I'm one of those guys who didn't really enjoy RE4 or 5 as RE games but as action/horror games and this beta footage looked as though they were going for a more classic RE style experience and wish it stuck that way.
Resident Evil 4
Game » consists of 39 releases. Released Jan 11, 2005
- GameCube
- PlayStation 2
- PC
- Wii
- + 10 more
- iPhone
- Zeebo
- PlayStation Network (PS3)
- Xbox 360 Games Store
- Wii U
- PlayStation 4
- Xbox One
- Nintendo Switch
- Xbox 360
- Android
Special agent Leon S. Kennedy travels to rural Spain to rescue the U.S. President's kidnapped daughter in Resident Evil's sixth canonical installment. It is notable for a lengthy development cycle which involved a complete overhaul of the series' established gameplay mechanics.
Resident Evil 4 Beta.
Huh. The beta video certainly looks better then the game I remember it. In a way I quite like that beta video, it looks more atmospheric while retaining the horror aspect of the RE series. On the other hand, the combat looks a little clunky so I think it was a good move to make it completely third person over the shoulder view.
RE4 is my favorite game of all time. I'm glad they changed it. Without RE4, 3rd person shooters wouldn't be where they are today.
This is like saying that Splinter Cell: Conviction was a better game when it was just a proof of concept to get people excited about it before they completely changed it. That video is not a game, it's not even really that exciting when you look at it compared to other trailers. It looks like schlock, and not the good kind that the RE series has always excelled at.
" BETA? Wait...what? Resident Evil 4 is already out. "Did you read what he typed?
Yeah..." @AlwaysAngry said:
" BETA? Wait...what? Resident Evil 4 is already out. "Did you read what he typed? "
It lead me to believe this was footage from before the game was out on the PS2 and GC and stuff, but the graphics look way too good, so I'm thoroughly confused.
" @The_Laughing_Man said:It states how disappointed he was with the change from beta to real game..." @AlwaysAngry said:Yeah... "" BETA? Wait...what? Resident Evil 4 is already out. "Did you read what he typed? "
" @AlwaysAngry said:So that was PS2/GC graphics I watched? I seriously can't believe it. I also edited my last post." @The_Laughing_Man said:It states how disappointed he was with the change from beta to real game... "" @AlwaysAngry said:Yeah... "" BETA? Wait...what? Resident Evil 4 is already out. "Did you read what he typed? "
Resident Evil was once macabre, with emphasis on a slow kind of terror. Sure the voice acting was goofy but man, I miss the atmosphere.
Games were doing over-the-shoulder 3rd person shooting for years before RE4, and to be frank, the fact that whenever you try to shoot it locks you in place is just poor game design.
RE4 is a good game, but the only thing it changed was the RE series.
Wow. I am not one of the dudes that will tell you RE4 is the best game of all time. But, man that looks mad boring. I will take the final game over that mess any day.
I would have liked to look forward to this game, because of the kind of scares they wanted to go for originally, and that Leon was sick with a virus roaming around a dead umbrella headquarters looking for answers.
but you know.. RE4 as it is now is pretty amazing.
but at least we still got the classics.
The thing is, I probably wouldn't have given a shit about Resident Evil as a whole without RE4 being the way it is today. Sure, It looks like a game I would want to play, if only to see how much farther the story and design concepts would go. But, much like the infamous Resident Evil 1.5 (one copy of which is totally in the hands of a private collection, along with the PS1 version of Baldur's Gate and some other crazy rare stuff), the chances of us ever seeing any more are slim to never.
@bonbolapti said:
" I would have liked to look forward to this game, because of the kind of scares they wanted to go for originally, and that Leon was sick with a virus roaming around a dead umbrella headquarters looking for answers.
If I recall correctly, Leon was supposed to be infected with the Progenitor Virus, which makes me think that some of the plot points in RE5 borrow from this game. In any case, I am glad with the direction that RE4 took, even if it kind of betrays the series' roots.
Look you retards that are saying "OMG RE4 IS WAY BETTER THAN THIS MESS"
Well no shit, this is a beta, I love the atmosphere and the feeling the older RE games gave the player and it seems like this what they were going for at first, if the development kept going towards this style of gameplay I would have probably loved RE4 but it didn't so it is what it is.
Just got done playing a little RE4 on the PS2.
And though I like RE4 as it is now, that Beta Footage looks miles better, especially graphically o.O
Oh well, no use sitting around wondering what could have been
There are only two problems that I find with that type of view and setup for exploration: it would make the controls feel way clunkier than they should be, and horror should not come from being unable to control your camera (meaning I shouldn't be scared because I'm shooting at something that is off-screen and don't know if I'm hitting it or not outside of audio cues).
That's where I think people decided that RE4 was such a great game - the controls felt right with the way the camera was setup, even though they actually didn't change the controls at all for the most part. People found that it controlled better and had a new type of camera angle yet to be utilized in the mainstream well, and it latched on with the people that were already playing shooters while still holding the elements of what an RE game was.
