Resident Evil 4 is an action game with high production values and that's about it
The controls in Resident Evil 4 are essentially modified console FPS controls; the main difference is that the perspective is over the shoulder of the character instead of from their perspective. What this amounts to is that you have to hold down the R1 button to bring your weapon to bear, using the left analog stick to aim. That's right, you can't move and shoot; and the whole thing feels awkward, especially at first. After the first couple of hours I had a good feel for the controls, but I always felt a bit clunky. This is especially bad because Leon is supposed to be a rather agile fellow, it would've been nice to be able to pull off his sideway leaps, backflips and other acrobatics outside of the times when you get the onscreen triggers telling you to do so.
This brings me to the other major modification to the shooter formula, at various times you use one or more of the buttons to dodge attacks; occasionally switching to a different angle then the standard over-the-shoulder angle. These can only be used when they flash at the bottom of the screen though, and often times you have to use them in order to avoid death or major injury. Again, it would be nice to be able to pull off these acrobatics on a regular basis instead of needing to see the triggers show up.
To be fair, the controls aren't so bad that they ruin the game but they are rather hard to deal with in certain situations. It's possible to get into a situation where you can't really do anything but die because of the way the controls work.
The character models themselves are beautiful; I honestly didn't think my PS2 could put out something this good looking. The only thing I did notice is that the environments take a hit in the graphics department, even from a short distance things can get blurry.
The music fits the mood, but the "combat" music can get annoying; it will keep playing if you attack something in an area if anything else is close by, meaning you could be listening to the same track for quite some time over and over again.
You play as Leon, a special agent trained to protect the President's of the United States daughter; unfortunately for Leon, just before he was going to start on his new job the President's daughter gets kidnapped. Leon also has some backround, apparently he survived an outbreak of a zombie-virus in a place called Raccoon City and served in some sort of military unit at one point. Leon spends the first part of the gaming trying to find and release Ashley Graham, the President's daughter in a small town in Spain called "Pueblo". Upon arrival he finds that something is wrong with the local population and they immediately begin trying to kill him.
Once Leon finds Ashley, the rest of the game is spent trying to get out of Pueblo. This does add some gameplay elements, you have to make sure Ashely isn't killed or captured or you lose the game; but generally this is easy enough since Ashley has some excellent following AI and will stick right with you.
The storyline is fairly good, even if it is your somewhat standard action fare. the only real issue I had here is that the ending kind of drops the ball; it seemed more like a setup for the next game then an ending in and of itself. Then again, this may simply be because I haven't played the previous Resident Evil games and I'm missing something.
The game extras are mostly just more zombie shooting; the only portion of the extras I spent much time with was "Seperate Ways". In Seperate Ways, you play through several missions as the enigmatic Ada Wong, showing what she was up to throughout the game.
Overall, Resident Evil 4 delivers some great action sequences and not much else. The sometimes clunky gameplay and horrible ending prevent me from recommending it fully. Action and shooter fans will love the game, but the mileage of other folks may vary. I spent about 25 hours with the game overall, and I expect that's what most folks would wind up spending with it.