thepolkapunk (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} thepolkapunk) wrote,@ 2005-01-23 23:00:00 |
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Video Game Review: Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4(American Release)
For Nintendo Gamecube
Directed by Shinji Mikami
Produced by Hiroyuki Kobayashi
Rated M for Mature (17+)
Advertisements for Resident Evil 4 command you to “Forget what you think you know,” and I could not agree more. Casting away many of the problems that have plagued Resident Evil throughout the years, RE4 reinvents the series in ways that no one could ever imagine. The quality of this game catapults it out of the stagnant Survival Horror genre into the “must have” category. The exhilarating gameplay, mind-boggling graphics, cataclysmic difficulty, atmospheric sound, and a horde of unlockables make it a must have game for Gamecube.
The first evidence of RE4 shirking off its repetitive roots is prominently shoved in the players’ faces immediately upon starting the game when it is revealed that The Umbrella Corporation, the sinister company behind all the evil in previous Resident Evil games, is no more (let this be a lesson to all who try to take over the world using a publicly traded company!). Longtime fans mourning the demise of Umbrella need not fear, for the plot and dialogue for this outing are just as cheesy, if not more, than previous RE episodes. Leon Kennedy, of Resident Evil 2 fame, has apparently begun to work for the government and is currently searching for the president’s daughter who has been kidnapped. The game begins with him entering a small town in Europe in search of the girl, and the plot continues from there with all the dignity and poise of a classic B movie. I’m sure that many will enjoy the dialogue and story, but it was a bit too weak for me to be completely happy. The plot is the weak link of this game and ultimately holds it from attaining perfection, but thankfully the game itself is such a blast that after a few minutes of play, you won’t care.
To say that the gameplay for RE4 has been improved from past games doesn’t do justice to the quality of action in this game. Combat is fast, furious, and an utter pleasure and the main aspect of play; exploration merely serves as an opportunity to catch your breath in between all the action. Focusing on fighting in this game makes it shine, as combat is complex and polished. No longer do the monsters slowly trundle towards you and attack by falling on you. Enemies will race towards you and use knives, maces, and guns to take you down. If an axe is tossed at you can shoot it out of the air. Another great feature added to combat is the ability to interact with the environment. Resident Evil games have never allowed the ability to jump which has caused great limitations to movement that can be taken in combat. This limitation is eliminated in RE4 with the introduction of the A button’s context sensitive actions. When you’re surrounded by enemies with nowhere to run, there is frequently an escape route with the A button. Leap over fences, jump through windows, drop off of high ledges, do anything you can imagine to get away from the monsters.
Frankly, you’ll need all the help escaping you can get. Resident Evil 4 is the most difficult game I’ve played since Ninja Gaiden for XBOX. You will die. You will die often. You will die painfully. You will die, and then die again. According to my end game statistics I died 66 times playing through the game, but in reality it was probably twice that as there were quite a few times where I would die and then stop playing instead of saving. Although dying was frustrating, there were very few times when it could be blamed on cheapness. The majority of my deaths were caused by sloppy gameplay, or the inability to adjust quickly to constant changing battle situations. It is truly impressive when a game is so difficult without making the player throw down the controller in frustration. An easy mode would have made me a bit happier, but the quick continue system allows for a quick recovery after dying. Ironically, there is a hard mode you unlock after beating the game. Hard mode isn’t the only hidden feature. There are quite a few thinks to unlock in this game, most of which I’ll never see because of the sheer mind-numbing difficulty. Completing the game to unlock extra goodies will take longer than one would think. This is by far the longest Resident Evil game ever created. There were so many times when I was certain that I was reaching the end of the game only to find that there was a new sprawling area to explore. I had a clear time of 16 hours and 31 minutes, but the amount of time I spent playing was probably closer to 20-25 hours (again, due to not saving after frequent deaths).
Combat is not the only place where the changes in this game shine. The camera is a revolutionary type of 3rd person, with a wide angle of vision around Leon when exploring, but pulling in tight during combat for precision aiming. The control is tight, allowing for easy maneuvering and fast paced monster fighting. There are, however, a few quirks to the controls. The inability to attack while moving and a lack of strafing can cause quite a bit of frustration at times. Equally frustrating is the inventory system’s weapon handling. Although vastly improved over previous Resident Evil games, switching weapons is a tedious process that slows down the pace of combat. The diverse number of weapons and their uses further complicates the problems, requiring you to frequently switch weapons in the middle of the battle, ultimately bogging down the action with repeated menu navigation. Though annoying, these problems are not great enough to stop the gameplay from being absolutely stellar.
