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 254 ratings with 8 reviews)

Resident Evil 4, first playthrough review

The Good
I completed the first playthrough of Resident Evil 4 on the Xbox 360 two days ago. There are no other games like it on this console, and I often wonder why a GameCube/PS2 game gets a release on the next gen Microsoft console at all. They didn't have to port it for us Xbox gamers. They could've easily made it a Sony exclusive and made us feel bad for not buying the machine that runs it. But they did port it and we get to play it right here on our console of choice. That's the number one reason I respect and support this game, and its publisher.

A few important aspects of the gameplay need to be discussed, for you to understand why it is not like any other shooters out there, and why it's often the superior one.

First of all, there is a map. A clear, informative, immensely useful map screen, that can be brought up with a simple press of the Y button. Locations of secret collectibles are marked right there on the map screen, because the designers understood that no gamer enjoys finding small objects blindly without hints. The average gamer can actually find a large number of treasures and items in this game. Meanwhile in Gears of War 2 and 3 I managed to find a total of 4 collectibles in two games (I looked it up and LOL there are 83 of them), which adds nothing to the experience.

Second important aspect: Resource collection. Let's look at how some other modern games do it, for example Dark Souls. There are chests, barrels, corpses and such everywhere in Dark Souls. But how often do you find something good in it? Not often, not often at all. Once you have a reasonably strong set of weapons and armors, there is almost nothing you can find that will mean much of a difference.

How about a modern day shooter such as Max Payne 3? In Max Payne 3 you will pick up many guns and lots of ammo in the levels. However you don't actually need that many guns, nor would you need all that ammo. The only thing you probably wanna pick up every time is the painkiller. And I'm talking about Max Payne which has a Painkiller mechanism. In most modern games you just heal by yourself automatically.

In Resident Evil 4, things are the polar opposite.

In RE4, there are strong weapons and weak weapons, sure. But having a strong weapon doesn't mean squat, because you cannot fire without ammunition for that weapon. Ammunition cannot be bought with money, but can only be found on enemy corpses, or placed on the ground or inside barrels. Enemies do not respawn. That means the total amount of ammunition in this game is limited. Once you miss it, it's gone forever.

Even healing items are limited. Each level gives you a max supply of about 4 first aid sprays, and some Herbs. If you run out of those, then that's it. I don't believe the game dynamically places more herbs in the levels if you run out of health. You can really run out of healing items and have no way to regain your health, AT ALL.

Let's put it this way: you will want to pick up EVERYTHING you can possibly find in the levels. EVERYTHING is useful in some way. There is absolutely no filler material in the barrels, chests, on enemy corpses, or anywhere else in the game.

I know this because I have fought quite a few battles where in the end, I got absolutely nothing left in my inventory. No bullets. No grenades. No herbs. No first aid sprays and barely alive. It's a great metaphor, like a black hole that absorbs all I've got, a rainstorm that washes me clean.

And the Max Paynes and Dark Souls's in this world have no idea what that feels like.

Now let's move on to talk about the third aspect of gameplay - the headshot system. Too many games do this wrong. In your average shooter, you can accidentally get a headshot when you aren't actually aiming for the head, or you can aim for the head on purpose but the enemy moves right before you can headshot them. Neither is good shooting gameplay.

Prior to RE4, the absolute best example of "headshots done right" came from a YouTube walkthrough of the XBLA tower defense game Orcs Must Die. The guy in the video was like, "look at me headshot these orcs", and every single time, he managed to get a headshot, for real. I eventually tried it myself and found that I could do it too, if I knew where to aim and how to adjust the angle.

The idea is that, if you want to get a headshot, you can. And that's exactly what's going on in my Resident Evil 4 playthrough. By the fifth world "Island", I was good enough, and confident enough, to be saying, "look at me headshot you, headshot, headshot", and each time I say that, I really get a headshot. There's no other shooter gameplay as satisfying as this. The headshots are out of this world. The crisp sound, the animation of heads being chopped off, the controller vibrating in my hand, all contributing to a full headshot experience that will always remain a highlight of my gaming life.

I would even go so far as to say that no other game can pull this off ever again, because Resident Evil 4 may be the last major title to use the LEFT-ANALOG stick for aiming. That's right. Completely against the modern gaming industry standard, this is a shooter played with the left-analog stick alone, a.k.a. the "Tank Controls" scheme. That means when you're shooting, your right hand is entirely focused on the Trigger button, and nothing else. I feel that this allows for a more steady and reliable shot. But we might never know for sure, because Resident Evil 5 no longer had this control scheme, and likely no modern shooter will ever have it again. The shooting in Resident Evil 4 is a product of its time, and due to its incredibly high quality, will forever remain timeless.



The Bad
Not enough female character scenes / storyline. I have no idea why character Ada is in the story at all.

Final boat escape sequence is the worst level in the whole game. The boat controls are quite possibly the worst boat controls the surface of the earth has ever seen.

So Leon rescues the girl, and that's it? Nothing more? Seriously? I know she's probably a minor but game producers should give us what we want and let Ashley become our wife in the end.

The Bottom Line
The first playthrough of RE4 is an essential experience, for any gamer who enjoys guns, shooting, and a mildly scary atmospheric adventure. It is 90% shooting, and the only truly scary parts are in Chapter 5 "Island", other than that it is not only not scary, but also very friendly to the player and provides a very rewarding feeling after every battle.

Xbox 360 · by Pagen HD (146) · 2017

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

The game that changed Resident Evil forever.

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.

PlayStation 2 · by Melvin Raeynes (22) · 2008

[ 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.