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 Resident Evil 4 - GameCube
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| GENRE |
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| PLAYERS |
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1- 1 |
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| PUBLISHER |
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Capcom |
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| DEVELOPER |
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Capcom |
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| ESRB |
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mature |
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| CREATED |
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07/02/06 |
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It's always the same damn thing. "Oh noez! Umbrella is at it again, and there's.. MORE zombies!" shouts one of the characters, as they stand there attempting to fire at a zombie who refuses to take any recoil damage at all. Look, Resident Evil is a brilliant franchise, but the developers from Capcom even said themselves - they were getting bored.
That's where Resident Evil 4 comes in, ladies and gentlemen of the jury.
Resident Evil 4 takes place six years after the Raccoon City incident. The city, has been wiped out. Yeap, that's right. The President of the United States "ordered a contingency plan, to sterelize Raccoon City". In the fourth instalment (there's been loads of instalments, this one is actually called "4" for a change though) you are Raccoon City survivor, Leon S Kennedy (Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil Gaiden), a former one-day Raccoon City police officer, now highly trained government agent of the United States, working directly for the President.
The President's daughter, Ashley has been kidnapped by an unknown group of people and rumours have been flying around about a girl's appearance, similar to that of the President's daughter, have been seen in some remote part of Europe/Spain, and she's apparently being withheld by an "unidentified group of people", so.. being the President's new top gun, Leon is being sent in to investigate, alone.
When you begin play, players will definetly notice a few new things. First thing is first, the graphics, the graphics really do push the Game Cube to its limit. The graphics are very realistic and beautiful, especially the actual animation of the characters and enemies (motion capture ftw). Another thing that's noticeable is the scenary, they run in real time and are no longer pre-rendered. And finally, the new camera and controller scheme. Instead of annoying fix camera positions, the camera sits closely behind Leon waist-above, and follows him as he moves. The control scheme is pretty much the same as the older Resident Evil games, however due to the new camera system, it's much more tolerable, and becomes second nature pretty quickly.
Once players encounter enemies, that's where the action begins.. and no, they are not zombies. Once Leon arrives to the village he is to investigate, the people.. they seem normal, at first. But once they learn of Leon's presence, they suddenly become barbaric, and will attempt to kill you in whatever way they can, knives, axes, pitchforks, even their own bare hands. Despite the fact that you are armed, they are not afraid. Encountering enemies for the first time is seriously freaky, and fighting them is just as freaky. The right shoulder button (R) will draw out your equipped firearm, Leon will then draw his weapon and the camera will move closer to him, a sort of 'over the shoulder' view, using a laser sight to guide the player's shots, players can now aim and look around in a 360 degree and up and down motion, which is very cool. Ontop of that, enemies have 'key hit zones', if you shoot them in the knees, they'll fall down or stumble, shoot them in the arm, they'll hold onto their arm in pain and perhaps drop whatever they have equipped, and shoot them in the head/face, and they'll be in alot of pain.. but wait, a headshot didn't kill them? Well, it can sometimes instantly kill, but don't rely on it, as the sneaky bastards at Capcom have decided that at some point in the game, killing your enemies quickly can just make the situation so much worse.
As you run around throughout the game, at certain points Leon will be able to perform actions of some sort, whether it's jumping over a fence, jumping out of a window, climbing up a ladder, jumping down a ladder, or performing a Chuck Norris-style roundhouse kick to an unfortunate enemy's face (when an enemy is stunned, that is). It is quite cool, also in many cutscenes of the game, something life threatening may occur, and button icons will flash on the screen, for example 'L+R' or 'A+B', if you don't press these buttons in time, Leon can end up dead. If you do however press these buttons in time, Leon will live to fight another day. The interactive cutscenes like this are quite cool and original, although they can be very fast and suprising, my advice? When a cutscene occurs, do not put down the controller!
When it comes to weapons, Leon will find all sorts of stuff around the place, including ammunition, so no more "I must conserve ammo constantly now!", although at times you may be trying to conserve ammo, you'll just find more later on.. it's weird how these amish-style villagers seem to carry bullets, shells, grenades etc around.. oh well. Anyway, at first Leon will just have his handgun (and a shotgun if you play on Easy mode.. "Hah! You're playing on EASY?!"), eventually he will find other weapons, such as grenades and the shotgun. Leon will also be equipped with a knife, which is quite cool to use. Just hold L, and Leon will holster his gun and draw his knife, then press A (attack) to slash, despite the fact it doesn't sound very good, the knife can be a serious life saver in melee combat (again, my advice is: when using the knife, aim for the enemy's head to try and stun them, then roundhouse kick them once they are stunned, then just knife 'em to death when they're on the ground - it saves ammo!).
Speaking of weapons, Leon will be able to obtain more weapons from the mysterious 'Merchant', a man who happens to be spread out throughout the game, offering Leon many weapons and items, in exchange for gold (I forget the offical name of the currency). Not only that, but our strong English-accented friend (the Merchant) can also upgrade Leon's weapons, to enhance their firing speed, reload speed, power, and ammo count. If you happen to fully upgrade a weapon, there's a chance you'll be able to give it a final, secret upgrade, which will push the weapon beyond it's normal limits.
The boss fights in this game are absolutely incredible. Leon will always be going up against creatures that "defy God's creation", and will always have to find a unique way to slay them, well, not exactly a 'unique' way, but each boss has its own gimmick on how it can be killed, what I do find slightly unfortunate is alot of the bosses have to just take enough damage, then they'll reveal a 'weakspot' in which you exploit to damage them further, or even finish them. Still, the way it's executed is still quite cool and stylish.
Unlike the previous Resident Evil titles, the game lacks puzzles. There are still puzzles yes, but they isn't as much and they are much easier. Unfortunately, the game still packs bad voice acting. To be fair though, the voice acting isn't that bad, in fact I believe it's probably the best of the series.. which isn't really saying much, but anyway, the voice acting isn't that bad.. it's just the script really, the script seems to be really badly written. So what is that like, a tradition in the Resident Evil franchise? "We must have bad voice acting!" screams the director.
So this is pretty much an entirely new Resident Evil, new storyline, new enemies, new lots of stuff. Probably the longest running Resident Evil game as the main campaign takes at least 18 hours to accomplish on normal difficulty, the game also has plenty of unlock to make you want to keep playing the game, so it's got plenty of replay value. This is indeed the greatest Resident Evil game of the series, and if you're not a fan of the old Resident Evil games, then try this one, it's a refreshing new start to the series. Take what is rightfully yours, take home one of the greatest game's to ever grace the consoles, Capcom, I salute you.
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