Resident Evil 4 finally hit the Gamecube in early 2005 and, like many controversial things, it split the fanbase in half.
Resident Evil 4 has been in development for around 5 years, its first genesis became the action game ‘Devil May Cry’, and after that, at least 3 versions (that we know of) were designed and finally scrapped. With this, Capcom dropped a lot of what the series was based on, the zombies, the camera angles and created this. He took a lot of fans off the list, many screamed, many cried. But they were all silenced when this game was finally released.
The game was critically acclaimed around the world via the Internet. In fact, it is one of the highest rated games ever. Now is the time to find out why.
First of all, the visuals that many gamers will immediately notice are absolutely fabulous. The brown grainy look gives the game an unusual atmosphere right away and the characters are fantastic, well detailed and well animated. Technical critics would ignore this game because it doesn’t feature pixel shading and all that tech babble. But images should always be what the eyes see, and this is a visual feast for any eye. Audio further paints the picture and provides some of the best sound experiences in games. With surround sound support, the feeling of helplessness and being outnumbered is really hammered as you feel, yourself, trapped in your own environment where you would play this game.
So the game itself that has astonished the world is, in short, impressive. While it is by no means a slow game, it is in fact action packed compared to traditional Resident Evil, yet it manages to constantly redefine itself, throwing new monsters and challenges at the player at the exact moment they start to get bored. The older Resident Evil controls remain, but with the new camera angle (behind the character’s shoulder) gone, the frustrating annoyances many had with the previous game have been removed. Everything feels so intuitive now. Everything that was wrong with Resident Evil before has been crafted to make way for the onslaught of ingenuity that is Resident Evil 4.
In fact, the only real issue people would have with this game is the one thing that kept fans going, the story. This game is (almost) a total abandonment of everything that came before, and takes not only the series, but the story itself in a new direction. Many, even now, after playing the game, are still disappointed in the story. Capcom’s defense is that to evolve you need to change, and that’s what that decision represents, a definitive change. This is not just an evolution, it is a revolution, not just for Resident Evil, but for video games in general. If only all games were made to this quality and overall polish, the market could be in a much better shape, eliminating minor games that corrupt and pollute it.
If you weren’t a Resident Evil fan before, if you make any sense, this will convert you, it’s that good.
Essential.
