Survival of Horror: Resident Evil 4
Perhaps you’ve heard of Resident Evil 4. It’s this little game that slid out quietly on to the Gamecube in 2005 before petering out and disappearing into obscurity forever. In this same bizarro world, Dino Crisis Village has recently been announced as the eighth main installment of that ludicrously successful franchise. Also, I’m very, very cool.
Clearly, this is not how events played out. Everyone and their mother knows about Resident Evil 4. It lives today as one of the most highly-rated and influential games on the planet. An immense number of games, and perhaps even the entire third person shooter genre, owe a lot to Shinji Mikami’s creation. Oh, that’s right, the man himself ended up directing this one too.
In my previous look at Resident Evil 3 (1999), I mentioned that projects had ballooned in number, with Capcom doing everything possible to spread their series out. This included putting Resident Evil 2 director Hideki Kamiya in charge of his version of Resident Evil 3. Kamiya’s vision for the third entry in the tentpole franchise involved playing as HUNK, from Resident Evil 2’s bonus mode The 4th Survivor. HUNK was tasked with boarding a cruise ship to obtain a G-Virus sample. This version of the game didn’t get terribly far in development before it was sidelined and eventually canceled, with staff being reassigned. In Kamiya’s case, he was put on to direct Resident Evil 4 for the groundbreaking new PlayStation 2. Kamiya wanted to break away from horror gameplay a bit and decided to get creative with his vision for the series’ fourth main entry.
In Kamiya’s Resident Evil 4, players would experience the story of twin brothers, created as experiments of Umbrella founder Ozwell E. Spencer. These strapping young lads were named Dante and Vergil, and you would end up playing as Dante. Unlike the previous protagonists, Dante had superhuman abilities thanks to his experimental creation and was able to fight handily against his foes. This was a high octane action title compared to the previous games, and producer Mikami liked what he saw, having wanted something new to break up the franchise’s formula. Unfortunately, he felt that it didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the series. He convinced Capcom to allow Kamiya to finish his game under a new IP. With this new title, which you know today as Devil May Cry, Kamiya himself created his very own genre: the character action game.
So, with that version falling off, work started over. This time, Hiroshi Shibata-directed Resident Evil 4 was set in a large castle. Resident Evil 2’s Leon S. Kennedy returned and was working with the US government to invade a castle owned by Spencer. In this version, he becomes infected with a virus and has various hallucinations throughout the game. It also stars a young woman and her dog, who wake up in the castle and try to figure out why they’re in this strange place. This version was eventually scrapped due to being stonewalled by development problems and development totally restarted again. However, instead of being wasted, the script was retooled to focus on the woman and her dog. This reworked game eventually saw the light of day as PS2’s Haunting Ground.
We’ll get a game out of this eventually! Shibata directed this edition as well. In keeping with the theme, the new version has Leon S. Kennedy enter a castle and get infected with a virus like the previous build. This virus is a bit different, however, as the hallucinations that Leon experiences are far more dangerous. This is famously known as Resident Evil 3.5, or the “Hookman” version. At times, the world would be bathed in a blue fog and Leon would be assaulted by a ghostly man with a giant hook in his hand. This is the build with the most to see, as it had an E3 demo in 2003. The idea was solid, but it didn’t get far off the ground due to, you guessed it, technical limitations. It wasn’t long before this version got hooked off the stage and made way for bigger and better things!
At some point, anyway. After the “Hookman” version, Shibata directed a build that was very short-lived. In fact, the only thing that we know about this next version is that Mikami was not pleased with how it was going, since it was attempting to fall back into the same formula that he felt was stagnating the series. It would have human enemies as opposed to the usual zombies, but that’s literally all we know about it. Finally, Mikami realized that they absolutely needed to get footing in the development process after years of failed and scrapped versions. Fed up, he stepped in as director and got to work.
In a mere 12 months, Shinji Mikami directed the game you know today as Resident Evil 4. One year! Think about how crazy that is for a second. Not just because developing a game in one year is insanely difficult, but for how long and varied the game is, that’s nuts! We’ll dig into it and see what about it is so good that it inspired nearly every major third person shooter since, from Gears of War to The Last of Us. Let’s rock, baby! (Wait… wrong Resident Evil 4.)
