Easily worth a Gamecube.
User Rating: 9.2 | BioHazard 4 GC
Back when I saw this game for the 1st time in 2003, the trailers showed little of the game, just good ol’ Leon walking around a house with a pistol and a flashlight. I first thought to myself that it would just be more of the same, and didn’t think much of it. But then E3 2004 rolled around, and what I saw was a completely new game, with everything about Resident Evil changed around. When I saw Lean barricade himself in that village house, I secretly knew deep inside I would end up buying my 2nd Gamecube for this game. Resident Evil 4 is by far the most intense game you will ever play on a console this generation. And when I say intense, I mean it. Capcom constantly throws you in new situations throughout the game, ranging from fighting off villagers with relatively low ammo to swimming away from a huge fish, to even being in a hedge maze with 10 zombie dogs. This game is intense. In case you didn’t know what the Resident Evils are about, here’s a little synopsis: An evil corporation called Umbrella basically has a hobby of trying to create super beings. One attempt at this was to make a virus that regenerates cells back to life, called the T-Virus. Well long story short, the T-Virus inevitably leads to you becoming a Zombie, and an entire city became simplified in the earlier Resident Evils, and Leon S. Kennedy happened to of been on his 1st day on the job as a Police Officer on that particular day. He eventually escaped the doomed city( Just in the nick of time of course) and now works for the government, and lucky him, his 1st assignment is to find the president’s missing daughter, Ashley Graham. His search leads him to a small village in Spain. It seems the series will be forever changed thanks to this game, gone are the awkward camera angles, gone are the large chests that hold an infinite amount of supplies, and gone are the running away from zombies because you have no more ammo( gone are the zombie themselves in fact). These all make the game really, really good. Some things still remain in the series that is just well, a little weird, like the series’ trademark herbs and typewriters, but don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t effect the game at all, in fact, it just keeps the vibe of Resident Evil in the game. One thing missing from the series that I really was hoping for was the very hard puzzles that were so notorious in the Resident Evil remake. There are a few puzzles, but most of them can be solved in a matter of minutes. But overall, the changes made in Resident Evil 4 are far more good for the series then bad. The best part about the game though, is by far the gameplay. As I mentioned earlier, this game is intense. Rarely do you fight less then at least 4 enemies at once. Now the game is a true 3rd person game, with the camera always behind Leon’s back. The best new mechanic to Resident Evil 4 though is by far the new aiming system, which brings the camera behind the back of Leon when he aims, allowing you to see everything in front of you, but to make things a little more, well intense, you cannot move while you aim, making for a lot of situations that get your heart pounding fast, if you know what I mean. The only problem I can find with the gameplay is that you are still going into a menu to switch between weapons or use a health item, something that brings the game down sometimes. Overall, the gameplay is fun and always varied, between fighting off plenty of Los Ganados with just a pistol, to throwing tridents at a huge fish in the water, and even the escorting missions are very well done and just plain fun. Time after time again you will have new types of challenges, and they never really last longer then an hour or two before things change up, Capcom has done a superb job on pacing the game just right. The only things I wasn’t to big a fan of though is the fact that you can’t even relax during the movies. Throughout several movies, you will be required to do a randomized button combination that shows up on the screen within about 2 seconds, or else you will die there and then. Now, it sounded interesting to me at 1st, and really, its not that bad, but there was this one movie where I would always messed up on it, and I died there alone at least ten times, basically, things like that can really get you frustrated, and it seemed like an unneeded addition to the game. Don’t get me wrong though, these button combos aren’t really hard, but there are some where you think to yourself “Why even put these in?” The graphics in this game are stunning, it is easily on of the best looking Gamecube game on the market, and actually, one of the best looking games ever made. The graphics are always top-notch, particle effects look fantastic, character models are great, and one of the smaller things in the game that I personally like is the fact that the fire in the game might be the best made fire in any game ever made, it looks so vibrant and real, its stunning that this game runs on a very steady framerate, and that there are virtually no load times aside from a small five-second or so load in the beginning of the game. The sound in the game is quite good, with great music that starts to play at just the right time. I especially like the soothing music that plays when you go to a safe zone( a la typewriters), or that creepy heart-throbbing music that starts to play when enemies spot you. The only problem on the sound side, which, in my opinion, is the biggest problem in the game, is the voice acting and dialogue. Cheesy scripts done by mediocre voice acting makes you think poorly of the main character. Seriously, “Where’s everyone going? Bingo?” Now this is coming from a long time gamer, and I have always hated when great game has bad dialogue or bad voice acting, but luckily, this is still a small thing, and doesn’t take you out of the experience much or ruin the game at all. The only thing this game lacks is a solid replay value. Even with the Mercenary mode which is bound to keep you playing for at least a few extra hours( once you unlock one character, you just have to unlock them all), you are most likely not going to get a lot out of the game once you beat it once. Sure there are a few unlockable things like a harder mode and some weapons, but nothing really good enough to change the campaign. Your still bound to spend hours on Mercenaries or inevitably play through the game again with some of the unlockables though, just because the game is that good. Value is a lot better then most single player games, but not nearly as good as games that have multiplayer. So what it comes down to is this; Resident Evil 4 is easily the best game to come out on the game cube for a long time, and easily the best game Capcom has made since the days of the SNES, or dare I say, ever. Time after time Capcom will amaze you with a new challenge or plot twist, making you never want the game to end. There is almost nothing wrong with this game, and is the closest I’ve played to a perfect game ever on a console, the pacing is so perfect and the gameplay is so fun that you literally wont be able to sleep at night the 1st day you played it because you will be thinking about what will happen next to Leon. -Ozzie Smith 
