Ahnk Reviews Resident Evil 4
To this point I had kept my reviews to accepted streams of the quasi-intellectual variety forms of art… the novel, the movie… but lately one form of art has enthralled me like nothing else. And considering all the talk that the video game has received on TRF in recent months, thanks largely to Zark Ekan, I feel it would be acceptable to review a video game. Not that I REALLY care what anyone else thinks, but I pretend to make you guys feel important. Long rambling introduction aside, I am going to put to screen a review of a video game, but I’m not going to say what it is. You’ll just have to read the whole thing.
…what? I put it in the title? Damn it. Next time, I’m making a really ambiguous title just to mess with you. Stop laughing! It’s not funny.
Where was I? Oh yeah. Game. Well, not just any game, but perhaps the best game of 2005. Is it too early to say that? Okay, well, perhaps the best game of January 2005. It is Resident Evil 4, described as the savior of the Resident Evil franchise and the Nintendo Gamecube. It is, I can say, both. Resident Evil is a huge step ahead of every other game in the series and every game on the system. It is one of the best video games I have ever played. Make no mistake, I do not own Resident Evil; it owns me. My eyes grew bloodshot from a marathon 11-hour stretch broken only by a trip to the bathroom. The game is that enthralling.
Before I step into this game, a little history. The first three Resident Evil games were released on the PS1/2. Sales for the first two were phenomenal, establishing spin-offs and rip-offs by the dozen, which is when the fit sat the han, so to speak. Gamers caught on to the fact that every game was essentially the same, with the same basic gameplay, same premise, and same clichéd “holy shit” moments. Sales in the genre began to slow, and Capcom released three Resident Evil games, Survivor, Outbreak, and Zero, with tepid to rancidly bad results. Things were looking down.
If you’ve played the games or seen the movies, you’d know they focused on a company called Umbrella who used man-made viruses in order to infect people and turn them into biological weapons. Well, Resident Evil Four wipes that out the window. Ignore the ending to the second film… the ending of RE Nemesis had Umbrella in shambles and that’s where RE 4 picks up. You’re looking for the President’s Daughter… yeah, groan away, the game goes THERE. It really shouldn’t have, but it’s just minor filler in any case, and easily ignored. Umbrella is dead… basically. And you’re just a cop in the middle of a village of angry, man-eating monsters. Welcome to Resident Evil. Safeties off.
The first thing to get used to is the difference in the enemies. Zombies in the Resident Evil games were slow and stupid. They were dangerous in close or in massive numbers, but generally you breezed right through the game until you encountered the tougher monsters, such as the lickers. Throw that out the door too. I could try and take time to explain it, and I usually do, as I feel I’m pretty good at this thing. However, this time I do believe I will include a screenshot.
http://therebelfaction.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=284&stc=1
Why, yes, that is a chainsaw. In fact, three of those monsters are armed. The chainsaw man and the man behind him with a knife (I think; you can’t see it, but by his stance he has something in one hand). In the back, one of the villagers is lighting a stick of dynamite. Yes. Now, this changes the gameplay experience entirely. From the start, you are outnumbered and now, they do not simply slide to their death. They duck and weave, running at times, sometimes, coordinating and making a circle. You’ll have shit thrown at you early and often. And expect more then once to lose a head to that chainsaw. If that guy with the dynamite gets too close you can expect a friendly hug while the wick slowly burns to nothing. THIS is Resident Evil now. I can’t ever play another Resident Evil game because the scale of intelligence and difficulty of this game is just a whole other world. This honestly changes the feel of the entire game from stumbling around looking for keys to dodging anything from knives to scythes to crossbow arrows to RPGs and Minigun shells. The game is insane and nothing like the previous Resident Evils.
And THEN you fight the bosses.
