If there's one thing I know about the Resident Evil series, it's that Resident Evil 4 marks an incredibly important - indeed pivotal - moment. The switch from fixed cameras to an over the shoulder point of view. Finally, the gaming public would be able to play a survival horror title whose horror wasn't the controls.
This revolution wasn't enough to interest me to play it back in 2005. I had practically zero interest in anything Resident Evil, no matter how you were able to look at it, and in the decade and a half since that view has changed little. Well, no, I take that back, because I have seen some nice Resident Evil stuff thanks to this 1001 list, but I haven't dropped everything to carry on playing like I have with, say, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. Which must tell us something about my gaming tastes...
Leon S Kennedy is a man on a mission in a muddy brown Europe, one that we can see from all kinds of new and exciting angles. Where are the zombie dogs going to jump out at us from this time, eh? Their jobs just got a lot harder, that's for sure.
Fun Times
Since its original release on the GameCube, Resident Evil 4 has found itself nearly everywhere else, and at some point, I've put it into my Steam library, so this is the PC port from a couple of years later. It opens with a brief recap of previous events, where I'm pleased to see America being sensible and absolutely clamping down hard on anything related to the clearly ridiculous Umbrella Corporation.
So where are the zombies going to come from this time? Are there even zombies? In a grim forest somewhere in Europe, Leon sits in the back of a car, moping at the lack of subtitles. The President's daughter is missing, and one man is tasked with tracking her down and bringing her home: us.
A fancy walkie talkie reveals that we're not in this alone. Support from back home comes from Ingrid Hunnigan, though who she is exactly isn't known. To us, she's a welcome voice pointing us in the right direction. To Leon... well, he's already trying to hit on her.
And here we are at last, behind the shoulder of a Resident Evil protagonist, able to see where we're going and everything. It looks rather nice, though everything is particularly brown. Leon walks by default and can get jogging by holding the A button, but his movement does result in some side effects, especially if you dare to move the camera at the same time.
That's a lot of blur. There may be a setting in the menus for it, but all I know for sure is that half of my screenshots look like this, and if it's a look you don't like in video gaming, I guess you'll have to hope that there is indeed an option to disable or minimise it.
Seeing a house, we waltz our way in and try to ask this guy if he's seen a young girl with blond hair. He replies "No". I think. He actually mumbles something and grabs an axe, but as far as translations go, 'No' is quite accurate.
Why would you say that, Leon? I know you've had run-ins with zombies in the past, and I know this guy was acting a little weird, but why would you say that? That's ominous talk, that is.
We've just killed someone in their own home, so obviously we've got to steal whatever he's got that's valuable to us, including some handgun ammo and a chest full of money. We'll be seeing a lot of chests full of money in Resident Evil 4. It's quite jarring.
Explosive tripwires and angry pitchfork-wielding locals confirm that if we're not in a video game, we're definitely in a place nobody would want to find themselves in. Luckily, our pistol comes with a laser sight, and these guys do like to shamble. But they're not zombies. Very important to remember that.
Hitting them in the head is obviously more preferable for several reasons, but I did find that fiddlier than I was expecting. Eh, let's call it rust and move into town.
Oh, I wish I didn't head into town. Other than burning the cops who drove me out here, the locals are getting on with their day to day lives until they spot me and start to descend. Some throw farm tools my way, others like to get up close and personal, more still just swing pitchforks in my face, and everything hurts quite a bit.
Two or three hits and you'll be a goner, though the Green Herb can still be found in your inventory to gobble up should you need it - yes, silly items and annoying inventory systems return, but hey, at least the camera is fixed, right? Get it? 'Fixed'?
An understatement if ever I've seen one, Leon, but true all the same. Something weird is indeed going on. These fine folks are called Los Ganados, 'the cattle', apparently mindless sheep who follow someone or something far more sinister. After killing a set number of them, or surviving long enough, not sure which, the church bell rings and they stop trying to kill me to go to church, leaving us free to explore the town.
And by 'explore', obviously I mean 'run away from'.
Frustrations
As Resident Evil 4 went on, I couldn't help but notice how literal 'over the shoulder' was. By design, the game and its camera are cinematic. You're not meant to have a good view of your entire character model and its relation to the world around you. You're meant to feel constrained and vulnerable.
You can't see everything, so enemies can blindside you. Items hidden in boxes and barrels aren't seen until you either crane your neck down to look or just hoover them up and decide whether they're worth a spot in your inventory or not.
The Right Trigger brings up your gun, subtly shifting your view to help you aim. The Left Trigger brings up your knife, a great weapon for saving on ammunition, but a weapon that requires you to be within arms reach of your target, and by the time you get there, they'll have hit you with a pitchfork or you'll have been grabbed. You can land a slash of your knife, of course you can, but it looks awkward because of the viewpoint, as does the kick you can perform on stunned enemies to finish them off.
