Resident Evil 4

aka: Biohazard 4, RE4, Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
Moby ID: 16373
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Picking up six years after Resident Evil 2, the fourth game in the series follows a former cop (now US agent), Leon S. Kennedy, to Europe on a top-secret mission to investigate the disappearance of the president's daughter Ashley. As Leon encounters unimaginable horrors, he must find out who or what is behind everything. Old friends...and enemies...lurk around every corner as Leon attempts to find out who is truly behind the kidnapping of the president's daughter.

Resident Evil 4 is a major change from the previous installments. Instead of a fixed third-person perspective, the game features a new "behind the back" movement camera angle and an "over the shoulder" aiming feature that allows players to control their gun movement for specific body part hits. It features a brand new AI system and more open environments that allow enemies to work together to capture and corner Leon. Enemies are now humans, which allows them to climb up ladders, open doors, and use weapons throughout the game.

The entire item system has also been revamped, so that smaller items no longer require an entire item space to hold. Instead, items take up blocks of space in a briefcase according to their real-life size, to allow for many more items and weapons. Leon can collect treasure from enemies or from the surrounding area, and visit the infamous "merchant" to purchase bigger briefcases, treasure maps, weapons upgrades, and powerful weapons such as the one-shot RPG.

There is also the Mercenaries mode from Resident Evil 3, which allows the player to play survival scenarios as characters such as Hunk and even Albert Wesker himself.

Unlike the original GameCube release, later released platforms come with a bonus story mode called Separate Ways which becomes unlocked after finishing the main game. This story lets you play as Ada Wong and occurs in parallel to the main story, showing you what Ada did, who she contacted, and where she's been when she wasn't with Leon. While most of the locations and weapons are the same, there are some entirely new levels and Ada's personal gadgets not previously seen in the main story.

Spellings

  • ζƒ‘ιˆε€ε ‘4 - Chinese spelling (traditional)
  • η”ŸεŒ–ε±ζœΊ4 - Chinese spelling (simplified)
  • λ°”μ΄μ˜€ν•˜μžλ“œ 4 - Korean spelling (Hangul)

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

95 People (91 developers, 4 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 89% (based on 131 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 253 ratings with 8 reviews)

Not your typical Resident Evil game!

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.

PlayStation 2 · by David Bryan (21) · 2007

Strays Way Too Far From The Original Thesis Of Resident Evil.

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.

PlayStation 2 · by TwoDividedByZero (114) · 2011

A fantastic opening scene to a worthless game.

The Good
Why, it's been ten years since I sat in the dark, trembling, navigating the twisted halls of that horrifying mansion. Yeah, I was a lot younger then, so I guess it was a stretch for me to expect the same level of sheer horror with the fourth installment of this famous series, but the opening scene left me feeling very, very optimistic. No, I guess I wasn't as scared as I once was, but I was more than entertained.

The opening scene leaves you, Leon, trying to make your way through a village of angry, ravenous villagers. Survival horror at its best, this is exactly the kind of game I'd been looking for. They're not zombies, but they're just as stupid, and this time they're armed with pitch forks and knives and torches, and then there's this freaky guy in a hood with a chainsaw!

You quickly find yourself without ammunition, having to barricade yourself in a house, make your way outside along the roof while the never ending flood of angry villagers pour in from the windows and through the door and all seems completely and utterly hopeless.

Wow.

The game goes straight to crap after that, but I'll touch on that in a moment.

There are many improvements over previous Resident Evils, most notably the aiming system. No longer are you bound by the evil camera's placement. Now you view Leon from a sort of "just behind the shoulder" view, and use a laser on your gun to determine where you are aiming. This allows for a lot of very precise aiming. You can use it to easily take the head off a raging villager, or knock the pitchfork out of their hand, or even hit their stick of dynamite, blowing up everyone around them.

The graphics are nice, too. And the inventory system is much more manageable, as well.

The Bad
The Bad? Well, pretty much everything. The game has such a lovely opening scene, I just don't know what happened. The game does a complete 180 at that point. Rather than fighting your way through a hopeless situation where you have no ammunition and angry villagers are trying to kill you and you seriously have to THINK ABOUT HOW YOU ARE TO SURVIVE...you are suddenly given an almost infinite amount of ammunition and hundreds of cult members are thrown at you. It was almost like a really bad version of Serious Sam.

There are no zombies in this game. Not really. Yeah, they walk like zombies, and they groan, and they're not all that smart, but they're not zombies. They're sedated cult members and/or people infected by parasites that cause them to be violent. Violent, but slow. Like a zombie, but not quite a zombie.

