Resident Evil 4 Review

Version reviewed: GameCube

Resident Evil 4: Story

You play as a recurring Resident Evil character, Leon Kennedy, a government agent who has seen his fair share of paranormal action. In fact, he has seen so much that he actually has a sense of humor about the events that take place within the game.

Your mission: Rescue the President’s abducted daughter. I know it sounds clichéd, and it is, but aside from the first five seconds of the game where the plot is revealed, the game kept me so busy that I never had a chance to dwell on how bland the initial plot was and I assure you it doesn’t take long for the plot to actually envelope you.

Gameplay

If you’ve heard anything about this game already, on the forefront we’ve got graphics the likes of which have never been seen. The controls are definitely something that you just have to get used to, but it almost seems fitting, because at the beginning of the game you’re kind of a clumsy shot and by the end you’re the beef-cake bad ass that every gamer wants to be. By the end of the game, I actually felt like I was prepared for a viral infestation to take place here in Seattle.

Weapons and Ammo

One of the first things you may want to take notice of is the vital point utilization system. In the older Resident Evils, it was pretty safe to take a shotgun to a zombie’s head and call it a day. But now there are so many more colorful ways to dispatch the freaks of this bizarre European village you’ve been thrown into during your quest that you may want to take a moment to consider them all equally. For example, now it may be more ammo efficient to pop a cap into the foot of your fast paced prowlers, rendering them incapable of advancing on you… then you can bust a couple rounds in their skull or torso. This comes into play heavily, because as with the previous of the series, ammo conservation is key.

Capcom has never felt bad about leaving you stranded, fending for your life with a horde of undead such and such and then making you go that extra mile by thinking about whether or not you’re going to have enough ammo to vanquish the incredibly difficult boss that you know is just right around the corner and this Resident Evil game is no different from its predecessors. In this installment, they added a few new features to make sure you never have too much of what you need the most: firepower. For example, there is a briefcase system: you get an attaché and then decide what you want to carry around with you based on how many spaces the item takes in your case. Generally, the more useful the item, the more space it will take away from you; for example, a shotgun takes up about three times as much space as your handgun, but when you’re absolutely backed up against a wall the wide-ranged favorite really comes in handy.

Replay and Extra Games

Replay value for the game is excellent, because as you play through the game, you unlock a ridiculously harder version of the game you just struggled through the first time. You can play through it with new costumes or even choose to play the same difficulty, but carrying over all of the weapons and upgrades that you snagged your first time through, only this time you should consider saving the bulk of your money for the newly available rocket launcher with infinite ammo. Not satisfied? Well, they even added two separate games entirely, available upon completion: Operation Ada and the survival mode I affectionately refer to as “God’s Cruel Joke to Gamers Everywhere.” With so many things to constantly unlock, it’s likely that I could play this game for the next twenty years and never be bored.

The Added Benefits

As fairly obvious as it is as to where I stand on this two-disc beauty of a game, one point stands clear that every one of us nerds needs to recognize: chicks actually dig watching you play this game. This is what the culmination of our entire technology gathering has surmounted to. Put on the surround sound, turn down the lights and if you can just get her to watch it for thirty minutes it may actually get to the point that she will be pissed off at you for playing it while she’s not around. At one point, my female spectator actually refused to let me stop playing to make some dinner, so she ordered a pizza just to keep me on that controller. I know, I know. It’s okay to cry, but don’t thank me. Thank Capcom for revolutionizing the way we pick up women.