Its just not Resident Evil
If you take the game of its own merits, then its very good. A great new camera angle, resposive controls, and a great aiming system. The graphics are almost life like, and you really do get a great atmosphere.
My major problem with Resi 4 is that its miles from the old Resi games i know and love. Now alot of you regard that as a good thing, but im afraid i dont. Remember Wesker? And the zombie that hid around the corner in the toilet? Or when that Hunter lept around the corner? All thats gone, now youl walk around and hear someone shout in spanish, only for some spanish guy in a beard to run toward you. You know its coming, and unfortunatly these guys stick around until the very end of the game. I dont want to give anything away, but at the end it does get slightly more Resident Evil-ish but i cant help but feel theyve given the game to a third party whos tried to recreate the series and failed. The arms dealer who sells and upgrades guns is actually very disapointing, theres not that many guns in the game after all.
One thing i loved about the games was that you were always moving forward to new areas. When the mansion got boring, caves. Then back into the mansion and on to a secret underground lab. Or on Resi 2 there was the station, the lab, the sewars, and dont forget resi 3 had the whole city. This though... you get the decrepid old musty village, the decrepid old musty castle, and the decrepid old musty island. Theres no broader scope either, at the start you meet some guy who runs the island, then you chase him until the end. There no "Wesker? it was you?!" moments, just you on an island. Rubbish!
The most important part of a resi game for me is the enemies. The Silent Hill series make much scarier games, so Resident Evil survived with its fantastic monster designs. Remember Mr. X from Resi 2? Or the Chimeras hanging from the ceiling on Resi 1? All of these are gone, and youll be shooting men in robes for the whole game. At the end, like i said it picks up, but its not enough in my books.
To summarise this game is amazing, and makes breakthroughs in graphics and gameplay, but i hold the original games dear to my heart and this game changes the formula a little to much.