Full Review

I'm going to try to avoid being biased either way here, whether it be in the "THIS IS THE BEST GAME EVER" style or the "THIS IS THE FLAT OUT WORST GAME EVER" way either. I previously reviewed this for Wii but decided to go more in depth this time. Those who read my other review will be familiar with my beef with this game's game play style and combat mechanics, but I will elaborate far more here. It almost seems as if the more I examine and think about this game, the less I like it.

Disclaimer: I have never played the Resident Evil series of games before, so my perspective on the game itself might be a bit different than fans of the series, both those who are disappointed by this release and elated by it.
To start, I strongly disagree with GameSpot on the 9.6 rating it has awarded this game. It is actually quite a mixed bag if one reflects on the game for a bit. Though there are some strong points of RE4, there are also many shortfalls, which I will explain in this review. With so much lacking, I can't understand why people like it so much. I suppose it could make an okay time killer, but well before I finished the game, I was quite tired of it.

Gameplay: 3/10
Here lie my biggest issues (both positive and negative) with the game. To be fair, RE4 first off really does feel quite fun at first, with the way that the guns look, the way they fire, and the way they hit enemies. Sometimes, the storyline does get interesting, but unfortunately it is ridden with cliches and the characters are not developed very well. The firefights can sometimes get pretty intense, but in a more tedious fashion that detracts from the game's experience. The main character could have been pretty cool as well, but unfortunately he is plagued by clumsy, robotic movement and poor character development, and thus is also ruined : (

Resident Evil 4 tries far too hard to be realistic and scary for how realistic and scary it really is. This is one aspect I didn't really elaborate on before, so I thought I would do so more now. Sure, some things would be creepy otherwise, but when enemies are not believable and the story seems rather silly, you find yourself wondering "how could this happen", which completely ruins the suspension of disbelief. At least, it did for me, and I know that it does for some others. One cannot be one hundred percent realistic, but the alternatives are making the game humorous (in games such as the GTA series, unrealistic aspects are more tolerable in a humorous atmosphere) and keeping the same lack of realism, or making the game more realistic. And yes, this game NEEDS to be somewhat realistic if it isn't turned into a horror spoof because of the way the atmosphere is set up (dismal and hopeless). There's simply nothing else that can make for an effective gaming experience that does not keep you distracted with things that just seem ridiculous. I will give a few examples of this later.


The controls also present another problem, and detract from the realism even further. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to shoot while moving which is ridiculous (even a civilian could), and as a secret agent who supposedly has cat like reflexes, you are forced to take hits that most ordinary people could dodge at least 80% of the time. Turning and moving erratically are also nearly impossible with the poor control scheme. However, these maneuvers are necessary to evade enemies and should not be impossible to pull off. Because of this shortfall, you're left pumping these seemingly bulletproof villagers full of lead again and again monotonously, and also rummaging through your case every so often to pull out a new weapon (and while you do this, the game pauses). It's so counter-intuitive.

The developers tried to justify a lot of the lack of realism by saying that alien parasites were to account for the villagers near invulnerability, especially with some. This however does not take into account basic physics or a realistic damage scale. How in the world is a neck break equal to five shotgun blasts to the face? A knife slash equal to a handgun bullet? Without visible damage, after awhile you feel like you're shooting BB guns or beanbags. What a great way to combat angry, brainwashed armed villagers! The simplistic background story explanation failed to really explain very....basic things like this, and while not noticeable to the average gamer, they leave those who desire a consistent game to balk. I'm not asking for the world. Just a basic, reasonable damage scale that makes SENSE is all I ask. Maybe in this game if they wanted melee weapons to have a greater role they could have made guns and ammo rare and had a lot more close up combat. Allowing Leon to use enemy villagers weapons would have helped. Making him instead some random guy forced to mostly use up close and personal weapons due to lack of available weaponry would have been even more amazing.

I was also frustrated with the lack of allowance to use my character's well apparent 'cat like reflexes' in scenes outside of the few cut scenes where they were exhibited, where one was forced to press buttons quickly in order to activate a move. This requires no skill whatsoever and is highly predictable. It also makes the boss fights far easier to plan and far less creepy/scary. Again, aspects of the game such as this which may seem small to some really do ruin the game for those who seek a serious gaming experience when they add up. I really would have let a lot more slide if Resident Evil 4 seemed like a joke, but it tried way too hard to be serious. I'll now give some examples.
The regenerator/iron maiden was by far the creepiest enemy in the game, even though it was still borderline ridiculous and easy to see coming. This made most of the other enemies in the game not at all creepy and pretty stupid.

Nonetheless, there WERE some enemies that could have been quite scary if rendered somewhat realistically with chances to dodge if in need. Most of your foes in this game can take multiple shots to the face, but instead of slowly deteriorating, they simple get right back up and charge at you with no visible damage. It's not anything like what would happen in any game remotely resembling reality. Most enemies also cannot have their limbs shot off, and you have difficulty using your close combat skills effectively against them because of a system which only allows you to use martial arts or your knife when you are being grabbed or are literally six inches from them. I don't think you can even MOVE while using your knife!

If Leon would get killed when completely mobbed (though there would still be some chances for escape), this would be fine, but in most cases, you are not given the chance to dodge simple hits which is just awful. You are not given the chances to pick the villagers weapon up and stab them in the face. The villagers also completely lack personality, utter the same phrases in muddled Spanish over and over, and are virtually all clones of each other by appearance. They are slow, predictable, but take a considerable amount of ammo to kill. This makes for an easy, but very tedious gaming experience. What would have been better in my view would be to make the villagers in general more erratic, but easier to kill if you hit the right places. They should have also been easy to dodge with skill.

