|
As for the camera, it now
moves with the player at a slight angle just behind Leon's back. For action gamers,
it may take a good while to get oriented to the perspective - it's not quite first-person,
but then it's also still too close to give players the same clear view that third-person
games normally allow. The camera can be tilted around Leon, vertically and horizontally,
and this is used to some great effect as players are forced to look around in
a fairly immersive manner, scanning here and there in order to detect bear traps
or objects hanging from the ceiling. As the camera remains tightly zoomed, the
game creates a great deal of tension when multiple enemies approach from different
angles. Again, it takes a while to get used to - and Leon ultimately feels just
a wee bit slow for me - but it does all work to a specific end.
There
is a scene in the second chapter, for example, where these mechanics help to create
a genuine, George Romero movie-like tension: Leon is escorting Ashley across a
bridge when they see two large groups of zombie villagers approaching from opposite
ends. The two characters dash across the bridge into a nearby cabin where they
meet an armed and willing ally. Ashley hides and the player resumes control over
Leon as an unending torrent of zombies begins to surround the two-story cabin,
torches in hand. There are three windows on the first floor and they and the door
are nailed shut with wooden boards. Undeterred, the villagers begin pounding their
way through as Leon and his amigo commence blasting heads through the planks.
Eventually, no matter how good the player is, the limited capacities of the weapons
and Leon's inventory will begin to manifest themselves in the most inconvenient
of ways as the zombies amass great enough numbers to break through the initial
barricades. After that, it's time to start moving furniture, then to switch guns,
then to run upstairs and toss grenades, then to kick ladders down from windows
and, eventually, to just start kicking people until something happens. It can
be frustrating, but it rarely feels unfair. Naturally, if Leon moved like Ryu
Hayabusa instead of some kind of awkward robot, scenarios like that would be entirely
unimpressive. Granted, there are times in the game when I wish I could move more
freely while shooting or that I had better peripheral vision, but that would render
some of the most pivotal and interesting scenarios largely ineffective.
The zombies - Capcom maintains that they're not really zombies in the traditional
sense, but I'll still refer to them as such - are balanced in such a way as to
create a specific kind of tension during encounters. Most enemies run fast to
approach Leon but the majority of them, once they get to him, will slow down their
movements and start acting the stereotype. I'm not sure if their behavior is intentionally
erratic, like it's a story element, or if they just act the way they do because
of the kind of combat it creates. Usually, as players are surrounded by increasing
numbers of slow moving attackers, Leon's limited mobility presents them with difficult
choices: Do they aim and fire their last shot? Reload and risk a fatal run-in
with a chainsaw? Turn and flee? Switch weapons? The choice between firing and
reloading as an axe-wielding zombie approaches is reminiscent of House of the
Dead. Players are constantly tasked with making snap decisions, especially
when firepower is lacking or when they have Ashley in tow.
Ammo isn't
normally a problem as one of every four or so bad guys will drop some when killed.
As the game progresses however, players become more reliant on more powerful,
specialized weapons and, unsympathetic to Leon's cause, most enemies, if they
drop anything at all, are most likely to drop handgun ammunition. This can lead
to some tight spots if players haven't been conserving their explosives and special
ammo, or at least leveling-up their more commonly-used weapons. Guns can be upgraded
to improve their power, firing speed, capacity and that sort of thing, so players
can lend a more personalized touch to their arsenal. The upgrades aren't necessary
to complete the game, but they prove incredibly helpful throughout. Each weapon
comes in handy in different scenarios, though I found the magnums and shotguns
to come in handiest of all. Because the guns are so powerful and ammunition is
less scarce than before, the game doesn't create panic in the same way its predecessors
did. Indeed, the new Leon is far more empowering to use than other Resident
Evil protagonists have been. Some might be disappointed by this, but I think
most players will find that it simply cuts down on frustration.
For her
part, Ashley can be a handful. Leon escorts her for about half the game, give
or take, but she manages to get herself re-kidnapped or otherwise misplaced fairly
often and with some degree of predictability. That isn't to say she's frustrating
to work with, though. Enemies don't generally make a point of killing her - instead
they usually attempt to slowly cart her away, making her an effective decoy when
the situation allows for players with a more sinister sense of humor. Her safety
is usually a serious priority though, as unscripted kidnappings result in an automatic
Game Over if the offending party makes it out of the current area with her in
their clutches. To keep her safe, players can order her around by pressing X to
toggle between "wait" and "follow" modes, but she's usually quick enough on her
feet so that it isn't necessary to make her wait in a dark corner somewhere. Recklessly
running headlong into packs of enemies will get her killed, though, as most zombies
make broad swings at Leon with flails and sharp objects without exhibiting too
much concern over whom else they might injure. She can't take a great deal of
damage, but her (and Leon's) health bar can be refilled and extended with first
aid sprays and mixed medical herbs, as in previous Resident Evils. Ashley
even has her own dedicated section in the game, where players control her for
a brief bit of running around and puzzle-solving. She can't really fight, but
she does manage to dispatch a few zombies here and there.