The village in the beginning had this creepy guy with a bag over his head and a chainsaw. An absolutely horrifying thing, running from that guy as he corners you in one of the crumbling buildings in the intro...then you realize he's just "Bad Guy #3" and you can just expect him to come by again and again, another lifeless nobody that you have to kill with your never ending supply of ammunition.

The cutscenes look nice, but the dialogue is embarasing. Sometimes I can't tell if Leon was trying to be serious, or if he was just really, really, really bad at comebacks. And the big bad cult leader boss guy was obnoxiously arrogant, or just plain stupid. The fact that by the time you reach the end of the game, and you've killed enough people to fill a small country and he STILL thinks you're a "stupid American" who is no threat to him is just...it's not scary. It doesn't make him seem like a bad guy. It just makes me pity him and wonder how a guy like that managed to get any followers at all.

Resident Evil 4 also allows you to loot GOLD BRICKS and GOLD COINS from the fallen. That's right, Resident Evil 4 has some sort of wacky economy, and Leon isn't too picky with what he grabs off the bloody corpses weighted down with bullets. You can use this money to purchase new weapons and new upgrades for your guns from a strange merchant who has absolutely zero depth and there is never any explanation to why he is there or where he came from or why he shows up in the middle of the cult's sacrificial ceremony. Scary? Mysterious? Intriguing? No, just retarded. At least you can kill him. But you can't loot him.

Resident Evil 4 takes you from Awesome Village Town Intro to Underground Cave to Mysterious Cult Church to Mysterious Cult Mansion to Mysterious Cult Castle to Mysterious Cult Secret Hideout and even Mysterious Cult Island. One muster also wonder who the insane architect was who built Mysterious Cult Castle, what with the sole key to a certain area being the combination of two other keys, one which must be located in the middle of a lava filled dungeon, which would otherwise serve no purpose. Ah, but it wouldn't be Resident Evil without absolutely insane architecture.

The Bottom Line
The game is worth a rental just to play through the beginning areas. Your heart pounding as you run away from a horde of angry villagers, running along the rooftops and through windows and around the farmland in a futile effort just to survive is awesome.

Everything that follows though, it just stupid. It's the same stuff we've been seeing in the last three installments, but with about ten times the amount of zombies -- and they're not even zombies. They're slow, handicapped cult members with the occasional plant growing out of their neck.

Just play Serious Sam. It's more colorful, it controls better, and the weapons are better.

PlayStation 2 · by kbmb (415) · 2006

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Following up on two trivia items Lain Crowley (6630) Mar 18, 2012
Mod me up real nice! =3 Slug Camargo (583) Mar 5, 2009

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Resident Evil 4 appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Controller

Nuby Tech designed a unique controller for the game in the form of a yellow chainsaw with gory blood marks. It comes with a built-in sound chip, imitating the roar.

Japanese version

In the US version, if Leon is attacked by one of the chainsaw-wielding villagers, his head is chopped off (graphically). However, in the Japanese version, when a villager attacks Leon with the chainsaw, it cuts off part of Leon's face, exposing half of the front of Leon's skull. It graphically shows Leon's right eye still intact as well, surrounded by blood. While this is more detailed and gory than the US version, the US version is more realistic in terms of anatomical "surgery". Additionally there are no exploding heads after heads shots and the physics of Ashley's breasts were removed.

Menu

For the Windows version, the background of the game's main menu crawls slowly. Pressing left or right on the analog stick controlling the camera causes the background to scroll faster in a panorama like fashion in the direction of the stick.

Sales

According to publisher Capcom, the PS2 version of Resident Evil 4 has sold 2.3 million copies worldwide since its initial release, with another 2 million sold of the Wii Edition and another 1.3 million sold of the Xbox One and PS4 versions (as of September 30, 2018). That's a total of 5.6 million copies sold for all versions of the game.

Version differences

The releases for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have updated graphics.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2005 – #2 PS2 Game of the Year
    • 2007 – #3 Wii Game of the Year
  • Golden Joystick Awards
    • 2006 - PlayStation Game of the Year (The Official PlayStation Magazine)

Information also contributed by glidefan and MegaMegaMan

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by MegaMegaMan.

Xbox 360 added by Patrick Bregger. Wii U added by Michael Cassidy. Nintendo Switch added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. PlayStation 4, Xbox One added by Sciere. Wii added by Kabushi. PlayStation 2 added by crbr. PlayStation 3 added by MAT. Windows added by Stratege.

Additional contributors: MAT, Unicorn Lynx, Guy Chapman, Sciere, Tiago Jacques, DreinIX, β€”-, Paulus18950, CalaisianMindthief, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, FatherJack.

Game added January 29, 2005. Last modified January 28, 2024.