Resident Evil 4 - An Appreciation

In this post I am going to be bestowing praise on a revisit of the classic game Resident Evil 4. I have recently been playing this again on PS4, thanks to the remastered version of it that has been released, and it has reminded me of all that I remembered was fantastic, and the sheer wealth of all that I had forgotten that was amazing about it.

My first experience of playing the game was actually on Wii, which was by no means the first platform the game had appeared on. Indeed, when I cautiously bought the game for the Wii I was aware that it was an old title and it made me wonder if I was investing my money in an absolute duffer. However, as the Wii was my only main console I was somewhat starved of serious, hardcore games.

I hadn't yet purchased a PS3 at the time (though I knew a friend who had) and I was deeply envious of Dead Space that he had recently shown me at his house. Little did I realise that by buying Resident Evil 4 I was buying the game that had completely influenced Dead Space and was, in many ways, far superior.

But, at first, knowing nothing about the game, I loaded Resident Evil 4 and gripped onto my Wiimote and Control Stick, and waited to see if this game was going to be as big a pile of shit as I feared.

I was impressed from the start, with the opening movie giving proceedings a feel of a cinematic adventure (pure b-movie standard, naturally, but the game practically revels in its ridiculousness). And not before too long the game delivers its first masterstroke: after a minor skirmish with a few hostile natives to warm you up and get you into the controls, you casually walk into the local village and from there the game locks you in to a battle with hordes of baddies appearing from all angles, chasing you wherever you may run.

Think you can escape by running into a house and pushing cupboards up against the doors and windows? Think again. A roaring whirr of a chainsaw introduces the first terrifying and memorable villain; the chainsaw ganado.

This opening battle is superb, You hide in a house you trigger the chainsaw baddie. You try and climb the bell tower and the villagers light a fire and smoke you out. Your best bet, though not clear at the time, is to save your ammo and your life by just running and running around until the bell rings and the villagers disappear. But the sheer variety of all that can happen, of the different strategies you can undertake to try and survive, are an expert introduction to the game.

From this point on it's like the game is an embarrassment of killer moments. Re-playing it again I would manage to get out of one area into the next only to be immediately reminded of what stressful but tremendous bit awaited me.

Go to the lake and battle against the giant creature under the water in your boat. Survive the church and rescue the girl to find yourself trapped in a cabin and having to defend downstairs and upstairs as the many entry points are breached. From there you're in an arena locked in combat with a huge troll.

And the game isn't easy! The controls make life difficult; you can't aim and shoot and move at the same time. On harder difficulties especially you need to try and get headshots and then step in for physical attacks to conserve ammo. Onward you'll go to battle into the castle and face hordes of enemies brandishing scythes and shields and bloody sniper crossbows. . .

The memorable moments just keep coming, Who can forget the first time they took a step down into the prison and had to face the blind enemy with huge claws. His only weakspot was on his back. So you had to quietly step away from him, shoot a bell to attract his attention and then blast him in the back. 

My wife played the game on my recommendation. I distinctly remember making myself a drink in the kitchen when she was playing this section of the game on her own, chattering to herself "I don't like this, I don't like this" whilst she tried to keep her nerve and get through it.

The sheer embarrassment of riches continues. There's the castle garden maze. . .

. . . filled with savage dogs, constantly growling unseen behind the hedges, waiting to jump out at you. And then there's a foray down into the sewers where you face off against giant bugs that are near-invisible. Move softly, and keep your eyes peeled, and you might just make out the steam of their breath and be able to sniper shot them before you walk into their trap. Later you'll fight more bugs, flying bugs.

These buzz horribly as they get closer and you frantically scan above and around you, trying to work out where they are coming from before it's too late. And there always just seems to be slightly more of them than you think is fair. Pumping shotgun bullets away, round after round, and as you survive you're already worried that you've wasted too many bullets and left yourself underprepared for whatever is coming next.

And let's forget there is that bit of the game where you have to control Ashley, the damsel in distress, during which sequences you don't have a weapon of any kind at all.

Those moments are somewhat stressful. Though perhaps not quite as stressful as having to deal with the Regenerator baddies (in which you need to use a heat-scope on your sniper rifle to pick out the weak spots as it shuffles towards you, making the most hideous slurping-hiss murmur).

Or how about that bit where, out of fucking nowhere, you end up locked in a suspended cage with an overpowered beast scuttling after you whilst you try and find and hit the right buttons to open the door that you then have to get through before the timer runs out all whilst being ambushed at random intervals.

In my replay of it I have found it just as stressful, if not more so. First time around there was the thrill of discovery and excitement about what lay around the corner. Playing it when you know what's coming (though, crucially, can't quite remember it well enough to recall the best strategy for survival) has instilled just a constant sense of dread. It's like an ordeal. But a fun, rewarding ordeal.

Like taking a high-powered magnum, saving all my bullets because I know what's coming, and absolutely annihilating this annoying little shit in a few well-placed shots to his giant monstrous eyeball.

Top tip: When it comes to fighting Krauser, keep your gun holstered and use your knife.

Just. . . trust me. I remembered learning this all those years ago when I played on Wii. I remembered it again for PS4. It turns an overwhelming boss encounter into a situation where you turn the tables and get your own back without wasting a single bullet of precious ammo.

Resident Evil 4 is a classic. No question. It packs more ideas and set piece moments into its 10-15 hour game time (if you're slow and methodical like me, that'll be even longer for one go through) than pretty much any other game I can think of. Many other games may pitch an entire level around one killer sequence, happy to pad out the rest with filler exploration and basic battles - Resident Evil 4 doesn't like to go more than one room or area before it springs its next well-planned, deviously torturous problem for you to either negotiate or, you know, die in.

If we were to use a musical metaphor then if most action-adventure games are like albums then Resident Evil 4 is more like a greatest hits collection.

I'm not going to tell you that Resident Evil 4 is the greatest game of all time, It's not. Indeed, most games will eventually be usurped at one time or another. My favourite games ever have changed as I have grown up with new generations of hardware and new games taking advantage of ever-increasing sophistication. Super Mario Kart and Street Fighter II on the SNES were, for sure, the best games there had ever been. And then along came, say, Final Fantasy VII (and VIII and IX!). After Resident Evil 4 there was, say, an Uncharted 2 to trump it in all ways as a cinematic action-adventure (except for scares and dread).

No, you have to allow games acknowledgement for their time and place as well as their quality. Resident Evil 4 was an out and out pioneer at the time of release and it has inspired and continues to inspire generations of games ever since. But, frankly, even now in 2017 - a staggering 12 years after its first release - this game holds up, It still plays well. It still draws you in. And it will work your nerves.

Play it. Survive it.