However, there was a specific attention to detail and atmosphere that was lost because of the over-the-shoulder viewpoint. They couldn't set up this little scare points. One of the most iconic scenes in gaming history was due to fixed camera angles, and while it isn't very scary or awesome by modern standards to most people, it's still something that I remember resonating with me:
This scene in particular was LOVINGLY recreated for the Resident Evil remake on Gamecube, and it didn't miss a single beat. As a matter of fact, it actually was a bit more intense than this was:
So I can absolutely agree with you: Resident Evil 4 just did not hold the same level of atmosphere as the originals...but that does NOT mean they were absent of atmosphere. They merely had to create a different way of handling that atmosphere. They had to find a way to make you get that initial shock. It was there in Resident Evil 4, and if anything, it's something that many games CONTINUE to fail at including in their games. It wasn't the minute you realized something was wrong in this little village. It wasn't the moment that you fired that first shot, and you found droves of guys climbing through windows. It wasn't even the chainsaw guy with a burlap sack over his head.
It was the moment that you rested your controller down a little to watch this boulder roll down the hill...
...and then you were dead because the cutscene was interactive.
It fooled everyone, and it made sure that while you were playing the game, you would NEVER take your hands off the controller. It actually found a way of breaking that fourth wall a bit, making you as the player realize that your controller was your way of surviving. Leon had guns and attache cases and herbs as tools of survival. Your tool was a controller. It was goddamn brilliant.
I've spent a lot of time over the years thinking about all of this. Resident Evil 4 wasn't the downfall of the series. It was the reinvention of the series that helped jumpstart interest in the franchise again. Resident Evil 2 was the downfall. We can talk about atmosphere all we want, but we can also talk about the speedruns of Resident Evil 2...or the fact that you could run past a majority of the zombies in the game. There was no survival necessary. Resident Evil 3 and Code Veronica were in the same vein in many respects.
Resident Evil 4 finally FORCED survival on you. Retaining the gameplay mechanics that made RE all about survival - you can't move and shoot at the same time, you have limited inventory (although that changed after a while), you fought against massive numbers of enemies - while updating it to finally meet modern standards with elements such as limb-specific damage, crosshair-based shooting (well, laser beam leading to crosshair point), and an incredibly odd and never-quite-understandable story...
I'm not saying that you are wrong. I'm merely saying that you may not have looked at the reasons behind the changes like I have.
The biggest reason why I've never finished 0, 1, 2, or code veronica was because of the slow "tank" controls of the originals, which is the best thing about RE4. The fight with the hook guy was interesting, but those little dolls and all the silly little traps like the fire would have just annoyed me.
" RE4 was a GREAT game, almost perfect. It does not need to be changed and is amazing the way it was actually made. There is a reason they ditched this beta version and made it the way they did. "Bingo. Whether this piece of information holds any merit with anyone at all, Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube was the ONLY game in my old website's three-year history to ever get a perfect score. That was in the middle of games like Halo 2, God of War, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas coming out. I still feel that Resident Evil 4 is one of the only perfect games on this planet.
the beta seems cool. yes, i would like to see the game more like that. i did enjoy 4 but i thought that it didn't have the resident evil feel to it. they removed a lot of the puzzles that the 0-3 had. 2 is the only game that i beat before 4. ur at the police station looking for a way out with a lot of the doors locked. 4 it seems more like go to point B kill that go to point C. there were only a few puzzles in the game.
But I do agree with you otherwise, being that the best part of RE4 was the village because it just had the grim feeling of something wrong. It also didn't hurt that your starting handgun wasn't a total powerhouse like some of the late game weapons and Leon didn't have much health. By the end of the game it kind of... loses this, even though the final boss battle is definitley 100% Resident Evil. That is one of the things that I miss in RE5, and I wish Capcom would make an actual new game that tries to modernize the old games' mechanics instead of a fanservice-heavy light gun shooter to appease people who liked the old stuff. I would buy a REmake style remake of RE2 if they made one (I would buy this Beta RE4 if they released it. For $20), and I'm sure plenty of other people would too. Maybe a downloadable thing?
EDIT: For the record, I think that Code Veronica is the lowest point of Main-Series Resident Evil (yeah, I even like RE0 more than Code Veronica). Maybe because it was not only overly long, but it tried to be all action-y, and is the first time the story of Resident Evil took itself seriously... with (in my opinion) laughably abysmal results.
" I agree with this post. I hated RE 4 and 5. They've really lost the true atmosphere of the series along the way. "But how did it lose atmosphere? That's one of the many arguments I've heard from people in this debate: "RE4 didn't have the same atmosphere". What atmosphere? Those who are using the word "atmosphere" either mean one of two things: the macabre sense of art design and approach that Resident Evil 1 had, or the fixed camera angles cutting off what you could and could not see.
