This review contains spoilers
NOTE:- This is not an objective review but a personal thoughts on how I felt about Resident Evil 4.
This game slapped. The movement might feel clunky in today's standard, and takes some getting used to, but the gameplay is still on-point.
I haven't seen any game yet that has so much variety in combat. Not only does the enemies type change, the game is able to craft unique scenarios even with the same enemy type which always keep things fresh. You cannot just blindly pump bullets into them but rather they all have patterns to defeat them.
The gunplay is tense. It is weird that you cannot run while shooting (like modern RE games) I do feel this design choice was intentional and helped adding tension. The level design is great, and each stage felt unique from what I remember. There was always some time, I would get cornered by enemies always making me strategize where to place myself and fight.
There are also some puzzles that are present in it to allows for some change from gunning and shooting but easy enough not to bug down the swift pacing of the game. Ammo is more plentiful this time around, but I always found myself running into situations where I needed to carefully conserve them, and make strategic choices as my inventory is also limited.
I love the locations and atmosphere. The ambience is not as dreadful as RE2 Remake, but the idea you are stranded in a foreign and isolated village being hunted by mutated cultists seems creepy and it appeals to me a lot. The locations do change, and I didn't have a problem with either though village is my favorite. And the ambience and weather does a whole lot to set the mood. Not to mention the soundtrack which knows when to notch things up, and calm things down. "Serenity" is such a fantastic track, it's calming but also retain an ominous feel to it, giving a very indescribable feeling. I was always wishing that I could just get into a new save room just decompress myself and stay there permanently.
The visuals aren't top-notch. The environments might show it's age right now, but I do feel the character models look crisp and has detail. Especially Leon who still looks superb IMO to this date. I wasn't on-board with him initially character-wise, as I personally think he doesn't have a very strong screen-presence as a total bad-ass, but him constantly flexing his new skills were always awesome and his one-liners were hilarious at time. Some of them caught me off-guard and made me laugh. His dynamic with Ada and his flirtatious attitude towards Hunnigan were endearing. He is just really likable and always know to make tense situations feel lighter. Oh yes, the Merchant too. Has so little screen-presence, and depth but his design, and manner of speech has made him so memorable.
Back to the graphics, another thing caught me by surprise is that how well some of the spectacle holds up today. Especially the knife duel with Krauser was beautifully directed and is one of my favorite cutscenes in video gaming. It knows how to restrain the spectacle, never going into the more over-the-top bombastic direction but still keeping it tight and thrilling which makes it more suited to the tone and atmosphere of the game.
It might feel like I am just endlessly mentioning positives of the game, but this game is truly remarkable at what it wants to do but I want to address some things I didn't love. One will be the game's over-reliance on quick-time events. It did work really well at some sequences, for example the knife duel with Krauser and the sewer fight. But they pop-up so suddenly at times, it catches me off-guard. And you need to response really fast, otherwise you will die. I think I died here more time than I did in combat. I do like how they switch the keys for the quick-time events which I haven't seen other games do yet. I think the devs should have given more time for player to respond or just decrease them by some margin. Another would be the story. This is probably my second venture into horror gaming, so I am not much familiar with the indirect storytelling through notes. I don't think I went through all of them so the narrative did feel simple and RE is not known for it for impeccable storytelling, but would have liked if there was some more meat to it.Some of the latter acts rely on Ashley getting kidnapped over and over again and it might feel repeatitive. The antagonist felt lacking and certain dialogues didn't feel convicing. But I personally feel more neutral than negative about it. The game does feel a overly-long by the end, especially the castle which is a bit too long, but it's a small drop in quality IMO. Though I would say most of the flaws are strongly outclassed by it's strength.
Overall, I thought this game was a blast to go through and became a strong favorite of mine. I wasn't keen on playing it at first as the initial gameplay footage didn't hook me at all. But it did exceed basically all of my expectations. I can see why people hold it in such high regard and is considered a landmark in video gaming industry.
This game slapped. The movement might feel clunky in today's standard, and takes some getting used to, but the gameplay is still on-point.
I haven't seen any game yet that has so much variety in combat. Not only does the enemies type change, the game is able to craft unique scenarios even with the same enemy type which always keep things fresh. You cannot just blindly pump bullets into them but rather they all have patterns to defeat them.
The gunplay is tense. It is weird that you cannot run while shooting (like modern RE games) I do feel this design choice was intentional and helped adding tension. The level design is great, and each stage felt unique from what I remember. There was always some time, I would get cornered by enemies always making me strategize where to place myself and fight.
There are also some puzzles that are present in it to allows for some change from gunning and shooting but easy enough not to bug down the swift pacing of the game. Ammo is more plentiful this time around, but I always found myself running into situations where I needed to carefully conserve them, and make strategic choices as my inventory is also limited.
I love the locations and atmosphere. The ambience is not as dreadful as RE2 Remake, but the idea you are stranded in a foreign and isolated village being hunted by mutated cultists seems creepy and it appeals to me a lot. The locations do change, and I didn't have a problem with either though village is my favorite. And the ambience and weather does a whole lot to set the mood. Not to mention the soundtrack which knows when to notch things up, and calm things down. "Serenity" is such a fantastic track, it's calming but also retain an ominous feel to it, giving a very indescribable feeling. I was always wishing that I could just get into a new save room just decompress myself and stay there permanently.
The visuals aren't top-notch. The environments might show it's age right now, but I do feel the character models look crisp and has detail. Especially Leon who still looks superb IMO to this date. I wasn't on-board with him initially character-wise, as I personally think he doesn't have a very strong screen-presence as a total bad-ass, but him constantly flexing his new skills were always awesome and his one-liners were hilarious at time. Some of them caught me off-guard and made me laugh. His dynamic with Ada and his flirtatious attitude towards Hunnigan were endearing. He is just really likable and always know to make tense situations feel lighter. Oh yes, the Merchant too. Has so little screen-presence, and depth but his design, and manner of speech has made him so memorable.
Back to the graphics, another thing caught me by surprise is that how well some of the spectacle holds up today. Especially the knife duel with Krauser was beautifully directed and is one of my favorite cutscenes in video gaming. It knows how to restrain the spectacle, never going into the more over-the-top bombastic direction but still keeping it tight and thrilling which makes it more suited to the tone and atmosphere of the game.
It might feel like I am just endlessly mentioning positives of the game, but this game is truly remarkable at what it wants to do but I want to address some things I didn't love. One will be the game's over-reliance on quick-time events. It did work really well at some sequences, for example the knife duel with Krauser and the sewer fight. But they pop-up so suddenly at times, it catches me off-guard. And you need to response really fast, otherwise you will die. I think I died here more time than I did in combat. I do like how they switch the keys for the quick-time events which I haven't seen other games do yet. I think the devs should have given more time for player to respond or just decrease them by some margin. Another would be the story. This is probably my second venture into horror gaming, so I am not much familiar with the indirect storytelling through notes. I don't think I went through all of them so the narrative did feel simple and RE is not known for it for impeccable storytelling, but would have liked if there was some more meat to it.Some of the latter acts rely on Ashley getting kidnapped over and over again and it might feel repeatitive. The antagonist felt lacking and certain dialogues didn't feel convicing. But I personally feel more neutral than negative about it. The game does feel a overly-long by the end, especially the castle which is a bit too long, but it's a small drop in quality IMO. Though I would say most of the flaws are strongly outclassed by it's strength.
Overall, I thought this game was a blast to go through and became a strong favorite of mine. I wasn't keen on playing it at first as the initial gameplay footage didn't hook me at all. But it did exceed basically all of my expectations. I can see why people hold it in such high regard and is considered a landmark in video gaming industry.