The following review is an excerpt from my piece on both Resident Evil 4s. This excerpt covers my full thoughts on the original game.
When I started Resident Evil 4 (2005), I noticed the controls were weird. Tilting the joystick forward moves Leon forward, and tilting it left and right turns him from side to side. The player can make him do a quick turn by pushing the joystick back while pressing X. (on a PS5 controller). The player has to hold down the left bumper to pull out Leon’s knife and then use the right trigger to swing it. It is not possible to move while aiming a weapon. The controls are clunky. But this control scheme works remarkably well for an action game with roots in survival horror. Enemy encounters are always tense because it is not easy to get away from them. This puts pressure on the player to make decisions and make them quickly. “How much ammo do I have left for each gun? What kind of weapon do I want to use? Should I try to kill this enemy or run past it to conserve ammo? Do I want to heal now and get some health back or wait until I find a red herb and heal fully?” These are all questions I have to ask myself while trying to land shots on enemies, and it keeps the gameplay constantly engaging. Even though Resident Evil 4 (2005) is the game that took the series away from its survival horror roots, the clunky controls help maintain the previous games’ tension in an action context.
The level design is varied and supports the controls' playstyle. The game has three main areas, the village, the castle, and the island. They all have their own unique set pieces, puzzles, and enemies. The village eases the player into the game as they learn the controls. The enemies are relatively simple. Most of them are plagas-infected villagers. Eventually, Leon will encounter chainsaw-wielding enemies that can kill him with a single attack. Some enemies carry throwing axes or dynamite sticks, but it is nothing the player cannot handle with a bit of planning and perseverance. The castle adds cultists with new weapons, plagas-infected dogs, suits of armor, and wolverine-like beasts that can slice the player in half if they aren’t killed using the weak points on their back. This area is filled with puzzles that use both Leon and Ashley, encouraging experimentation and exploration.
The game’s final area, the island, houses the game’s most action-packed moments. It feels like a warzone. The enemies are much more challenging now, and some have guns. The player has to duel Jack Krauser, another highly trained soldier, to the death. It also is home to an underground lab filled with Regeneradores, the only enemy in the game that legitimately scares me. The whole level builds to one final interaction with Lord Saddler, the game’s main antagonist, and the final test of the player’s skill. The game remains fresh and exciting to play throughout all three of these areas. There are no dull moments in Resident Evil 4 (2005). It’s filled with meticulously crafted level design and has a campaign that could only be rivaled by Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, another masterpiece from that era.
Resident Evil 4's gameplay is at its best when fighting bosses. The tension felt when fighting regular enemies is not even comparable to the bosses. The bosses test the player’s mastery of the game’s combat. Leon is just one guy with a few guns, and the bosses are giant monsters of bioterrorism. The bosses require the player to get aggressive even though they seem outmatched. Players must land shots on the bosses, often at specific weak points, while dodging melee and projectile attacks, manipulating the environment to their advantage, and managing resources. Every boss is well-tuned to the game’s combat, and they are all thrillingly fun to fight (except for U-3, that boss sucks).
While Resident Evil 4's gameplay is just about perfect, the story is a little dated. Most of the characters are paper-thin. They have a pretty standard representation of their archetypes. Ashley is a scared and sometimes irrational young woman who acts like a spoiled teenager, fitting for the President’s daughter. Luis is a side-kick Leon can never truly trust, and he’s “great with the ladies” (In 2005, this just meant he would make uncalled-for comments about women’s bodies, apparently) Ada is a femme-fatale foil to Leon. She’s intelligent and charming and can easily manipulate Leon despite her betrayal of him in Resident Evil 2. The game’s villains are also one-note. Lord Sadler is the mastermind behind the organization, a zealot cult leader who controls just about everything. Ramón Salazar is the clear standout; he’s short, has a silly hat, and antagonizes “Mr. Kennedy” throughout the castle. Bitores Méndez is just… sort of there?
The plot itself is relatively simple. Leon Kennedy, a survivor of the Raccoon City outbreak from Resident Evil 2, now works for the feds and needs to save President Graham’s daughter, Ashley, from a cult in Spain. There is a bit more to it that ties the game into Resident Evil’s greater lore, but most of it is not explored in the game’s original release. What Resident Evil 4's plot lacks in complexity, it more than makes up for in charm. The game is full of B-movie humor, witty one-liners, and over-the-top scenes. So while I would not nominate the game for “best writing.” It more than gets the job done; the story presentation fits the game perfectly.
After rolling the credits on Resident Evil 4, I was thoroughly impressed. Despite being an eighteen-year-old Nintendo GameCube game, the gameplay had me just as engaged as the modern third-person shooters it inspired, like The Last of Us. I could easily see why it’s regarded as one of the best games of all time, and I think it is easily one of, if not the best, game on the GameCube.
