"The American Prevailing" is a cliche that only happens in your Hollywood movies. Oh Mr. Kennedy, you entertain me. To show my appreciation, I will help you awaken from your world of cliches."
Of all my 10s games, I think Resident Evil 4 may be the one I feel the weirdest about.
I know, I know, how could I feel any level weird about Resident Evil 4, one of the most sacred of sacred cows of gaming history. This is one of those games that people will straight up rail you for disliking, as if it's some sort of personal attack. I guess that's starting to change a little bit, it's become a victim of being so popular that people start to hate it just for being so. That always seems to happen in the gaming industry, though that is a different discussion for a different day. Besides, it's not really why I've always had a sort of weird relationship with RE 4. I'm not the first person to say this and I'm certainly not going to last, but it just didn't really feel like Resident Evil. That might sound ridiculous now, but for those of us that played this on launch it really was how a lot of day one RE fans felt. The new style wasn't really a surprise, Capcom made it clear that they were going to change things up as many critics started to complain that the franchise was going stale. But it was still jarring when we first booted up our GameCubes and watched RE 2 protagonist Leon S. Kennedy roll into a remote Spanish village with two unsuspecting police officers. This was a huge, huge change and many of the aspects of the series that were done away with were things fans actually liked. The tastemakers can complain about tank controls and pre-rendered backgrounds all they want, but most true RE fans actually liked those things and were sad to see them go, myself included. How many times had developers decided to "try something new" only to massively screw up a beloved franchise? How many of them still do it to this day? Well, fortunately, that isn't what happened here. It's why I, like a lot of RE fans, still feel a little weird about this game, which was essentially the death knell of classic Resident Evil. Because while they drastically changed the game we all loved, what they changed it into was absolutely phenomenal. This is one of those games where I can safely say it would have been just as well received if it were its own IP, it would have been revered even if it wasn't an RE title. There's a reason that this game has been pretty much ported to every gaming console in existence. It opened up the series to a much broader audience all while providing an outstanding gameplay experience.
RE 4 puts us back in the shoes of Leon Kennedy, now a federal agent, a few years after he survived the events of RE 2. Racoon City is no more, now a smoldering hole in the ground, and the Umbrella corporation is on last legs as news of their horrifying experiments come to light. But Leon isn't off the hook just yet. You see, a mysterious cult calling themselves Los Illuminados has abducted Ashley Graham, daughter of the President of the United States. Their motives are unclear, but they obviously aren't good. So, it's up to Leon to infiltrate their stronghold outside a village in rural Spain, rescue Ashley and get out. As is customary of Resident Evil, things do not go as planned. The good news, there are no zombies, lickers, hunters or tyrants for Leon to fight. The bad news, all of the residents of the village, called Ganados, are mind controlled by a parasite called Las Plagas. This makes them quite hostile to any outsiders and essentially an army for the cult. Undaunted, Leon continues through the village in pursuit of Ashley...who he manages to rescue surprisingly easily. The duo attempt to make their way out of the village, working against a variety of fearsome foes both old and new. I remember being a bit uneasy about the change in venue and the lack of zombies, but it really did work here. For one, they do manage to to tie the Illuminados and Las Plagas back to the greater RE lore, even if it was a little tenuous. The series needed to go in a new direction, it's not like they could continue setting these games in a city that was canonically blown up by the government. I'm not sure I would have gone so far in another direction, but it worked here. I definitely like all the new characters, the Los Illuminados triumvirate of Salazar, Mendez and Saddler are all great villains in their own right. The introduction of Krauser felt a little odd at the time, but he's still a strong antagonist. Seeing Ada and Wesker again kind of keeps RE4 grounded in the rest of the series and really makes this feel like the game is tailor made for Leon. You couldn't put, say, Claire or Jill with these characters in this scenario and have it make sense.
