy. It isn't just for good fun though; it also provides a whole new depth to the game. Headshots are obviously more effective than body shots in terms of killing enemies quickly (most of the time!), but sometimes aiming at parts of the body can come in handy. Low on bullets? Shoot them in the knees and run away, or wait to line up a few enemies at once and shoot them all through the mid-rift for multiple carnage! Close range shooting isn't the only way to do things in RE4 you can also snipe from distance (one of the best methods if killing we have seen in a game ever), use automatic weapons, throw about grenades, have some fun with the mine-gun, upgrade your pistol...and the list goes on. The sound of bullet against foe is also supremely satisfying, as is the firing effects of all the weapons in the game.

The best bit of the game in our opinion has to be the bosses. They really are terrifying! No two boss battles are the same either, making for the greatest variety we have ever seen in a game. What is more they look and sound awesome too! One of the earlier bosses you encounter is known only as El Gigante by the locals...and for good reason too! You have to be mentally smart and calm and take in your surroundings and the make-up of the enemies with great speed, otherwise it will almost certainly be curtains...very gory curtains. We don't want to spoil any of the better bosses from later in the game, so you'll just have to play the game and find out yourself. What we will say is this: be prepared for the unexpected. Every time you think that you might have seen the biggest, baddest and toughest boss in the game, Capcom shove in one five times as big for good measure.

The whole gaming experience here has been made for less frustrating than before thanks to some great new additions. You can now save whenever you find a type-writer, and there are loads of the things dotted about the gaming world. And finding things in general is made so much easier thanks to a map that you can consult quickly and easily, with hints to pathways, doors and various other areas of importance.

Rather than finding weapons, this time you have to buy them. Throughout the game you will come across various traders, with whom you can exchange treasures found throughout the game for weapons and upgrades. This adds a nice new depth to the game as you decide what would be the best thing to spend your money on. The amount you can carry has also been improved. You start off with limited holding space, but as you go through the game you will probably have enough space to carry as much as you like.

 

The game lasts about 20 hours in total, and none of the time is wasted. Every second of it is full on, exciting and compelling gameplay, no pointless faffing about wondering what to do next or what you should be doing, if you think you can do that, you'll die. And better than all of that: no backtracking! The various puzzles the game throws at you are also better than ever before. Whilst not painfully unobvious, they are just difficult enough to create a nice taxing and worthwhile challenge.

We can't give enough credit to how this game looks; it is simply jaw dropping. Not only is it stupidly gory, detailed and realistic, but more importantly insanely atmospheric. This game has the ability to feel physically scary in a way that no game has done before. It grabs you with it's enticing looks and it doesn't allow you to look away until it hurts too much to ignore. The way the rain falls on the environment around you, the way fire flickers and jumps, the satisfying chunks of claret and tissue that flies out when you unload a shotgun in someone's face, all are just some of the stunning visual masterpieces that can be found in RE4.

As if by some strange miracle, this full on 3D version of Resident Evil looks every bit as stunning as its pre-rendered sibling...perhaps even better. The areas of the game are hugely varied, detailed and exceptionally realistic. As you wonder about the village, the sun low in the sky the light starts to lessen and lessen until it totally disappears behind the horizon. Darkness falls, lightening flashes, rain falls, and torches flicker. And it's all real-time too! Shadows are cast dramatically across the eerie landscape...

The one major downside of this game (and yes, it is the only major one we have) is the way in which the game avoids slowdown; in a word...badly. The game runs at 30fps, which is stunning all things considered, but to make sure of this Capcom have 'faked' widescreen display. It makes the playing area small on quite a few 'cheaper' TVs. If you play your games on a 14" thing in your attic, you might want to move the chair a bit closer. We played it all on a 32" widescreen TV with zoom function, so we had no problem, but when testing it on a widescreen set with no zoom, and also a normal TV the problem was clear: huge boarders, small playing area...

And yes, that is our only gripe with this game. The final point we will make before the summary is on the sound. Often a hugely ignored aspect of games, you can't ignore what is on display here in RE4. The guns sound just delicious, especially the more powerful weapons, the sound of bullet on cranium is superb...and we're not even mentioning the best bits. The voice acting is also very believable, thankfully actors worth their salt have been roped in this time to give the plot some real creditability.