Resident Evil 4 is not only one of the best GameCube games to date, it's also one of the best of all time.
User Rating: 9.3 | BioHazard 4 GC
Resident Evil 4 has been billed as not only the game that takes the much beloved Survival Horror series in an exciting new direction, but also the savior of the GameCube itself. In a generation chock full of disappointing games it's refreshing to see a game that manages to live up to most if not all of its hype. Resident Evil 4 is not only one of the best GameCube games to date, it's also one of the best of all time. ~~GAMEPLAY~~ One of the first things you will notice when you fire up your GameCube is RE4’s new camera. Instead of the fixed angles that haunted previous incarnations of the series RE4 takes place from a behind the back 3rd person perspective. This new perspective works great; you shouldn’t have any trouble seeing what’s going on around you now. The aiming has been improved too; it’s very similar to a Metal Gear Solid game. You hold down the right or left trigger to ready your gun/knife, you then use the analog stick to aim. All of your guns are equipped with laser sights so aiming is a breeze. You can’t move while aiming or reloading but that’s not too much of a problem. You’ve got a pretty robust arsenal to play with in this game, with several types of shotguns, hand guns, rifles, magnums, and automatics. The game’s also nice and hard, but not too hard. The enemies are very intelligent and life like and a welcome change from the zombified foes found in the previous games. If you point a gun at them, they will move around to confuse you; if you shoot them in the leg, they will fall to the ground; and if you blast them in the head, they will react like real people (meaning they will usually die or writhe in pain). The one real complaint one could have against RE4’s game play is the ammo system, the game’s pretty good about providing ammo for your hand gun and that’s it. However this does contribute to the game’s survival aspect, and also makes sure you don’t become overly reliant on the other weapons. ~~GRAPHICS~~ Resident Evil 4 is easily the best looking game on the GameCube, it even looks better than most X Box games. The character models are very life like and the lighting effects are excellent. The scenery also looks pretty good and there’s a nice amount of variety. Even with a lot of enemies on screen or explosions the game still manages to maintain a solid frame rate. The graphics are not perfect however; there are some noticeable clipping issues. Try walking up to any kind of object with a Semi-Auto Rifle equipped, the barrel of the rifle will probably pass right threw it. There were also times when I would look at a door and notice a sickle or even an enemy head passing right threw the door, I could even shoot them without opening the door. This isn’t enough to ruin the overall experience as RE4 is still a joy to look at. ~~SOUND~~ The sound is probably one of the highlights of the game as it’s nearly flawless. In contrast to the other games in the series, Resident Evil 4 actually has good voice acting, good, not great. The music is creepy and definitely fits the mood of the game, although it’s kinda lame that there’s a “the bad guys are still alive, watch out” music that plays as long as there are enemies in the area. Each of the weapons sound powerful and each has its own unique sound. It’s also kinda weird that the enemies curse at you in Spanish but it’s appropriate since the game does take place in Spain. ~~VALUE~~ There’s a lot of lasting value in this game. Although there is no multi-player there are two bonus modes that are unlocked after completing the main story once. The first is the Mercenaries mini game, in it you pick one of 5 characters and 1 of 4 maps, and you basically try to kill as many enemies as possible before the time runs out while collecting hour glasses to extend your time. This is a lot of fun and a good way to practice some of the game’s mechanics. The second is Assignment Ada, it’s a side mission where you play as Ada Wong and you’re trying to collect 5 parasite samples. This sounds like fun but it’s extremely hard, Ada’s arsenal isn’t as impressive as Leon’s and she dies pretty easily. Still there’s a nice incentive to play threw this mission. In addition beating the game unlocks alternate costumes for some of the characters and two new guns that you can purchase from the merchant, as well as a higher difficulty setting. Again, a multi-player option would be nice but there’s still plenty of content here to keep you busy for a while. ~~STORY~~ The story is probably the only disappointing aspect of Resident Evil 4. It does do it’s job in giving you a reason for mindlessly killing the villagers that are attacking you and giving RE fans something to ponder, but it’s extremely straight forward. There aren’t very many plot twists and the dialogue is corny, very corny. You will however grow to like Leon and a few of the others as characters and even care about what happens to them, although there will be times when you’ll want to shoot Ashley for being so stupid. Overall, the story is interesting, but it could have been much better. 
