resident evil 4 is, objectively, one of the most influential games to ever be released. when you address such a monolith of a game like RE4, you have to acknowledge what it did not only for the genre(s), but what it was for video games as a culture and art form. RE4 isn't the very first game to ever do third-person shooting nor is it the literal genesis of over-the-shoulder cam aiming, but is the driving force that made it such a default for AAA games going forward. the game combined TPS and action as a genre and fused them into this neatly calcified "ah-ha!" conglomerate.
that's all well and good, but you can talk about the legacy of RE4 until you're 170 minutes into a youtube video. how does it feel? what does RE4's minute-to-minute gameplay meaningfully feel like? there's this je ne sais quoi about actually playing RE4 that's always appealed to me. it's a combination of the visceral fidelity of being able to snipe a dude's head off and hear that meaty THWACK as the bullet from your semi-auto rifle pierces it and you hear the casing hit the floor. maybe it's also the appeal of being able to quite nearly literally "death by a thousand papercuts" someone to death with the knife when you get them on the ground. something about this game feels good in that way that's hard to articulate but immediately recognizable when the controller is in your hands. RE4 feels good in a way it needs to, because when you mechanically break the game down, it loses luster.
i'll just say it: this game has a lot of shitty elements to it. novistadors are maybe some of the actual worst designed enemies in any video game i have ever played (no i have not played battletoads. the exaggeration is meaningful in its vagueness.). colmillos are not far behind with their ability to say "actually, your point blank shotgun didn't affect me at all, i'm now going to drain about 75% of your HP with my tentacle attack.". and there's individual rooms here that. . . you know that one meme that's like "when you want to replay a game you like but then you remember that one part" and it's always a negative reaction? there's maybe like 5 different parts of this game that can apply to. here, i'll list them off the top of my head right now: the hedge maze in the castle, the first outdoors area of the island, the second novistadors area where you're swarmed by like 13 of them immediately, the del lago fight (i have played the game three times and still do not know what in good fuck the tell is supposed to be for avoiding his ramming the boat.), the third novistador area, the water archers room, the room where a cage surrounds you with a garrador, the mike helicopter section, that one room with the rocket launcher guys hidden behind paintings, etc. etc.
i'm not trying to say "behold! i have the new opinion no one has ever expressed! [popular game] bad!". instead, i'm trying to say that RE4 is maybe the most salient example in all of video games of being more than a sum of its parts. is the game too long? almost certainly. does the game have sections that are rampantly unfun? i do not believe there is a single person on the planet who unilaterally likes every encounter in RE4. at the same time, i think the larger picture is that RE4 has a catharsis to it that you could try to dissect but never grasp unless you experience it. there's something simultaneously comedic, horrific, and tight about leon doing shit like fighting possessed suits of armor or running on the back of a giant motherfucker just to tickle his back parasite to death.
and yeah, the plot is not only terrible, but riddled with holes that stem from basic questions like "why do guys try to kill ashley when their plot revolves around her" and "why do they need money if they're going to brainwash the entire united states government". but RE4 has never been a cerebral experience, for better and worse. i know that this was a symptom of being an original IP reskinned to be a RE property, but it doesn't help that the entire nonsense plot has next to no bearing on any RE series lore. we see wesker briefly, ada is still ada, and so on and so forth. i don't need these things from RE4 to enjoy it, but i'd be lying if i said that they wouldn't help me enjoy the game more. leon and ada begin and end as the same characters, krauser is basically a nothingburger outside of his gay sex cutscene with leon. i'm not looking for something that's going to bring me to tears, but why even use these characters that have already been established if they're going to be so disposable? it doesn't help that leon feels borderline out of character, but whatever. only sexless nerds care about this type of shit i guess.
