Capcom has been pushing Resident Evil hard lately. I'm not too into the idea mercenaries-specific Resident Evil games, or even that weird multiplayer objective game. Is that even what it is? I don't know, I don't really now how to read. Regardless of where the series is going, I'm a huge fan of where there series has been. At the time, nothing was more thrilling than being stalked by a psychopath in Resident Evil 3. Possibly one of my favorite gaming moments is Nemesis crashing through a window, and I had to make the split-second decision to fight or fly. Here I look back on Resident Evil 4 which ranks among Final Fantasy IX and Smash TV as my favorite game of all time. 

You can make a good argument that Resident Evil 4 is among the greatest in modern gaming. Some will scream foul due to the game’s Tetris-like inventory system or withdraw from the jump scares the franchise become synonymous with. Of course, no game is perfect. Yes, Ashley is dead weight. But with every negative connotation, there are a plethora of smart design aspects that make Resident Evil 4 one of Capcom’s best. Any Resident Evil purist probably got a little freaked out seeing the original announcement of RE4. To think we’ve been spending all these years finding key cards, running away from Nemesis, and sweating over the next Licker encounter. Now we’re facing ghosts in castles. To prevent making a game and giving it a title of an established franchise just to get ahead like Capcom did with Devil May Cry 2, the little angel on Capcom’s shoulder told them to go back to the idea of a wide-spread infection plot.

There’s no need to go into detail on RE4’s plot, all the can be found on the wiki. RE4 is one of the best examples of updating a franchise while also holding key components close. At its roots, the controls are very similar to previous entries. Hold down a button to run, stop, aim, fire. The mechanics are simply modernized. For instance, the over the shoulder camera angle that inspired Gears of War and is now a standard in 3 person action games. Typewriters, bro. Typewriters practically resembled the womb or the closet in slasher films. It’s a safe haven, a place for you to take a breather. This time, however, you don’t have to be inventory conscious about ink ribbons, the bulky items that limited your saves in a cheap effort to add tension to the game. Resident Evil 4 also maintains enough connections to the franchise like Umbrella, returning characters, and specific items like herbs. Yes, this game was a dramatic shift, but it maintains enough familiar ideas to still make you feel comfortable with calling it “Resident Evil”.  

A key point that can make or break a game is pacing. Some games blow their load too early, while others simply keep the player in the same location too long. RE4’s biggest strength was its ability to maintain momentum. Throughout the game, the player travels through three major locations, all very distinct from one another in terms of environment and enemies. Within the three major areas, there are a wide-variety of scenes, rooms, and so on that make it near impossible to get bored. Even in the Village, which consumes the first 1/3 of the game, you aren’t necessarily confined to a simple farming community. Leon has to fight his way house-to-house, explore a swamp, and fight a giant fish in a lake. Within this time-span, it’ll rain and go into nighttime. The middle of the game takes place in a grand castle, and the last 1/3 places Leon in a military base.

At no point did I feel like “ok, I’m walking, now I’m shooting dudes. Ok, I got the key…now I’m shooting more dudes.”, RE4 is successful in placing you in numerous specific situations that keep the game moving forward. The enemies themselves played a major role in that. RE4’s enemies are vicious, and will require you to make tactical decisions in both how you play, and what equipment you chose to carry/upgrade. The chainsaw guy is arguably the most recognizable, and the most deadly. Not too sure if he’s a direct reference to Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13 Part 2, but close enough. Jason never really used a chainsaw, but I’m not into semantics. Each boss fight also challenged you to fight differently, and typically employed new mechanics that felt natural.  Whether an un-killable monster is chasing you, or defending against an enemy that follows the noise you make, RE4 has a vast supply of enemies that behave differently from one another and add layers of gameplay.

Anyone who has played RE4 will remember The Merchant. This is the man who was criminally absent from RE5. "What are ya' buyin'?" and "Ahhhh, I'll buy that at a HIGH price, stranger." were among many phrases that were key RE4's overall experience. Other than that, the game has a surprisingly large cast. In an almost old-school videogame fashion, each major area of the game had its own boss. Before any final encounter, there are multiple occasions in which villans such as Salazar and Krauser further the plot of the game, and generally display how much of a lunatic they are. Resident Evil 4 is flooded with great gameplay and memorable moments. I'm fucking stoked that it's coming out to 360 this fall.