Resident Evil 4 Review

I love the old-school gore flicks from such greats as Italian horror maestro Lucio Fulci (Zombi, City of the Living Dead aka Gates of Hell, The Beyond, House by the Cemetery), Umberto Lenzi (Cannibal Ferox, Eaten Alive) and George Romero (Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead).

Today’s horror sucks ass, plain and simple. It is all about the star power, or how much CGI junk Hollywood can squeeze on screen. Thanks to DVDs of my old flicks I don’t have to watch this garbage that Hollywood poops out every year. Another thing that has always helped me to feed my love of gore has been Survival Horror games on consoles and PC’s. I love the Silent Hill series, and Resident Evil is one of the best. But the Resident Evil series started to become more of the same. The makers were going to change that with Resident Evil 4. When I first read that there would be no more zombies, I was ready to call it quits on the series, but once I started learning more about what the developers had planned, I started to support the change.

At E3 2004 I played what could be one of the greatest Survival-Horror games ever made. It was just a demo, but it was pure gold. And now Resident Evil 4 has finally been released to the masses. After playing this game non-stop and losing many hours of sleep, I am now convinced that this is one of the greatest games I have ever played on a video game console. So please, read on my gore-loving friends…

Let me get this out of the way first. Yes, there are no more zombies. You see some flashbacks of the undead at the beginning of the game when the story of the first few games is told. After that, there are no zombies. It may seem weird to have a Resident Evil game with no zombies, but once you see whom you have to take on you will forget about the undead. The story is simple, your Leon (you remember him, from Resident Evil 2).

Your job is to find the President’s daughter on an island. But once you reach the place of destination you will soon find that the villagers are a little wacky. I guess wacky is not the right word, how about murderous freaks with weapons? They seem possessed by something. They walk around like zombies, doing their work. But once they spot you then it is game on. These villagers are all very different. You have male and female villagers as well.

They carry everything from knives, axes, torches, dynamite, etc. And they will throw them at you if they are close. These villagers will also take a shot from your gun and still move. I forgot to tell you, these villagers move in packs. At one point I was on a path, and I got the attention of this villager. I thought that I could put a bullet in his head and then move on. But you see, it was not that simple. He called more villagers. And soon I had about 6 villagers in front of me and about 6 villagers behind me. And they looked pissed.

Other things roam the forest and villages. It is what could be a nod to Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This guy is huge, and he wears a potato sack over his head. He carried this big ass chainsaw. If he reaches you then you are dead. I won’t tell you what he does, but it is one of the coolest deaths I ever suffered as a video game character. There is also the lake monster that you have seen on almost every site. This thing is HUGE.

The game never runs short of new things. And each enemy seems to have taken a nod to a great horror film. The villagers have that “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” look and feel to them. The dogs you meet in the later levels have John Carpenter’s “The Thing” written all over them.

There are even these monks that appear later in the game which reminds me of the zombie monks from “Burial Ground: Night of Terror”. That is a 1970s Italian flick where a zombie kid (who is played obviously by a 35-year-old midget with bad hair) bites his mother’s nipple off. Ah, you have to love Italian gore! Anyway, the game gives a great nod to classic horror.

What about the gore?

Do you want gore? Resident Evil 4 could very well be the goriest Resident Evil game to date. I know, it is hard to imagine but it is true. Things that I love most about horror movies appear in this game. There are exploding heads that would make the exploding head in Scanners look like child’s play.

I have never seen a more beautifully exploding head on a video game screen before in my life. The cool thing is that once the head is gone, the body will still walk for a few seconds. And if you are close to that headless body it will grab you and try to attack you. The game also has other things to see like decaying skulls covered in maggots, hanging bodies dripping blood, tons of bloodied dead bodies, and burning flesh. The game leaves no stone unturned when it comes to gore. The blood flows freely on the so-called “Kiddie” Nintendo GameCube. This game should prove many wrong. Nintendo is not just for kids.

Let’s talk a bit about Leon now. Gone are the old-style Resident Evil controls. You can now look over Leon’s shoulder while he is aiming and shooting. Your weapons also now have red laser pointers. This works wonders when you are trying to blow somebody’s head off. Your weapons box is made up of a grid. You can place your items and weapons in a different spot to condense the items that you are carrying. After the grid is full you might not be able to carry anything else.

You can however buy a larger box that has more space. You can do this now because Resident Evil now has this undead fellow who sets up shop in various sections of the village. He sells guns and health as well as upgrades for your weapons. You can also sell stuff that you collect along the way. You can pay for these things by collecting gold coins and gold bars. Guns range from a regular 9mm to a rocket launcher. There are also many hidden items in the game. One example is pendants hanging in hard-to-find places. You have to shoot them to be rewarded. Once you have collected these pendants the shop dealer will reward you with free stuff.

Leon now has an action button. If you push the green button when you are close to a window, Leon will jump out of it. He can also jump down ledges, climb up ladders (and push the ladders off the ledge when an enemy is trying to climb) jump over things such as fences and logs, and he can also use this button when an enemy is close. You can kick your enemy by pressing the action button. If somebody grabs you all you have to do is jiggle the analog stick to set yourself free. But this action button is new to the Resident Evil series. It is used for so many things.

At one point in the game I was running from a large bolder, you have to keep pressing the action button to run faster. It can also be used for swimming (from that big ass monster in the lake). This is not the only thing new to the Resident Evil series. You can also shoot doors and break them. There were enemies behind a closed door and I was shooting the door. And bit by bit the door started to come apart. It’s pretty awesome!

