Resident Evil 4

The Good
Right, first things first. This is Resident Evil 4, the eighth or ninth game in the primarily survival horror series, for those who don't know. (Email me if I'm wrong, but I haven't played all of them, just most of them. ???) The Resident Evil series was beginning to feel kinda stale after a lot of great gameplay. The innovative gameplay was no longer innovative, the fixed camera angles and ridiculous item storing system were irritating and the franchise was lacking in new ideas. (If anyone has played either Outbreak title or Dead Aim, you'll have some idea of what I mean.) Thankfully the idea of scary gameplay, tense atmosphere and a hammy plot and voice acting didn't fizzle out with Resident Evil 4, which was a definite make-or-break game for the series itself. Instead of making another game like the old PlayStation 1 outings, Capcom has stepped up and delivered a masterpiece. Resident Evil 4 features the protagonist of Resident Evil 2, Leon Scott Kennedy, as a US agent on a mission to find the President's kidnapped daughter, Ashley Graham. (He's not a lowly cop anymore...... wonder what happened there?) He is investigating a sighting of a woman who looks very like Ashley in a remote Spanish village. From the very start, the game pulls you into the world of Leon S. Kennedy. This is thanks to the over-the-shoulder camera which follows Leon around wherever he goes, and eradicates the "OH MY GOD, I died because I couldn't see a zombie" problem of the previous games. The other thing that instantly grabs you is the violence and more action-oriented approach than in previous Resident Evil adventures, which manifests itself less than five minutes into the game. (Don't tell me you were expecting a welcome party......) You will find yourself constantly in need of ammo, new guns, upgrades, healing items, and indeed places to hide as the game runs its up to 15-hour course. (Oh yeah, you can now sort through your attache case and move items around, upgrade guns, sell things to the aptly-named Merchant. It's a great feature, but how does he pop up whenever you need him?)

There are a lot of guns in this game, which really equates to more pain inflicted on the poor Spanish villagers. Always a good thing. The choice of weapons ranges from handguns to shotguns, to magnums, to rocket launchers (You heard me.......) and even rifles and machine-guns. Most of them can be bought from the Merchant at some point, although a few can be found elsewhere (Chapter 4-1, a certain locked door and second story window........ Take your companion, you heard it here first......)

really this is a great game, the best in the series so far, and is worth every dollar you spend on it. Really. Buy it. it will keep you gripped until the end, and way past it (Play through again for some special items to unlock..... I'm saying nothing more.....)

The Bad
Not a lot, actually. The lack of ammo in some areas was a bit disturbing, especially the lack of rifle ammo in the last chapter (I never want to hear shuffling and heavy breathing again......... play the game through and you will see what I mean), but it's not a fault, it was intended. It was great, the mini-games are brilliant as mini-games go (Separate Ways is almost a game in itself) and the game has amazing graphics and replay value. Oh, the El Gigantes look too much like Shrek for my liking. But apart from that I'm fairly sure that Resident Evil 4 is perfect.

The Bottom Line
It's brilliant, the best horror game ever. Buy it.

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.

The Good
When I first rented this game I wasn't really interested in it, after playing it for an hour it became one of my favorite games. I rented it 3 times over the past year then I bought it, and I'm still not bored with it.

I enjoyed most of the weapons, especially the shotguns, they just look nice when you fire/reload them.

And the inventory system is nice, seeing as how you can organize everything the way you want it, and purchase larger cases, and not have to go back and drop off items in an item box, or replace them with other items when both might be necessary.

The very beginning of the game is by far the best, the village design and the atmosphere make it the most fun area in the game to play through. Even after beating the game and replaying the main village section with a large number of villagers and a chainsaw maniac with completely upgraded weapons, it still makes my pulse speed up a little.

Being grabbed by an enemy and being able to break yourself free is a pretty awesome aspect, except if your surrounded and you keep getting grappled time after time, which gets annoying/and or health consuming. Being able to kick enemies after shooting them in the head or legs is extremely helpful when there are large numbers of enemies around you, but in the later stages it could make the Las Plagas come out of one or multiple enemies which forces you to burn some ammo up on them.

The Bad
Running around a village with depressing weather and old crude looking buildings and angry villagers is was awesome. Running through a poorly designed castle and island not so much. The atmosphere changes completely from the village to the castle and not in a good way, it doesn't feel very fun going around a castle with either too large of spaces or too small of ones with little room to try and evade some new enemies. The island was especially disappointing, seeing as how the areas varied a lot, you go from a prison to a large area with a large number of infected military dudes with little or no room to hide, and running around and trying to fight at the same time would be futile.

The third person view is an awesome addition except for the fact that it focuses on the view over the right shoulder which makes it hard to see things on the left hand side of the screen, while its not a big deal it can be annoying at times to be attacked because you didn't see it coming.

Being able to upgrade your weapons is nice also, especially after beating the game and having your favorite weapons fully upgraded to use their special "ability". BUT if you replay the game like this then the village part is extremely easy and you go through it in no time at all, but once you get to the castle it tapers off a little and having completely juiced up weapons doesn't really make a difference once you get to the island part and the gameplay slows down a lot after being so quick in the beginning.

The Bottom Line
Overall Resident Evil 4 is the best game in the series so far, and should not be passed by. While not being as nerve racking as some of the older titles, it has the best gameplay and replay value.

As every game does it has a few small setbacks and some that are just plain annoying at times, but this shouldn't make a very big difference when your running around in high detail environments shooting the places up and being awesome.

This is a game I would recommend to purchase, or if nothing else to rent.