I'll be honest with you, I had never played a Resident Evil game before January 11th. I had heard that it was a good game and that in it you shot zombies. That was it. All that changed when I started reading the reviews for RE4. The RE games had, yes, always gotten lots of critical acclaim, and the fact that RE4 got ten times the review scores of previous games in the series convinced me to buy it. Man, was that ever a good decision. RE4 is not only the best GC game ever and the best horror game ever, but it is one of the best games ever, period. Everything just adds up. The graphics, while absolutely breathtaking and easily making RE4 the best-looking console game ever, are only part of the overall package, with the rest being the flawless gameplay. Combining a perfect difficulty setting, some incredibly tense combat better than most FPS's most tense battles, some of the best boss battles ever, and some of the most chaotic and insane fights ever, Resident Evil 4 also delivers in the gameplay department. The end result of the graphics and gameplay combined, with some incredibly high-quality audio and some worthwhile value thrown in for good measure, is a game that everybody who can stomach a little gore should just sit down and enjoy as soon as possible. The graphics are probably the thing about RE4 that makes people who would otherwise pass over it go back and think, "Holy CRAP that looks good! I wonder if the game is good too!" There is due reason for this. The crisp textures, the realistic animation, the beautifully crafted world, the creative enemy designs, the breathtaking lighting effects... if you haven't played a game like Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Sims 2, or Far Cry, you will probably have to pick your jaw up off of the floor after you first play RE4. Screenshots alone cannot describe the graphics. The framerate, somehow, manages to stay at a perfectly smooth number even in the most tense, graphically intense battles and cut-scenes. Yeah, did I mention that all (as far as I know) of the cut-scenes, despite their incredibly pre-rendered look, are done in real-time? Yes, Capcom certainly knows not only the limits of the GameCube, but how to push them to extremes that everybody can gawk at. The audio, as I mentioned briefly, is something just as high-quality as the visuals, but is sadly not something you pay attention to. This is because it is so great, actually. It helps create a tense mood and a creepy atmosphere from when you crawl around a corner waiting for enemies to happen to when an enormous fight or a boss battle is happening. The music is stereotypical horror stuff, but it's still very well done and helps to set the mood, or sometimes even alert you to when an enemy is around and you didn't know it (more than a few times the music switching to "action" music clued me in on an enemy secretly coming up to me- if I hadn't heard the music, I would've died). The voice acting, while not exactly over-the-top, is still pretty good. The sound effects and ambient sounds all have such tiny additions, like the audible flapping of the curtains when the wind violently blows it around, that help pull you in. While you might not believe that you actually are Leon Kennedy, you will feel like you're actually there as he does things. And the interactive cut-scenes, like a boulder being rolled at you, that require you to tap on a randomized button as fast as possible to get out of harm's way, make sure that you never feel like you're watching a horror movie instead of controlling Leon yourself. As in most games, though, the gameplay is, once again, what makes the game worth purchasing. The classic horror movie feel- having to constantly be alert- is here, and then some. You are constantly on the edge of your seat, be it couch or bed or chair or floor, as you shoot enemies, dodge traps, or fight bosses. The gameplay is simple enough: You take out a weapon, you shoot whatever comes at you. Piece of cake, right? WRONG. There are many complications. Enemies will surround you from all sides, unlike in most other genres. You can shoot everything in front of you but you could still die- a sneaky villager could creep up behind you, grab your neck, and choke you to death if you aren't paying attention and can't shake him off. They could back you into a corner and make you fight your way out. Or they can block your path and make you shoot a hole in their wall of diseased flesh. Or they can basically form a mini-army: some grenadiers, ranged attackers (AKA people who throw pitchforks/swords/knives at you from a distance), and melee skirmishers, as well as enemies with the parasites that pop out of their head and can quickly overwhelm you or throw you into a mob of enemies after taking away most of your health. You are forced to think, despite this being an action game. You could go through guns-a-blazin', but you will run out of ammo. You need to shoot things, yes, but you have to decide what you shoot. Speaking of shooting, there's a variety of guns that it's hard to believe you could find in a "small" Spanish village. It starts out with handguns, but then you get shotguns, sniper rifles, tactical machine pistols, rocket launchers, mine launchers, revolvers (which I mention seperately because they use different ammo from handguns, as far as I know), grenades (flash, frag, incendiary), and other weapons, including your good old trusty knife for when death is literally staring you in the face. The difficulty is perfectly set up. You have a challenge no matter what, but you won't throw your controller on the ground in rage. You can beat the game, yes, but you can't just breeze through it with your eyes half-closed. You will always feel like playing again after you die, because you'll get so angry at whatever killed you that you'll actually want to beat it, no matter how hard it is to beat. The save spots are always there whenever you need them, and you can of course save in between all 20 or so chapters. Which reminds me, the value of the game is also a big plus. The game will last you at least twenty hours even if you try to, though most likely fail to, breeze through it. If you have never played a RE game before, you'll probably take as much as thirty hours. After you beat it, you unlock tons of extras, like infinite ammo in guns and cool mini-games. While the game has no multiplayer mode, you'll feel more than happy with the game's value when you beat the lengthy single-player adventure due to all the extras that you'll spend even more time enjoying. The story, also, is pretty cliche, but is good nonetheless. Leon S. Kennedy, apparently a character from RE2, has been sent to save the president's daughter, Ashley, from a bunch of crazy cultists that kidnapped her. As expected, nothing is as advertised. Leon and Ashley discover that they've stumbled into an evil religious leader's plan to strike back at the US and then take over the world. See? It's totally cliche, but it's still good, and feels somewhat original. Though it has to include stuff like the inevitable "hero kneeling in front of fallen comrade's body and screaming their name" moment and the "villain throwing everything he can at you to prevent you from discovering his plans or escaping or killing him or whatever" scenario, RE4's plot isn't like that in every other horror game. Actually, it isn't like any other horror game in any way- it doesn't even feature true zombies. The game does have some unusual parts, like a creepy merchant that follows you around and sells you things while crazy cultists are trying to take over the world around him and an inventory system (which is okay on its own but really, in a horror game, it's unusual), but they are done extremely well. The merchant, for example, feels like a real character even though you don't know anything about him other than that he sells and buys stuff. He has a creepy, eccentric attitude that makes him seem like a true character instead of a random gameplay idea thrown in for good measure. The inventory system makes the game feel like an RPG, especially with the gun-upgrading, at some points, but as soon as you unpause and have to blast your way through a bunch of evil monsters to save the world, you remember that you're playing an action horror game. Resident Evil 4 shows that with a lot of determination, hard work, and talent, anybody can make something everybody will love. Capcom did just that. Using determination, tons of hard work, and unmatched development talent, they overcame all odds and not only produced the best game on its system or in its genre, but of all games, in any genre, on any platform, released in the history of gaming. If you simply play RE4, you can agree that either Capcom is made up of witches that use their, uh... witchcraft to make such a strikingly amazing game, or that they are simply made up of some of the most talent in the whole game industry. Either way, it doesn't matter, because they made an unforgettable game, and all we have to worry about is sitting back, playing it, and getting sucked into a world of pure fun.
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