Story and Characters
-Leon is back from Resident Evil 2 except now he is a sort of special forces agent that is on a mission to locate the president’s daughter and help her escape this crazy cult. Leon is a really fun protagonist with a lot of great one liners and a personality that can be both threatening and entertaining. His character is over the top, but never to a point that it ruins the tone or seriousness of the game.
-Ashley is the president’s daughter that you have to protect, but she is actually a fun character that you start feeling attached to. I never felt annoyed by her as sometimes can happen when you are stuck with a companion character.
-Luis and Ada are two other side characters that pop in sporadically and they are also very interesting and add to the overall story. You are not sure what their motivations are or if you should trust them, but it is always fun when they appear thanks to some great dialogue and performances.
-The villains in this game are great and while they are not in the game too frequently, they still feel memorable and it is fun to watch Leon interact with them.
-The story is an over the top action/horror story, but it actually works quite well in the game. You start learning more about the cult and the main antagonists as the game goes on and while the story never displays true shock or brilliance, it works well and makes the game fun to follow. They also do a good job of utilizing cliffhangers at the end of each chapter to make the player want to keep going.
Gameplay
-The combat in the game is fantastic, all of the guns feel good to use and the enemies can be challenging without feeling too frustrating. They can take a lot of hits, but never too much that it is annoying. This is also helped by the fact the game gives you plenty of ammo so you are never really stuck just having to run away.
-Adding a parrying system with a staggering move and melee attacks also help the combat feel great and adds some diversity to what you are doing. If you want to conserve bullets, you can just pull out your knife and parry incoming attacks until you defeat the enemy.
-The puzzles in the game are not as complex as some of the previous Resident Evil games, but this again works because the layout of the map is far more spread out. While games like the original RE and RE2 had large buildings like the mansion or police station to explore, RE4 is more spread out. You are still in areas like the village or castle, but you do far less backtracking. This works as it increases your desire to explore to make sure you find everything the world has to offer. The puzzles are usually more focused on solving something to progress without having to backtrack a bunch, but there are still some areas where you will need to.
-The movement and aiming feel really good and the PS5 controller only adds to the experience with great use of haptic feedback and adaptive triggers.
-This game also has some great boss fights and an impressive amount of them. I liked how many different types of bosses there were and how you have to fight them all in slightly different ways. They were challenging, but never so hard that I became frustrated. The game also always made sure you had plenty of ammo before fighting them.
-The upgrade system in the game is fantastic as you collect money and treasure in the world that you can then use to buy guns and upgrades for your weapons. It was very satisfying to use and made it feel like you were getting stronger as you played.
Side Content
-Unlike a lot of the other RE games, this one actually does have some side content. There are small requests that you can try to complete while playing the main game that give you additional rewards to allow you to get stronger. -There are also shooting galleries where you can complete challenges to get special charms that will help you. The side content is minimal, yet effective as it can be fun to track down a special enemy type or look for hidden medallions in the world.
World/Level Design
-RE4 is broken down into three main hub areas, the village, the castle and the island. All three of these sections are fantastic and feel very different from one another. The atmosphere is great in all of them as is the impressive enemy variety the game throws at you.
-The whole map is fun to explore and can be genuinely creepy in certain areas. The areas are also all very large with the village containing a large lake you can explore similar to 2018’s God of War, and the castle has an intricate mine system beneath it that is fun to look around.
-The game is mostly linear, but it never feels too restrictive. There are always a ton of areas to explore and the bigger areas meant for boss fights are always easy to maneuver around in.
Graphics, Music and Glitches
-The game looks fantastic, maybe not quite as good as Village that came out before it, but it is very close.
-The music is phenomenal and is definitely a stand out. The score could be action packed and exciting or more haunting and eerie depending on what you were doing and it worked very well.
-I did not encounter any bugs or glitches in my playthrough which was very nice.
Main Positives of the Game
-The characters in the game are a lot of fun and keep the game constantly entertaining.
-There was a great balance of horror and action. There are a few sections of the game that were a bit scary, particularly the parts when you play as Ashley or when you are exploring the labs on the island with the regeneradors.
-The combat and exploration is fantastic and made the game constantly fun to play through.
-The music is incredible and really adds to the atmosphere.
-The upgrade system with the merchant and the side quests he gives you are all great and really help you feel like you are getting stronger as you play. -Trying out new guns was really fun, as was upgrading them to do more damage or be more effective.
-Great map that was very diverse and detailed and never felt too repetitive or out of place.
-The game is also a good length at around 16 hours, which is longer than most of the other RE games, but I never felt bored with it.
