I can see it. If I can just make it to the cabin without anyone seeing me, I should be fine. Then I hear it, the sound that I really, really didn’t want to hear; “Der he is!” an angry villager shouts in a pseudo Spanish accent. Suddenly, many angry villagers, all of them armed with pitchforks and sickles, are confronting me. I’m trapped with no way out. Looking around the cabin, I manage to locate a nearby bookcase and push it to the door to (hopefully) buy myself a little time, collect my thoughts and think about my next actions. But it gets worse. The windows upstairs have been smashed; the villagers have erected a ladder and are slowly but surely, trying to get me.
I make a dash upstairs; a shotgun blast to the temple takes the first villager’s head clean off and he falls to the floor. A command flashes up prompting me to “drop ladder”, I oblige. It’s no use though; they’ve found a way in downstairs and are now advancing. A couple of blasts from the shotgun send the villagers hurtling backwards. It’s at this very point where you begin to believe you might just get through this scenario alive. I’ve bought myself enough time to reload and then it happens – from out of nowhere, a chainsaw wielding maniac, not too dissimilar from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s “Leatherface” character, slices through my neck, my head comes tumbling off and those chilling words flash up on screen – “You Are Dead”.
As you sit there for a moment pondering your thoughts at what just transpired, it hits you – Resident Evil, the game to spawn many an imitator, has returned to reclaim it’s crown.
The screen is displaying “Continue’ Yes or No” and with a wry smile and sweaty palms, it’s back to the fray to send these “things” to hell. And it’s like this throughout the 20+ hours that the game encompasses. There is no reprieve; it’s completely unrelenting in its pursuit to unnerve you. It’s not scary in the sense of visceral horror, but what it does do is create a claustrophobic sense of anxiety; a fear that you know something is coming, but you don’t know what and you don’t when. When it does, it’ll be over in seconds if you are not alert to your surroundings. The audio lends itself very well to this, since the atmosphere is built to the point where you are frantically looking around; you can’t see anything, but the sound is pulsating and loud, then, the sound of scythe cutting through the night air comes hurtling towards you and before you know it, three enemies are coming towards you armed with pitchforks. Aesthetically, Resident Evil 4 is stunning and presents probably the most impressive visuals to have been wrestled out of the GameCube. The colours are quite insipid; using a hue containing an amalgamation of dullness to give the game its moody, sombre look and feel, which accents the sheer scope of the environments, enemies and bosses perfectly.
The game is set 4 years after the incident at Racoon City and sees the return of Leon S. Kennedy, in a new role as a Special Agent. Your role as Leon is to rescue the President’s daughter – Ashley Graham – from a mysterious faction. Her last known whereabouts were traced to a village in Europe, and it’s here where the search begins and the mystery starts to unravel. Not the deepest story, but that doesn’t matter, because this is an evolved Resident Evil. The play dynamics from previous iterations were for the most part, rooted in the puzzle element; whilst puzzling does still play a part in Resident Evil 4, the focus has been shifted slightly to a more action-orientated fundamental. The puzzle element is particularly engaging, but not overly challenging and unlikely to keep you stumped for hours on end, but this works in its favour, since the pacing of the game is now at a level where you don’t want to put the control-pad down. Another new element to the series is the Shenmue-inspired QTE scenarios. Basically, when a command flashes up on screen, you are required to press the buttons indicated. This can occur during play and even during cut-scenes, so putting the pad down at a cut-scene interval isn’t a particular good idea.
A welcome omission for Resident Evil 4 are the cumbersome camera and control mechanics, which has been a staple of the series since it’s first foray on the PS1. In its place is a fixed camera system, which sits on the shoulder of Leon Kennedy and can be adjusted around Leon’s proximity by using the C-stick if you find your view hindered, but this is a rare occurrence. On top of this, a vastly improved control-system that doesn’t see Leon spinning on the spot to find the direction he wants to walk in is a huge bonus. Moving the stick will allow Leon to move in any direction, pressing the ‘R’ button aims his weapon and pressing ‘A’ will fire it.
Previous iterations would usually entail you walking into a room, hearing the zombie, accessing the inventory to reload your gun, approach the zombie, shoot its head off, go to the next-room. Rinse and repeat. You actually have to think about how you are going to take your enemy down, especially if your low on ammunition. Shooting them in the legs, for example, with the standard issue pistol, will drop them to their knees or the floor, thus allowing you to get close enough to finish them off with a kick/suplex, or alternatively, you can repeatedly hack away with the knife (which is mapped to the ‘L’ button). If you’re armed with a more powerful weapon, like the shotgun, then blasting at close range at their heads will send them and quite often, their head hurtling backwards and to their death – or so you think.
Weapons, new and existing, can be bought and upgraded to increase capacity, accuracy, reload speed and firepower parameters from the cockney sounding merchant found throughout the game. Not only can you flog him your old weapons, but you can also sell him the treasures that you come across, thus allowing you to buy the more expensive weapons. Additional sub-missions can be undertaken by buying a Treasure Map, which gives you the location of the available treasure in that particular area. Item management, however, is a must, since you have a certain amount of space within your case, forcing you to choose your inventory items and weapons carefully. The herbs replenish health, as they have done throughout the series, but another nice little touch and in true Metal Gear Solid 3 fashion is the ability to kill snakes or even fish to replenish health. It really is the little touches in this game which really help it shine, and even when its all said and done, there is plenty to return to once the end credits have rolled.
What’s to say’ This text has only really touched upon the core-dynamics of the game. Its been written that way to avoid spoiler territory, so that the player can reap the benefits of this awesome title. The genre started with Resident Evil. It ends with Resident Evil. Its only the start of 2005, but it’s going to have to take something mighty special to wrestle the probable forthcoming Game Of The Year accolade from Resident Evil 4. Best game on the GameCube’ Definitely. In fact, if there was ever a game that required the purchase of it’s native console just to play it, then this is it.
