Resident Evil 4 (GCN) - Review
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Wow.
That is the thing that pops into my head after playing this game. This game was probably the best game I have touched in a very long time. That's right, Im standing up and saying that it is better than both Gran Theft Auto San Andreas and Halo 2. Not only is this game the best Resident Evil in the series, it is probably the best action, adventure, or horror game I have played. Resident Evil 4 is a game that you will play for hours and not even realize it. You just get sucked in. The story opens up with Leon Scott Kennedy, yes that great rookie Police officer in RE2, six years after the Raccoon City incident. Leon is now working for the government by protecting the president and his family. His first assignment on the job is to go to Europe and find the president's missing daughter, she was last seen in Spain. When he gets there he finds that the villagers want Kennedy dead, but he can't figure out why. This game quickly goes from a rescue mission to a survival, as he fights the townspeople, a giant sea monster, some troll like beasts, and other gruesome but very creative characters. Leon isn't alone in the chaos, a familiar face also from RE2, Ada Wong makes appearances...but is she working for the wrong people? There is also a villager that doesn't try to kill Leon, a helpful and skilled gunman named Luis Sera. When Leon first runs into Luis he isn't sure if he should trust him or not.
These villagers that Leon runs into in a way are like the zombies he faced six years ago, but then they are totally different. You think they are slow? Well tell that to them when they run at you like the zombies in the movie Dawn of the Dead. Not only are they quick, they are also smart, their brain isn't dead like the zombies and they make use of it. While you are shooting at one or two of the villagers a group of three or four will find a way to sneak up behind you and jump on your back. They try to surround you throughout the game, that seems to be the main objective in their weird minds. Some hold axes, some hold pitchforks, some hold dynamite, and almost any other type of weapon you can think of, even an archer here or there. These weird villagers set up traps around the game, including bear traps, dynamite strings, and boulders that chase you down Indiana Jones style. You really don't know what is going to happen next in this game and it really keeps you guessing the whole time you are playing.
So why exactly are these villagers trying to kill Leon? Well I will let you find that out, there is a great and unique story about that.
With all of that said, let me try to back up those positive comments with some opinions about the actual game. One of the greatest additions to this game is the camera angle. Some points of the game feel like it is the classic third person that all of the other RE games had, but when you hold down the R button to defend yourself the camera tightens so it almost feels like a first person. When Leon is walking around the camera lets you see pretty much everything in front of him, and the cinematic bars on the top and bottom of the screen makes it seem like a movie and that means that a wide screen TV would allow the player to see even more around him. Don't worry though, you see everything you need to see if you have a regular screen size. However if you hold down the R button to aim your weapon at an enemy the camera quickly goes over the right shoulder of Leon, making it hard to see whatever is on the left side of Leon. That might sound like a drawback but it just adds to the suspense, because the way the enemies try to surround Leon you never know if something is going to come at you from behind or where Leon can't actually see while he is shooting at something in front of him. Another great addition to the series also came with the push of the R button. When Leon pulls his gun out, a laser comes out of the gun and allows the player to shoot a villager anywhere on the body. You can aim at an enemies head to blow it clean off, or while they are sprinting at Leon you can aim at their legs to make them fall on their face. There is a little bit of getting used to, because this game uses a realistic shooting system, Leon's aim constantly moves if you don't move the stick yourself. There is also a slight angle that makes shooting a little awkward at the beginning of the game, but within a few hours you will be shooting so much that you quickly get used to it.
The choice to either open a door silently or kick it open is a unique addition as well. If you want to be quiet and sneak up on the creepy enemies you can just open the door slowly. Or if you want to be cool, loud and dangerous kick the door down and start blowing heads all over the place. You can also choose to walk or run around, which comes in handy throughout the game. Even though the enemy is pretty smart, Leon is a lot smarter...well at least as smart as the player controlling him. You can set traps of your own, gather up a big group of villagers then blast them with a shotgun blast, or throw a grenade to blow them all to bits. The game gets a little bit tougher when Leon actually finds the president's daughter earlier in the game then I thought he would. She follows Leon anywhere he goes, but you can command her to wait in a certain area. Though that isn't a good idea unless you know it is an absolutely safe because an enemy could just walk up, pick her up and take her away...then the game ends. Also, it is tough to shoot while Ashley(president's daughter) is around, she can take damage from Leon's gun blasts and usually dies with one shot. She can get in the way when trying to set off a trap to kill off a big group of enemies, and really is just a hassle at times. But is this a drawback? No, not in my mind, this only adds again to the suspense and action, its scary enough for the villagers to attack Leon and to keep up with Leon's health, but now you have to keep up with Ashley's. Though, she often gets taken back to the villager's side in the story so she isn't with Leon the entire game.