This is part of an on-going series. Be sure to check out the other entries in Survival of Horror!
Resident Evil 4 — January 11, 2005 (GC, PS2, Wii, PC, X360, PS3, X1, PS4, NSW)
Version used for review: Steam Ultimate HD Edition, 2014
Warning! This review will spoil the entire game!
Story
“Six years have passed since that horrendous incident…”
When Mikami wanted to shake up the formula, he had to make several drastic changes to facilitate such a change. The previous six games had focused squarely on a six-month period in series lore, with five of them focusing on a mere three-month period. Resident Evil 4 decided to break free from the ashes of Raccoon City and jumped ahead six years. Now, Leon S. Kennedy is a special agent in the US Secret Service.
The intro tells us that Umbrella has been totally dismantled. Between sanctions and bottomed-out stocks, Umbrella gets the Johnny Cage treatment from Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. In one fell swoop, Mikami takes an axe to the series’ ties to the pharmaceutical company, severing them entirely and making room for a new story. Leon is on assignment in a “lonely, rural part of Europe” (they don’t specify Spain, but everyone speaks Spanish and uses outdated Spanish currency, soooo…). The president’s daughter, Ashley Graham, has been kidnapped! Leon is sent in as a one-man army to investigate a lead and try to bring her home without attracting too much attention.
The plot is mainly there to serve the gameplay, so it’s a little light this time around. The whole game is about Leon attempting to rescue Ashley. Within the first minute, he finds how difficult that’s going to be as the very first person he attempts to question about Ashley answers with a hatchet swing. From here, he relays information to Ingrid Hunnigan, his aid back home as he makes his way through a small village. He learns quickly that it’s not just one violent local as everyone descends on him, forcing him to fight for his life as he searches for Ashley.
It’s not long before he encounters a tied and bound man named Luis Sera, an officer from Madrid. The village leader, a towering man named Bitores Mendez, shows up and knocks them both out. We see an unconscious Leon get a needle in the neck, with something pumping into him from the syringe. After waking up and narrowly escaping death, Luis runs away, leaving Leon to fight off more crazed villagers. His investigation soon leads him across a lake to a small house, where he suddenly passes out.
Once he has a nightmare, he wakes up to realize it’s now a pouring thunderstorm outside at night. He’s been unconscious for hours! Immediately, he gets to his investigation, only to find that his foes are much more terrifying now. A villager’s head explodes and is replaced by a disgusting, pulsing mass of flesh and bone that can slice and attack with a tentacle! Realizing that Ashley is in way more danger than he expected, Leon finally tracks her down to a small church.
Here, he finds the president’s daughter and meets the head of a freakish cult. Osmund Saddler is the leader of Los Illuminados, and he intends to use Las Plagas to take over the world. We learn that both Ashley and Leon have been implanted with the parasite, so they need to get it out before it can grow and control them. They escape the church and go on the run through the village.
Leon contacts Hunnigan for backup, but she says the helicopter was shot down and that they’re prepping another one. In the meantime, they meet Luis in an old cabin and fend off a bunch of villagers, before he runs off again and leaves them alone. They eventually find their way to Mendez, who gets destroyed in an intense fight in a burning barn. This exhilarating fight then leads them to a large castle on a hill, where Leon and Ashley raise the drawbridge and escape the villagers. However, their nightmares have only just begun.
This castle is home to Los Illuminados and is maintained by Ramón Salazar, one of Saddler’s fervent followers. Not far into the castle, the two encounter Luis yet again, before he realizes he dropped something important and runs off for a third time. Ashley gets kidnapped again in the castle, leaving Leon to chase after her. While searching the castle, he runs into none other than Ada Wong, the spy we thought to be dead at the end of Resident Evil 2. Leon seems privy to her state of living, however, as he notes that “it is true” about her working with Wesker. After their quick meeting, the sultry spy blinds him with a flashbang and scurries off.