After a button-mashing boulder dash, included presumably for something different to do, we work our way through bear-traps and trip mines to investigate a thumping coming from a wardrobe. Is our mission complete already?
Nope. Luis here is definitely not the President's daughter, as we can confirm with another flash of this photo. Not the ideal situation to ask for information regarding her whereabouts, having been caught and tied up, but Luis has overheard something about her, which is a bonus. You know, once we can get out of here.
Well, that was easy. I don't know where Luis ran off to, but we're heading back to town. Clearly the wisest choice we could make, eh Leon?
As we're leaving, a masked man urges us to follow him, where we can finally make use of all these chests of gold coins we've been finding, and the box of rifle ammo I've just discovered next to this typewriter. I wonder what the typewriter does, he asked, sarcastically.
The rifle certainly comes in handy immediately, as tens and tens of cattle clones assault me. Some chuck explosives, which you can satisfyingly snipe to explode before they even throw it. Others take a dive deep into the canyon or ravine or mineshaft, whatever this place is, ensuring we won't have to waste any more ammo on them.
In a chest at the end of one path we find the left half of an emblem, a giant chunk of rock it looks like, but it's important so we find room for it somewhere in our inventory. Turning around, I spot an identical chest that houses the other half, so it's time to work our way back through the other route to grab it.
At which point, obviously, a load more cattle descend upon me. I'm not concerned about using so much ammo or losing health to these guys, I'm just a little annoyed at how many there are, and how we have to deal with them in some way. There's no avoiding them, no running past them on these tiny ledges. Shooting, stunning, kicking, slashing, again and again until they go away for good.
It's not much of a puzzle, shoving two halves of an emblem into a door, but I'm sure it's the first of many for Resident Evil 4. The door doesn't keep us out of anywhere special, just another grim corridor through wherever this place is, but this corridor does lead a more industrial environment, just as run-down and cobbled together as everything else we've seen so far.
As far as looks go, Resident Evil 4 isn't exactly amazing to look at, but it is at least consistent in its murky depiction. I definitely don't want to find myself here for any great length of time. It turns out I won't be...
I'm introduced to a cover mechanic, and being bombarded with explosives is a good reason to take cover. Explosives kill, and these folks don't mind if it's their own kind that gets caught in the fire. Fine by me, fewer to shoot. The problem I had was that I just couldn't get any shots off.
Each time they popped up to throw a stick of dynamite, I popped up to shoot them in the head. Laser sight or not, I was having a hard time lining up my shots, and by the time I got close, they popped back down and the ground in front of me exploded, throwing me backwards.
It lead to the one and only hope for saving the President's daughter to be told in no uncertain terms:
Final Word
At least I wasn't turned into a zombie, right? We were injected with an unknown substance, though, and it was purple, so you know how evil it is. Maybe it was a good thing we died. Wouldn't want to accidentally kill the President's daughter after becoming a puppet of the big bad guy. Whomever that is.
I have no idea. I've seen glimpses of two scary dudes but don't know who they are. If I was told, then I don't remember who they are, and I don't remember who they are because I'm not really fussed about Resident Evil 4.
Like the rest of the series, they can look as fancy as they want, but if I'm not interested in the gameplay they have to offer, then I'm not likely to keep playing very long. Having seen more of them first hand, I'm more likely to at least watch them, but the plots are absolute nonsense, and only get more bonkers as time goes on. I'm amazed the introduction finally pointed out the obvious with regards to Umbrella Corp, but I would not be surprised to find they've got a European arm infecting these folks in just the same way.
How will I find out if I'm right? It won't be playing it, I can say that for sure. I'm not terribly comfortable with the controls, even with a more familiar view to conduct them from. They make some sense, it's not like I just can't fathom them, but something isn't sitting right all the same.
It's good to have finally played RE4, though. I can confirm it definitely doesn't play like the first few games in the series, but that doesn't magically make the problems go away. We're still slaves to inventory slots, Green herbs, and typewriters. The camera still doesn't let you get on with your business in comfort, because you're not meant to be comfortable.
I like being comfortable in my gaming. Maybe that's why I avoid survival horror titles like the plague. Some people - many people - clearly aren't bothered in the same way, and games like Resident Evil 4 cater to them.
I don't know how big a deal this game was to fans and non-fans back in 2005. I wasn't fussed then and aren't really fussed now. But it's still playable and in a great many formats for everyone to see it for themselves. If it's something you're interested in, check it out.
That, like the inhabitants of RE4, is a no-brainer.
Fun Facts
At least four versions of RE4 began development in some form before being scrapped for the next idea.
Resident Evil 4, developed by Capcom Production Studio 4, first released in 2005.
Version played: PC, 2007.