Resident Evil 4Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released (UK): Nov '05
Released (US): Oct '05
May Contain Spoilers: The critics gave a positive outburst when they reviewed this game. Everyone was giving scores of 10/10 or 100% and even though I hadn't played a Resident Evil game before I thought I'd give it ago because of all this praise of being the best Survival Horror game ever. Silent Hill, another big contender got 84.0% on gamerankings.com where this game was given 95.7%.
I had to see for myself so I bought it, although it had been out for quite a while before I got my copy of it.
What's it about?
Again, I don't know much about the story of this game. I'll explain why later but the story as I know is that the games Protagonist, Leon S. Kennedy has gone to a village is Europe (Probably Spain - the Police jackets say Policia on them and Leon finds Pesetas, Spanish currency before the Euro). This is where the President's daughter, Lesley Graham was last seen after being kidnapped.
It's all I can remember so I went back to Wikipedia and got the plot from there:"In 2004, the Umbrella Corporation's secretive activities within Raccoon City have become a public affair. Following an investigation conducted by the US government, several Umbrella officials are implicated and prosecuted. The government indefinitely suspends Umbrella's business, causing the company to become bankrupt.
Leon S. Kennedy (right) was recruited by the US government after they learned of his actions in Raccoon City. Leon is sent on a mission to rescue Ashley Graham (the blonde, below), the President's daughter, who has been kidnapped by a mysterious cult. Leon travels to a rural village in Europe, where he encounters a horde of unruly villagers who pledge their lives to Los Iluminados (The Illuminated Ones), the cult that kidnapped Ashley.
During the course of the mission, Leon is reunited with Ada Wong, a woman he met in Resident Evil 2, and Jack Krauser, one of Leon's former comrades from his years of government training, thought to be dead. He also meets Luis Sera, a former Los Illuminados researcher, who aids Leon on his mission, before he is murdered by Osmund Saddler, the leader of the Los Illuminados cult. By examining Sera's notes, Leon discovers that Los Illuminados gained control of their subjects by implanting a mind-controlling parasite known as Las Plagas into their bodies.
After Saddler discovers that Leon has rescued Ashley, he commands his subjects to use any means to recover her. Meanwhile, after defeating the village chief, Bitores Mendez, Leon, and Ashley take refuge inside the castle of the local castellan, Ramon Salazar. Ashley begins to cough blood, realizing that she is probably infected and runs into one of the castles many traps. Leon then battles his way through mazes and minions to find Salazar only to learn that Ashley has been taken to a nearby island research facility. After numerous altercations with Saddler's forces, including a freakishly empowered Krauser, Leon is able to rescue Ashley and defeat Saddler with Ada's assistance. Leon recovers a vial containing a Plagas sample from Saddler's corpse, but Ada forces him to give it to her at gunpoint. She then escapes from the complex in a helicopter, leaving Leon and Ashley to escape via jet-ski."
Taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_evil_4
The bad guys in this are basically the villagers that follow the Los Illuminados cult. Each carry some weapon of some kind from a shovel/stick to flare's that blow up in your face. You also have the notorious Chainsaw man who occasionally pops up now and again to behead you resulting in an instant "Game Over".Leon will find himself ganged up on in some cases because the villagers attack in groups of two all the way up to six or even more people. This was one of the most frustrating parts of the game because you can spend ten minutes at a time just shooting these people down.
As the game progresses these people are harder to push down - when shot in the head, tentacle looking things appear from the neck that whip you causing considerable damage
This game also has a limited inventory. Leon carries a case which can only fit so many items in it. This case can be upgraded to larger ones as the game goes on because you will occasionally come across the Seller. A suspicious looking guy I thought was a bad guy to begin with. He has all kinds of items for Leon if the price is right - Leon can exchange Pesetas for these items which include new weaponry and ammo as well as healing items etc.
You will also come across red and blue medallions that hang from high points such as trees and buildings. If you can collect all of these then the Seller will exchange something big for them.
Why I never completed it:
I tried, I really did try and get into this but I just couldn't. It wasn't compelling nor scary in the slightest.
It took a long time for the storyline to even get going, it was just Leon blowing a few people's head off in a Spanish village.
Being a PS2/Gamecube game it doesn't exactly have graphics that blow all previous horror games out of the park. There were no scary bits in it at all the good parts of the game were purely its mechanics E.g. Controls and Accuracy. The game is over the shoulder view so you see Leon at the bottom left side of the screen. When you aim your pistol/shotgun a laser helps you aim your shot although it does shake slightly as if Leon’s hands are shaking. What is annoying though is that your target goes off line when a shot has been made - it adds to the realism but when you have a mob to fight off, it makes things difficult.
The first time I played this, I got through the first chapter (up until you meet the Seller for the first time). At the beginning of the second chapter I arrived at a village where I was mobbed by a gang of people. I shot them down and even more people came so I shot them down too but even more came. This happened on repeat for about 15 minutes - I got fed up and put it away.
However, I later tried again, from the start. I got further this time and actually got to rescue Ashley from so place or another, I wasn't paying much attention. Low and behold, I stopped soon after that...I was bored.
People say Silent Hill is in trouble because of this game which brought new attention to Resident Evil as a series. In my opinion, Silent Hill should have nothing to worry about as far as Survival Horror games are concerned. It looked good and worked well but it WAS NOT A HORROR GAME.
I don't even think Resident Evil is a contender in this genre of games. Forbidden Siren on the other hand...Might just happen.
Why do people get excited by this game?
Am I the only person NOT to like this game?
Silent Hill Vs Resident Evil...Debate
.jpg)