Having played most of RE2R and RE3R, with a few hours of REmake behind me and a need to play 7 and Village, I decided to play RE4 for Halloween this month. After my first 15 hour run, I'd say it deserves its reputation as one of the greatest games ever made and stands as a testament to tight gameplay and excellent pacing.
The overall vibe of the game is so well-achieved. Leon wisecracks at the villains, the dialogue has a flair of the 1980's action movie, the overall oppressive vibe of the village gives way to the intimidating castle. The island is maybe a slight step back in some ways, but the laboratory section is one of my favorites in the game. Ashley, Luis, and Ada all have relatively small roles in terms of dialogue and action, but they make themselves iconic despite that. And the merchant. Oh man, the merchant. What a silly idea for your upgrade mechanic to be a funny guy who just shows up.
I think one of the things that this game does so well is its pacing - pretty much every single room is a new idea or a new location being thrown at you and you never really have a good sense of where you are in terms of completion or how far from a group of enemies you are. Opening a new door is always an interesting moment. Will there be Ganados behind this? Will there be a boss fight? Every area feels surprising in what it might throw at you and the game segments the areas so well that never really drags on at all - well, at least until Chapter 5. Bits like the underground catacombs and minecart section feel like unnecessary filler. They can still be interesting at times, but this is a 15 hour game that backloads so many bosses and ideas that the extra areas without true story elements just end up feeling out of place. The upgrade system feeds you a steady set of new guns and gameplay options every chapter, really walking the line of balancing feeling powerful with feeling underequipped quite well. The attache case is an interesting addition to this side of the game, forcing you to make decisions about what you want to keep and what you don't really need so that you can be prepared with all the rest of your equipment. I found the Red9, semi-auto rifle, and riot shotgun to be my personal favorite loadout. The rifle in particular is shockingly powerful and definitely the most important to manage ammo for difficult encounters.
Mechanically the game does a really good job of following up on its excellent pacing - both Leon's movement and shooting style help reinforce the strength of the moment-to-moment gameplay. You know what I said before about the surprise of opening a new door? It's followed up by taking a few seconds upon opening said door to go into your shooting stance and survey the situation before you. Is there something I need to worry about right now or am I relatively safe for the next minute or so? Leon's movement, the evergreen tank controls, also helps to sell this. You can't just run willy-nilly into new areas for fear of finding yourself surrounded - The tank controls make you brutally aware of where your blind spots might be and putting in the effort to analyze the situation and be careful with your movement is paramount. RE4 is a game of peaks and valleys - not in terms of quality but in terms of gameplay. I just talked about the moments where nothing is happening and you need to be careful about your surroundings, but the flip side to that coin is when the game decides that you've relaxed for long enough and throws you headfirst into a situation that genuinely seems overwhelming. Suddenly you're on the backfoot, switching between weapons and ammo types, trying to get a grip on the situation itself. It's this very ebb and flow of manic moments versus exploration that makes the game flow so well. Throwing Ashley into the mix is a great extension of this - You might have gotten comfortable with Leon, but now you have someone else to manage, and she can't defend herself. In this sense, most combat scenarios you find yourself in are really moreso puzzles that you need to figure out as opposed to shooting galleries. Headshot this guy, kick him, stab this other guy, back up, reposition, change gun type, heal, look for environmental hazards, shoot the guys up on top of railings, look for ammo… oh wait, that was the last guy. Phew. To put it simply, t's a constant give and take of mania and relaxation.
The bosses of RE4 are actually one of the few negatives in my book. The Gigante is alright the first time and Del Lago is a spectacle (if sorta clunky), but the rest are mostly just a shooting gallery. They also rely way too heavily on QTEs for dodging. I assume this came out of a need to actually have movement options in these fights since the tank controls offer essentially none. Saddler in particular is somewhat disappointing - especially since I was expecting a stage 2 to the fight. New enemy types are almost always more interesting than the bosses, like the Regenerators. Instead of being bullet sponges, these are genuine additions to the pantheon of enemy puzzle pieces, forcing you to learn their patterns and options and develop a plan of action for when they show their ugly faces.
RE4's story is light, and by design. It wasn't until Leon called Salazar "small time" that it clicked for me how minor an event this is for the RE universe. Leon manages the whole thing in like 48 hours and there's seemingly no risk of further contamination afterwards. Even Wesker seems only tangentially interested since he hardly reacts when contacted. I haven't played Separate Ways yet, but I might.
I'm really glad to have gotten this done with RE4 Remake coming in just a few months. I'm not entirely sure if they're going to be able to replicate some of the things that make this game great but everything we've seen gives me hope they can. This is a very special game, deceivingly complex and difficult to master, with a great aesthetic and overall presentation. It's no wonder why it stands as one of the greats.
