This is my favorite Resident Evil game and one of my all time favorite games in general.
The first time I ever played this game was when I was around 13 and I've played it many times in my lifetime since, the last time I played it was almost exactly 4 years ago to this date before today anyways (That was completely coincidental lmao), but every time I come back to the game it just feels as great as the first time.
The story is so over-the-top and ridiculous that it is actually amazing. Leon is a secret agent hired by the president to rescue his daughter from a crazy religious cult? How the hell can you go wrong with that premise? The dialogue just oozes 90s/2000s camp in the best way possible and Leon's witty and sarcastic one-liners are still some of the most memorable quotes in all of video games.
Sure this might be when RE went from a horror series to almost pure action, but when your action scenes are some of the absolute best in video games and even better than most Hollywood blockbusters who can complain? The knife fight with Krauser, the whole helicopter sequence with Mike, Leon running up a wall to avoid being sliced to pieces by lasers, the game is just full of amazing non-stop action moments like this.
Every boss fight is just as action packed as the cut-scenes themselves and the enemy design is just incredible and while this was the departure from the horror roots of RE there's still some truly tense and terrifying moments being chased by certain enemies and bosses in claustrophobic environments.
The level design has so much variety from the village to the swamp, castle, mines and even lab and they're always fun to explore just to find all the secrets and treasures to sell to the merchant for weapon upgrades. Oh and RE 4 introduced the greatest inventory system of all time, every single game with an inventory system should have the kind this game has.
Naturally an action game would be nothing if the gameplay isn't as good as the actual action itself and even 16 years later the gameplay of RE 4 is still super fun and addictive. A little known fact is this game was one of the first to implement an over-the-shoulder camera so it's actually pretty revolutionary and many games even nowadays owe RE 4 for their entire existence.
The controls might not be as tight as later entries that completely removed tank controls, but they are certainly easier to handle than the first 3 entries of the series. Also these controls work better for the more action oriented gameplay as well.
All of this combined makes RE 4 a game with truly remarkable replay value, but that is accentuated even further by the addictive arcade-like Mercenaries horde mode mini-game, the Assignment Ada mini-game and the small Separate Ways campaign. All of these special modes let you unlock powerful new weapons for the main story as well giving even more incentive to play them aside from them just being super fun and enjoyable.
Resident Evil 4 is the purest definition of the word "peak" to me. From the ridiculous story and campy character dialogue to the incredible insane action packed cut-scenes and boss fights, the well designed varied levels, the super fun shooting mechanics, treasure collecting and weapon upgrading gameplay and the sheer amount of content available, Resident Evil 4 is a true timeless classic that can be played repeatedly, year-after-year without it ever growing stale.
The first time I ever played this game was when I was around 13 and I've played it many times in my lifetime since, the last time I played it was almost exactly 4 years ago to this date before today anyways (That was completely coincidental lmao), but every time I come back to the game it just feels as great as the first time.
The story is so over-the-top and ridiculous that it is actually amazing. Leon is a secret agent hired by the president to rescue his daughter from a crazy religious cult? How the hell can you go wrong with that premise? The dialogue just oozes 90s/2000s camp in the best way possible and Leon's witty and sarcastic one-liners are still some of the most memorable quotes in all of video games.
Sure this might be when RE went from a horror series to almost pure action, but when your action scenes are some of the absolute best in video games and even better than most Hollywood blockbusters who can complain? The knife fight with Krauser, the whole helicopter sequence with Mike, Leon running up a wall to avoid being sliced to pieces by lasers, the game is just full of amazing non-stop action moments like this.
Every boss fight is just as action packed as the cut-scenes themselves and the enemy design is just incredible and while this was the departure from the horror roots of RE there's still some truly tense and terrifying moments being chased by certain enemies and bosses in claustrophobic environments.
The level design has so much variety from the village to the swamp, castle, mines and even lab and they're always fun to explore just to find all the secrets and treasures to sell to the merchant for weapon upgrades. Oh and RE 4 introduced the greatest inventory system of all time, every single game with an inventory system should have the kind this game has.
Naturally an action game would be nothing if the gameplay isn't as good as the actual action itself and even 16 years later the gameplay of RE 4 is still super fun and addictive. A little known fact is this game was one of the first to implement an over-the-shoulder camera so it's actually pretty revolutionary and many games even nowadays owe RE 4 for their entire existence.
The controls might not be as tight as later entries that completely removed tank controls, but they are certainly easier to handle than the first 3 entries of the series. Also these controls work better for the more action oriented gameplay as well.
All of this combined makes RE 4 a game with truly remarkable replay value, but that is accentuated even further by the addictive arcade-like Mercenaries horde mode mini-game, the Assignment Ada mini-game and the small Separate Ways campaign. All of these special modes let you unlock powerful new weapons for the main story as well giving even more incentive to play them aside from them just being super fun and enjoyable.
Resident Evil 4 is the purest definition of the word "peak" to me. From the ridiculous story and campy character dialogue to the incredible insane action packed cut-scenes and boss fights, the well designed varied levels, the super fun shooting mechanics, treasure collecting and weapon upgrading gameplay and the sheer amount of content available, Resident Evil 4 is a true timeless classic that can be played repeatedly, year-after-year without it ever growing stale.