DAY 111 / GAME 111
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil has been a fairly long running series which started on the PlayStation and has had 8 games in a consecutive storyline and at least 5 or 6 other side games, an interactive attraction in Japan, a number of live action movies and a series of animated movies. It's really hard for me to pin down exactly which title was my favorite, but if I had to choose, it would probably be Resident Evil 4.
It seems to me this is a pretty common choice among fans, most people I talk to feel this was the best of the series. Resident Evil held it's formula pretty tight throughout the anthology until this one. The game used 3D renders overtop of pre-rendered backgrounds, a fixed cinematic camera and controls locked to that perspective. This was the case with Resident Evil 0, 1, 2 and 3: Nemesis and only changed slightly with Resident Evil 3: Code Veronica which offered realtime rendering, but stuck with static cameras and controls most of the time.
Resident Evil 4 made some major changes in design and ended up leading the charge in action game design. Instead of the fixed camera Capcom decided to move the camera over the shoulder of the protagonist and had it follow in a similar field of view as most FPS games. Of course, with the power of the next generation consoles, everything could now be rendered in realtime while producing very similar quality to what was previously pre-rendered. This all new setup allowed for a much more fast-paced and action oriented game with quicker and more accurate aiming and more elaborate levels.
Everything that was at all clunky about the earlier games had been cleaned up. The inventory system was improved, level loading is considerable faster and the game itself was easier to navigate and complete without getting stuck on puzzles that were difficult simply due to low resolution graphics. Some people complained that this game was far too action oriented and lost it's roots as a survival horror. And although this complaint has some merit, some people would also complain that any survival horror with big guns really lost that 'survival' and 'horror' aspect. But I always felt that mood and design are more important and that Resident Evil was due for a change since really, the original design was more or less a product of what was available in terms of console power at the time.
Resident Evil 4 may have changed a ton about the series, but what I love about it is that Capcom still managed to capture everything that is so special about these games. Just like the older titles, you manage to find yourself a part of much larger operation than what you initially encounter. You start out in a small European village, the victim of the Las Plagas parasite and it goes from there, building and building until as per usual you end up in a high-tech laboratory. RE:4 offers an amazing soundtrack, absolutely fantastic creature design and levels that drip with mood and personality. On top of it all, it offers a fantastic game+ mode. When you complete the game, playing over again offers benefits including wild game-breaking weapons that would be terrible on a first playthrough, but are a blast on subsequent runs. An option I wish was added to more and more games.
I remember seeing an E3 announcement for this game back when I was in college. It featured Leon making his way through a bizarre haunted mansion while being chased by some odd tentacle creature. After that it was a while before I actually picked up the game, I'm not sure why but I never did buy into this right away. When I finally did borrow it on a friend's recommendation I realized none of what I saw in the E3 demo was in the game. I guess it turns out it was part of a completely scrapped version of Resident Evil 4 that never made it to the market known as 'Hookman RE4'. Either way I'm more than happy with how it eventually turned out and I must have played it through a number of times. If anyone wants a copy it's now available dirt cheap in an HD remake available on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil has been a fairly long running series which started on the PlayStation and has had 8 games in a consecutive storyline and at least 5 or 6 other side games, an interactive attraction in Japan, a number of live action movies and a series of animated movies. It's really hard for me to pin down exactly which title was my favorite, but if I had to choose, it would probably be Resident Evil 4. It seems to me this is a pretty common choice among fans, most people I talk to feel this was the best of the series. Resident Evil held it's formula pretty tight throughout the anthology until this one. The game used 3D renders overtop of pre-rendered backgrounds, a fixed cinematic camera and controls locked to that perspective. This was the case with Resident Evil 0, 1, 2 and 3: Nemesis and only changed slightly with Resident Evil 3: Code Veronica which offered realtime rendering, but stuck with static cameras and controls most of the time.
Resident Evil 4 made some major changes in design and ended up leading the charge in action game design. Instead of the fixed camera Capcom decided to move the camera over the shoulder of the protagonist and had it follow in a similar field of view as most FPS games. Of course, with the power of the next generation consoles, everything could now be rendered in realtime while producing very similar quality to what was previously pre-rendered. This all new setup allowed for a much more fast-paced and action oriented game with quicker and more accurate aiming and more elaborate levels.
Everything that was at all clunky about the earlier games had been cleaned up. The inventory system was improved, level loading is considerable faster and the game itself was easier to navigate and complete without getting stuck on puzzles that were difficult simply due to low resolution graphics. Some people complained that this game was far too action oriented and lost it's roots as a survival horror. And although this complaint has some merit, some people would also complain that any survival horror with big guns really lost that 'survival' and 'horror' aspect. But I always felt that mood and design are more important and that Resident Evil was due for a change since really, the original design was more or less a product of what was available in terms of console power at the time.
Resident Evil 4 may have changed a ton about the series, but what I love about it is that Capcom still managed to capture everything that is so special about these games. Just like the older titles, you manage to find yourself a part of much larger operation than what you initially encounter. You start out in a small European village, the victim of the Las Plagas parasite and it goes from there, building and building until as per usual you end up in a high-tech laboratory. RE:4 offers an amazing soundtrack, absolutely fantastic creature design and levels that drip with mood and personality. On top of it all, it offers a fantastic game+ mode. When you complete the game, playing over again offers benefits including wild game-breaking weapons that would be terrible on a first playthrough, but are a blast on subsequent runs. An option I wish was added to more and more games.
I remember seeing an E3 announcement for this game back when I was in college. It featured Leon making his way through a bizarre haunted mansion while being chased by some odd tentacle creature. After that it was a while before I actually picked up the game, I'm not sure why but I never did buy into this right away. When I finally did borrow it on a friend's recommendation I realized none of what I saw in the E3 demo was in the game. I guess it turns out it was part of a completely scrapped version of Resident Evil 4 that never made it to the market known as 'Hookman RE4'. Either way I'm more than happy with how it eventually turned out and I must have played it through a number of times. If anyone wants a copy it's now available dirt cheap in an HD remake available on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
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