"Retro" Review - Resident Evil 4

I hate calling this a "retro" review. The game's not really all that old. 2005 was only four short years ago. But to be fair, we've come a long way as a video game community since this game first reached our Gamecubes in January 2005. This is not a spoiler free review. If you have not played the game this is not the review for you!





Story:
You play as Ex-Raccoon City Police Officer Leon Kennedy. The protagonist of Resident Evil 2 has returned to center stage as the series takes a break from the main story. Leon finds himself in an unnamed Spanish-European country searching for the President's recentaly kidnapped daughter Ashley. Leon arives in a small farming town, where he encounters the first of the games enemies. The Los Gandos are the villagers that have been infected by a parasite names Los Plagas. Leon eventually finds a shot gun, travels through a graveyard, fights a giant fish, and solves multiple puzzles all before finally finding Ashley for the first of a billion times. But before he does he meets a fellow "intruder" by the name of Luis Sera. Long story short, he resques Ashley a lot more, Luis dies, Ada betrays him, he kills The Villiage Chief, Salazar, Krauzer, and Saddler all before Ada blows the whole place up.

9/10

Graphics:
This is where the game really shines. Despite some random glitches like maces coming through doors before they even open, or how dark areas tend to lose all blending of color, these are still some of the most impressive graphics on any GameCube game.Not much else can be said.

10/10

Gameplay:
I love the game's change from overhead, prerendered environments, and bad camera angles to the over the shoulder view and beautiful 3D environments. Leon controls smoothly however I found that Ashley can be a little stiff to move. But here's the bad, the A.I. is crap. There is no nice way to put it, this game has some of the worst A.I. I have ever seen in my life. I shot a guy six times before he even turned around to see what was shooting at him.

6/10

Overveiw:
Resident Evil 4 is one of the best games in the GameCube's line up, and all the ports arn't too bad either. All said and done, this is one worth adding to everyone's collection.

8.5/10