Resident Evil 4 is a fun game and a mainstay of the now famous Capcom Five, yet definitely has flaws from keeping me loving it as much as I had the second and third games (remakes.)
One of the biggest boons to RE4 is how over the top and ridiculous Capcom gets in writing Leon Kennedy and the rest of the characters within the story. Leon becomes a machismo chad who nails one liners like a Hollywood movie star which is hilarious in contrast with the grim European landscape and parasitic zombies running amok. He becomes a proto Nathan Drake of sorts, with the world falling to ruin around him he's quick to crack jokes, flirt, or act like a bro in the face of some seriously disgusting beasts. The supporting cast adds to this in the same way: Luis is funny, the Item Salesman is hilariously voice acted (What are ya boiyyinnn,) and the villains like Salazar and Krauser are just as over the top and funky.
It's in this manner of over the top yet simultaneuosly serious that I couldn't help compare this game to Metal Gear Solid, particularly MGS3, which came out the year prior. Both games; are held in extremely high regard, humorous yet serious, third person action shooters with mildly awkward controls, contain codec calls, have lovable and well known main characters, highly overblown exposition scenes during combat (the melee dodge brawl with Krauser versus Ocelot's revolver flipping,) a remarkable brown tint to much of the game's environments, and give the player freedom to alter combat to how they please. That might be a stretch to some, but I felt after playing the Konami classic a month or so ago that this was eerily similar in presentation. Of course Resident Evil as an IP is vastly different from Metal Gear (especially when it comes to writing) so the simliarities mostly end there.
The drab environment of Resident Evil 4 lends itself well to the series' dark tones (moreso than just being a zombie survival adventure) with the evildoings of Umbrella Corps and its constituents. Everything from the disgusting scientific labratories to the harrowing villages feels daunting, and makes the frightening bosses appear even more scary than they already are. The game took me just a hair over thirteen hours, and I never felt like I was in one place too long, which is a result of the fantastic pacing of the story as well as making the backgrounds and traversed areas different enough.
Resident Evil 4 greatly improves over the three previous games in the way of controls as well, altering from the extremely aged tank controls to something much more manageable. The free aiming that Leon must utilize in RE4 makes the survival aspect of the game feel more realistic, with zombies and the like in your face you have to lineup the perfect shot. There's no (real) RNG or directional led RE1 style shooting that needs to be done, it's all on the player. I felt like skill was much more highly rewarded in this manner.
Though while the controls are a huge step up for Resident Evil in this game, the enemy placement is a tremendous drop. Seeing how Resident Evil goes from a strictly survival horror to action I can understand why they pumped up the enemy spawn rates and interactions, however I felt like it largely took away from the game experience. I felt like from room to room there were wayyy too many enemies, it became a game of how patient I could be shooting everything in the room rather than playing to survive. In previous entries, the player was rewarded for picking their battles and ignoring the enemy where need be, in RE4 they just throw a lot at you and force you to take them out.
Though I had fun overall and the game was appropriately toned, I think the awkward enemy encounters took a great deal away from the game for me.
One of the biggest boons to RE4 is how over the top and ridiculous Capcom gets in writing Leon Kennedy and the rest of the characters within the story. Leon becomes a machismo chad who nails one liners like a Hollywood movie star which is hilarious in contrast with the grim European landscape and parasitic zombies running amok. He becomes a proto Nathan Drake of sorts, with the world falling to ruin around him he's quick to crack jokes, flirt, or act like a bro in the face of some seriously disgusting beasts. The supporting cast adds to this in the same way: Luis is funny, the Item Salesman is hilariously voice acted (What are ya boiyyinnn,) and the villains like Salazar and Krauser are just as over the top and funky.
It's in this manner of over the top yet simultaneuosly serious that I couldn't help compare this game to Metal Gear Solid, particularly MGS3, which came out the year prior. Both games; are held in extremely high regard, humorous yet serious, third person action shooters with mildly awkward controls, contain codec calls, have lovable and well known main characters, highly overblown exposition scenes during combat (the melee dodge brawl with Krauser versus Ocelot's revolver flipping,) a remarkable brown tint to much of the game's environments, and give the player freedom to alter combat to how they please. That might be a stretch to some, but I felt after playing the Konami classic a month or so ago that this was eerily similar in presentation. Of course Resident Evil as an IP is vastly different from Metal Gear (especially when it comes to writing) so the simliarities mostly end there.
The drab environment of Resident Evil 4 lends itself well to the series' dark tones (moreso than just being a zombie survival adventure) with the evildoings of Umbrella Corps and its constituents. Everything from the disgusting scientific labratories to the harrowing villages feels daunting, and makes the frightening bosses appear even more scary than they already are. The game took me just a hair over thirteen hours, and I never felt like I was in one place too long, which is a result of the fantastic pacing of the story as well as making the backgrounds and traversed areas different enough.
Resident Evil 4 greatly improves over the three previous games in the way of controls as well, altering from the extremely aged tank controls to something much more manageable. The free aiming that Leon must utilize in RE4 makes the survival aspect of the game feel more realistic, with zombies and the like in your face you have to lineup the perfect shot. There's no (real) RNG or directional led RE1 style shooting that needs to be done, it's all on the player. I felt like skill was much more highly rewarded in this manner.
Though while the controls are a huge step up for Resident Evil in this game, the enemy placement is a tremendous drop. Seeing how Resident Evil goes from a strictly survival horror to action I can understand why they pumped up the enemy spawn rates and interactions, however I felt like it largely took away from the game experience. I felt like from room to room there were wayyy too many enemies, it became a game of how patient I could be shooting everything in the room rather than playing to survive. In previous entries, the player was rewarded for picking their battles and ignoring the enemy where need be, in RE4 they just throw a lot at you and force you to take them out.
Though I had fun overall and the game was appropriately toned, I think the awkward enemy encounters took a great deal away from the game for me.