I have to say, it’s a completely different feel then the previous games, and that has so far led to some criticism. I thought the old games were fine, and likened RE to the old adage; if it ain’t broke, don’t fixit. But to hell with what I thought, this game kicks serious ass. The enemies are better. The combat is more intense. The new RPG style weapon system (a gun merchant lives in the game, and you can use him to sell guns you have or find, buy new ones, or upgrade the ones you have, as well as selling spoils dropped by the enemy) is awesome. The game has been dumbed down but for once, not for the kiddy crowds. The game drops the S word often and I think I heard the big F once, and the decapitations and impalements are definitely intense. It’s more been dumbed down for the console kiddies with their haloes and half-lifes and the like… the action gamer crowd. I don’t consider myself an action gamer and love a difficult puzzle, and those are sadly missing as the game offers a ton of action and once or twice, pushing a statue over a switch. But the gameplay is riveting enough to keep you hanging on to the end boss.
Unfortunately, the game drops off there. The End Boss, while visually impressive, will be one of the easiest fights in the game and totally anti-climactic after intense fights against his two chief agents. Fortunately, the game does not end with the last boss, as two challenging and compelling minigames exist allowing you to unlock features. Not only that, but one is required to view the games true ending, setting up a sequel and definitely surpassing the pretty weak ending of the main game. And speaking of the main game, the option exists to replay the game, either by loading your save file and keeping all your weapons intact, or playing on “Professional” difficulty with harder monsters and more of them, less ammo, and less spoils. The game also features a lot of hidden content and findable items that you may need to play once or even three times in order to find, as well as off-beat humor hidden in the game that you’ll notice when you have the time to mess around. Overall, the whole experience is fun, and worthy of playing more then once.
Fans of Resident Evils past and newcomers to the series alike should pick up this game. Although it will be released on the PS2 and X-Box the delay is slated to be about a year, as a new team has been assembled the recreate the game. This is without a doubt the premiere reason to own a Gamecube and almost single handedly makes the system worth every penny. It’s one of the best video games I have every played and if you don’t pick it up at least once, you’re going to be missing out on an excellent game.
:)
To this point I had kept my reviews to accepted streams of the quasi-intellectual variety forms of art… the novel, the movie… but lately one form of art has enthralled me like nothing else. And considering all the talk that the video game has received on TRF in recent months, thanks largely to Zark Ekan, I feel it would be acceptable to review a video game. Not that I REALLY care what anyone else thinks, but I pretend to make you guys feel important. Long rambling introduction aside, I am going to put to screen a review of a video game, but I’m not going to say what it is. You’ll just have to read the whole thing.
…what? I put it in the title? Damn it. Next time, I’m making a really ambiguous title just to mess with you. Stop laughing! It’s not funny.
Where was I? Oh yeah. Game. Well, not just any game, but perhaps the best game of 2005. Is it too early to say that? Okay, well, perhaps the best game of January 2005. It is Resident Evil 4, described as the savior of the Resident Evil franchise and the Nintendo Gamecube. It is, I can say, both. Resident Evil is a huge step ahead of every other game in the series and every game on the system. It is one of the best video games I have ever played. Make no mistake, I do not own Resident Evil; it owns me. My eyes grew bloodshot from a marathon 11-hour stretch broken only by a trip to the bathroom. The game is that enthralling.
Before I step into this game, a little history. The first three Resident Evil games were released on the PS1/2. Sales for the first two were phenomenal, establishing spin-offs and rip-offs by the dozen, which is when the fit sat the han, so to speak. Gamers caught on to the fact that every game was essentially the same, with the same basic gameplay, same premise, and same clichéd “holy shit” moments. Sales in the genre began to slow, and Capcom released three Resident Evil games, Survivor, Outbreak, and Zero, with tepid to rancidly bad results. Things were looking down.