Most of the
dispatching duties, of course, fall to Leon, and fortunately the aiming in the
game is easy and efficient. Pressing R repositions the camera more directly over
Leon's shoulder, making things in his immediate field of vision even easier to
see and react to. For enemies at further distances, the rifle can be utilized
for first-person perspective sniping. In both cases, using the stick doesn't seem
quite as smooth and responsive for me as it was with, say, Link's bow in Wind
Waker, but I still found it fairly easy to achieve consistent headshots against
the slowly advancing enemy ranks. There is a nice variety of guns in Leon's arsenal,
and he can also slice and dice with his knife, toss a few different flavors of
grenade and kick enemies if they're stunned to conserve bullets. The kick - a
massive roundhouse to the head - is one of my favorite weapons simply by virtue
of its unabashed videogame-ness.
To its credit, RE4 manages a
good compromise between cinema and game. That is to say, certain scenarios are
scripted for optimum realism and immersion and what have you, but the game doesn't
try to hide the fact that it's a game. Trinkets are collected for the sake of
collection and there's always a cloaked shopkeeper just around the bend ready
to sell weapons, items and upgrades to Leon if he's looted enough gold and valuable
junk. There are other odd elements, as the shopkeeper runs shooting galleries
for players to test their aim in, and Leon communicates with villains using Metal
Gear-style codecs and learns important plot points from conveniently placed
notes written by key characters. The game's most absurd element is Leon's other,
more rarely used melee attack: a zombie-head-exploding, belly-to-belly suplex.
More subtle videogame touches make the game easier to work with: breakable boxes
and crates are often a different color; the end of Leon's laser sight changes
slightly to indicate whether or not a target is valid; and the "Open Door" text
in the action button display is a different color depending on whether or not
the next room requires loading. The load time, what there is of it anyway, is
nigh-on imperceptible.
There are also quick-time events which feel odd
given the game's atmosphere but are bizarrely entertaining when implemented well.
They do feel inconsistent at times, as Leon can use quick-time button presses
to avoid fast moving attackers but he can't do the same against slower, more predictable
enemies. He's as graceful as a brick sometimes, but as fluid as water when it
counts. Naturally, most everything quick-time is borne out of necessity, either
to make agile enemies beatable or cinematic scenarios more interactive. Quick-time
events usually consist of pressing a combination of buttons to evade (usually
R and L or A and B) or mashing a button repeatedly to escape death in one way
or another.
There's a boss fight for example, that sticks Leon on a boat
above a giant marine creature. Should Leon get knocked off the boat, he'll lose
some health and players will have to mash the A button to get him to swim back.
Mash quickly and he'll get back to his boat and unlimited supply of harpoons,
mash slowly after getting knocked off too many times and Leon will be lunch. Similar
mashing is called for when running from boulders or while struggling to climb
up a tricky ledge, and how quickly the player can make circles with the analog
stick determines how quickly Leon escapes from zombie death-grips.
The
other boss fights in the game can be clever and compelling, but Leon's limited
movement and perspective feel less appropriate when fighting against them. Some
of the bosses seem a little compromised to me, in regards to their attacks and
overall difficulty, in order to make fighting them less overwhelming. Mastery
of Leon's slightly awkward "advanced" moves, like flicking the stick back and
hitting B simultaneously to execute a nifty quick turn-around, are key in conquering
most of the worst the game has to offer. Methods for actually defeating bosses
range from simply inflicting a lot of damage or combining damage with quick-time
button presses to particular use of environmental objects. Most of the bosses
take a while to kill, but, should players find that one boss or another represents
their Achilles' heel, the shopkeeper has a powerful and expensive weapon on hand
- the rocket launcher - that can be used to break through any troublesome spots.
Some bosses are actually optional, but as I always had extra grenades on hand
or enough money for rocket launchers, I never treated them as such.