But of course, the biggest changes here came in the form of gameplay. Simply put, RE4 put traditional survival horror games out to pasture, for better or worse. 3/4 overhead views were gone, tank controls were gone, fixed camera angles were gone, all of the things that many of us felt were hallmarks of the genre simply disappeared in one fell swoop. To this day, it's still weird to think about for OG survival horror fans. And part of what makes it so weird is just how awesome the new style of gameplay was. Anyone that's played RE in the past 20 years will be intimately familiar with the core mechanics here, the camera follows Leon from behind and zooms in over his shoulder when he aims. Each weapon has a laser sight, which you can aim freely to target individual limbs or critical hit spots. You can aim at a Ganado's legs to make it fall or arms to shoot weapons out of its hands. Aiming for the head can cause one shot kills but be careful because with more evolved enemies this will result in giant plagas monsters sprouting from their insides, making them even more deadly. You can even aim for objects, Ganados will throw axes or stick of dynamite which can be shot out of the air. It definitely leans more into action than survival horror, but it's a blast and it provides more freedom than being able to just shoot up and straight. RE4 leans heavily on quick time events, which we will get to later, and this sort of extends to combat as well. Sometimes when fighting, Leon will be able to interact with an object or enemy by entering a button command if the right circumstances are met. He can push over ladders or move objects to prevent enemies from advancing. Or, if they are downed close enough to him, he can roundhouse kick them in the face, which is awesome. Again, it leans into action but I think it does a good job of not making Leon too powerful to the point where the player has no reason to be scared.
Of course, the enemies are different this time around. The Ganados may be slaves to the Las Plagas cult ('Ganado' means livestock or cattle, for the record), but they are far more intelligent and strategic than the BOW's that Leon is used to dealing with. They will work in teams, spreading out and attacking from all angles with a variety of means, up to and including chainsaws. They try to overwhelm you with numbers and change up their attack patterns, making them far more dangerous than slow, shuffling zombies. And those are just the regular enemies you encounter early on. Later in the game, cultists will carry shields and move in a phalanx formation and even position snipers to take Leon out. The terrifying garradors can only be shot from the back and can one shot Leon even when he's at full health. RE 4 isn't nearly as scary as some of the other games in the franchise, but the part where you first meet the regenerators, who's weak points can only be viewed through an infrared scope, was definitely one of the game's creepier points. The boss fights here are very cinematic, RE4 is widely considered one of the earlier examples of what we would now consider modern game design and it's on full display here. The fights are still fun though and they are incredibly varied, with fights against the likes of the Del Lago and El Gigante particularly standing out. RE4's layouts are a little more straightforward, but its enemies are more plentiful and their patterns of attack are more interesting. The focus here is far more on combat than exploration and puzzle solving, but it's really, really good combat.
I don't know if any franchise took advantage of the graphical jump to the 6th generation quite like Resident Evil did. The GameCube remake of the first game might be the best-looking title of the generation and RE4 isn't too far behind it. You really have to look hard to find flaws here and most of them are relatively minor. The enemies are incredibly detailed and the locales are truly striking, though for different reasons than you would see in most games. RE4's color palette is a mix of sickly yellow-green and rusted brown, the exact sort of thing you would expect to see in a rural village populated by mind-controlled cult members. Trees are derelict and dying while crops wilt on the vine, buildings are neglected and in disrepair, things are still somewhat organized but it's visually clear that these people live for the cult and the cult only. When you finally arrive at the old castle, the color palette essentially stays the same but the context is completely changed. Even though everything is a bit tarnished and old, but it still feels regal and majestic. I really like it and it makes the inevitable trip to the secret underground lab facility (it is still RE after all) even more jarring. You kind of expected to find something like this under the Spencer Mansion or hidden in Raccoon city, but it feels wonderfully out of place here. The sound is strong too, though I don't think it's quite as good at setting the tone as it is in other RE titles. It almost feels like this soundtrack doesn't fit an action heavy game. I have to give them credit for the voice acting though, it's really well done in an over the top, campy sort of way. I especially like the regular enemies' voice lines; they are great at both establishing atmosphere and freaking the player out. When you are sneaking through an area silently, trying to avoid enemy contact, only to have that silence shattered with a booming 'un forrestero!' (an outsider) from a Ganado, it's going to freak you out every time. The cultists chanting 'morir es vivir' (to die is to live) as they slowly advance on Leon makes my skin crawl every time. The sound is closer to good-not-great on its own, but the sound design is outstanding.
