Mindless Gameplay Included!
Players: 1
Graphically, this game is gorgeous. Every model is detailed and you can see facial expressions on enemies. Fire looks like fire and when it's night, you actually feel like it's dark.
The sound is spot on as well. Each gun has a unique sound that feels like you are doing lots of damage. The enemy voices have a creepy accent to them which helps the atmosphere. Leon has a decent voice, but some of the jokes are... bad.
The first weakness of the game lies in it's plot. First of all, it's generic. Save the princess (Ashley), then save the world from evil (Los Iluminados). There's no underlying message that teaches anything new, but rather it's a script from some B-movie.
Now that wouldn't be that bad, if the game had any logic. However, the game fails here many times. For instance, shouldn't Leon be accompied by a crew, rather than himself? Shouldn't he have told Hunnigan something IS definitely wrong after he is attacked by villagers? How does Ada do all her flips in high heels AND a skirt? Why does Luis immediately ask for a cigarette after being tied up in a closet?
And finally, the big one...
After Leon confirms that he HAS Ashley, why does the USA send only ONE helicopter for backup? Why not the marines, special forces or even the police? I thought the president's daughter would be more important than that.
The notes in this game are disappointing as well. They are more or less "Kill the American" or "We will rule the world". They lack the mysteriousness and eerieness that older RE games had.
As for the gameplay, it's largely a repetitive shooter with puzzles that require an IQ of a goldfish. Hmmm, if I have HALF of a key, I wonder what I must do. That is the majority of the game, find pieces of key and open door to next room. The only puzzle that required a BIT more thinking would be one that requires switching paintings, but that isn't much. Overall, the game loses it's eerieness in the middle of the game and turns into a repetitive shootfest, lacking both number and complexity of puzzles from older RE games.
The AI, despite having dodge reactions, is more or less stupid. They CAN find you if you are in a house. However, they will still lumber at you in a group, even if you have a grenade primed.
The bosses however, were interesting. From riding a boat with Del Lago, button mashing with El Gigante to timing buttons with Krauser, it broke off the SERIOUS repetitiveness of the main gameplay. Sure, you can unlock Mercenaries or Assignment Ada, but it will still have more repetitive shooting.
Shooting stuff is fun, but for 20 hours, it's more like work. A series that used to be about THINKING, has turned into a mashfest, only it doesn't have multiplayer like other games. The few puzzles and bosses don't offer enough variety for a 20 hour game. Finally, the plot would have been okay, but has unbelievable logic that destroys it's authenticy. I was drawn into the hype, but when I truly examined the game, I found nothing special. As a final note, I found the first 10 minutes to be much more enthralling than the last 10 hours.