Leon then finds Luis once more, before Saddler shows up and impales him with a giant tentacle. The dying Luis reveals the truth, that he’s a scientist trying to recover a sample of Las Plagas. He hands Leon pills to suppress its growth in his body before succumbing to his wound. Not long after, Leon frees Ashley and they make their way further through the enormous castle. Eventually, Ashley is kidnapped again and taken to an island away from the castle. Leon gives chase, annihilating Salazar along the way. Ada shows up in a speedboat and takes Leon along for the ride to said island, zipping off with her grappling hook once they arrive.
Here, Leon must face newer threats and more militant followers of Saddler’s crew, including an old partner named Jack Krauser. Thought to be dead, Krauser is back and working with Ada under Wesker’s command to infiltrate Los Illuminados and recover a parasite sample! After an intense knife fight, Krauser escapes and Leon scurries off to find Ashley. After a brief stint in a terrifying cage, Leon makes it to some ruins where he and Krauser face off once and for all. Of course, Leon gets the upper hand and finishes his former comrade, and sets his sights on Saddler once again.
Eventually, he finds Ashley and frees her. The two find a device to remove their parasites, and Leon has a climactic battle against Saddler himself. Complete with grotesque transformations like the series is known for, Saddler becomes a horrible monster that Leon has to take out with, what else, a rocket launcher provided by Ada. Finally, he gets the Plaga sample that everyone’s been after… only to be forced to give it to Ada once she puts a gun to his head. She escapes, handing Leon a jetski key as she leaves by helicopter. Finally, Leon and Ashley escape as the island goes up in flames, riding off into the sunrise after a dark and horrible night.
It sounded a little rote, but I assure you that it was just what the series needed at the time. Raccoon City in 1998 is a fascinating location, but the series was obsessed with it to the point of being afraid to even leave the year of 1998. Resident Evil 4 may have a by-the-numbers rescue plot, but it was precisely the breath of fresh air needed to bring the series out of the mire that was the stagnating Resident Evil bog. It’s a plot that very much services the rest of the game to make it greater than its parts, which we’ll get to.
Nowadays, it’s hard not to wish for more plot in the game. However, this is just coming from a big series nerd who loves his delicious lore. As it stands, Resident Evil 4’s story is relatively light. It sounds bad by itself, but as I said, it’s a plot that steps out of the way in order to let other parts of the game shine. I don’t want you to think I dislike the plot or anything, I’m just letting you know that it’s a little paint-by-numbers. Overall, light or not, I think it’s perfectly acceptable for what it is and what it does for the rest of the game. Resident Evil 4 treats itself like a blockbuster action movie, and its story is no different from that, for better or worse.
Graphics
“Well! I see that the President has equipped his daughter with ballistics, too.”
Resident Evil 4 is something quite different from the previous two games, REmake and Resident Evil Zero. Those games used pre-rendered backgrounds to bring out gorgeous environments that were simply not possible on the hardware otherwise. By comparison, this entry chose to go the same route as CODE: Veronica. Leon’s Spanish adventure is fully rendered with 3D polygons to facilitate the massive gameplay shift that the game has.
I would say that the game certainly isn’t ugly despite that. The game looks fantastic, with some textures that clearly weren’t made for HD displays but nevertheless, the game comes together well. Characters are detailed and emotive with their facial expressions. The environments are similarly great, capturing the feel of each location very well. The village is sparse and dreary, while the castle is grandiose and imposing. Despite using polygons instead of these backgrounds, Mikami’s team squeezed every ounce of power out of the Gamecube.
This extends beyond textures or model detail, too. Various lighting effects were important to building the look and feel of Resident Evil 4. These effects were sadly lost when porting the game to the PlayStation 2, and this version is what all later ports (Wii version aside) are based on. They still look great, don’t get me wrong, but they could look much better if these effects were added into the game. Thankfully, if you’re playing the Steam version of the game, you’ve got an ace in the hole! Some fans of the game have spent years redoing every single texture in HD. In addition, they reimplemented the lighting effects that later versions lost, making the game look absolutely stunning! I highly recommend you check out this mod for yourself if you have a Steam copy of the game. The game looks very good without it, but it looks amazing with this mod.
