Resident Evil 4 reviewed

I remember the first time I gave a Resident Evil game a shot.  It was Resident Evil 2 and me & my brother rented it.  I think my brother made it until the crowes and I didn't make it off the first screen.  My flaw was that I wanted to kill everything and that the controls were horrible. And as I grew up I realized the point wasn't to kill everything but to survive and make careful use of resources.  I decided that was stupid and never thought about Resident Evil again.  But then, something caught my eye about Resident Evil 4 for some reason.  It could be the fact that it promised to be totally different that it would be awesome and the fact that it was much confirmed that it was totally different.  Then I found out you CAN kill everything and this game was bought so let's get on with the review.

You are Leon Scott Kennedy, one of the few survivors of the events of Resident Evil 2.  After the events, somehow he gets to join The Secret Service.  His job is to protect The President's daughter, Ashley, or it would if she wasn't kidnapped by some crazy religious cult called Los Illuminados which are also called Ganados.  So now Leon has to go some place in Europe that isn't Spain even though it's obviously is and get her back.  Along the way, you find out the evil plan and the evil parasites called Las Plagas which control Los Illuminados.  So there's only way to solve this problem....killing everything that moves and then killing it again!

Now for all the people who said things were going to change we not lying one bit.  No more do we have to suffer through horrible pre-determined angles which necessitated the horrible idea of the tank-controls.  Now, it's more of a shooter where the camera is always behind you as you walk with a moving and fluid camera that is never predetermined!  You won't believe how a fundamental change actual made me like this even despite my horrible memories of 2.  Also, you can kill everything now!  I won't say there's no management of inventory for there is and if you waste too much ammo then you're stuck with crappy weapons but as long as you're careful then it's not a big problem.  But this was a great kick to the ass to the franchise in terms of controls.


Of course, the bread and butter of Resident Evil is the atmosphere.  Without a nice scary atmosphere waiting to lull the player into a false sense of security before it scares the living crap out of you.  The voices of the evil Ganados are bone-chilling, especially if they come up from behind you and you're low on health.  There's even the background details that are chilling like the full extent of Los Illuminados plan and some background violence like a woman with a pitchfork in her face.  But the thing that really scares me the most...well two things, the first is the sounds of the Ganados in the castle.  The other guys have high-pitch threats that are fear-inspiring they are nothing compared to the Castle Ganados.  They have low-pitch voices and they chant repeatedly in a way that will crawl into your very soul.  The other thing that scares me in this game are the Las Plagas who hide in some of the Ganados.  That means when you kill them the head explodes and these things pop out waiting to kill you!  You never know which one will have them and they are deadly plus hard to kill, unless you have flash grenades.


And what review of Resident Evil 4 would be complete without mentioning the script.  I have to mention that is so fulled with Fridge Logic it isn't funny but the plot is pretty much an excuse for Leon to kill everything and everyone.  But then there's the dialogue and do you want to know what it reminds me of?  Wrestling promos from the WWF/E.  There's some scenes where you talk through a video-communicator and it's done with such gusto while they scream such lines as "DIE YOU WORM!", "Saddler, you're small-time!" and "I got more important things to do than solving riddles!" that I get a kick out of them.

This is a great gateway installment for the Resident Evil series.  The action is both ridiculous and awesome.  The atmosphere is intense and at times, unsettling.  The enemies are scary.  The Las Plagas is horrifying.  The dialogue works in a over-the-top way.  It may be flawed when you think about it but when you're playing, it is utter perfection.

10/10