Main Negatives of the Game
-A few story points could have been a bit more fleshed out, particularly the character of Krauser who is an antagonist that I never felt I fully understood. -The motivations of the villains were always fairly generic which works for the overall campiness of the game, but it also left me wanting maybe just a bit more depth.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
-Leon is back from Resident Evil 2 except now he is a sort of special forces agent that is on a mission to locate the president’s daughter and help her escape this crazy cult. Leon is a really fun protagonist with a lot of great one liners and a personality that can be both threatening and entertaining. His character is over the top, but never to a point that it ruins the tone or seriousness of the game.
-Ashley is the president’s daughter that you have to protect, but she is actually a fun character that you start feeling attached to. I never felt annoyed by her as sometimes can happen when you are stuck with a companion character.
-Luis and Ada are two other side characters that pop in sporadically and they are also very interesting and add to the overall story. You are not sure what their motivations are or if you should trust them, but it is always fun when they appear thanks to some great dialogue and performances.
-The villains in this game are great and while they are not in the game too frequently, they still feel memorable and it is fun to watch Leon interact with them.
-The story is an over the top action/horror story, but it actually works quite well in the game. You start learning more about the cult and the main antagonists as the game goes on and while the story never displays true shock or brilliance, it works well and makes the game fun to follow. They also do a good job of utilizing cliffhangers at the end of each chapter to make the player want to keep going.
Gameplay
-The combat in the game is fantastic, all of the guns feel good to use and the enemies can be challenging without feeling too frustrating. They can take a lot of hits, but never too much that it is annoying. This is also helped by the fact the game gives you plenty of ammo so you are never really stuck just having to run away.
-Adding a parrying system with a staggering move and melee attacks also help the combat feel great and adds some diversity to what you are doing. If you want to conserve bullets, you can just pull out your knife and parry incoming attacks until you defeat the enemy.
-The puzzles in the game are not as complex as some of the previous Resident Evil games, but this again works because the layout of the map is far more spread out. While games like the original RE and RE2 had large buildings like the mansion or police station to explore, RE4 is more spread out. You are still in areas like the village or castle, but you do far less backtracking. This works as it increases your desire to explore to make sure you find everything the world has to offer. The puzzles are usually more focused on solving something to progress without having to backtrack a bunch, but there are still some areas where you will need to.
-The movement and aiming feel really good and the PS5 controller only adds to the experience with great use of haptic feedback and adaptive triggers.
-This game also has some great boss fights and an impressive amount of them. I liked how many different types of bosses there were and how you have to fight them all in slightly different ways. They were challenging, but never so hard that I became frustrated. The game also always made sure you had plenty of ammo before fighting them.
-The upgrade system in the game is fantastic as you collect money and treasure in the world that you can then use to buy guns and upgrades for your weapons. It was very satisfying to use and made it feel like you were getting stronger as you played.
Side Content
-Unlike a lot of the other RE games, this one actually does have some side content. There are small requests that you can try to complete while playing the main game that give you additional rewards to allow you to get stronger. -There are also shooting galleries where you can complete challenges to get special charms that will help you. The side content is minimal, yet effective as it can be fun to track down a special enemy type or look for hidden medallions in the world.
World/Level Design
-RE4 is broken down into three main hub areas, the village, the castle and the island. All three of these sections are fantastic and feel very different from one another. The atmosphere is great in all of them as is the impressive enemy variety the game throws at you.
-The whole map is fun to explore and can be genuinely creepy in certain areas. The areas are also all very large with the village containing a large lake you can explore similar to 2018’s God of War, and the castle has an intricate mine system beneath it that is fun to look around.
-The game is mostly linear, but it never feels too restrictive. There are always a ton of areas to explore and the bigger areas meant for boss fights are always easy to maneuver around in.
Graphics, Music and Glitches
-The game looks fantastic, maybe not quite as good as Village that came out before it, but it is very close.
-The music is phenomenal and is definitely a stand out. The score could be action packed and exciting or more haunting and eerie depending on what you were doing and it worked very well.
-I did not encounter any bugs or glitches in my playthrough which was very nice.
Main Positives of the Game
-The characters in the game are a lot of fun and keep the game constantly entertaining.
-There was a great balance of horror and action. There are a few sections of the game that were a bit scary, particularly the parts when you play as Ashley or when you are exploring the labs on the island with the regeneradors.
-The combat and exploration is fantastic and made the game constantly fun to play through.
-The music is incredible and really adds to the atmosphere.
-The upgrade system with the merchant and the side quests he gives you are all great and really help you feel like you are getting stronger as you play. -Trying out new guns was really fun, as was upgrading them to do more damage or be more effective.
-Great map that was very diverse and detailed and never felt too repetitive or out of place.
-The game is also a good length at around 16 hours, which is longer than most of the other RE games, but I never felt bored with it.
Main Negatives of the Game
-A few story points could have been a bit more fleshed out, particularly the character of Krauser who is an antagonist that I never felt I fully understood. -The motivations of the villains were always fairly generic which works for the overall campiness of the game, but it also left me wanting maybe just a bit more depth.
Overall Score: 9.5/10