However you choose to play it, though, Resident Evil 4 still looks great. You can see some of the age in the game if you play an HD version of the game (without the mod, of course), but it still looks crisp. If you can play it on a CRT display on a Gamecube, I highly recommend it. This is another fantastic way to experience the game! Even the PlayStation 2 version, if it’s all you have, is better than nothing. I guess my point is that wherever or however you play, (almost) any version of Resident Evil 4 is a visual stunner. While environments may not look as technically impressive as the pre-rendered backgrounds of previous entries on the Gamecube, the game still manages to surprise with how good it looks in such open environments.
Of course, all this has only referred to the technical side of things. If you’re worried about the art direction, fret not; Resident Evil 4 is gore-geous. By far the most gruesome and violent game in the series up to that point, Mikami made sure to let the red flow in this particular entry. Enemy heads explode into a visceral spray of blood, the Plagas are grotesque, wiggling masses of flesh and poor, poor Leon can die in many awful ways.
In fact, it’s another one of this game’s strong suits: the shock value. In order to be memorable, Mikami ensured that failure in his game would be brutal. Everyone remembers the first time they met the business end of Dr. Salvador’s chainsaw and saw Leon’s head flop off his neck. When I first saw that years ago, I stared at the “You Are Dead” screen for a full minute, mouth agape. I immediately understood that dying in Resident Evil 4 was going to be a cruel punishment and I never wanted to do it again. Of course, I did it many, many times and in many awful ways. If you’re squeamish, I strongly recommend being perfect at this game, otherwise you’re liable to need a second lunch.
Resident Evil 4 looks great, no doubt about it. From the excellent character and enemy models to the absolutely stomach-turning levels of gore, Mikami pushed the Gamecube to its limits for the second time. While modern versions may show their age a bit more, the HD mod on Steam and the Gamecube original on a CRT display will do quite nicely for you.
Sound
“Hmmm… Where is the satisfying sound of one’s impalement?”
When it comes to any Resident Evil game, sound is perhaps one of the most underrated categories in terms of importance. A huge part of setting a game’s atmosphere and tone is through its music and character performances, and being engrossed in the world is one of the franchise’s biggest strengths. Resident Evil 4 is an action horror game that plays off like a Hollywood blockbuster film, so the VA is imperative to nailing that feeling.
Thankfully, Capcom managed to pull this one off wonderfully! In my opinion, the localization team did a fantastic job by making some changes. In the original Japanese script, characters are far more serious and the whole adventure feels a little flat because of it. However, when localizing the game, the team tweaked lines and personalities just a bit to make it fit the “Hollywood movie” style that Saddler makes fun of in this very game. Leon makes light of many of his threats, scoffing and dropping slick one-liners. Luis becomes a smooth-talking ladies’ man, and Ada maintains her playfully cold visage that makes her such an excellent spy.
The performances in this game are great, with a few exceptions. While I don’t think Ashley Graham is nearly so annoying as others have made her out to be, it does get a little tiresome when 80% of her dialogue is various intonations of screaming for Leon to help her. This is less on the actress, though, and more on the writing from Mikami.
Thankfully, it’s not just the voice actors that bring Resident Evil 4 to like. Shusaku Uchiyama returns after his work on REmake alongside Misao Senbongi, who aided Uchiyama previously on REmake. While it’s not clear who exactly composed which tracks this time around, both lay out a great soundtrack to match this lovely action horror game. I don’t know if I’d call it one of the series’ best, but it’s certainly high quality and adds a great deal to the atmosphere of the terrifying adventure. I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, so let’s take a look at some strong tracks like usual!
“A Strange Pasture” is the first thing you hear after fighting a complete onslaught of enemies the second you enter the village at the start of Resident Evil 4. After a bombastic and intense opening, you’re immediately met with a creepy farmland that looks withered and unkept. The synth emulating the sound of blowing wind is fantastic and unnerving, as it can even be construed as hearing screams in the distance. All the while, Uchiyama adds various different sounds, making sure to keep them faint and distant to layer the mystery on thick, as Leon knows nothing right now about what’s going on. It’s a striking balance to the frenetic mob showdown that occurs moments before, and lets you know immediately that you will not know what to expect from this game.
