Resident Evil 4
More Zombies! Oh, no, wait, Ganados.Yeah, right.
After popularizing the Survival Horror Genre with Resident Evil 1 (because noone ever gave a F*ck about Alone in the Dark, because it SUCKS), Capcom realised it was on to something and a new production line of "Squeeze every penny out of the series" items had begun.
Resident Evil 1 was followed by Resident Evil 1: Director's Cut, which offered an arranged mode with different object and enemy placement but was basically the same, since the promised Uncensoring never actually took place. To get people to buy it anyway Capcom included a demo of Resident Evil 2, which would later turn out to be COMPLETELY different from the actual game, and has now become somewhat of a collector's item, because it's LIMITED.
Eventually Resident Evil 2 was released with a totally different look, and it would turn out to be the best game in the series BY FAR. Mainly because Leon was cool.
Some years later they made Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, or Last Escape, or whatever, which was pretty much use- and pointless, and its sole reason of existence seemed to be to blow up Raccoon City, which is an event that most of the sequels keep referring to. Mainly, the game was ruined because of that Big Asshole that kept following you around everywhere, which was more annoying than scary.
THEN came RE: Code Veronica on Dreamcast, which turned the entire series into FULL 3D for the first time EVAHR, but they forgot to actually make it fun or, indeed, change anything about the old formula, so it was arguably the least exciting game in the series.
Then, many moons later, when it looked like the series was all but dead, Capcom came out of nowhere and announced that they had made a contract with Nintendo to make a bunch of exclusive RE games for the Gamecube, one of which was going to be the much talked about Resident Evil 0, which had previously been in the works for N64.
It was canned for N64, very much like Onimusha, which was ALSO supposed to appear on Nintendo's ill-fated machine.
Capcom then went on to remake the original Resident Evil, for Gamecube, and made it look insanely good, using the most advanced technology in animated prerendered backgrounds and adding a whole slew of new stuff to the game, making it effectively one of the best remakes in the history of Video Games (which is unfortunately not saying much).
The remake was then followed by the REAL Resident Evil 0, which looked a little like this:
Which, despite its great graphics, was not very interesting, because it still featured that same old tired gameplay that had been plagueing the entire genre for years now.
Konami took it upon themselves to create Silent Hill and showed that Survival Horror can be truely Goddamn Scary, as long as you employ enough people from the local mental asylum, who are either suicidal, certifiably insane or homicidal maniacs, but preferably all of the above. Yet, they still did not manage to change anything about the tried and tested kind of gameplay, and therefore never gathered more than a hardcore fanbase, with just slightly better taste than others.
Years later, when it seemed noone was going to bother anymore, Capcom suddenly came out of nothing and introduced Resident Evil 4, starring good ole' Leon Kennedy, certified Bad-Ass. Even in its early stages, which would turn out to be COMPLETELY different from the final game again, Resident Evil 4 looked absolutely stunning, as it was another venture into the realm of full 3D again, and it looked VERY nice.
I recently saw a movie of it showing a very advanced version, which, if anything, looked A LOT more like Silent Hill than Resident Evil, and it looked totally COOL, but it was abandoned anyway.
And later on, the final version would finally be revealed on Gamecube, and the results are, to say the least........phenomenally good.
Discard EVERYTHING you know about Resident Evil, in fact, FORGET everything I wrote above, because it doesn't apply anymore! The only thing connecting this to the old series is Leon S. Kennedy, now part of some secret organisation, and some other characters who shall remain nameless because they're Ada and Wesker.
That's it.
NO Zombies, NO prerendered nonsense, NO fixed camera angles, NO boredom or annoyance!
You DO still get limited inventory, but it's much more roomy than before.
Leon has an Attache case, which he uses to store items in (bigger ones can be bought), and every case has a set number of squares/grids. Every item takes up a specific amount of space, and you can pretty much decide wherever you want to put it, which is actually so much fun that it almost constitutes an entire mini-game in itself.