The overall vibe of the game is so well-achieved. Leon wisecracks at the villains, the dialogue has a flair of the 1980's action movie, the overall oppressive vibe of the village gives way to the intimidating castle. The island is maybe a slight step back in some ways, but the laboratory section is one of my favorites in the game. Ashley, Luis, and Ada all have relatively small roles in terms of dialogue and action, but they make themselves iconic despite that. And the merchant. Oh man, the merchant. What a silly idea for your upgrade mechanic to be a funny guy who just shows up.
I think one of the things that this game does so well is its pacing - pretty much every single room is a new idea or a new location being thrown at you and you never really have a good sense of where you are in terms of completion or how far from a group of enemies you are. Opening a new door is always an interesting moment. Will there be Ganados behind this? Will there be a boss fight? Every area feels surprising in what it might throw at you and the game segments the areas so well that never really drags on at all - well, at least until Chapter 5. Bits like the underground catacombs and minecart section feel like unnecessary filler. They can still be interesting at times, but this is a 15 hour game that backloads so many bosses and ideas that the extra areas without true story elements just end up feeling out of place. The upgrade system feeds you a steady set of new guns and gameplay options every chapter, really walking the line of balancing feeling powerful with feeling underequipped quite well. The attache case is an interesting addition to this side of the game, forcing you to make decisions about what you want to keep and what you don't really need so that you can be prepared with all the rest of your equipment. I found the Red9, semi-auto rifle, and riot shotgun to be my personal favorite loadout. The rifle in particular is shockingly powerful and definitely the most important to manage ammo for difficult encounters.
Mechanically the game does a really good job of following up on its excellent pacing - both Leon's movement and shooting style help reinforce the strength of the moment-to-moment gameplay. You know what I said before about the surprise of opening a new door? It's followed up by taking a few seconds upon opening said door to go into your shooting stance and survey the situation before you. Is there something I need to worry about right now or am I relatively safe for the next minute or so? Leon's movement, the evergreen tank controls, also helps to sell this. You can't just run willy-nilly into new areas for fear of finding yourself surrounded - The tank controls make you brutally aware of where your blind spots might be and putting in the effort to analyze the situation and be careful with your movement is paramount. RE4 is a game of peaks and valleys - not in terms of quality but in terms of gameplay. I just talked about the moments where nothing is happening and you need to be careful about your surroundings, but the flip side to that coin is when the game decides that you've relaxed for long enough and throws you headfirst into a situation that genuinely seems overwhelming. Suddenly you're on the backfoot, switching between weapons and ammo types, trying to get a grip on the situation itself. It's this very ebb and flow of manic moments versus exploration that makes the game flow so well. Throwing Ashley into the mix is a great extension of this - You might have gotten comfortable with Leon, but now you have someone else to manage, and she can't defend herself. In this sense, most combat scenarios you find yourself in are really moreso puzzles that you need to figure out as opposed to shooting galleries. Headshot this guy, kick him, stab this other guy, back up, reposition, change gun type, heal, look for environmental hazards, shoot the guys up on top of railings, look for ammo… oh wait, that was the last guy. Phew. To put it simply, t's a constant give and take of mania and relaxation.
The bosses of RE4 are actually one of the few negatives in my book. The Gigante is alright the first time and Del Lago is a spectacle (if sorta clunky), but the rest are mostly just a shooting gallery. They also rely way too heavily on QTEs for dodging. I assume this came out of a need to actually have movement options in these fights since the tank controls offer essentially none. Saddler in particular is somewhat disappointing - especially since I was expecting a stage 2 to the fight. New enemy types are almost always more interesting than the bosses, like the Regenerators. Instead of being bullet sponges, these are genuine additions to the pantheon of enemy puzzle pieces, forcing you to learn their patterns and options and develop a plan of action for when they show their ugly faces.
RE4's story is light, and by design. It wasn't until Leon called Salazar "small time" that it clicked for me how minor an event this is for the RE universe. Leon manages the whole thing in like 48 hours and there's seemingly no risk of further contamination afterwards. Even Wesker seems only tangentially interested since he hardly reacts when contacted. I haven't played Separate Ways yet, but I might.
I'm really glad to have gotten this done with RE4 Remake coming in just a few months. I'm not entirely sure if they're going to be able to replicate some of the things that make this game great but everything we've seen gives me hope they can. This is a very special game, deceivingly complex and difficult to master, with a great aesthetic and overall presentation. It's no wonder why it stands as one of the greats.
ResidentAtelier
1 year ago
The merchant is great though, by the way.