Gamecube - Resident Evil 4

Format
Gamecube
Publisher
Capcom
Developer
Capcom
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
Survival horror

Resident Evil 4

By David Rasmussen
19th Feb 05

Previously...
It all started with the original trilogy. Time was 1998 (six years ago), the place was Raccoon City and all locales nearby. And it all started with... a game that didn't come out until only recently!

Resident Evil Zero (game #5)
Actually REZero is NOT one of the games that came out at the start, but a game that came out after the trilogy was done and wrapped. REZero, the first original RE game that came out for the GameCube, was set prior to the events of RE and featured a new character named Rebecca as the star of the game. I haven't had a chance to play this game yet, but when I do I'll be sure to do a review of it!

Resident Evil (game #1)
Set in a mansion owned by Umbrella near the city of Raccoon City, this game kicks off the Raccoon City trilogy of the games. Starring Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine and Barry Burton, this game will probably be best remembered for it's bad dialogue and even worse voice acting.

Resident Evil 2 (game #2)
The RE sequel that takes place in a zombie infested Raccoon City. Starring new RCPD recruit Leon Kennedy, and sibling searching Claire Redfield (sister to Chris Redfield from the first game). This game, which is the only RE game to be ported over to the N64 (and hopefully the Nintendo DS if we're lucky) is the first RE game to get me hooked on the RE series, as well as the survival horror game genre. You play as both characters, playing all the way through as one character then rotating off to play as the second character right up to the end of the game. Quite memorable, at least to me in anycase.

Resident Evil 3 : Nemesis (game #3)
Jill Valentine leads this one off as she, and the remaining survivors of Raccoon City, struggle to escape the deathtrap the city has become. I also haven't played this game but hope to do so soon.

Resident Evil : Dead Aim (game #6)
This is the shooter RE game isn't it? Just looking at this game reminds me of old school zombie shooters at the arcade from years ago. Pass, not my thing.

Resident Evil : Outbreak (game #7)
The first online version of the RE series set during the time of the Raccoon City incident (though REZero doesn't seem to be one of the games it links to). This is also the first RE in which you (after you die) can play as a zombie in the game. Now that's a new twist on the old genre, but not as big of a twist as the one they did when they put out RE4... I should be reviewing it soon, though, just because I want to.

Resident Evil : Code Veronica X (game #4)
Taking place three months after RE2, this game is about Claire's search for her brother Chris, and how she ends up on an Umbrella research/prison island as it comes under "assault" from a rival force which sets loose the T-Virus on the island which turns a majority of it's armed forces into zombies. Most of the game is all Claire, but you do get to play as Chris... eventually. It's just that during my review of this game (I rented it for a week) I didn't get far enough to review his part of the game. Guess I'll need to buy the game to get that part done.

Resident Evil 4 (game #8)
The present game. And now...

It all started six years ago. After the truth of Umbrella, and the horrors of Raccoon City, became public things began to unravel for Umbrella. The US Government moved quickly to contain the threat of the undead citizens of Raccoon City, the President initiating a plan to insure the "threat" of Raccoon City's undead would never grow into an actual threat. How? Well, the order made the already "dead" city of Raccoon City die again (this time by nuclear fire), purging away the happy go lucky zombies and their wretched dead city out of existence. Sure, sure, those corpses sure looked happy as they wandered the streets of Raccoon City so aimlessly, probably as aimlessly as when they were amongst the living, but who wants to live near a town filled with dead people?! Not me! I think it's just swell to live next to a radioactive nuclear dead zone! Far better than living near undead people! Oh, yeah! Apparently the city has to seem like a national security threat to even get near the proposal to nuke it out of existence. Maybe that explains why a hell damned city like Silent Hill can survive so long, especially since the threat of demon cults just isn't as compelling as the threat of multinational chemical conglomerates!

So thank you, Fortune 500's top evil corporations, that you very much.

You know the rest. In short Raccoon City has become a glow in the dark city, Umbrella had the business "kicked" out of it by the US Government, as it dies it‘s own "death" (by Wall Street). After that things quieted down, and Umbrella (seemingly defeated) shuffles off the stage which leads to a long "dry spell" of games. Six year long drought as a matter of fact!