The worst examples of how ridiculous this game can be are the chainsaw lunatic and El Lago (the monster in the lake). The chainsaw guy is a semi boss and could have been a fearsome enemy if the damage was believable, but after about 30 handgun shots to the face or five sniper bullets in the neck, you start to wonder if the crazy developers expect you to believe that a potato sack is bulletproof or something ridiculous like that. This enemy moves slowly and predictably as the rest do, revs its weapon threateningly, and slashes at you. However, when you get hit, it's always exactly the same death: your head getting cut off. This is often similar with other enemies, though with regular villagers you get a bit more variation. With the chainsaw attacks you can't just get scraped or be barely missed and lose a little health. You always just...die, and have to start over from a few minutes back. Booooring.

So, instead of thinking "Wow, that was so creepy!" you end up thinking "Hey, I could have dodged that!" It's simply NOT the feel that the game or the enemies need. Why can't I somehow disarm not only this guy, but a lot of other enemies? It's be quite easy for a secret agent. I'm forced to get up real close and take hits a civilian could probably dodge. Pump a shotgun shell in an enemy? Then please, for god's sake make him slow down, make him trail blood and limp, and give Leon an ability to use enemy weapons against them if in an advantageous position. It'd really help when low on ammo and it'd be a challenge. That's strategy, not the same monotonous "get shot, get back up, repeat" dynamic. I'm serious! That's all they do. You shoot them twice with a shotgun and they just keep getting up, and you do the same thing over and over again. It's so boring. If the villagers are totally crazy, why can't they move really erratically instead of like robots?

Why can I do a neck break and kill even the harder enemies in one hit but if I pump one full of shotgun shells it doesn't kill them? As mentioned before, that's really just...dumb. The damage scale is TOTALLY off. I do NOT need my head flooded with doubts about the game's realism whilst playing it, thus it would have been better for the developers to make this game more of a 'joke horror' type as I said before, which would make up for a lot of these silly errors.

'El Lago' is this huge water beast boss, kind of similar to some dinosaur, but you can't really tell what it is. There's like no story behind how on earth they made this thing, and fighting it in some puny rowboat with harpoons feels more like something from the movie 'Pirates of the Caribbean' than a boss in a horror game. There's no strategy in it either, you just have to press the right buttons at the right times, except for throwing harpoons, which is painfully easy. So you're left with this feeling as if you just fought Nessie, which is totally out of place and really just makes you wonder what the developers were thinking.


The above gave just two examples (out of many, but I do not want to waste too much of your time) of how poorly designed the enemies are, of how ridiculous it is that Leon has the acrobatic skill of a five year old outside of the cut scenes, and more. It completely ruins any notion of 'creepy' and instead makes those who desire a good gaming experience think "that never would have happened". Stuff like this may SEEM irrelevant, but it really adds up. Sometimes it even seems as though the developers did this on purpose, such as with these 'suits of armor' that try to march around and kill you. It's also quite easy to predict what will happen next (when it seems as though all is well), which can occasionally leave a sense of suspense, but more often than not just makes the game boring.

The money system also got annoying, because it detracted completely from the 'survival' feel of the game. The merchant was also very corny, and some (very minor) things did not make sense in this area like him being in tons of random places all the time.

Last but not least, the storyline is corny in many places. The bosses have a predictable, hackneyed sense of 'humor' (especially Sadler), there are many things left unexplained, and many of the characters are underdeveloped. You see potential in some areas, and then it just....melts. Again, this does not make much sense considering how 'realistic' and 'scary' they seemed to want this game to be.

The rest of the game is not this bad, but as the gameplay is one of the principal aspects of the game, it hits hard.

Sound - 7/10 Monotonous for much of the game, though some of the ambient music is quite entertaining and well..good. Unfortunately, we find that there is the same exact 'creepy' sound whenever monsters/enemies are near, which does sometimes add to the suspense but also makes the game more predictable. Quality is not bad, but could have been better.

Graphics: 8/10
Actually pretty decent, but hardly colorful and not special in any way. There is a lot of grey in this game, which I believe was largely included to help portray a dismal atmosphere. However, as I detailed quite well before, the game's realism is abysmal, so the dismal atmosphere is just...boring instead of 'scary'. If a more mock-horror type was actually pursued, a more colorful atmosphere DEFINITELY would have done the game more justice.

Value: 6/10 I don't know how much this game is really worth, honestly. I borrowed it from someone. Maybe around $20 or so, but that's if you like 'shoot-em-up' type games and can tolerate poorly designed enemies, damage scales, environments, and a lacking storyline. I guess most average gamers have been dulled to these kinds of deficits (particularly with GameSpot reviewers giving disproportionate scores to popular releases), but this isn't the case for some of us.

Tilt: 6/10
One might wonder why I'm giving this game a reasonable tilt even though I really didn't like it, but this is because the game was actually entertaining if I could get past the huge deficits and not take it so seriously. Again, the firefights were kind of fun, but with villagers that actually were not complete zombies, it would have made sense to have a few gunmen (besides JJ, who is some huge commando type zombie armed with a minigun) so I could be on the receiving end of some fire. Honestly, if the villagers can set up dynamite traps and bombs that hurt you, why can't they shoot at you at least some of the time? The problem is that this game tries really hard to get you to take it seriously, so you end up noticing how stupid many things are if you typically enjoy games with good story lines and a sensible level of realism. RE4 TRIES desperately to be serious, but fails miserably if one really looks at it. All in all, I attribute this laziness on the part of the developers to RE4 largely being an effort to extract further money from an already famous franchise.

A lot of people think that this is one of the best games ever made. Unfortunately, many people say the same about the Halo series, though Halo is a cut above this, in my opinion. It just upsets me that the bar has been set so low, but I can also understand why when people readily buy games without substance.

Overall score: 6/10

(also posted on ciao.co.uk)