The highly acclaimed Resident Evil 4 (and Biohazard 4 to the Japanese) is quite an impressive title. The graphics are outright amazing, and the gameplay is fun and engaging. But for the game that is said to be the greatest survival horror to date, Resident Evil 4 fails miserably.

At a first glance, the re-innovated control scheme of RE4 may seem amazing. It puts you right behind Leon, allowing you to see what he does (and a little bit more). From this position you can aim and shoot anything that nears you. And as you play the game, many, many enemies will gang up on you, from in front and behind. And at first, this is quite tense. But as the game progresses, the enemies become more and more predictable. Enemies that were once great menaces, are commonplace and lose any sense of fear that they had created. As they pop in front of you as you frantically aim, shooting each one from your near unlimited supply of ammo ... it makes you realize.

What happened to the survival in survival horror?

Survival horror isn't meant to have you destroy each enemy, or even give you the ability to. Rather, you are not prepared for the horrifying situation that befalls you, as you save every last bit of ammo you have for the most horrible creatures yet to assail you. You are forced to avoid what you cannot afford to face, and a sense of building tension, and fear is created that continues through the entire span of the game.

In RE4, however, ammo is practically given to you and you are encouraged and even forced to fight every horrible enemy to progress. Eventually, the placement of the enemies becomes so systematic and predictable, removing any fear that had previoulsy been created with the said enemies. Where in previous games, the most horrible creatures were a shock and horrifying, in RE4 boss enemies are reused, sometimes placed twice in one room. You simply aren't encouraged to escape the enemies, and you can handle them all-and are given the resources as well. There's really no threat, so why be afraid?

Quickly it becomes obvious that the behind-the-character control scheme is meant to have the game be fully action oriented; there is no room for getting by with any means necessary here.

RE4 is simply one map of enemies thrown at you after another. The only actual survival horror moments are playing as Ashley, the location of the regenerators, and fighting "it" (the most frightening creature of the game).

It's fairly sad that the series that coined the term "Survival Horror" is abandoning it, and everything that it has accomplished.

Your thoughts?

 

 

ceruxx

I'm playing a computergame, on my computer.