Leon, the RE2 alumni appearing in this game, has changed greatly since his "trial by fire" rookie days in Raccoon City! He is now part of a unit meant to protect the President's daughter, which is a good thing since she has been abducted by strange forces. The path to hunt her down leads you to a quaint village where you'll find the "locals" to be restless... and I mean REALLY restless! The "We're going to kill you if you bring up our role in Van Helsing again" kind of restless!

So what does that mean for you! Are these villagers human? Are they zombie? Or could it be worse?

The one thing I can tell you is that these are most definitely NOT your graveyard variety undead! They move fast, can dodge and/or block attacks, can throw their weapons or even throw dynamite at you, and are even able to coordinate their attacks in groups! Heck, they have even taken the time to rig their village with bobby traps (something the old zombies of RE have never done before)! Sure, they might not be the sharpest bloody knives in the killing pouch of evil, but who needs brains when you have intelligent fighting tactics! Most definitely these new baddies will be giving you quite the workout once you start engaging them, especially since they are by no means pushovers like their Raccoon City counterparts! But don't worry! Just as your enemy has evolved, so too has Leon evolved!

Now that the camera is situated behind him during gameplay it's easier to manipulate him, at least to me at any case who found the controls far more workable than the clunky control set up of the past. You can also control the camera to look anywhere, which is nice since enemies can come from any direction.

Another keen feature is the "action" feature. At different times in the game you will see a button or buttons appear on the screen (mostly the A button unless it's a certain action sequence then it might be the A+B buttons together or even the L+R buttons together), and you can perform a variety of actions by pressing said buttons... some even need to be pressed fast since these are split second actions... huh? What actions?

Stuff like jump over or through something, jump down from a higher point, go through an open window, climb a ladder or push down said ladder to keep enemies from following, etc. etc. etc. As for split second reaction "actions"? Some examples of split second actions would be to sprint down a hill in an Indiana Jones style "homage" sequence, dodge things quickly, and so forth.

Oh, and this time you DON'T need to press a button to traverse stairs! Climbing stairs is now done normally, unlike previous RE where you had to press a button to climb or descend stairs. Also gone is the rather annoying "creepy" animation of doors opening/closing, or you climbing up and down certain staircases, now things move much quicker! And, thankfully, the even "creepier" (annoying) thing of having to hold down a button to climb or descend stairs, or the creepy "hesistation" towards opening doors that might lead to ambushes is gone. Thank you, CAPCOM!

Even your weapons have "evolved" in this game, with the ability to upgrade your weapons now available (which hasn't been previously available before)! As you travel the village you'll notice that you are picking up money and valuable items, but what do you do with this stuff? You take these to a Merchant (you can't miss him, he appears at the beginning of Chapter 1-2 behind the building you were being held prisoner in) and sell them so you can buy new weapons, and new weapons upgrades (the list grows as you play so he'll have new things from time to time). This is good since you'll need all the help you can get, especially against the mega creatures! Of course you'll end up having to deal with some mega sized creatures in this game, far bigger than any mega creature you've fought in any previous Resident Evil! These are hard fights, but fulfilling one you best them since it shows how damn good you are to have knocked off one of these gigante things!

Oh, briefly on your weapons. To better teach anger management to the local villagers, the Merchant General recommends a variety of professional non-AMA approved "treatments" that will assure a more passive (deceased) villager who is no longer obsessed with killing and endless Amish style farmwork with endlessly repetitive dialogue sequences in a language you may or may not have heard before.

Handgun - Your standard cure for the common homicidal villager.

Shotgun - A little stronger medication for several rampaging "I need a time out" villagers at a time. Give a few shots and call the maid for clean-up services.

The "Punisher" - Eh. Perhaps somebody on the RE4 staff has a thing for a certain Mr. Castle, and considering this gun IS a 9mm you can see why I drew that conclusion... anyway the "Punisher" is a gift from the Merchant if you can find and destroy at least 10 or more blue medallions hanging (in high and low places at times) about the village. It uses the same ammo as your handgun so you don't need to find new ammo for this gun.