Generally
speaking, the game varies in difficulty: I'd usually blast through multiple sections
with only a couple of deaths but, occasionally, I'd have to repeat specific rooms
or scenarios over and over again, usually because of my own poor ammo conservation
or because I didn't instantly "get" the obvious plan of attack that would've made
things far easier for me. I found the game's hardest moments to be in the middle,
coming just before the drastic changes in scenery that could compel a frustrated
player forward. That isn't to say that I ever felt particularly frustrated with
the game myself, though I did die a lot. Still, almost every time I died I knew
why and was able to formulate a plan to correct whatever oversight I'd made the
first time. The game's fairly forgiving when it comes to save points and continue
points, which most people will find relieving.
There are also
a lot of puzzles in the game, but they're streamlined and most of the footwork,
like figuring out what key goes where, is done automatically. Usually the puzzles
involve finding a few different parts of some talisman or something and then using
it as a key to open a locked door. The puzzles exist mostly to give players a
reason to stick around in zombie-infested areas or to reveal some shiny new treasure.
There are a couple of tricky problems, usually optional, that can be taxing for
players without a great deal of patience, but I never found any of them to be
particularly obnoxious.
From a design perspective, everything in the
game is as eerie, creepy or ugly as it should be. Visually, it's the most impressive
attempt at "realism" I've seen in a console game. Players looking for absolute
photorealism might be disappointed, as there are some clipping issues and nothing
is entirely seamless, but otherwise I can't see the game failing anyone's expectations
in that regard. Everything is dark and muddy in keeping with the theme, but there
are a few different kinds of environments to provide some much needed variety.
The initial village is creepy, but just when it starts to become dull Leon moves
on to new and exciting things. In some of these later settings, there are a couple
of fire-based rooms which look particularly amazing. There's a slight haziness
to some of the textures, but the game looks pretty incredible overall, and it's
certainly the most impressive zombie game I've seen. There is an understandable
lack of distinct enemy models in the game, but I grew accustomed to that fairly
quickly.
The audio is roughly on par with the visuals, if a little disappointing
in a few regards. The cutscene voice acting is solid, entertaining, overly-serious
B-movie action fare. There is a great deal of repetition in the in-game voice
samples, however, as enemies and certain key characters - the shopkeeper most
notably - tend to repeat the same few phrases over and over. Similarly, the suspenseful
music tracks used as threat indicators tend to wear a bit thin for lack of variety
in certain parts. Still, everything's functional and the sounds of a bolt-action
rifle reloading and of a shotgun splitting zombie dogs in twain are as satisfying
as one would expect.
Now, as I play the game, I get the general impression
that Capcom director Shinji Mikami doesn't want players to take it all that seriously.
Between all the overt videogame elements, Leon's over-the-top action animations
and the whole story in general, the game seems to almost require a lighthearted
perspective from its players. The characters all take themselves seriously, but
I definitely get the feeling the game doesn't. Instead of bouncing from one easy
scare to the next, I always felt generally entertained by the ultraviolence between
the game's more tense moments. Leon doesn't shout "ka-ra-te!" while performing
kicks and he doesn't make bad jokes about zombies "riding shotgun" where (in)appropriate,
but I think that's because the player is expected to fill that gap. It's important
to point that out, I think, because if people were to take things as seriously
as the characters do, or expect the strictly serious cinematic experience that
the game's look implies, I don't know that they'd have as good a time as I had.
For those who do enjoy it, there's a healthy cache of bonus material
to be had once the main game's been beaten. The game can be started again, "new
game plus" style, with all of the weapons, money and upgrades acquired in the
first playthrough carried over and new superweapons available for purchase. There
are also two unlockable minigames: one is a brief, but quite genuine side mission
featuring familiar characters and environments from the main game while the other
is a "kill as many zombies as you can within the time limit"-type deal featuring
newly-playable characters from previous RE games. The latter one is a bit
silly in concept, but it's actually pretty well executed and it makes for a pleasant
diversion, especially since high scores are recorded and something special can
be unlocked by beating it in a specific way. The bonuses are impressive as they're
enjoyable and their inclusion wasn't expected or necessary.
Overall: 8/10
I spent
most of the first chapter grappling with Leon's limitations, but once I got used
to things I was pretty hooked. I found a good chunk toward the later-middle part
of the game to be a bit tedious at times, but the first two major settings were
exciting and the action movie finale was gangbusters. Thematically, I'm a sucker
for shotguns and zombies so I'm sure that helped, but really, the game is just
solid. The still-stiff controls and Leon's dawdling movement keep it an acquired
taste, but I'm inclined to recommend at least a rental even to those indifferent
to survival-horror games as Resident Evil 4 is a pretty bold and remarkable
step for the classic series.
[
top ] |