If you’ve played the games or seen the movies, you’d know they focused on a company called Umbrella who used man-made viruses in order to infect people and turn them into biological weapons. Well, Resident Evil Four wipes that out the window. Ignore the ending to the second film… the ending of RE Nemesis had Umbrella in shambles and that’s where RE 4 picks up. You’re looking for the President’s Daughter… yeah, groan away, the game goes THERE. It really shouldn’t have, but it’s just minor filler in any case, and easily ignored. Umbrella is dead… basically. And you’re just a cop in the middle of a village of angry, man-eating monsters. Welcome to Resident Evil. Safeties off.
The first thing to get used to is the difference in the enemies. Zombies in the Resident Evil games were slow and stupid. They were dangerous in close or in massive numbers, but generally you breezed right through the game until you encountered the tougher monsters, such as the lickers. Throw that out the door too. I could try and take time to explain it, and I usually do, as I feel I’m pretty good at this thing. However, this time I do believe I will include a screenshot.
http://therebelfaction.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=284&stc=1
Why, yes, that is a chainsaw. In fact, three of those monsters are armed. The chainsaw man and the man behind him with a knife (I think; you can’t see it, but by his stance he has something in one hand). In the back, one of the villagers is lighting a stick of dynamite. Yes. Now, this changes the gameplay experience entirely. From the start, you are outnumbered and now, they do not simply slide to their death. They duck and weave, running at times, sometimes, coordinating and making a circle. You’ll have shit thrown at you early and often. And expect more then once to lose a head to that chainsaw. If that guy with the dynamite gets too close you can expect a friendly hug while the wick slowly burns to nothing. THIS is Resident Evil now. I can’t ever play another Resident Evil game because the scale of intelligence and difficulty of this game is just a whole other world. This honestly changes the feel of the entire game from stumbling around looking for keys to dodging anything from knives to scythes to crossbow arrows to RPGs and Minigun shells. The game is insane and nothing like the previous Resident Evils.
And THEN you fight the bosses.
I have to say, it’s a completely different feel then the previous games, and that has so far led to some criticism. I thought the old games were fine, and likened RE to the old adage; if it ain’t broke, don’t fixit. But to hell with what I thought, this game kicks serious ass. The enemies are better. The combat is more intense. The new RPG style weapon system (a gun merchant lives in the game, and you can use him to sell guns you have or find, buy new ones, or upgrade the ones you have, as well as selling spoils dropped by the enemy) is awesome. The game has been dumbed down but for once, not for the kiddy crowds. The game drops the S word often and I think I heard the big F once, and the decapitations and impalements are definitely intense. It’s more been dumbed down for the console kiddies with their haloes and half-lifes and the like… the action gamer crowd. I don’t consider myself an action gamer and love a difficult puzzle, and those are sadly missing as the game offers a ton of action and once or twice, pushing a statue over a switch. But the gameplay is riveting enough to keep you hanging on to the end boss.
Unfortunately, the game drops off there. The End Boss, while visually impressive, will be one of the easiest fights in the game and totally anti-climactic after intense fights against his two chief agents. Fortunately, the game does not end with the last boss, as two challenging and compelling minigames exist allowing you to unlock features. Not only that, but one is required to view the games true ending, setting up a sequel and definitely surpassing the pretty weak ending of the main game. And speaking of the main game, the option exists to replay the game, either by loading your save file and keeping all your weapons intact, or playing on “Professional” difficulty with harder monsters and more of them, less ammo, and less spoils. The game also features a lot of hidden content and findable items that you may need to play once or even three times in order to find, as well as off-beat humor hidden in the game that you’ll notice when you have the time to mess around. Overall, the whole experience is fun, and worthy of playing more then once.
Fans of Resident Evils past and newcomers to the series alike should pick up this game. Although it will be released on the PS2 and X-Box the delay is slated to be about a year, as a new team has been assembled the recreate the game. This is without a doubt the premiere reason to own a Gamecube and almost single handedly makes the system worth every penny. It’s one of the best video games I have every played and if you don’t pick it up at least once, you’re going to be missing out on an excellent game.
:)