Rifle - Why use a cell phone to cure long distance village rage when you can use this to reach out to far away disgruntled farmers and "touch" them to death? You can even use this (once you equipped the scope, of course, which requires a separate payment) to scope out your path ahead to pick out villagers lying in wait ahead of you, and who doesn't need the added advantage of getting the drop on your enemies before they get the drop on you!

Rocket Launcher - The cure for the not so ordinary non-villager problem. Usually big things needs the added attention of this thing... for instance something with the rather awkward "designation" that makes it sound like a masked Mexican wrestler...

Grenades - Grenades are like stress balls, only they relieve stress by making villagers go "boom".

Or setting villagers on fire. Or blinding them so you can pick them off one at a time, or make them go boom, or light them on fire, or something.

You know what? When it comes right down to it I honestly can't find any fault with this game.

The gameplay is totally right on and solid, and in comparison to, say, the clunky controls for Silent Hill 3 for instance? This is pure mana in comparison! Of course I would have liked it if the Merchant in this game sold spare ammo to refill my stock, but on the plus side if you have enough to buy a capacity upgrade on any weapon (increasing the amount of ammo that weapon can hold) he'll top off the ammo of that weapon so that's at least something in that regard.

But really, other than a little nitpick here and there? Nothing about this game makes me cringe or otherwise want to speak negatively about it in the slightest. I honestly wish I could say about all GameCube games, though I know for a fact I cannot make that connection. RE4 is one of the best games for the GameCube, and I for one hope CAPCOM quickly rolls out an RE5 for the GameCube soon! At least don't take six years for the next game! Ok. Breakdown time!

Resident Evil Breakdown the 4th

What's Hot? - Eh? What's hot? What's NOT hot about this game?! It's all good and I can't think of much to say against it. It's a downright solid gaming experience that shows off how well a game for the GameCube can be, and reminds me why I bought a GameCube in the first place! Once in a while there is a game that comes out that makes owning a GameCube worth it, and this game is one of those games. Solid from beginning to end, period, end of story.

What's Not? - Some people might not like the controls, but I think it works better than some other games I've played in the Survival Horror genre. But other than that and probably a few other minor quirks here or there there is just not enough bad things about this game to even warrant not owning this, or at the very least renting it as I did. Now maybe I might be biased on this point, but this is a good game and well worth checking out in one way (purchasing) or another (renting).

Moments to Remember? - Gosh. So many things, so little space. So I'll let you see for yourself how memorable this game is, okay? Okay.

What to Ignore? - Ok. There IS a wee bit of a problem here with clipping in the game, but again it's not like that'll stop you from owning this one so it's no biggie, ignore it.

Clipping? What's that? Well, clipping is when one 3-D object (in this case your enemy) passes through another 3-D object (in this case a door or wall). This often happens in a scenario like this... let's say you attract the enemies attention (shooting at them, etc) and run through a door into a building to hold them off, waiting for them to pass through the door so you can blast them. The first thing you'll see pass through said door or wall, litterly, should be the weapon one of the enemies are holding (most likely a pitchfork since it's long enough to "pass" through the solid object before the person holding it), and then maybe an arm might pass through the door prior to it opening. Of course you CAN start shooting through the door (shots will blow through most doors in this game and through your enemy) but why bother? Just wait and they'll open the door themselves so you can blast them.

Overall? Let's face it, you just don't find a good game for the GameCube everyday. It's too few and far between in terms of solid gaming experiences for the GameCube, and this is one of those experiences. RE4 is a welcome change of pace to the normally mind-numbing collection of lesser talent games that Nintendo puts out on the GameCube on a yearly basis, joining the rank of the few and proud games that are worthy of a permanent collection for the GameCube. And hey, did I mention that this RE is the first NON Raccoon City related game? Yup! At last we are not in Raccoon City, not following a storyline spun off from the events of Raccoon City for the most part (as in an obvious storyline like Claire's search for her brother which started in RE2 and ended in RE:CVX) and it's just a fresh experience in gaming and story! Yeah! I rented it, but I want to own it. Now I just need to find a copy for sale!

Now, if Nintendo would only not wait so long to release a game of this caliber, or release so few games worthy of all the hype and buzz it gets. I don't want to wait forever for the next great game after RE4, so hurry up and get one out already! I'm waiting!

-- David Rasmussen 19th Feb 05

Gamecube Resident Evil 4 Images