Alright, this is my first post. Let’s get started with the review.

Recently I started and finished playing Resident Evil 4 for the PS2. I picked this game up a few years ago but I hadn’t played it until just recently because I kept getting sidetracked. Then the release of Resident Evil 5 got my ass in gear, cause it wouldn’t be much fun to play RE5 without knowing the story of RE4. The Resident Evil series is one of my favorite groups of games and RE4 did not disappoint, as I will now describe.

So, the game starts out and you are once again playing as Leon S. Kennedy (remember him from RE2). Leon is hired by some government high-ups to rescue the president’s daughter, Ashley, from some wacko cult in Europe. And, of course, just like in RE2, Leon gets more than he bargained for in this mission. He travels to a town where Ashley is suspected to be and discovers that all of the town’s people are crazy zombie-like abominations. (Notice I said the people are zombie-like and not zombies.) That’s right, the town hasn’t been infected by the T-virus or the G-virus but instead it’s been affected by an ancient parasite called “Las Plagas”. It’s a fight for your life as you battle an entire town of monsters!

“Just like old times in Raccoon City”

Now, to get it out of the way, here’s an overview of the whole game in a nutshell (*HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD!*): Leon runs all over the damn place collecting weapons and fighting crazy-ass monsters, finds Ashley and loses her and finds her and loses her and finds her ( I really can’t remember/don’t really care how many times this happens), meets an ally named Luis ( he dies), runs across opposition consisting of Saddler and his cronies, we see some blasts from the past in Jack Krauser and Ada Wong (more RE2 references!) and finally Leon destroys Saddler and saves Ashley. Ada escapes as well and with a sample of the parasite for……*drum roll*……Albert Wesker! Yeah, that’s right, Wesker makes an appearance in RE4. He is pretty much the main villain of the entire series after all. And with that out of the way we can focus on the finer details.

Resident Evil 4 is different in many ways from its predecessors. First off is the view of the game. RE4 takes the camera perspective of an “over the shoulder” view rather than looking down from above the character. This was a little tough to adjust to but you get the hang of it real quick. It has some nice benefits, too. You can see what’s coming ahead of you and you can aim your gun to a specific location on the enemy with the help of a laser sight (which is built in on every gun). I also can’t forget the button prompts; these usually happen in cut scenes and if you don’t press L1+R1 or X+Square fast enough your dead. The second difference is the enemies. As I stated before the enemies aren’t zombies but crazed parasite infected lunatics that speak Spanish (I didn’t mention the Spanish part before, but yeah, they speak Spanish). This might have some hardcore RE fans in a frenzy saying “WHAT!?! They’re not zombies!” but it doesn’t really change the game play too much. Another difference is the concept of collecting money to trade with The Merchant. Throughout the game you pick up money here and there and then when you find The Merchant you can buy guns and other nick-nacks from him. I found the Merchant’s voice hilarious and the fact that he always greats you as “Stranger”. (The name’s Leon motherfucker! LEON!!!). Also, there are no ink ribbons in this game. If you find a typewriter you can just save and that’s that. The ink ribbons can stay gone for all I care; I hated carrying around those annoying pieces of shit anyway.

Annoying pieces of shit

There are things that stayed that same, too. Leon starts the game with the standard knife and handgun. And as the game progresses you can obtain new and more powerful weapons. You can get handguns, shotguns, riffles, machine guns, magnums, rocket launchers, mine throwers, grenades, and even eggs. (Eggs restore your health but you can also chuck them at people, hilarious). And you can upgrade your weapons as well to make them more effective. Also, the healing herbs make an appearance again. There’s the green herb, the red herb and the yellow herb. The yellow herb is new and it increases your max health.

I liked the variety of enemies they had in this game. The infected town’s people, the wolf-dogs, giant insects, etc… (some more durable than others of course). And they weren’t impossible to kill or anything. Although, pretty early on in the game you encounter the chainsaw wielding bag head dude and he can be a pain in the ass. And somehow I feel like I’ve seen an enemy like this before…

There are also some enjoyable sub-boss fights with huge enemies. There are these giant monsters appropriately called “El Gigante” that you fight a few times and you also fight a giant mutated gator/croc while in a boat. And it seems some former enemies have taken a change for the better. The crows that normally peck you to death in other RE games will give you money/bullets if you shoot them down.

I can’t really find anything majorly wrong with this game. The only thing that can get annoying is Ashley. Having to protect her stupid-ass can get frustrating. Also, she’ll occasionally call you a pervert. (Is that anyway to treat your rescuer?). Not to mention her voice when she calls for help. “Leon! HEELLLPPP!”, “Help me Leon”, “HEEELLLPPP!”, “Where are you going?!?” (BITCH, I’M TRYIN’ TO SAVE YOUR ASS! SHUT THE FUCK UP!) But yeah, that’s really the only thing to complain about.

“Go ahead and take her.”

Also, there are some extras on this game. If you beat the game you get another outfit and additional weapons which is common in RE games. And in addition to the regular game you can play Assignment Ada and Separate Ways. I’m not going into them so just play the game and check them out yourself.

Ok, I hope I didn’t make this too long. I really liked Resident Evil 4. It had a decent story, it made some connections to the past Resident Evil games, the challenge wasn’t too hard or too easy, and it wasn’t agonizingly long or disappointingly short. The graphics weren’t too shabby either. I’ve heard the GameCube version looks better, but I thought the PS2 version was perfectly fine. If you’re a fan of Resident Evil games and you haven’t picked this one up yet, I would strongly suggest you get on it and play it. I expect high quality when I play a Resident Evil title and Capcom didn’t let me down. This game ruled.

-Super Joe