Resident Evil 4

The Good
If Capcom took a long time to release this, there's a damned good reason for it. This game is beautiful, grim, violent and scary all at once. Never have you faced a threat quite like the threats you are faced with in this game. The game just throws everything at you from the beginning and doesn't hold up to catch a breather. While the story isn't as expanded as it was in the previous entries in the saga, there are enough guns, bosses and areas to cover, that you almost never care for its plot. But the characters are all cool in this one. The bad guys are a hoot, and Wesker pops up more in the PS2 version than he did in the initial GameCube release. I'd definitely always recommend this game to anyone over the age of 15.

The Bad
The plot of the previous games was virtually non-existant. Leon mentions that he used to be a cop in Raccoon City. And apart from the opening intro, that's about all we are provided with in relation to the build-up so far. I'm aware that a lot of people hate having to escort a girl around. But what's the whole point of having a game if there is nobody to secure? I'd just like to comment, that if you're as deaf as I am, you'd like having the option of subtitles as well, as the tacky voice acting is hard to make out at times.

The Bottom Line
It's very long. Like 20 hours long. But if you're a pro, half that, and you have yourself 10 to 12 hours of pure action. With loads of weapons to buy and upgrade, this will keep even the veteran zombie slayer happy.

The Good
Does anyone remember the original Resident Evil? If not, any of the classic Resident Evil's? How it kept you on the edge? How you had to figure out the mystery? Well Resident Evil 4 has paved that sense of fear, mystery, and action.

I suppose there are some good points in this game.

Game play - The game play has totally changed. No more camera angles. I guess this is alright. I think this is the only good thing about game play.

Sound - Its nice to not have to hear those annoying footsteps anymore. The sound effects are decent, but the explosions, not so much.

Difficulty - Not too difficult, gets repetitive on the "Professional" setting.

Selection of items - Perhaps this is the biggest improvement in the series. There is a ton of more inventory space, lots of ammo, and more weapons to choose from.

As you can tell, I really don't like this game.

The Bad
Oh goody. Where do I start??

Game play - Game play is fun when you play it for the 1st time. After you have played, the game is so boring. There is not a single zombie in RE4. The game is populated by people who are mind controlled. Some people consider that to be zombies, but in Resident Evil terms, zombies are the living dead. You get some creatures, but even those aren't befitting. The game is dark yet its not scary. This Resident Evil will not put you on the edge of your seat, but more like at the edge of falling asleep. There aren't any puzzles in the game, and if there is, they are exceptionally easy. This game is also very repetitive.

Sound - What is up with Leon's voice?? He sounds like an old man who has smoked his whole life. Ashley's voice is irritating. And the "zombies" just mumble the whole time, or speak in some language I don't know.

Difficulty - Like I said earlier the game gets repetitive on the "Professional" setting. The game is really easy on medium as well.

Selection of items - Lots of guns to choose from, but they all get boring to use after awhile.

The Bottom Line
This RE has totally strayed away from the original objective of Resident Evil. The game seems like an entire different game in itself. It has very little relation to the other Resident Evil's. If you like the original RE's then avoid this one. This one has no originality and is perhaps one of the most overrated games for PS2. Same goes for the new Resident Evil 5. That's even worse. If you'd like to change it up a little bit, then this game would be good for you. As I have said, fans of the older Resident Evil's won't find much in this installment. If you want to check out other Resident Evil games for PS2, I suggest Code Veronica X. Or simply play the older versions.

The Good
I liked the game mechanic's, I also liked the voice actors in this game. I liked the fact that, the producers of the game made this game a bit different. I also liked the fact, that the main story element this time was aliens, instead of just zombies. So it was a great change in the over all story, and gameplay of this game. However, as I've said countless other times about other games. The game itself was a bit short, I know that's kinda a lame complaint. I just felt that with as good as this game is.. they could've at least made this game a two disc set. However complaints aside this game is very solid, and has very good gameplay and excellent challenge.

The Bad
I didn't like the fact, that this game was kinda short in overall length, it had interesting boss battles, and great enemies to fight through out. It just didn't last long enough, I played through this game, and found that by the end of the game.. I was like hey, isn't there going to be more to this? Isn't there a bigger ending to this game, after all the stuff I had to go through to complete it? Aside from that, it's still a solid game, it did keep my interest through out the 14 or 15 missions. But it would've made me happier to see at least 25 missions in this game.

The Bottom Line
I would say that this game is a very solid addition to the series. However it stands alone in the Resident Evil series, it's not really a resident evil game if you think about it. It's more of a stealth first person, to third person strategy type game. But regardless of the flaws this game has, it's still a nice game to play, even if you've never played a Resident evil game. This game is great, because you really do not have to play any of the resident evil games, to know what is going on in this game. It actually fills you in on past events in the series, at the beginning of the game. Then the story in this game, really doesn't have very much to do with the on going story. Buy this game, it's excellent, that's all I gotta say.. it does have it's overall flaws, but the flaws do not take away from the great gameplay experience that this game has to offer you.