“Echo in the Night” is perhaps one of the series’ most atmospheric tracks, up there with Resident Evil 2’s “Marshaling Yard”. I don’t even really have to set a scene for you, as Uchiyama expertly sets the exact mood that you think this track encapsulates: a dark, creepy night in the village, raining heavily as you try to avoid disturbing enemies and gross monsters. It’s a moody song, and while I have trouble picking apart the instrumentation like normal, I can say that it raises the hairs on my neck when I listen to it.
“Intention” is a track exclusive to Ada’s campaign, Separate Ways. It perfectly mirrors Ada’s thought process during a pivotal part of the story, forcing her to make way to save a life. Such pressure is reflected in the constant percussion, but it’s not too loud or fast. Instead, it’s measured and evenly-paced, as Ada is always cool under said pressure. I really like this track, especially where it shows up in the story!
Perhaps this is cheating by bringing Albert Wesker into the mix, but his theme from the Mercenaries minigame is excellent and fits his ego like a building-sized glove. I almost feel like Wesker is listening to this track through earbuds as he tears through enemies with a terrifying, brutal, machine-like efficiency. High-tempo percussion and synth keep the blood pumping while synthesized choirs belt out a very holy-sounding melody. Naturally, Wesker would love this, thinking of himself as nothing less than a god, which given how ungodly powerful he is, makes a lot of sense. What a fabulous track! (We just won’t mention that it’s taken from another Capcom game, P.N.03…)
Overall, I think this is one of Resident Evil 4’s underrated strengths. The performances that endear you to the characters were a great choice versus a more traditional localization, and the soundtrack is delicious. It may only have a few truly standout tracks compared to other games in the franchise, but on the whole it fits great with what’s happening while you’re playing. I think this little section deserves its dues more than it gets credit for with Resident Evil 4.
Gameplay
“Soon, you will become unable to resist this… intoxicating power.”
Of all the things Shinji Mikami hoped to accomplish with Resident Evil 4 to reinvigorate the series, the gameplay was what he focused on the most. More than any other building block, the game had to play very differently from all previous entries in the franchise. In addition to this, Mikami wanted to break free from the traditional survival horror formula that he had created. To that end, he injected some adrenaline into his creation and molded Resident Evil 4 into an action horror game.
What does that mean? Well, Mikami amped up the number of enemies on screen at any given time. It used to be that even two or three enemies would be an incredible threat to the player. This time around, you could be swarmed by 5, 10, even more. Even more than that, the Ganados are more devious than zombies. These living people are capable of thought and mob tactics to assault Leon from all sides, ganging up on him en masse, similar to the short-lived “Zombie” version of Resident Evil 4. To balance things and accommodate such a large group of intelligent monsters, ammo shows up more plentiful than before.
However, this alone wouldn’t be enough to break free from the formula. Mikami wanted combat to be more engaging than it was before, so he took from an earlier version of Resident Evil 4. In the Hookman build of the game, Leon could be seen walking around with a camera system similar to CODE: Veronica. When Leon would aim to attack, however, the camera would shift over his shoulder to allow precision aiming at his foes.
Instead of adopting this, he simply scrapped fixed camera angles altogether and gave us the most core, central method of shattering series norms: the third-person over-the-shoulder camera. Now, Resident Evil 4 was not the first game to feature third-person shooting, of course. It was, however, the first game to pull that camera in to peek over the shoulder. You can see what Leon sees, and little else. It’s a way to maintain tension while allowing for more exciting encounters. Where you before could feel tense since you never knew what was just outside of frame, Resident Evil 4 makes it so you have to be aware of your surroundings since you never know what’s behind you or to your sides.
One thing that didn’t change, however, are the movement controls. You may or may not have noticed, but the tank controls that have existed since the very first game are still present and accounted for in Resident Evil 4. You must still turn left and right without strafing, and you must stop in order to aim. These were very deliberate choices to balance combat and keep the horror part of action horror intact. With these limitations, you have to stand your ground against the horde that tries to surround you. I’ll be honest, hearing people say that this game has “archaic, old” controls nowadays hurts; it’s those very controls that craft some of the best pacing and encounters ever seen in a video game. Once again I must stress, this is not hyperbole.