RE4 is a game i have a lot of fun with, in spite of itself. another way i could phrase that opinion is "RE4 is one of the best games that i fucking hate". in large part, i do tend to focus on the critical points that stick with me when it comes to this game, but i also recognize that's a "me" thing rather than a failing of the game. it is good for substantially longer than it is not, and i can't resent the game too much for failing to meet me more than halfway. i can't help but also lean against the way in which this game has dominated the RE series discourse and landscape, but that's, again, a "me" problem. am i tired of hearing about resident evil was always bad, the plot was never worth caring about, RE4 is a parody of RE games, etc. etc.? absolutely. but i'm going to be a big boy about it and still acknowledge that this game did a lot and meant a lot. as much as i hate the fans who refuse to acknowledge the flaws, i will not be the critic who denies the accomplishments.
btw, the island > the castle.
that's all well and good, but you can talk about the legacy of RE4 until you're 170 minutes into a youtube video. how does it feel? what does RE4's minute-to-minute gameplay meaningfully feel like? there's this je ne sais quoi about actually playing RE4 that's always appealed to me. it's a combination of the visceral fidelity of being able to snipe a dude's head off and hear that meaty THWACK as the bullet from your semi-auto rifle pierces it and you hear the casing hit the floor. maybe it's also the appeal of being able to quite nearly literally "death by a thousand papercuts" someone to death with the knife when you get them on the ground. something about this game feels good in that way that's hard to articulate but immediately recognizable when the controller is in your hands. RE4 feels good in a way it needs to, because when you mechanically break the game down, it loses luster.
i'll just say it: this game has a lot of shitty elements to it. novistadors are maybe some of the actual worst designed enemies in any video game i have ever played (no i have not played battletoads. the exaggeration is meaningful in its vagueness.). colmillos are not far behind with their ability to say "actually, your point blank shotgun didn't affect me at all, i'm now going to drain about 75% of your HP with my tentacle attack.". and there's individual rooms here that. . . you know that one meme that's like "when you want to replay a game you like but then you remember that one part" and it's always a negative reaction? there's maybe like 5 different parts of this game that can apply to. here, i'll list them off the top of my head right now: the hedge maze in the castle, the first outdoors area of the island, the second novistadors area where you're swarmed by like 13 of them immediately, the del lago fight (i have played the game three times and still do not know what in good fuck the tell is supposed to be for avoiding his ramming the boat.), the third novistador area, the water archers room, the room where a cage surrounds you with a garrador, the mike helicopter section, that one room with the rocket launcher guys hidden behind paintings, etc. etc.
i'm not trying to say "behold! i have the new opinion no one has ever expressed! [popular game] bad!". instead, i'm trying to say that RE4 is maybe the most salient example in all of video games of being more than a sum of its parts. is the game too long? almost certainly. does the game have sections that are rampantly unfun? i do not believe there is a single person on the planet who unilaterally likes every encounter in RE4. at the same time, i think the larger picture is that RE4 has a catharsis to it that you could try to dissect but never grasp unless you experience it. there's something simultaneously comedic, horrific, and tight about leon doing shit like fighting possessed suits of armor or running on the back of a giant motherfucker just to tickle his back parasite to death.
and yeah, the plot is not only terrible, but riddled with holes that stem from basic questions like "why do guys try to kill ashley when their plot revolves around her" and "why do they need money if they're going to brainwash the entire united states government". but RE4 has never been a cerebral experience, for better and worse. i know that this was a symptom of being an original IP reskinned to be a RE property, but it doesn't help that the entire nonsense plot has next to no bearing on any RE series lore. we see wesker briefly, ada is still ada, and so on and so forth. i don't need these things from RE4 to enjoy it, but i'd be lying if i said that they wouldn't help me enjoy the game more. leon and ada begin and end as the same characters, krauser is basically a nothingburger outside of his gay sex cutscene with leon. i'm not looking for something that's going to bring me to tears, but why even use these characters that have already been established if they're going to be so disposable? it doesn't help that leon feels borderline out of character, but whatever. only sexless nerds care about this type of shit i guess.
RE4 is a game i have a lot of fun with, in spite of itself. another way i could phrase that opinion is "RE4 is one of the best games that i fucking hate". in large part, i do tend to focus on the critical points that stick with me when it comes to this game, but i also recognize that's a "me" thing rather than a failing of the game. it is good for substantially longer than it is not, and i can't resent the game too much for failing to meet me more than halfway. i can't help but also lean against the way in which this game has dominated the RE series discourse and landscape, but that's, again, a "me" problem. am i tired of hearing about resident evil was always bad, the plot was never worth caring about, RE4 is a parody of RE games, etc. etc.? absolutely. but i'm going to be a big boy about it and still acknowledge that this game did a lot and meant a lot. as much as i hate the fans who refuse to acknowledge the flaws, i will not be the critic who denies the accomplishments.
btw, the island > the castle.