Considering how popular Resident Evil 4 is on the cube board I’m surprised there isn’t a review for RE4 yet. Feel free to add your thoughts/ review of the game here.
Story: This game picks up after Resident Evil 3, after the destruction of Raccoon City. You are playing as Leon S. Kennedy the rookie cop from Resident Evil 2. You are given the task of finding and rescuing the United Sates Presidents Daughter named Ashley. The game takes place in a European country and since everyone in this game speaks Spanish, It’s pretty safe to say that it’s in Spain. They story itself isn’t hard to follow and progresses smartly, and fans from previous RE’s will see some familiar faces. Over all, the story is well told in some of the most well choreographed action sequences that my eyes have ever seen. All the voice acting is superb, all the villains are well developed, and everything story related in my opinion was spot on.
Game Play: Put everything you knew about Resident Evil from the past in box and throw it out a window, Resident Evil has had a hell of a face lift. The clunky controls of the past are gone, storing items in boxes in particular places is now gone, automatic restart points have been added, Pre-Rendered graphics have taken out and replaced with a fully polygonal engine, Voice acting has been GREATLY improved and last but not even close to least you have complete control of aim. Resident Evil is much more action oriented now, it still has survivor horror elements but over all you’ll be killing a lot hell of a lot more than ever before.
Now that you have complete control of aim, meaning you can aim at any point of a person’s body, it makes the action interesting and fun. There is a hit detection system, so shooting a person in the knee will naturally take him down ECT.. This works well since you can use different tactics on different enemies, for example if your getting rushed with a person holding an axe, shoot the axe out his hand then shot him in the knee to take him/her down. The Control is flawless, and after a few hours it becomes 2nd nature. Since this is Resident Evil, there are puzzles but none were overly hard for me some made you think but for the most part they were pretty easy.
The puzzles don’t repeat and are done in good taste. The boss fights aren’t overly complex, nor does it take a rocket scientist to figure out the attack patterns, or what to do to take the bosses out. They aren’t cake walks but aren’t brutal either, actually most of the bosses are fun to fight believe it or not. The AI in RE4 is very good, the human enemies aren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed, but considering the circumstances they act accordingly. More than once I was surprised by enemies getting the jump on me. Also I have to mention that enemies will find any way to get at you, that means climbing ladders, throwing weapons, breaking down doors, flanking and working as a team. It’s almost scary at times how smart the enemy is.
The difficulty of the game isn’t super hard, but you will die more than once. The game throws waves of enemies at you, you have to think quickly to over come the enemies; sitting there mindlessly blowing away enemies with out taking an advantage or thinking ahead will get you killed. You learn this lesson within the first 20 minute of the game. You have to constantly keep looking at your surroundings and using them against the enemies if you don’t they will use it against you. You also can’t put your guard down during the FMV’s. During the FMV’s you will prompted to press buttons either L+R or A&B. They will flash on the screen, and if you don’t press those buttons quick enough, it’s game over. This brings the intensity level up a notch. Over all, the game isn’t super hard, but this game isn’t a cake walk buy any means.
There is buying/upgrade system in Resident Evil now. Enemies drop money after you kill them; the money is used to buy new weapons, weapons upgrades (capacity/power/handling ect.), items and accessories from a merchant that appears at different areas in the game. Along with the money you also find treasure scattered around the maps, the treasure can be sold for money. The system works well, and adds variety to the game.
The Inventory system has been greatly improved. You start off with a pretty large attaché case which will hold a good amount of items but as you find more money/treasure you will be able to buy the upgrade the case to hold more things. Theses upgrades aren’t available all at once, they happen gradually so you will need to watch what you pick up, the same goes with weapons. Picking your weapons and items is all done in the status screen and is all well executed. My only gripe is that you always have to go into the status screen to change your weapons, A quick select feature would have improved the game a bit, but it takes only seconds to change weapons so it’s not a huge thing.
The game play is super addictive, and fun to play. This game never became a chore to play; it always kept things fresh almost nothing in the game play department was half assed. Also, since this is a horror game there is supposed to be some sort of scare factor involved, this game isn’t as Closter phobic as previous RE’s, and it’s much more action oriented so the spook factor isn’t high, but there are points in the game where the atmosphere of the game becomes very moody dark and suspenseful.
Graphics: This game is by far the best looking game I’ve seen on the cube, and I dare say on any system (halo fan boy’s need not to reply). The attention to detail is anal. The frame rate almost never falls even when you get dozens of enemies on your screen. The character models are very well modeled, not to mention the bosses look amazing. The lightings affects or nothing less than beautiful, and the environments are just amazing. The detail in the facial expression and the movements is just stunning. Words can’t express how well this game looks, you have to see it for yourself (screen shots don’t do the game justice). The graphics aren’t perfect, there are places where the games uses low resolution textures also the game uses wide screen mode during the whole game. Also, the character models do repeat a lot, so at times you feel like your fighting clones, but over all it’s a terrific looking game. The FMV’s are done in real time and are amazing to watch.
Sound: The sound is just as good as the game looks. Voice acting is very well done. All the guns sound realistic, crisp and clear. The music is very different from previous Resident Evil’s, and matches the games tone. Since the game is taking place in a Spanish speaking country all the enemies speak Spanish, I’m Spanish my self and everything sounds great. I have no complaints when it comes to the sound.
This is my favorite Resident Evil ever, and I have to say this is the best game I've played in this generation of consoles. This is how games are supposed to be made. A lot of hard work went into this game, and my hat goes off to capcom and to the skill of the developers. I know some RE fans will feel a little afraid to play it since this is totally different from previous RE's, but it's still Resident Evil at its core, fans will have a lot of nostalgic moments playing this game, and new fans have nothing to bitch about anymore.
Out of 10 points, I'll give Resident Evil a 9.9 just shy of perfect.
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/535840.asp
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/242753.asp
http://www.capcom.com/re4/
, review very nice indeed.