Many was the time I obtained some large item, that I didn't actually even really want or need anyway, that would not fit into my case, until I pushed and pulled some items around after which it fit in just snugly! It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, even though it was a huge fish!
Also new is the fact that you can earn money this time. There is a merchant whom you'll regularly run into, who'll sell you weapons and items and upgrade some of your equipment as well. To earn money, you can shoot badguys, or look for hidden treasure lying around. Gems, necklaces, ornaments, there's a veritable multitude of stuff to find, and many of them can even be combined to form an even more precious and valuable artifact.
Most importantly though, the combat is radically different.
First of all, the Zombies are gone, and are replaced by so-called Ganados. Ganados are people who are.....influenced by a certain something or someone, but they are still real live human beings, meaning they are FAST and they can THINK.
No standing around waiting for a Zombie to shuffle closer this time, but MAD FRANTIC battles for your life as one Ganado leaps at your throat, after another.
The fact that they're smart means that they are also able to wield weapons, ranging from simple knives and pitchforks, to crossbows, chainsaws and even frickin' ROCKET LAUNCHERS. It ALSO means that they'll come at you from EVERY side.
NOWHERE IS SAFE.
Try and hide on top of a roof? They'll find a ladder and climb up. Or they'll just throw Molotov Cocktails or Dynamite at you of course. Nice.
To help you deal with these freaks, you get a vastly improved shooting system.
The Camera is behind Leon at ALL times, and pressing the R button will ready his weapon and show you a small red laser, indicating what you're shooting at.
This allows for very precise shooting, which is good, because every body part is a hit-zone. Shoot the head and it will explode (don't think that'll make the game easier though. Capcom has a very nasty way of punishing you for that later on), shoot the knees or below to bring them to their feet, shoot their arms to let them drop their weapons etc. Stun them and you can kick them in da face for some free damage! Yay!
This system works fantastically and is huges amounts of fun. The only minor gripe I can think of is that the camera is slightly too close behind you for comfort sometimes, which makes detecting enemies behind you rather difficult, although they're usually not afraid to announce their presence first.
The game looks absolutely gobsmackingly amazing, putting about 98% of current video games ON ALL CONSOLES look like complete and utter crap. Believe it or not, but in many instances it looks better even than the prerendered stuff you got in the remake of RE1. And it's all in full glorious, interactive 3D!
Which brings me to another thing. Interactivity.
Your weapons not only function as killing devices, but also to interact with the environment. Switches can be shot to be operated. Shoot oil drums to cause huge explosions, shoot oil lamps hanging from the ceiling to rain FIRY HELL on your foe, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
No matter WHAT you do, everything feels exciting and an almost immeasurable amount of fun can be had. There's a big supply of weapons, which all handle differently and have their specific situations where they are most useful. Like I said before, looking down from above at a group of Ganados, unaware of your presence, and dropping a Grenade in their very midst is totally PRICELESS.
And then there's a whole bunch of freaky monsters, like trolls and what have you. Most boss battles are executed brilliantly, there's the obligatory context sensitivity stuff that's so hip nowadays, and most imporantly, the game is quite big. Especially for a Resident Evil.
You'll be moving to different areas until the very end. There's hardly any backtracking, and there's a great variety in the environments you will get to see.
New enemies, events and gameplay mechanics await you at every turn, there's mini-games, unlockables, sidequests, EVERYTHING.
There's really NOTHING I can criticise about this game, it's about as perfect as games can get, AND it's original, innovative, fun, exciting and every other superlative you can think of.
There's a whole bunch of adrenaline-pumping, nail-biting action (although putting down your controller to bite your nails is not a wise decision), some scenes that I'm pretty sure are movie references, only now interactive, ie you can act them out yourself, and then there's the fact that this is simply one of the best games ever created. Play it, or be a sad loser. Yes, playing this will make you COOL.
Women will want you, rich people will like you and shower you with expensive gifts, animals will feel safe with you, and the president will call you to tell you you rule.
It's simply the best game of this age, and it's from CAPCOM.
GET IT NOW!
A perfect 10!
posted by Ingen! @ 3:59 PM
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