The graphics are probably the best I have seen in a current video game. Everything looks extremely real, and extremely hideous. Leon's jacket and hair move so naturally that I thought it was a scene from a movie at times, and the lighting from the gun fire makes it look even more believable. The giant environments hardly ever have any load times in the game, and when the game does load, its only for a few seconds and it does a temporary save for you at that point. The temporary saves allow you to return there if you die anytime after that point, but if you turn the game off or quit then you start from the last typewriter. The buildings and the castle that appear in the game were just incredible and the bosses are built to just scare you off of the controller. Don't get too relaxed when cut scenes pop up in the game, because at random times a button combination will appear on the screen for Leon to dodge a boulder, a knife, climb the side of a cliff, or just about anything else you can think of to save Leon's life. If you don't press buttons on time then it means an instant death, which the game adds up throughout the game. The great audio just sends goose bumps up your spine while you run through the town. You can hear the villagers shuffling around, planning their next attack...and you can hear other creatures that will send you to sleep with your momma.
Another incredible addition to this series is the merchant, another villager that seems to follow you around and sell items, weapons, and allows you to sell treasures to him for more money. That's right, there is money in this game and plenty of it. The merchant sells incredible guns for you to run around and blow up stuff and he also sells upgrades for these guns. The upgrades make the gun you own incredibly powerful and incredibly quick. You get to upgrade the guns' firepower, firing speed, capacity of bullets, and the time it takes to reload your weapon. Then, once you get all of these abilities up on a gun the merchant then sells a special upgrade for a gun for example, the blacktail's exclusive upgrade makes it's firepower be extremely powerful and the strikers' exclusive upgrade is to hold 100 shotgun shells...very nice.
What else can I say about this game other than it is a must buy. If you own a Gamecube, this game is THE best game for the system, even if you aren't a Resident Evil fan you need to play this game. There really isn't any bad things to write about in the game except for the average voice acting, but Leon makes up for that with his wise-cracks and few jokes in a tense situation. The graphics are great, the sound make the graphics greater and the both make the game suspenseful, scary and it adds a new fear to the series. The storyline is unique and really gave Resident Evil a great name again with it's fresh story and surprisingly has no zombies. The additions in the game put the title over the top, and really makes this the best game in the series. Again, this is a must have game even if you aren't a fan of the series. You will be addicted to this game, even after you beat it you will still spend hours playing the extras. Dare I say, you will be like a zombie, except you don't fed on brains, you fed on Resident Evil 4.
Reviewed By:ShadowRayne Reviewed On: Tue, 21 June 2005 19:11:39
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Release Date: Mon, 24 January 2005 18:00:00
ESRB: "M" for Mature
Genre: Action, Adventure
Platform: GameCube
Multiplayer: N/A
Developer: Capcom Production Studio 4
Publisher: Capcom
ESRB: "M" for Mature
Genre: Action, Adventure
Platform: GameCube
Multiplayer: N/A
Developer: Capcom Production Studio 4
Publisher: Capcom
Score:
Graphics: 100
Audio: 90
Gameplay: 100
Replay: 90
Overall: 90
Graphics: 100
Audio: 90
Gameplay: 100
Replay: 90
Overall: 90
High:
Low:
Wow.
That is the thing that pops into my head after playing this game. This game was probably the best game I have touched in a very long time. That's right, Im standing up and saying that it is better than both Gran Theft Auto San Andreas and Halo 2. Not only is this game the best Resident Evil in the series, it is probably the best action, adventure, or horror game I have played. Resident Evil 4 is a game that you will play for hours and not even realize it. You just get sucked in. The story opens up with Leon Scott Kennedy, yes that great rookie Police officer in RE2, six years after the Raccoon City incident. Leon is now working for the government by protecting the president and his family. His first assignment on the job is to go to Europe and find the president's missing daughter, she was last seen in Spain. When he gets there he finds that the villagers want Kennedy dead, but he can't figure out why. This game quickly goes from a rescue mission to a survival, as he fights the townspeople, a giant sea monster, some troll like beasts, and other gruesome but very creative characters. Leon isn't alone in the chaos, a familiar face also from RE2, Ada Wong makes appearances...but is she working for the wrong people? There is also a villager that doesn't try to kill Leon, a helpful and skilled gunman named Luis Sera. When Leon first runs into Luis he isn't sure if he should trust him or not.
These villagers that Leon runs into in a way are like the zombies he faced six years ago, but then they are totally different. You think they are slow? Well tell that to them when they run at you like the zombies in the movie Dawn of the Dead. Not only are they quick, they are also smart, their brain isn't dead like the zombies and they make use of it. While you are shooting at one or two of the villagers a group of three or four will find a way to sneak up behind you and jump on your back. They try to surround you throughout the game, that seems to be the main objective in their weird minds. Some hold axes, some hold pitchforks, some hold dynamite, and almost any other type of weapon you can think of, even an archer here or there. These weird villagers set up traps around the game, including bear traps, dynamite strings, and boulders that chase you down Indiana Jones style. You really don't know what is going to happen next in this game and it really keeps you guessing the whole time you are playing.
So why exactly are these villagers trying to kill Leon? Well I will let you find that out, there is a great and unique story about that.