The macabre sense was the starting point of the story in the Resident Evil series. What do you want, a full series of games that just constantly puts you back into a mansion? I don't want the same game over and over again. I remember another series that kept putting you in mansions that had a macabre sense - it was called the Tecmo Deception series...and everything past the first one failed in my own eyes.
Fixed camera angles are obsolete. You should be able to make things scary without having to worry about camera angle. Condemned is a game that was so rich in atmosphere that you could cut through it with a knife and it was just refill itself instantly!!! That was a first-person game!!!
As I've stated before...and I'm not saying I'm the final word on this at all, but I feel I hold a strong footing and sensibility in this aspect...Resident Evil 4 is rich in atmosphere. It's just not the same atmosphere as the first Resident Evil game. If the creators were to go back to that, it would simply feel stale in comparison to the way they went with Resident Evil 4. In turn, we'd be sitting around bitching about how Resident Evil can't seem to have a different kind of atmosphere and that the atmosphere they are using is completely stale.
So...PLEASE...EVERYONE...define what you mean by "atmosphere".
I'm not going to argue with you because I know your just going to throw a novel sized wall of text back at me but when I play RE2 or 3 I feel tension and even fear, the backround noises are fucking terrifying and make me feel like I'm 10 again. I know fixed camera angles are obsolete but thats what made them awesome, even if they took RE2 and recreated it with 3rd person angles I would still think it was a overall better game than 4." @RobJ said:
" I agree with this post. I hated RE 4 and 5. They've really lost the true atmosphere of the series along the way. "But how did it lose atmosphere? That's one of the many arguments I've heard from people in this debate: "RE4 didn't have the same atmosphere". What atmosphere? Those who are using the word "atmosphere" either mean one of two things: the macabre sense of art design and approach that Resident Evil 1 had, or the fixed camera angles cutting off what you could and could not see.
The macabre sense was the starting point of the story in the Resident Evil series. What do you want, a full series of games that just constantly puts you back into a mansion? I don't want the same game over and over again. I remember another series that kept putting you in mansions that had a macabre sense - it was called the Tecmo Deception series...and everything past the first one failed in my own eyes.
Fixed camera angles are obsolete. You should be able to make things scary without having to worry about camera angle. Condemned is a game that was so rich in atmosphere that you could cut through it with a knife and it was just refill itself instantly!!! That was a first-person game!!!
As I've stated before...and I'm not saying I'm the final word on this at all, but I feel I hold a strong footing and sensibility in this aspect...Resident Evil 4 is rich in atmosphere. It's just not the same atmosphere as the first Resident Evil game. If the creators were to go back to that, it would simply feel stale in comparison to the way they went with Resident Evil 4. In turn, we'd be sitting around bitching about how Resident Evil can't seem to have a different kind of atmosphere and that the atmosphere they are using is completely stale.
So...PLEASE...EVERYONE...define what you mean by "atmosphere". "
BTW RE2 is no way the downfall of the series, it's what made the series what it is, all 4 did was bring it out into the casual market.
Looks a lot like the REmake.
I don't know. I'm glad Resident Evil 4 went in the direction it did. I enjoy those games a lot more than the old school tank control Resident Evil games. I'm all for games being streamlined for wider appeal, though I understand the purist position of keeping things in the spirit of the games that've come before.
" @RobJ said:Why not, apparently it works for movies ("Saw" and "Final Destination")." I agree with this post. I hated RE 4 and 5. They've really lost the true atmosphere of the series along the way. "The macabre sense was the starting point of the story in the Resident Evil series. What do you want, a full series of games that just constantly puts you back into a mansion?
I wish there were more traditional resident evil games, however seeing that video, they totally needed a change in direction of the series. Now we get action games like resident evil 5.
Fixed camera angles are more or less obsolete, but I'm hoping for a resurgence. They're only a problem when they're done wrong (which, for the most part, they are), and when done right, they're far more effective than any first-person or over-the-shoulder perspective could ever hope to be. Have you played any of the Project Zero (or Fatal Frame, as they're known in the States) games? That series a prime example of fixed camera angles done right. Never annoying, never a hindrance, and always making your experience as terrifying as possible."Fixed camera angles are obsolete. You should be able to make things scary without having to worry about camera angle. Condemned is a game that was so rich in atmosphere that you could cut through it with a knife and it was just refill itself instantly!!! That was a first-person game!!!"
@atomic_dumpling
said:You thought the Saw sequels were good? Wow. And Final Destination? Really?" @jakob187 said:
Why not, apparently it works for movies ("Saw" and "Final Destination"). "" @RobJ said:
" I agree with this post. I hated RE 4 and 5. They've really lost the true atmosphere of the series along the way. "The macabre sense was the starting point of the story in the Resident Evil series. What do you want, a full series of games that just constantly puts you back into a mansion?
Absolutely not, I am far too squeamish in order to enjoy such "torture porn". Those two series just perfectly fit the description of "formulaic".Why not, apparently it works for movies ("Saw" and "Final Destination"). "You thought the Saw sequels were good? Wow. And Final Destination? Really? "
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