This review contains spoilers
WARNING: This review is little long
Resident Evil 4 was one of my childhood games, and that's where me and anyone from the 2000s got to know the franchise, and despite being pretty bad at first playing the game, I liked something about it (maybe because a cousin knew how to play better than me at the time and I kept overestimating it, but that's another story), so in 2019/2020, I don't know which year, I replayed this game to see if it's still good, and I was surprised that it STILL IS, and I will To be honest, I was much better replaying the first time, I had a little problem getting used to the game, but in the castle part I was very badass, I faced anyone without any problem, but when I got to the castle tower gear my "disc" crashed in this part and I never went until the end because of that (and I was very upset), so in 2023 that I already had a better version of a PS2 emulator, I decided to replay it again to reset it, because I know that I don't need a disk to play (hehe), and as I said, my first replay was fine, but on the second I was very noob (and I won't even talk about my real beginning where I tried to headshot enemies to kick and I ended up getting kicked), but even so I endured until I reached zero, and it was good, strangely the series has something that even if you die all the time, you want to continue (except chris' campaign from the Original RE1, but that's also another story), and with Original RE4 is also no different, but it is much more explicit that every time you die, you feel that you have taken a power from your ass just like a shounen protagonist and remain firm and strong, that is, the game cannot tire you like some others (maybe in Professional Mode, who knows), an interesting thing is the weapons in the game, each one with its characteristic, instead of buying a new one just because it must be stronger than the previous one (as in many jrpgs), the more interesting about it is that you can improve them like having more firepower, more shooting speed, faster reloading or more capacity (increase its ammunition), but the most peculiar thing about it all, is that if you have the madness to level up everything from that weapon, you get an exclusive version of it that makes it stand out even more like maybe killing a Ganado by shooting it in the head, or something (only weapon I used for that was the Red9 since another one I couldn't test it, because I was already beating the game), now I'm going to say what I didn't like and why I wouldn't leave a full 5 which is the repetition of some really annoying enemies, like the first fight of the Garrador is good because the whole arena was made with that in mind it, but the second one where there are a lot of cultist Ganados giving you hell, it seems that you are lucky and I'm not kidding, and after you pass the tower and go to another part of the castle, you are faced with TWO Garradores, and with an arena even worse than the second one, and you are NOT prepared for that, but the game gives you that shit without prior notice, but the worst of all was having to face two El Gigantes that ok, one you can activate a switch that opens a hole with lava that kills one of them, but the other one you must face it like in your first fight, however the animal is resistant for a disgrace, I had to not only use Rocket Launcher on this one but on both Garradores, because it wouldn't wasting time doing strategy, this seems like it was done just to lengthen the game WHICH IS ALREADY RELATIVELY LONG, not to mention some bosses that some are cool like Del Lago, first fight against El Gigante, Mendez, but there are some very dull ones like the final fight against the Saddler, or an incredibly draggy and damage sponge like Salazar, I really hope that the remake fixes these two bosses, but the escape from the island is even cool, despite being very simple and easy, after zeroing you release some Extra Modes like Separate Ways, which is an Ada campaign where it shows the connected events of the character with Leon and there's a bit of Survival Horror, then there's another Ada campaign where she has to get some samples... that's it people forget that it exists and there is the Mercenaries Mode which is the "Call of Duty" from Resident Evil 4 (well, it must be better than Umbrella Corps), anyway, I know this review was long on the same level as the game, but I wanted to share this with you, it's a great game, but I don't think it's perfect or almost perfect as many people think, but 5 and a half is more than good.
Update: The Quick Time Events suck, this could be another reason why the game doesn't get a top score, and escorting Ashley too, but I don't think it's as bad as the QTEs, for me it's a side that has aged very poorly and manages to be worse than GOW's, mainly because some buttons are random.
Resident Evil 4 was one of my childhood games, and that's where me and anyone from the 2000s got to know the franchise, and despite being pretty bad at first playing the game, I liked something about it (maybe because a cousin knew how to play better than me at the time and I kept overestimating it, but that's another story), so in 2019/2020, I don't know which year, I replayed this game to see if it's still good, and I was surprised that it STILL IS, and I will To be honest, I was much better replaying the first time, I had a little problem getting used to the game, but in the castle part I was very badass, I faced anyone without any problem, but when I got to the castle tower gear my "disc" crashed in this part and I never went until the end because of that (and I was very upset), so in 2023 that I already had a better version of a PS2 emulator, I decided to replay it again to reset it, because I know that I don't need a disk to play (hehe), and as I said, my first replay was fine, but on the second I was very noob (and I won't even talk about my real beginning where I tried to headshot enemies to kick and I ended up getting kicked), but even so I endured until I reached zero, and it was good, strangely the series has something that even if you die all the time, you want to continue (except chris' campaign from the Original RE1, but that's also another story), and with Original RE4 is also no different, but it is much more explicit that every time you die, you feel that you have taken a power from your ass just like a shounen protagonist and remain firm and strong, that is, the game cannot tire you like some others (maybe in Professional Mode, who knows), an interesting thing is the weapons in the game, each one with its characteristic, instead of buying a new one just because it must be stronger than the previous one (as in many jrpgs), the more interesting about it is that you can improve them like having more firepower, more shooting speed, faster reloading or more capacity (increase its ammunition), but the most peculiar thing about it all, is that if you have the madness to level up everything from that weapon, you get an exclusive version of it that makes it stand out even more like maybe killing a Ganado by shooting it in the head, or something (only weapon I used for that was the Red9 since another one I couldn't test it, because I was already beating the game), now I'm going to say what I didn't like and why I wouldn't leave a full 5 which is the repetition of some really annoying enemies, like the first fight of the Garrador is good because the whole arena was made with that in mind it, but the second one where there are a lot of cultist Ganados giving you hell, it seems that you are lucky and I'm not kidding, and after you pass the tower and go to another part of the castle, you are faced with TWO Garradores, and with an arena even worse than the second one, and you are NOT prepared for that, but the game gives you that shit without prior notice, but the worst of all was having to face two El Gigantes that ok, one you can activate a switch that opens a hole with lava that kills one of them, but the other one you must face it like in your first fight, however the animal is resistant for a disgrace, I had to not only use Rocket Launcher on this one but on both Garradores, because it wouldn't wasting time doing strategy, this seems like it was done just to lengthen the game WHICH IS ALREADY RELATIVELY LONG, not to mention some bosses that some are cool like Del Lago, first fight against El Gigante, Mendez, but there are some very dull ones like the final fight against the Saddler, or an incredibly draggy and damage sponge like Salazar, I really hope that the remake fixes these two bosses, but the escape from the island is even cool, despite being very simple and easy, after zeroing you release some Extra Modes like Separate Ways, which is an Ada campaign where it shows the connected events of the character with Leon and there's a bit of Survival Horror, then there's another Ada campaign where she has to get some samples... that's it people forget that it exists and there is the Mercenaries Mode which is the "Call of Duty" from Resident Evil 4 (well, it must be better than Umbrella Corps), anyway, I know this review was long on the same level as the game, but I wanted to share this with you, it's a great game, but I don't think it's perfect or almost perfect as many people think, but 5 and a half is more than good.
Update: The Quick Time Events suck, this could be another reason why the game doesn't get a top score, and escorting Ashley too, but I don't think it's as bad as the QTEs, for me it's a side that has aged very poorly and manages to be worse than GOW's, mainly because some buttons are random.
Reviewed on May 21, 2023