I admit that I am generally not a fan of shooter games (either first-person or third-person). The handful of shooters that I do truly enjoy are almost entirely hybrids with the adventure genre. But one anomaly that I found to be incredibly addictive is Resident Evil 4. While the game is a large stray away from the traditional cinematic-view survival horror of past titles, it still feels like it belongs in the series.
Resident Evil 4 has some of the most stunning graphics to ever hit Nintendo’s Gamecube, and even gives some current generation shooters a run for their money in the visuals department. There is a dark mood about the whole game, but it is more mysterious and melancholy than it is gross-out and scare-your-pants off. One of the game’s largest criticisms was that it isn’t as scary as previous Resident Evil titles. I honestly have to agree with that statement, but I don’t see that as being an entirely bad thing. Resident Evil 4 focuses on moving the story forward more so than past games in the series. And while some of the dialogue may sound like it came out of a cheap English-dubbed anime, the storytelling is superb. While the bulk of it is told through Leon’s experience, there are a few cutscenes that explain the dynamics of the others involved, including Ada, Wesker, and Krauser. Scattered around most levels are notes about the Los Illumiados and Louis’ research, and a story about Ada’s involvement is unlocked upon completing the main story. Interactive cutscenes make things much more tense, and players feel more involved.
The character models are intended to look realistic, but the art style of the game is hauntingly beautiful. For the first few chapters, things will look dirty, and run-down. But once the Los Illuminados become a staple of the story, the environments become far more diverse. The murky lake wherein resides Del Lago is covered in a light mist, and draws the player away from the rest of the world for a brief period, giving a feeling of pure isolation. In contrast, the tapestry and painting-adorned halls of Salazar’s castle and the indusrtial setting of Saddler’s science research facility are large open areas that are an ideal setting to send hordes of ganados at Leon.
The ganados increase in numbers as the game progresses and sport constantly improved offensive measures. Level-specific enemies, such as the Garrador and Regenerator, are scattered well enough that they never feel repetitive, but always provide a greater challenge than the generic ganados. The boss fights range from a decent challenge to incredibly difficult. Certain points in the game intentionally restrict the ammo found about a level to force you to manage your weaponry carefully. Because of this, I found that fighting Salazar was significantly more challenging than fighting Saddler or Mendez, simply because of how much ammo I went through just to reach said boss fight.
In regards to your weaponry, Resident Evil 4 introduces a merchant character who is set at particular points throughout the game. He will sell you more guns as the game progresses, and will also buy any ammo and treasure you find about the levels. The treasures can be combined with different jewels to increase their value. The treasure menu is also where you will store keys to solve many of the games puzzles. Speaking of puzzles, the game does a brilliant job of making the player use their head in solving these. Rotating the lights in the church and playing a puzzle mini-game in the castle take a nice break from the killing, but don’t take so long that it becomes a chore. And should players wish to take a break from things and hone their headshot skills, an arcade style shooting range can be found in select areas. Winning these games will award the player trophies of the game’s characters that play catch-prases or sound effects. Perhaps not the most jaw-dropping inclusion, but it does provide a little comic relief.
As mentioned before, the game offers a separate short story mode that chronicles Ada’s involvement in the Los Illuminados conspiracy. The main game itself is fairly lengthy for a shooter of this nature, but things never get repetitive. In addition to these two stories is mercenaries mode, which gives players a set time limit to kill as many ganados as possible before a rescue chopper arrives. Players will face increasingly difficult enemies as more time passes, and they are able to add more time if they so choose. However, the real challenge lies in your preset weaponry. Each character is granted at least two weapons to defend themselves with, but cannot access any more around the level.
Resident Evil 4 was an important release, as it proved that Nintendo did care about their older audience. While the game was released too late for the purple lunchbox’s redemption, it certainly boosted Wii games like No More Heroes and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Offering a huge amount of replay value and spawning off several incarnations on other systems, Resident Evil 4 helped bring the horror genre back to life, as well as showed what untapped potential the shooter genre had.
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