Almost every single room in Resident Evil 4 is created to do something new or different to you. Whether you’re introduced to a new enemy, a new collection of enemies, a terrifying boss, or even just a visually striking area, there’s something around every corner in this game. Not one space feels wasted, and each one feels unique. Without playing it yourself, it’s hard to explain. Shinji Mikami leads the player through the perfect roller coaster ride through this nightmare, balancing high-octane survival situations and intense gunplay with some quieter, moodier moments to ease you into a moment of respite before tossing some horrific monstrosity your way.
Along the way, you should keep a sharp eye out. Hidden all over the place are little trinkets and treasures that you can collect. These are very important, as they can be sold. Yes, I said you can sell treasure in a Resident Evil game. Enter the Merchant: a mysterious hooded figure with a large backpack and a trench coat filled with ammo and guns. This strange man appears all over the place, ready to offer Leon some fantastic weapons, items and upgrades… for the right price. I didn’t mention this before, but enemies also drop money. In this case, they drop pesetas, Spain’s old, outdated currency before they adopted the Euro. I’d consider this a neat little indicator of how behind-the-times this infected area is. Thankfully, the Merchant deals in pesetas as well! By selling your treasures and collecting money from enemies, you can purchase powerful weapons and even more powerful upgrades to those weapons.
Every gun you can buy from the Merchant has four stats: Reload Speed, Capacity, Firepower and Firing Speed. These stats are unique to each gun. Once you’ve fully upgraded a weapon, each one will then have an Exclusive upgrade you can buy that superpowers your weapon in some way. For instance, you can make the regular shotgun ultra-powerful, or you can make the Striker shotgun hold 100 shotgun shells at a time! It’s great to see every weapon get love and care, and upgrading them is incredibly satisfying. All weapons are viable, so be sure to mess around with whatever suits your fancy.
Playing Resident Evil 4 is an incredible joy. Shinji Mikami has easily created one of the finest gameplay loops ever conceived. Not only did he manage to break free from the formula he himself helped create, but in doing so he started a revolution in the gaming space. We’ll talk about that more at the end, but suffice to say that the gameplay in this game is varied, exciting, surprising and most importantly of all, fun.
Extras/Replay Value
“Now that’s what I call backup!”
With a game as addicting as Resident Evil 4, you may not want the nightmare to end right away once you beat the game. Thankfully, Mikami felt the same way and ensured that there would be several incentives to keep that disc in your Gamecube. Once you beat the game, the first thing you’re going to unlock is Professional difficulty. You see, it’s called Professional difficulty because… Leon… the Professional…
In addition to that harder mode, there’s also New Game+, where you can play through the story with everything you beat the first round with. All your guns, ammo, health, weapon upgrades, money, treasures, everything is there from the start to make your subsequent runs empower you like a god. It’s incredibly satisfying to run through with your ultra-powerful arsenal and shred enemies to ribbons.
There are also extra costumes and weapons, naturally. Leon can unlock his R.P.D. uniform from Resident Evil 2 and a Chicago gangster outfit, while Ashley gets a pop star outfit and a suit of armor! Ada even gets to wear her dress from Resident Evil 2 as well as her tactical uniform in one of the game’s unlockable modes. The suit of armor is especially interesting for Ashley as it makes her so heavy that enemies can’t lift her up anymore. She also can’t be harmed, and there are even funny little animations they added to show how heavy she is. When catching her as she jumps from a higher spot, Leon will fall to a knee, then grab his back in pain as he stands back up. Little touches like that are quite welcome.
To go along with these unlockable costumes, there are also unlockable weapons. Firstly is the Matilda, also known as the H&K VP70, the weapon Leon starts with in Resident Evil 2! Right after that, you can also buy the Infinite Rocket Launcher, a series staple. Off to a good start! On any version past the Gamecube, beating Professional mode will net you a free Plaga Removal Laser 412, a large arm cannon that absolutely obliterates everything in its path. This is one of the most ridiculous weapons in a game with already ridiculous weapons, and I love it. This will become a theme with the overpowered weapons you can get, I assure you.