With all of that said, let me try to back up those positive comments with some opinions about the actual game. One of the greatest additions to this game is the camera angle. Some points of the game feel like it is the classic third person that all of the other RE games had, but when you hold down the R button to defend yourself the camera tightens so it almost feels like a first person. When Leon is walking around the camera lets you see pretty much everything in front of him, and the cinematic bars on the top and bottom of the screen makes it seem like a movie and that means that a wide screen TV would allow the player to see even more around him. Don't worry though, you see everything you need to see if you have a regular screen size. However if you hold down the R button to aim your weapon at an enemy the camera quickly goes over the right shoulder of Leon, making it hard to see whatever is on the left side of Leon. That might sound like a drawback but it just adds to the suspense, because the way the enemies try to surround Leon you never know if something is going to come at you from behind or where Leon can't actually see while he is shooting at something in front of him. Another great addition to the series also came with the push of the R button. When Leon pulls his gun out, a laser comes out of the gun and allows the player to shoot a villager anywhere on the body. You can aim at an enemies head to blow it clean off, or while they are sprinting at Leon you can aim at their legs to make them fall on their face. There is a little bit of getting used to, because this game uses a realistic shooting system, Leon's aim constantly moves if you don't move the stick yourself. There is also a slight angle that makes shooting a little awkward at the beginning of the game, but within a few hours you will be shooting so much that you quickly get used to it.
The choice to either open a door silently or kick it open is a unique addition as well. If you want to be quiet and sneak up on the creepy enemies you can just open the door slowly. Or if you want to be cool, loud and dangerous kick the door down and start blowing heads all over the place. You can also choose to walk or run around, which comes in handy throughout the game. Even though the enemy is pretty smart, Leon is a lot smarter...well at least as smart as the player controlling him. You can set traps of your own, gather up a big group of villagers then blast them with a shotgun blast, or throw a grenade to blow them all to bits. The game gets a little bit tougher when Leon actually finds the president's daughter earlier in the game then I thought he would. She follows Leon anywhere he goes, but you can command her to wait in a certain area. Though that isn't a good idea unless you know it is an absolutely safe because an enemy could just walk up, pick her up and take her away...then the game ends. Also, it is tough to shoot while Ashley(president's daughter) is around, she can take damage from Leon's gun blasts and usually dies with one shot. She can get in the way when trying to set off a trap to kill off a big group of enemies, and really is just a hassle at times. But is this a drawback? No, not in my mind, this only adds again to the suspense and action, its scary enough for the villagers to attack Leon and to keep up with Leon's health, but now you have to keep up with Ashley's. Though, she often gets taken back to the villager's side in the story so she isn't with Leon the entire game.
The graphics are probably the best I have seen in a current video game. Everything looks extremely real, and extremely hideous. Leon's jacket and hair move so naturally that I thought it was a scene from a movie at times, and the lighting from the gun fire makes it look even more believable. The giant environments hardly ever have any load times in the game, and when the game does load, its only for a few seconds and it does a temporary save for you at that point. The temporary saves allow you to return there if you die anytime after that point, but if you turn the game off or quit then you start from the last typewriter. The buildings and the castle that appear in the game were just incredible and the bosses are built to just scare you off of the controller. Don't get too relaxed when cut scenes pop up in the game, because at random times a button combination will appear on the screen for Leon to dodge a boulder, a knife, climb the side of a cliff, or just about anything else you can think of to save Leon's life. If you don't press buttons on time then it means an instant death, which the game adds up throughout the game. The great audio just sends goose bumps up your spine while you run through the town. You can hear the villagers shuffling around, planning their next attack...and you can hear other creatures that will send you to sleep with your momma.
Another incredible addition to this series is the merchant, another villager that seems to follow you around and sell items, weapons, and allows you to sell treasures to him for more money. That's right, there is money in this game and plenty of it. The merchant sells incredible guns for you to run around and blow up stuff and he also sells upgrades for these guns. The upgrades make the gun you own incredibly powerful and incredibly quick. You get to upgrade the guns' firepower, firing speed, capacity of bullets, and the time it takes to reload your weapon. Then, once you get all of these abilities up on a gun the merchant then sells a special upgrade for a gun for example, the blacktail's exclusive upgrade makes it's firepower be extremely powerful and the strikers' exclusive upgrade is to hold 100 shotgun shells...very nice.
What else can I say about this game other than it is a must buy. If you own a Gamecube, this game is THE best game for the system, even if you aren't a Resident Evil fan you need to play this game. There really isn't any bad things to write about in the game except for the average voice acting, but Leon makes up for that with his wise-cracks and few jokes in a tense situation. The graphics are great, the sound make the graphics greater and the both make the game suspenseful, scary and it adds a new fear to the series. The storyline is unique and really gave Resident Evil a great name again with it's fresh story and surprisingly has no zombies. The additions in the game put the title over the top, and really makes this the best game in the series. Again, this is a must have game even if you aren't a fan of the series. You will be addicted to this game, even after you beat it you will still spend hours playing the extras. Dare I say, you will be like a zombie, except you don't fed on brains, you fed on Resident Evil 4.
Reviewed By:ShadowRayne Reviewed On: Tue, 21 June 2005 19:11:39
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