You can also barricade doors and windows by pushing bookshelves and dressers over them. There is just so much new stuff to do. There are even new things, like bear traps and tripwires. Another new thing is that you have a radio that you communicate with others back home. It is set up just like Metal Gear Solid 3. Resident Evil 4 also has over 20+ hours of gameplay. It is spread out on 2 game discs. So there is plenty to look for and explore. You will not be completing the game in just one sitting. Also with all of the hidden goodies, you might even try and go back for more. It is split up into chapters, and one thing that I like is the fact that you no longer need those damned ribbons to save a game. Typewriters are spread all around, so saving is not a problem.

The Graphics:

Without a doubt the most graphically intense GameCube game ever made. No other GameCube game can hold this game’s jock when it comes to graphics. Hell, it is just as good as about 99% of the stuff I have seen on the Xbox and PS2 as well. The whole game is set in wide-screen. It took me about 1 second to get used to it since I love wide-screen formatted films. The game also runs at a smooth 30 fps with no drop at all. There could be as well as 10-12 enemies on screen at once with no frame rate drop at all. The game just looks amazing. I played this game for 4 hours straight and my mouth was still dropping at how gorgeous the game looks.

You name it and Capcom has thrown it in. The forest looks amazing, with a slight touch of haze. The insides of the houses look old and decrepit. The water in the lake and the streams looks amazing, filled with fish and floating seaweed. The nighttime looks amazing, especially when you have a group of villagers holding torches. All I can say is this is the most beautiful game I have seen on a home console. Better than Halo 2; better than Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. This game is off the friggin chart! When you walk into a dusty old room, you can see the dust particles flying around. You can see the glare from a closed window, with just a hint of light shining in. And don’t get me started on the rain.

I remember seeing a demo for Splinter Cell 3 at E3, and I was blown away by how amazing the rain looked. The rain in Resident Evil 4 looks almost as amazing as it did in that E3 demo. The rain spits down on Leon, bouncing off of his body and you can see a slight wet look on his clothes. It is pretty amazing. The thunder crashed and the night sky lit up from the crack of the lightning. The game is simply beautiful to look at. The characters are also a marvel to watch. Each character is painstakingly detailed and they move and animate to perfection.

If Leon shoots their arm, they will hold their arm. You can shoot their weapons out of their hand, shoot their hat off, and as I said earlier, shoot their heads off. Their mouths move perfectly to the sounds of the voice-overs as well. Some of the most amazing graphics are later on down the road. When you reach the lake, you will know just how special this game is. You hop on the boat and ride around the lake. When that lake monster hits your boat then you will be in for a graphical treat. The bottom line, this game is amazing and it will change the face of survival-horror, as we all know it. Resident Evil 4 takes the GameCube system to its limits and shows what this little box can do. The animation, graphics, and framerate are all amazing and top-notch. Oh yeah, and progressive scans don’t hurt as well. So all you HD TV owners can enjoy this game.

The Sound and Music:

With great graphics comes great sound in Dolby Pro Logic II. I remember when the first Resident Evil game was released on the original Sony Playstation long ago. The game rocked but the voices sucked. It was pyre B-movie cheese. Resident Evil 4 has some of the best voice-overs I have ever heard. The game has cursing as well, which is always cool. But the enemies speak in a different language (Spanish, Italian,?) and they sound pissed off. You will also hear the ambient sounds of the village, woods, and everywhere else Leon goes.

There is music in some portions of the game. When you have the villagers all pissed off and running after you, the music is this very deep, brooding evil sound. It does send a chill up your spine. You will also hear villagers talking in the distance, and birds flying up above. Guns sound amazing as well. This is not your normal boom and bang from other games. Seems they took great care in having the guns sound as realistic as possible.

Capcom has done an amazing job with the sound and music. It is by far the best quality I have heard not only from the Resident Evil series but also from Capcom in general. So not only does Resident Evil look chilling, yet beautiful it also sounds that way.

The Bottom Line:

I have been sitting here thinking about this, wondering if I should give this game my first 100 score. And here is what I look at to come to this conclusion. Does the game kick ass? Yes, it does. Does the game look amazing? Yes, it does. Does the game sound amazing? Yes, it does. Keep going Sean, you 3 for 3 already. Does the game play and feel great? Hell yeah! I have never had so much fun getting into a game as I have had with Resident Evil 4. Everything is just perfect about this game. The storyline, the graphics, the sound, the fear the game gives you. It is an A+ effort from Capcom. I loved Halo 2, but it had its flaws. San Andreas kicks ass, but it still could have been better (the PC version should look better). No matter how I look at it, I love this game. And it seems perfect to me. I love horror and I love this genre. And Capcom has re-invented this franchise and has given it new life. Sure there will be better games down the line (especially for PC, but I am not reviewing PC games), but this is now and this game rocks 2005 like no other.

Capcom has truly turned around an already kick-ass franchise and made it 200% better. I was looking forward to this game, and it exceeded my expectations. If this game came out in December it clearly would have been my 2004 console game of the year, yes beating out Halo 2 and San Andreas. But it slipped into 2005, and I will not forget this game come the end of 2005. Resident Evil 4 is a game to have whether you have a GameCube or not (go buy one just for this game!). All I can say is truly amazing.

Bravo to Capcom and the developers of Resident Evil 4. I am drooling for Resident Evil 5 now. I am sure it is going to hit the Next-Gen consoles. But for now, you must play this game. Resident Evil 4 is one of a kind. It is not by far my favorite game in months (even years). Resident Evil 4 is A MUST HAVE!

NOTE: Original Article from Next Level Gaming on January 23rd, 2005.