Resident Evil 4 also contains two side modes; the minigame The Mercenaries is the first of the two. Though it shares the same moniker as Resident Evil 3’s minigame, this is a different beast altogether. You can unlock four characters besides Leon (Ada, Krauser, HUNK and Wesker) by beating each of the four stages on offer with at least a four-star rating. The Mercenaries is a score attack style game where you try to kill as many enemies as possible before the round ends. You can find time extensions that give you more time to kill enemies and bonus timers, which give you major points for each enemy you kill while it’s active.
By getting five stars on each stage with each character, however, you can unlock the Handcannon for purchase in the main game. This beastly revolver is enormous and insanely powerful when you first get it. After it’s fully upgraded, however, you get infinite ammo and by far one of the most insanely fun guns in the game. Each shot has so much recoil that Leon has to hold the gun from flying over his shoulder! It’s a fantastic reward for beating a minigame like The Mercenaries.
The other unlockable mode for Resident Evil 4 is a non-canon scenario called Assignment Ada. This mode tasks Ada Wong with recovering five Plaga samples from the island section of the game. She comes equipped only with a regular-size case and a preloaded set of guns to use. In the original Gamecube and PlayStation 2 versions, she doesn’t even have a knife, making it even more difficult, though later versions rectified this. It’s quite challenging, but the reward for beating it is worth it: the ability to buy the infinite ammo Chicago Typewriter tommy gun! While this unlocks for the main game in the Gamecube and PS2 versions, in later releases beating Assignment Ada unlocks the Typewriter for purchase in her other adventure…
Starting with the PS2 version of Resident Evil 4, beating the game unlocks an all-new campaign called Separate Ways. This fantastic side-campaign details what Ada was up to during the original campaign, shining a little more light onto why she’s trying to retrieve a sample of Las Plagas for Wesker. This is a decent-sized campaign, even complete with things like the Merchant to sell you weapons! The only thing is that weapons are sold as-is, so no upgrades, but it’s a small price to pay. Very cool if you ask me.
All in all, I’d say that they tried very hard to make Resident Evil 4 a package worthy of your time. The campaign is meaty, but the value added through their extras is incredible. An extra campaign, two minigames, two special costumes for Leon, Ada and Ashley, five unlockable weapons… there is just so much to love here!
Conclusion
“ Ahhhh, I’ll buy it at a high price!”
I cannot stress enough how influential Resident Evil 4 has been for the industry. Today, it seems like such an obvious choice, but back in 2005 no game had used the over-the-shoulder camera before as the main viewpoint to bring the player into Leon’s world. In uncharted waters, Mikami crafted one of the most influential camera styles ever. Perhaps just as important, the pacing of encounters in Resident Evil 4 also inspired so many developers. You see flashes of this game in so many other projects nowadays that it’s almost hard to count them. You don’t have to take my word for it, though.
What I said at the start of the article isn’t even hyperbole, by the way; both Cliff Bleszinski and The Last of Us co-directors Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley listed Resident Evil 4 by name as a direct inspiration for their highly-beloved franchises. Bruce Straley even went so far as to say that his meeting with Shinji Mikami was “that day Neil & I met God”. Cory Barlog spoke about how Resident Evil 4 was a direct inspiration for 2018’s incredible God of War. Bill Gardner, the lead level designer of BioShock, explained that the glowing praise for Resident Evil 4 gave them the confidence to release “a more complicated breed of action game”.
Even without direct callouts from developers, you can see this game in nearly every third person action game to date since its release. It’s one of those games that fundamentally changes everything. Super Mario Bros, Tetris, Pong, all of these changed the gaming space forever. Regardless of whatever one thinks of its quality or its status as a “real” Resident Evil title, Resident Evil 4 deserves to be on that list. Its influence on camera styles, game pacing and encounter design is far-reaching to such a high degree!
Thankfully, the quality of the game is just as high. The game looked stunning in 2005 and still looks great today (with some tweaks). The gameplay is engrossing and exciting, with a satisfying gameplay loop and impeccable pacing. There are so many things to do once the game is done, too. As a Resident Evil fan, I wish there were more connections to other games in the series, but I understand what needed to be done in order to start fresh and revitalize Resident Evil. It may not be my favorite on a personal level, but there’s no denying that I love and respect Resident Evil 4 for being a great game, as well as changing the landscape of video games permanently.
