![]() Without Shinji Mikami and Capcom’s influence, we would have never seen games such as Gears of War, or at least not to the degree it found success. While the story is just out of this world in many different ways, Resident Evil 4 has had an incredible influence on the industry, inspiring how most third person shooters are played today. It’s no longer the slow paced and mindless creatures we’ve become accustomed to these are smarter and more agile enemies that will quickly take Leon down. Crazed villagers infected with a new virus called Las Plagas, giving them supernatural abilities, including replacing their heads with some sort of parasite being, fill the void zombies left behind, making combat far more interesting. Kennedy, a survivor of Raccoon City and one of the protagonists of Resident Evil 2, is tasked with rescuing the President’s kidnapped daughter in some rural Spanish village. The plot, like any game in the series, is pretty ridiculous. The Japanese developer has gone back to the source material with the Ultimate HD Edition, adding a bevy of new additions and modern standards that should hopefully have diehard fans trekking Leon’s journey once more. While the title has been on PC in the past, it was a poorly optimized port that didn’t utilize the platform’s true potential. While replaying a difficult section just because the player has failed to mash a button quickly enough drags down what is otherwise a superb campaign, these prompts are a fairly minor irritation.It has been nearly ten years since the fourth iteration into the popular survival horror franchise has hit the market, but that isn’t stopping Capcom from re-releasing the game on every platform possible. There are, of course, still a host of punishing quick-time events to overcome throughout the game. Rather than feel dated, the system remains an excellent template for gun-friendly horror titles. In Resident Evil 4, Mikami and his Capcom development team pulled off the impossible feat of mixing the sense of powerlessness inherent to late 90s survival horror control schemes with truly satisfying third-person action mechanics. Memorable sections-like the Night of the Living Dead-inspired scene where Leon and a fellow survivor must fend off waves of infected from within the claustrophobic rooms of a cabin-only work as well as they do because of the general sluggishness of the controls. Just as in the original RE4, the controls make a few particularly demanding enemy encounters a bit tougher than they perhaps ought to be, but this seems like a small price to pay in light of just how well executed the rest of the experience is. Lining up headshots and manoeuvring around shambling Los Ganados villagers is just as difficult to perform as a game about surviving tense situations needs without ever becoming downright frustrating. The game still has the weirdly clunky control scheme that seems like poor design until, about half an hour into the first chapter, it suddenly clicks into place and becomes immensely satisfying. The PC edition wisely leaves the original mechanics intact (although it does add mouse and keyboard support that, while totally functional, doesn’t feel as natural as a controller). Resident Evil 4, even divorced from its legacy as a massive influence on action videogames, is still a fantastic experience from a gameplay standpoint as well. ![]() ![]() ![]() Probably the best that can be said for the HD re-release’s presentation is that it hasn’t changed in any way that takes away from the original. Improving the resolution of RE4‘s textures and menu text does only what it’s required to do-update the game so that it plays nice with modern computer resolutions-but really serves only as a fresh coat of paint that spruces up what was already pretty stellar to begin with. The guns pop, bang, or crack through the air with a satisfying sense of weight, the groans of monsters reverberate from the distance, and the gloriously ham-fisted dialogue is delivered in perfect deadpan by the voice actors. When accompanied with excellent audio design that mixes a moody background soundtrack with outstanding sound effects, the game’s aesthetic remains one of the medium’s most confident and fully realized to date. ![]() RE4‘s faux-Spain-populated with misty lakes, foreboding castles, and run-down villages-is one of videogames’ great settings. Kennedy) through a fight to save the President’s daughter from a diabolical cult. The story is still a goofball send-up of horror genre B-movies that enjoyably takes players (in the role of one-line spouting federal agent Leon S. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |