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| "Resident Evil 4" Is Scary, Stunning, And Superb | ||||||
| Capcom has done it again. "Resident Evil 4," the newest release in the zombie-killing franchise from the Japanese game developer, is quite possibly the best survival-horror game ever. Capcom has gone to painstaking detail in revamping the survival-horror genre, and it looks better than ever. | ||||||
| "Resident Evil 4" starts out with former S.T.A.R.S. agent and hero of the original ?Resident Evil? game, Leon Kennedy, as he embarks on a mission to save the President of the United States? daughter, Ashley, who has gone missing on her way home from college. The search begins in a remote European village, and immediately we know something is amiss. Villagers are acting strange, and Leon?s escorts are quickly disposed of, leaving him stranded and forced to explore the gloomy town. | ||||||
| "Resident Evil 4," which will be exclusively for Nintendo's GameCube for most of 2005, has some of the most gorgeous graphics ever to be seen on a console system. When Capcom released the remake of the original "Resident Evil" game for GameCube two years ago, despite pre-rendered environments, the game was absolutely beautiful, but Capcom has taken that beauty to the next level. Trees and foliage look perfect, and Leon himself is pristinely animated and colored. The town exudes a scary atmosphere, and the totally 3-dimensional world is a welcome respite from the previous pre-rendered settings for the "Resident Evil" games. Essentially, Capcom has reinvented the "Resident Evil" world, and it couldn't possibly look any better. | ||||||
| Another change in this "Resident Evil" game is that there are no zombies, but don't worry, you will quickly get over this shock. Traded for the walking-dead are crazed villagers and gigantic bosses that make Nemesis, "Resident Evil 3'"s villain, look like a toy-soldier. The first boss that players fight is a giant salamander in a lake, and the scope of this battle is unlike anything the GameCube has ever experienced. Leon begins in a small motorboat and suddenly is attacked by the towering behemoth, and the only weapons you have against it are harpoons. It is truly an intense battle sequence and the game is filled to the brim with more like this. | ||||||
| Another new feature to this "Resident Evil" game is the over-the-shoulder view and intuitive aiming system that players get to utilize. Gone are the days of trying to navigate your character through a bird's-eye view of the environments, and the horrors of aiming through such a system. Now, players can aim their gun straight ahead, and hit enemies in different locations such as the head (which often explodes), the knees (for quickly disabling an enemy), or the torso. When an enemy is dazed, Leon can also approach them and through an on-screen reminder, hit the "A" button to kick the enemy through the uprights, which will also knock down surrounding enemies and any baddie in close vicinity to Leon's Doc Martins. | ||||||
| Remember how in previous "Resident Evil" games, when you wanted to save, you would have to use a limited number of ribbons to use on the various typewriters located throughout the game? That system, thankfully, is gone. No ribbon is needed in "Resident Evil 4," and players can save at any typewriter they encounter, and there are a good number of them. Also, the puzzles and brain-twisters that Leon needs to solve to advance in the game are not arcane and impossible as some of the puzzles were in previous "Resident Evil" games. | ||||||
| Another interesting innovation in the game is the collection of pesetas, which, in turn, will allow you to purchase new weapons or gadgets from traveling salesmen. You can also sell treasures that you collect to the salesmen for more money, which presents an interesting role-playing game-type element. | ||||||
| Like most of the other "Resident Evil" games, "Resident Evil 4" is a single-player romp, but by no means is it short. The game is approximately 20 - 25 hours long, and there are secrets and bonuses to unlock which will keep players blasting villagers long after the game ends. | ||||||
| Also included in "Resident Evil 4" is an amazing soundtrack that will force even the most hardened gamer onto the edge of his seat. Pulse-pounding music kicks in at the many battles, and while Leon is exploring the town sans white-knuckling action, the music is subtle and ambient. Capcom also finally hired decent voice actors to play the characters, and most of the dialogue seems believable and is not laugh-out-loud ridiculous. A lot of the dialogue takes place through codec-like conversations, reminiscent of Konami's "Metal Gear Solid" series. | ||||||
| The only downers to "Resident Evil 4" are the exclusion of two simple features that would have made navigating the world a lot easier and more intelligent: Leon cannot walk and aim at the same time, nor can he strafe. A simple strafe function would have made things much easier, but the user-controlled camera kind of makes up for it. Another minus is the forced letterbox that the entire game is played in. I assume Capcom did this to keep the frame rate constant, but players with small televisions are pretty much screwed, since you cannot turn the letterbox off.� Aside from those small nuisances, however, "Resident Evil 4" is damn-near perfect. | ||||||
| Capcom pretty much perfected the survival-horror genre with "Resident Evil 4," and through it's long track record has amassed a large quantity of these types of games. From "Dino Crisis" to the first "Resident Evil" game, Capcom is the company survival-horror gamers rely on for their fix, and with "Resident Evil 4," the genre will definitely continue to get better and better. Sit back, relax, turn off the lights, turn up the sound, and prepare to be blown away. | ||||||
| Copyright Gerry Wachovsky, 2005, and Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. | ||||||
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