Of course, no game is perfect. A lot of people will tell you RE4 is perfect and honestly, it's pretty darn close, but there are definitely issues I have with it. For one, the reliance on quicktime events is obnoxious, though if you consider the game in the vacuum it makes plenty of sense. As I mentioned previously, RE took a lot of "modern" game design concepts to the next level, either popularizing or outright creating a lot of the elements we know and love today. At the time it was released, many developers believed that quicktime events were going to be the next big thing, so a lot of games started trying to incorporate them. Boy am I glad that trend didn't take off. Still though, they are more annoying than bad and the only place where I found it to be a major issue was with the Krauser fight. I can complain about the lack of survival horror elements, though I know that's more a personal bias thing. I kind of prefer the limited inventory and ammunition as it made these games really feel like tense life or death situations. I just think it's a little bit less scary when Leon can basically carry an entire arsenal with him at all times, while also hauling a backpack full of treasure he can sell to a merchant to upgrade his stuff. I don't like how RE4 uses darkness to add challenge and fear factor in outside areas, it just makes things frustrating and hard to see. I do kind of like the atmosphere of the driving rainstorm that begins late in chapter two though and I kind of understand why they did it. I always found the open outdoor areas just inherently less scary than the cramped quarters the series was known for. Maybe it's just me, I have always felt more comfortable in the woods than in the city, so that might not be true of everyone. Besides, RE4 goes back to more cramped interior areas as soon as you enter the castle, so it's something of a wash.
As a whole, RE4 just isn't as scary as some of the previous games. Leon is too well armed and the enemies too humanoid to really be unsettling like some of Umbrella's BOWs. Outside of the lab filled with regenerators, I feel like it's more creepy than scary. I am okay with that, but some people may not be. But this brings me to my biggest complaint with this game, which is that there's one thing about it that's almost too horrifying for words. The sheer terror and foul horror brought about by this particular aspect of RE4 is almost too much for players to handle. It's worse than the tyrant, its worse than Mr. X, it's worse than Nemesis and its worse than every RE enemy ever combined. Every time you here that shrill, high pitched cry, it sends chills down your spine, paralyzing your every sense. I can still hear it in my nightmares to this day:
LEON!
If I can get back to being serious, Ashley is without a doubt the worst part of Resident Evil 4. Once you rescue her, it's up to Leon to keep her alive, an aspect they included in the gameplay. She has her own (small) life bar and can only take about three hits before she goes down. Thats bad, but it gets worse, because the ganados can also pick her up and carry her off. If she dies, or they carry her too far away, it's game over. Oh, yeah, she can be hit with friendly fire from explosives, she follows Leon way too closely and her AI is absolutely terrible. You can order her to stay put, but 90% of the time, this leads to her getting dragged off by a Ganado. If you are following, this means that a substantial portion of the game is, essentially, one giant escort missions. I hate escort missions. A lot. I know I was joking about her haunting my nightmares, but that portion of the game where you have to raise the bridge in the castle might be in my bottom 10 gaming activities ever. Anyone that's played RE 4 knows exactly what I am talking about. It doesn't help that Ashley's a pretty annoying character to boot, it's no wonder the secret service let her get captured. Sure, RE has had tagalong characters before, but they usually don't get involved in actual gameplay too much. Hell, even whiny and obnoxious Steve from Code: Veronica picks up a gun and fights. Ashley just complains and fails at flirting with Leon. Remember, these are all time great games here, so relatively small things can kind really be a big deal. The Ashley sections pretty much single handedly put RE4 more towards the middle of my 10s than the top.
Still, RE4 is an absolute masterpiece and a must play game, even for people that dislike horror. Play it with the lights on if you have to, I know I do. It may not be traditional survival horror, hell it's may not be survival horror at all, but RE4 is a great experience with tons of depth and variety. From the big, siege-style fights to the unnerving treks through the desolate woods to the desperate push to escape a trap-filled castle, RE4 mixes big cinematic sequences with fun and solid gameplay. In many ways, it's kind of the best of both worlds when it comes to both modern and old school games. On one hand, it has modern sensibilities in its cinematic nature, with big set pieces and focus on story. On the other, it never forgets that it's a video game and rarely wrests control from the player for more than a scant few minutes. You can really see why this game is so influential and why so many of its gameplay mechanics stuck. Besides, traditional survival horror is making a comeback, which really softens the blow of the older RE games going away. Like any good T-Virus infected monster, the RE series continues to evolve, as its now shifted more to a first person perspective. Now though, we at least have side stories and remakes that keep the RE4 style as part of the series. Honestly, I hope they do some spinoffs in the truly old school style, with tank controls and fixed cameras and everything. It could be its whole own series, separate from the numbered entries or even remakes. Hey, it worked for Yakuza, right? Either way, RE4 is a classic and it's a game that's worth experiencing today, whether via the original or the remake.
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