When Satoru Iwata spoke of current games reaching the graphical limitations of human perception*, he must have been thinking about Resident Evil 4. This game is simply the best looking game I have ever played. While it may not have the polygon count of Doom III or the normal mapping (syn. bump mapping), RE4 simply looks the best! Jaw-dropping vistas, swarms of enemies on screen, astonishingly realistic fire, and an impossible to believe attention to detail, this game pushes the Gamecube to the limit without any noticeable slowdown. Although being ported to PS2 later in the year, I cannot imagine how the visuals will come anywhere near the quality found on the Gamecube.
The sound effects are definitely on par with the graphics. From bullet ricochets to huge giant explosions it is obvious that the sound designers paid careful attention to detail; everything sounds just as you’d expect in a big budget movie. Even your enemies provide impressive sound as they bark commands to each other while chasing you. The voice acting is well suited to the script. The actors seem to pour out their lines with just the right amount of over the top emotion one will only find in a quality B movie. The music fits in perfectly with the game. It never takes center stage, instead remaining in the background enhancing the overall mood. Often you will find that there is no musical accompaniment, the developers instead choosing to go with ambient noise. It is obvious that the music is there to add to the experience which works perfectly.
I am giving Resident Evil 4 a buy rating. The game is top notch in every way possible, and the insane attention to detail in every gameplay aspect leaves players with an insanely satisfying experience. With all the extras to unlock and a variety of diversions to occupy your time (I spent several hours fooling around in the shooting range), there’s no way you can experience all this game has to offer with a rental. People with an aversion to gore should probably steer clear as there’s buckets of blood to go around. Everyone else should make sure to pick this one up. Whether or not you’ve enjoyed past Resident Evil games, this game will be sure to please anyone who likes action.
Resident Evil 4 gets 42 thumbs up, my highest rating ever!
*I cannot find a link to his exact words. I’d appreciate if someone could get me a url to insert
Resident Evil 4(American Release)
For Nintendo Gamecube
Directed by Shinji Mikami
Produced by Hiroyuki Kobayashi
Rated M for Mature (17+)
Advertisements for Resident Evil 4 command you to “Forget what you think you know,” and I could not agree more. Casting away many of the problems that have plagued Resident Evil throughout the years, RE4 reinvents the series in ways that no one could ever imagine. The quality of this game catapults it out of the stagnant Survival Horror genre into the “must have” category. The exhilarating gameplay, mind-boggling graphics, cataclysmic difficulty, atmospheric sound, and a horde of unlockables make it a must have game for Gamecube.
The first evidence of RE4 shirking off its repetitive roots is prominently shoved in the players’ faces immediately upon starting the game when it is revealed that The Umbrella Corporation, the sinister company behind all the evil in previous Resident Evil games, is no more (let this be a lesson to all who try to take over the world using a publicly traded company!). Longtime fans mourning the demise of Umbrella need not fear, for the plot and dialogue for this outing are just as cheesy, if not more, than previous RE episodes. Leon Kennedy, of Resident Evil 2 fame, has apparently begun to work for the government and is currently searching for the president’s daughter who has been kidnapped. The game begins with him entering a small town in Europe in search of the girl, and the plot continues from there with all the dignity and poise of a classic B movie. I’m sure that many will enjoy the dialogue and story, but it was a bit too weak for me to be completely happy. The plot is the weak link of this game and ultimately holds it from attaining perfection, but thankfully the game itself is such a blast that after a few minutes of play, you won’t care.
To say that the gameplay for RE4 has been improved from past games doesn’t do justice to the quality of action in this game. Combat is fast, furious, and an utter pleasure and the main aspect of play; exploration merely serves as an opportunity to catch your breath in between all the action. Focusing on fighting in this game makes it shine, as combat is complex and polished. No longer do the monsters slowly trundle towards you and attack by falling on you. Enemies will race towards you and use knives, maces, and guns to take you down. If an axe is tossed at you can shoot it out of the air. Another great feature added to combat is the ability to interact with the environment. Resident Evil games have never allowed the ability to jump which has caused great limitations to movement that can be taken in combat. This limitation is eliminated in RE4 with the introduction of the A button’s context sensitive actions. When you’re surrounded by enemies with nowhere to run, there is frequently an escape route with the A button. Leap over fences, jump through windows, drop off of high ledges, do anything you can imagine to get away from the monsters.
