Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube)
Developed and Published by: Capcom

You have stumbled across an eerie broken-down village on the edge of the woods. A tattered cloth hanging from a gnarled tree branch flutters in the cool breeze, beckoning you forward. The few villagers you have encountered among the shacks so far seem… not quite right. They groan and mutter indecipherable phrases in what sounds like Russian — or is it Hungarian? — as they stumble towards you. What happened to this place? As you near the center of the village, something stirs behind you so you quickly duck inside the closest house. Through the dusty window you can see a throng of villagers approach your location and congregate outside. They are holding axes and torches and pound against the door. You can hear the old wood start to splinter and crack.

Frantically you scramble up the creaky staircase behind you in search of an exit. Or better yet, a weapon. Mounted on the wall in front of you is a double-barrelled shotgun. Downstairs you can hear a loud crash and the angry voices intensify. As your sweaty hand grasps the shotgun you whirl around only to find yourself face to face with a chainsaw-wielding maniac with a bag over his head.Before you can react, the deafening chainsaw growls, cutting into flesh and in one clean arc your head is completely severed from its body. Darkness engulfs you. Then something else comes into focus before your eyes… three words scrawled in blood: “You Are Dead”.

This, more than any of the technical details I can offer, gives a glimpse of what it’s like to play Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube. It is a tense, nail-bitingly cinematic experience that’s sure to provide a plethora of memorable moments just like the one detailed above. The graphics offer some of the most life-like character models and detailed environments yet seen on a console, the music and sounds are creepy and organic, and the cut scenes are as good if not better than any Metal Gear Solid game, often incorporating interactive elements to keep you on your toes. It all adds up to a vivid and immersive game that is essentially without equal.

But it’s not the atmosphere and impressive visuals that are the most surprising here; Resident Evil games have always been pretty good at that stuff. Rather, it is the revamped control scheme and new presentation style that put RE4 so far beyond its predecessors. The old tank-style controls were just infuriating enough to keep most people at bay, but with an over the shoulder 3rd person camera view and intuitive combat interface, Resident Evil has opened itself up to a much wider audience. The movements of your character may still seem somewhat slow at times — even slower with a horde of enemies bearing down on you — but this all adds to the gut-wrenching suspense. Sure, Capcom *could* have made the camera swivel faster as you round a corner… but that would take away all the good scares, so why would they want to?

Adding to the fast-paced, combat-oriented feel of the game are the new context-sensitive actions, allowing you to interact with the environment (ie. hop over fences, jump through windows, kick down ladders) or perform special attacks (ie. roundhouse kicks to the skull) with a single push of the “A” button. There is also a huge arsenal of weapons to choose from in the game rivalling any first-person shooter, and many of the weapons can also be upgraded. (A mysterious merchant just happens to be hanging out in convenient locations throughout the game to peddle his wares.) The wide choice of weapons adds a small RPG element that is shaped by your style of play, and also adds some replay value to the game.

Some people were worried by the fact that there were no “zombies” in this game. How can you have a Resident Evil game without zombies?? Resident Evil 4 keeps things fresh with a lot of different creepy monsters, and the villagers themselves are similar to zombies but a lot smarter and more unpredictable. The bossfights in this game will blow you away, and the enemy A.I. is versatile enough that things will play out differently every time you take on another group of enemies.The game isn’t by any means a cakewalk, but it’s such a pleasure to play a game that has save points and continues fairly balanced. For one thing, you don’t need ribbons to save at a typewriter like some previous Resident Evil games. The other nicety is that if you die, you don’t necessarily restart from your last save. You continue from the last area you entered, which is such a simple thing but boy do I love it. Of course, when the going gets tough, there’s always plenty of green herb around too. You know what they say, roll up a fatty and the pain just fades away…

Resident Evil 4 has a few minor flaws (the voice acting, for one, leaves something to be desired), but overall this game is extremely polished and worth every word of the hype you’ve probably heard. This is the kind of game you bring out to show your friends when you want to wow them and prove that not all Gamecube games are for sissies. PS2 owners will have to wait a while longer before they can get their hands on this amazing title, and odds are it won’t look quite as nice. For once, Nintendo fanboys have something they can gloat about. And Capcom, well they have another smash hit on their hands. — Sean

SCORE:

Around the Web: