Resident Evil 4 gives the series a much needed jolt, creating a game that is original, fun, and genuinely creepy.
But then, Resident Evil 4 came out, prying me away from that foggy little tourist town ruled by an evil cult, and landing me in... a foggy little rural town ruled by an evil cult. But for what at first glance seemed to be a Silent Hill rip off, I found was very different- it's a RURAL town, not a TOURIST town. Big difference. In all seriousness, this game separates itself from any other survival horror I've played by successfully integrating action into the mix, yet still maintaining a very scary atmosphere.
Now, I've argued before that by giving your characters a lot of firepower, it makes the game not scary. But Resident Evil 4 seems to be the exception to this rule- sure, you can have a sniper rifle, a fully modified shotgun, and a missile launcher, but the game still succeeds in being scary by having baddies that are simply hard to kill. And lots of them.
The trick to the game's success is the use of angry mobs, something I had never really thought could be a viable fear tactic in a survival horror, but there they are. You are surrounded on all sides by psychotic villagers, and the horrifying realization that these people are human beings is only broken by the even more horrifying realization that they are in fact, not human... anymore. Not only does this game succeed in creating a very claustrophobic atmosphere by frequently locking you up in a house and forcing you to defend it before angry villagers beat you to death, but every time you shoot a villager, they turn into a zombie before your eyes. It adds another level to the fear by adding the knowledge that you, the protagonist, are likely to turn as well, lost in the ass end of Eastern Europe, and nobody is going to save you.
Despite this game having so many people, you begin to feel very isolated and claustrophobic at the same time. The hostility is almost tangible, and no matter where you go, you feel that you are very out of place. It's a cool feeling.
But enough of the feelings I got playing the game, more on the actual game itself.
It plays very well, both of the PS2 and Gamecube (and Wii), and it pretty much introduced the over the shoulder camera angle as a viable technique for shooters (I might be wrong on this, but RE4 was the first time I had seen the over the shoulder view and liked it.). It also was the first game I played to use quicktime events, which was at the time, very cool. The music isn't catchy, as it mostly consists of psychologically grating noise, however, it's very identifiable grating noise. You know when to expect a certain type of monster due to a certain music playing, and it definitely adds to the atmosphere. The graphics are quite good, and it's overall an easy, fun, natural game to play. Everything feels more or less natural, and there are no major glaring problems that I saw.
The story begins with Leon Kennedy, the nice guy cop from Racoon City in Resident Evil 2 being sent to nowhere, Eastern Europe, to rescue the president's daughter, equipped with a rather nice jacket and a pistol. Apparently the president's daughter isn't worth *that* much. Leon's changed a lot since Resident Evil 2, instead of being a nice guy cop, he's now more of a frustrated antihero who has the emotional range of a sand flea. As he progresses through the rural European equivalent of redneck country, he finds himself in a progressively worse situation as the rural hicksville turns out to be a sort of front for an evil zombie cult. But wait, they're not exactly zombies, but to say any more would spoil everything. In any case, the plot continues to thicken, bringing in a few interesting and likable characters, and more scares and puzzles that are reminiscent of the old Resident Evil games, but remain fresh. None of the puzzles are too difficult thankfully, and you don't have to go plodding about pointlessly for stupid pieces to some obscure puzzle to get plot progression . Needless to say, the difficulty and pacing are both very good, although some points seem to drag on a bit. It is never fully boring, however, and remains fun throughout the entire game, each section having a different sort of theme and requires a different sort of gameplay. This is nice, as it keeps things fresh and keeps you on your toes.
As for the survival horror aspect of this game, at many points this game seems much more like an action/adventure game than a survival horror. That's not to say it isn't scary, but the action aspect of it does blare though. However, it does show that heavy action and scariness can coexist- the whole sequence in the regenerator lab is a prime example of that.
Overall, this game is probably the best fusion of action and survival horror in a game. The storyline isn't nearly as deep as the Silent Hill or Fatal Frame series, but it maintains a good pace and has a lot of the aspects of action games that make it actually *fun* to play. Furthermore, the Mercenaries levels are a welcome touch, and a blast to play with friends.
In my limited experience with talking to people in the real world, this game is probably the best known and most liked survival horror game, and it deserves that prestige. It is a fun game, and for a Resident Evil game, it has a surprisingly compelling storyline- departing heavily from the plot and style of the original games. This is a very smart move, as it allows the game to recreate itself from the ground up and create a very original zombie horror game. In many ways, it is a lot like Silent Hill 4, except where Silent Hill 4 is considered crap/blasphemy by the fandom and is generally considered not nearly as good as the previous games*, Resident Evil 4 gets it right on the nose, and goes above and beyond any of its predecessors, creating a zombie horror experience that is original, innovative, and damn fun to play.
*I really don't want to argue if SH4 sucked more than the other games, but honestly, I think it did. It felt unfinished, the plot and characters weren't particularly deep, and it really wasn't a Silent Hill game at all. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed playing it, but out of all the Silent Hill games, it seemed the weakest. And I really shouldn't be ranting about SH4 in a Resident Evil review.