LogFAQs > #941498946

#19. Resident Evil 4 (2005)
Developed by Capcom Production Studio 4

Its always funny to reflect on those things which once seemed so very important in a juvenile mind. Only once I sat down to begin writing this did I remember Resident Evil 4 was the first M-rated game my mother allowed me to purchase. Of course, I had secretly played Grand Theft Auto while visiting friends, but theres something powerful about receiving this permission, like my innocent cocoon was finally being shed. I wish I could remember the details of this battle; what caused her to cave?

I imagine there being some insistence on my part. The advertising made this game look cool, and reviews made it clear that this was the event game not just of 2005, which had only just begun, but perhaps of the entire generation. To not play this would have been doing myself a disservice. And believe me, dear reader, when I claim to have once been quite skilled at pestering.

Its not that Resident Evil 4 did anything particularly new. There had been plenty of third-person shooters before, and Resident Evil had been a major franchise from its first release. Despite this, the classic Resident Evil formula was archaic almost by design. Tank controls were forced upon the player to make sense of the fixed camera angles. Yet this somehow worked, because the frustrating controls only added to the tension.

The most impressive element here is that Resident Evil 4 did little to actually change those controls. All it really did was change the camera angle. This seems like such a minor upgrade on paper. But in action, Resident Evils tank controls transformed from needlessly difficult to an impressively fluid system. The third-person shooter genre was reinvented overnight. Yet at its heart, Resident Evil 4 still relies on tank controls its truly astounding how much a simple change in perspective can cause a total shift in perception.

While I have always loved Resident Evil 4, another element which never struck me until now is how it essentially formed the backbone of the Naughty Dog-style action game. Additionally, the team behind Gears of War directly cited RE4 as an influence, which itself inspired countless others. And while Half-Life 2 will get most of the credit, Resident Evil 4 had just as much influence on set piece-based game design. Half-Life 2 beat RE4 to the market by two months, but they both pulled off the same quality execution without each others influence.

But, clearly, I still think Resident Evil 4 stands a step above most of those it influenced. Controls have only gotten smoother with time, but like so many other classics, its really the individual moments that hold up. Modern takes on this formula have become increasingly serious RE4 is in the same vein of Metal Gear Solid, the kind of nonsensical narrative which is simply a ton of fun in video game form.

Take the opening sequence. Leon is attacked while in a lone house, but thats about all that happens for the opening few minutes. A few stray enemies are here and there, and Leon can help a dog who has become trapped. Eventually, he stumbles across the village square. Finally, all hell breaks loose.

Enemy after enemy spawn with no way to escape. There are plenty of places to hide, and with a pathetic handgun, the player is certainly going to explore for something better. But as soon as Leon sneaks inside one of the houses, a cutscene plays, introducing a man with a chainsaw who absolutely will kill Leon in a single attack. But in this same house, there are objects to block the doors and windows (until they are inevitably destroyed), along with a shotgun upstairs. The game gives exactly what you need, but only after triggering the threat in the first place. While many fans of the classic Resident Evils lament the lack of a true survival horror experience, this moment establishes a sense of dread which will linger over the entire experience.

And then, suddenly, this barrage will just end (mechanically, either through a certain amount of time or number of kills, but neither condition is made explicit). A church bell rings, and everyone wanders off as if they werent just attempting to murder someone. Most games want to build up to bigger challenges, but Resident Evil 4 throws the player straight into the deep end.

Resident Evil 4 is loaded with these killer moments. Leon must defend a cabin, battle a gigantic lake monster, do battle on a mine cart, run from a giant statue of a dwarf, protect the presidents daughter, don an infrared scope to fight regenerating enemies, get in a big quick time event knife fight but, like, before we were all annoyed by the idea. This is one of those games which throws out every stray idea, and its a masterpiece because the grand majority of those ideas work. Few games manage such a consistent wow factor. Even minor moments like talking with a merchant or bantering with the enemy leave an impact through the sheer hilarity of the script.

What Resident Evil 4 lacks in pure horror is made up for through stellar design. Alongside Half-Life 2, this was a key final step in pushing the video game industry into the modern era. Its influence can be seen everywhere, but the endless creativity of its design assures its status as an enduring classic theres a reason it has been released over and over and over and over again.

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