Click here to read the full article on my Substack
When I started Resident Evil 4 (2005), I noticed the controls were weird. Tilting the joystick forward moves Leon forward, and tilting it left and right turns him from side to side. The player can make him do a quick turn by pushing the joystick back while pressing X. (on a PS5 controller). The player has to hold down the left bumper to pull out Leon’s knife and then use the right trigger to swing it. It is not possible to move while aiming a weapon. The controls are clunky. But this control scheme works remarkably well for an action game with roots in survival horror. Enemy encounters are always tense because it is not easy to get away from them. This puts pressure on the player to make decisions and make them quickly. “How much ammo do I have left for each gun? What kind of weapon do I want to use? Should I try to kill this enemy or run past it to conserve ammo? Do I want to heal now and get some health back or wait until I find a red herb and heal fully?” These are all questions I have to ask myself while trying to land shots on enemies, and it keeps the gameplay constantly engaging. Even though Resident Evil 4 (2005) is the game that took the series away from its survival horror roots, the clunky controls help maintain the previous games’ tension in an action context.
The level design is varied and supports the controls' playstyle. The game has three main areas, the village, the castle, and the island. They all have their own unique set pieces, puzzles, and enemies. The village eases the player into the game as they learn the controls. The enemies are relatively simple. Most of them are plagas-infected villagers. Eventually, Leon will encounter chainsaw-wielding enemies that can kill him with a single attack. Some enemies carry throwing axes or dynamite sticks, but it is nothing the player cannot handle with a bit of planning and perseverance. The castle adds cultists with new weapons, plagas-infected dogs, suits of armor, and wolverine-like beasts that can slice the player in half if they aren’t killed using the weak points on their back. This area is filled with puzzles that use both Leon and Ashley, encouraging experimentation and exploration.
The game’s final area, the island, houses the game’s most action-packed moments. It feels like a warzone. The enemies are much more challenging now, and some have guns. The player has to duel Jack Krauser, another highly trained soldier, to the death. It also is home to an underground lab filled with Regeneradores, the only enemy in the game that legitimately scares me. The whole level builds to one final interaction with Lord Saddler, the game’s main antagonist, and the final test of the player’s skill. The game remains fresh and exciting to play throughout all three of these areas. There are no dull moments in Resident Evil 4 (2005). It’s filled with meticulously crafted level design and has a campaign that could only be rivaled by Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, another masterpiece from that era.
Resident Evil 4's gameplay is at its best when fighting bosses. The tension felt when fighting regular enemies is not even comparable to the bosses. The bosses test the player’s mastery of the game’s combat. Leon is just one guy with a few guns, and the bosses are giant monsters of bioterrorism. The bosses require the player to get aggressive even though they seem outmatched. Players must land shots on the bosses, often at specific weak points, while dodging melee and projectile attacks, manipulating the environment to their advantage, and managing resources. Every boss is well-tuned to the game’s combat, and they are all thrillingly fun to fight (except for U-3, that boss sucks).
While Resident Evil 4's gameplay is just about perfect, the story is a little dated. Most of the characters are paper-thin. They have a pretty standard representation of their archetypes. Ashley is a scared and sometimes irrational young woman who acts like a spoiled teenager, fitting for the President’s daughter. Luis is a side-kick Leon can never truly trust, and he’s “great with the ladies” (In 2005, this just meant he would make uncalled-for comments about women’s bodies, apparently) Ada is a femme-fatale foil to Leon. She’s intelligent and charming and can easily manipulate Leon despite her betrayal of him in Resident Evil 2. The game’s villains are also one-note. Lord Sadler is the mastermind behind the organization, a zealot cult leader who controls just about everything. Ramón Salazar is the clear standout; he’s short, has a silly hat, and antagonizes “Mr. Kennedy” throughout the castle. Bitores Méndez is just… sort of there?
The plot itself is relatively simple. Leon Kennedy, a survivor of the Raccoon City outbreak from Resident Evil 2, now works for the feds and needs to save President Graham’s daughter, Ashley, from a cult in Spain. There is a bit more to it that ties the game into Resident Evil’s greater lore, but most of it is not explored in the game’s original release. What Resident Evil 4's plot lacks in complexity, it more than makes up for in charm. The game is full of B-movie humor, witty one-liners, and over-the-top scenes. So while I would not nominate the game for “best writing.” It more than gets the job done; the story presentation fits the game perfectly.
After rolling the credits on Resident Evil 4, I was thoroughly impressed. Despite being an eighteen-year-old Nintendo GameCube game, the gameplay had me just as engaged as the modern third-person shooters it inspired, like The Last of Us. I could easily see why it’s regarded as one of the best games of all time, and I think it is easily one of, if not the best, game on the GameCube.
Click here to read the full article on my Substack