Many aspects in the series have been drastically changed or improved upon, as Resident Evil soars to new heights.
Resident Evil 4 transforms the series into a third person shooter. You play as Leon Kennedy, who is also one of the main protagonists in Resident Evil 2. Leon has been hired to travel to Spain to find the President's daughter, who, for unknown reasons, has been kidnapped. When Leon arrives to the village where she is supposedly held hostage, he finds that his solo mission will be anything but a pick up and leave mission. He confronts the first villager he meets, shows him a picture of the President's daughter, Ashley. Suddenly the villager threatens to Leon with an ax. By holding the R button and moving the analog stick, you are able to aim. The laser aiming provides for great accuracy. Head shots have never been more satisfying in the series, and if you're good at aiming you'll get to experience them quite often. Unlike other times in the series where you just aimed up and hoped for a head explosion. You can also take your opponents out at the knees to make them fall to the ground. The enemies on here are not your typical slow moving, brain eating zombies. They're a bit more intelligent, but still have the same amount of desire to kill like zombies do. They are villagers who have been infected with something called the "Las Plagas". They're able to use weapons, strategy, and tactics to make sure they take out their target. While Resident Evil 4 isn't as scary as previous games in the series, it's still very creepy. Resident Evil 4 is an action game before it's a survival horror game, and the action is unbelievable.
Split second decisions are a constant in the game, don't once think about putting the controller down for even a second. Anything can go wrong in the blink of an eye, even when the setting looks clear. The game also contains the best cut scenes in any game I have ever played. Not because of dialog, because it's not the best in the world. But because they're interactive action packed cut scenes. You can set your controller down for a quick sip of sweet tea and suddenly during the cut scene, a button combo comes on screen because something is about to kill you. But you're too late and Leon is dead. The game is unpredictable and more tense than any game in the series. More action packed and thrilling than anything ever done before it. Other games may have successfully done button mashing combos for cut scenes and action sequences in games before. But no game has done it as awesomely well as Resident Evil 4. The game is sure to surprise you every minute. You're bound to get some sort of adrenaline rush. If you don't get chills from the game's awesomeness, then you're probably as much a zombie as the Las-Plagas in the game. RE4 will probably take about fifteen hours to complete the first time around. Then you could try playing through on hard mode, along with a few snazzy new unlocked clothing and items..
The coolest un-lockable would be the "mercenaries" mode, where you choose one of several characters and stages, and fight to your death against a variety of the game's enemies. Think of it as an arcade mode. The sound and music is as eerie as ever, giving the game a dreadful, frightening feel. As a whole, "Resdient Evil 4" is easily the most well rounded game in the series, bringing to the table an exceptional campaign with thrills around every corner. Fans of the Resident Evil games of old may miss the survival-horror games they are used to. But the series was ready for a change, for the better. So many aspects of the game have been drastically changed or improved upon, bringing the series soaring to new heights.