Frankly, you’ll need all the help escaping you can get. Resident Evil 4 is the most difficult game I’ve played since Ninja Gaiden for XBOX. You will die. You will die often. You will die painfully. You will die, and then die again. According to my end game statistics I died 66 times playing through the game, but in reality it was probably twice that as there were quite a few times where I would die and then stop playing instead of saving. Although dying was frustrating, there were very few times when it could be blamed on cheapness. The majority of my deaths were caused by sloppy gameplay, or the inability to adjust quickly to constant changing battle situations. It is truly impressive when a game is so difficult without making the player throw down the controller in frustration. An easy mode would have made me a bit happier, but the quick continue system allows for a quick recovery after dying. Ironically, there is a hard mode you unlock after beating the game. Hard mode isn’t the only hidden feature. There are quite a few thinks to unlock in this game, most of which I’ll never see because of the sheer mind-numbing difficulty. Completing the game to unlock extra goodies will take longer than one would think. This is by far the longest Resident Evil game ever created. There were so many times when I was certain that I was reaching the end of the game only to find that there was a new sprawling area to explore. I had a clear time of 16 hours and 31 minutes, but the amount of time I spent playing was probably closer to 20-25 hours (again, due to not saving after frequent deaths).
Combat is not the only place where the changes in this game shine. The camera is a revolutionary type of 3rd person, with a wide angle of vision around Leon when exploring, but pulling in tight during combat for precision aiming. The control is tight, allowing for easy maneuvering and fast paced monster fighting. There are, however, a few quirks to the controls. The inability to attack while moving and a lack of strafing can cause quite a bit of frustration at times. Equally frustrating is the inventory system’s weapon handling. Although vastly improved over previous Resident Evil games, switching weapons is a tedious process that slows down the pace of combat. The diverse number of weapons and their uses further complicates the problems, requiring you to frequently switch weapons in the middle of the battle, ultimately bogging down the action with repeated menu navigation. Though annoying, these problems are not great enough to stop the gameplay from being absolutely stellar.
When Satoru Iwata spoke of current games reaching the graphical limitations of human perception*, he must have been thinking about Resident Evil 4. This game is simply the best looking game I have ever played. While it may not have the polygon count of Doom III or the normal mapping (syn. bump mapping), RE4 simply looks the best! Jaw-dropping vistas, swarms of enemies on screen, astonishingly realistic fire, and an impossible to believe attention to detail, this game pushes the Gamecube to the limit without any noticeable slowdown. Although being ported to PS2 later in the year, I cannot imagine how the visuals will come anywhere near the quality found on the Gamecube.
The sound effects are definitely on par with the graphics. From bullet ricochets to huge giant explosions it is obvious that the sound designers paid careful attention to detail; everything sounds just as you’d expect in a big budget movie. Even your enemies provide impressive sound as they bark commands to each other while chasing you. The voice acting is well suited to the script. The actors seem to pour out their lines with just the right amount of over the top emotion one will only find in a quality B movie. The music fits in perfectly with the game. It never takes center stage, instead remaining in the background enhancing the overall mood. Often you will find that there is no musical accompaniment, the developers instead choosing to go with ambient noise. It is obvious that the music is there to add to the experience which works perfectly.
I am giving Resident Evil 4 a buy rating. The game is top notch in every way possible, and the insane attention to detail in every gameplay aspect leaves players with an insanely satisfying experience. With all the extras to unlock and a variety of diversions to occupy your time (I spent several hours fooling around in the shooting range), there’s no way you can experience all this game has to offer with a rental. People with an aversion to gore should probably steer clear as there’s buckets of blood to go around. Everyone else should make sure to pick this one up. Whether or not you’ve enjoyed past Resident Evil games, this game will be sure to please anyone who likes action.
Resident Evil 4 gets 42 thumbs up, my highest rating ever!
*I cannot find a link to his exact words. I’d appreciate if someone could get me a url to insert
