GEN: The Many Faces of Resident Evil 4

Picnic - 280 days ago

"Resident Evil 4 is almost universally adored".

If it's almost universally adored then the jury shouldn't still be "out on whether you could classify Resident Evil 4 as a "classic" RE title."

I remember being quite underwhelmed by the opening sections of Resident Evil 4- the earthy brown colours and nondescript huts were a world away from the ornate detail in the Resident Evil remake pre-rendered rooms. The video of the hooked handed man shows more detail in the character models than the finished RE4 has.

Once a man with a chainsaw over his head came in I realised that the game was taking some of its cues from Western horror like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. That lacks the subtlety of the earlier games which were slightly B-movie but not overtly so.

When Resident Evil 4 came out, I remember reading forums in which at least 9/10 people were strongly in favour of the new direction. I wasn't completely convinced. The parts that were most great in the game were those that were relatively claustrophobic like the earlier games, like the maze and the sewers. Some things seemed unintentially creepy like the trader's way of saying 'What are ya buying'.

RE4 just doesn't seem timeless to me in the way that the Resident Evil remake does. It lacks detail that you want to stand around and examine- it encourages you to keep on moving on instead. Once other games that are more action packed and detailed like Bioshock and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune came along, RE4's deficiencies, including a lack of puzzles, become even more pronounced.

Forums that I read now are far more swinging back towards praising earlier Resident Evil games, especially RE2 and the Resident Evil remake. There are still a lot of people who think that RE4 does no wrong but the game lacks some heart to me- that's what made it frightening even more than the enemies.

There's no doubt some of the bosses are very impressive to look at though but the textures and backgrounds can be disappointing.

Metroid Prime is a better Cube adventure game.

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tigresa - 279 days 18 hours ago

OMG I remember seeing this vid on youtube before -- The Fog, that stuff is incredible. I love it! A lot of good info, if only they went through with it, man,

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