Resident Evil 4
-----
This is for the ps2 version of Re4 - Just released a couple of weeks ago.
---------
First of all, let me begin by saying - 'Ignore the number'! Meaning, you don't even have to be an Resident Evil fan to play this. The story is new and has very, very little to do with past Resident Evil's. The gameplay has been thoroughly changed, the story(no more Umbrella) is starting from scratch. So if you're new, you will get very well adapted with it.
1st up -
GAMEPLAY -
This, without a shadow of a doubt - is the single biggest reason to get this game. The gameplay, is so fluid, so fast, you'd be cursing the save screen as it almost pauses the adrenaline. The game picks up right from the star-till the end. Normally, all games tend to have this 'dull' area where you just wished you'd hurry up collecting/completing the area, so you can get on with the main game, that in fact is not the case with Re4. Resident Evil, Silent Hill etc have this a lot, item collecting, puzzles, boring areas, and sometimes you even find yourself just advancing through the game for the story, wishing the next room taps in a boss fight or a cool cutscene. Normally, in previous RE's and SH's, only 65% of the game time was spent on fighting-combating the enemy's, while the rest was spend on thoroughly checking rooms, collecting ammo, solving puzzles(yea i know i've said that already) so you may not agree with yourself here, halfway through the game-you do sort of get frustrated, wishing there was something much more exciting to do than running around the whole room only for items. NOT the case with Re4, all the areas are prone to enemy attacks, you get ammo and guns with the money the enemy leaves after you kill it. And nearly 90% of the game is spend fighting enemy's all the time. Ask anyone who's played the game and they'll tell you the same in comparison with past RE's.
In fact, the cutscenes are NON-Skippable-you'd have to pay a lot of attention to it mainly because out of nowhere the character Leon(the hero) is talking with can get knife out of nowhere to stab him, for that 1 second you will get a button combination you need to tap in to advance further in the cutscene-Or else game over
Belive me when i say this, you'd be wishing the game goes on forever and ever.
This time, there's an over-the-shoulder aiming system. Every gun Leon uses has a Laser sight, which allows you to pin-point where you want to aim. The camera sifts back to the 3rd person prospective when the screen is clear of enemy's. You'd be glued to the chair waiting for the next enemy to pop in from nowhere, so you can pop out its head, though i can't say the same if an army of 'them' arrive.
All in all-this may sound very repetitive, a typical for a reviewer to say for the best games, but i swear this time it really means it - It is exciting. Even when collecting items, it is very well done.
STORY -
Leon Scott Kennedy first made his entry as a rookie cop in Resident Evil 2. After making it out with Claire Redfield and Sherry Birkin right before Racoon City was nuked, he was contacted by a suspicious member of the governemt. They asked him to join the U.S Governemt secret Service, they offered him full training.
Now umbrella(the pharamceutical company responsible for the creation of the virus's which resulted in zomby's and other mutations) is dead. The connection from the past RE have almost completely broken, this is more like a side story.
In Resident Evil 3, Jill and Carlos make it out of Racoon City(this is also shown in the second movie, though in a horribly wrong fashion) Raccon City is nuked by the U.S. Governemt (Not Umbrella as the movie states) umbrella does its best to convey the press that all the illegal bio-genetic research theory against them is false, and they are only a pharmaceutical company that procudes skin creams and medicines, they convey the press, but not the people. Soon after, the stock market for Umbrella falls, Umbrella's underground research crashes as its products don't produce in enough cash. And is finished. Period.
6 years later -
The president's daughter has been kidnapped by some cult group in the deep dark villages of Europe. The governemt has got the hint that other bio-genetic research is being conducted, so they send in somewhere with more experience with this kind of a sitatuion-Leon S.Kennedy. he travells all the way from America to Europe, to the deep dark village. There he finds a villager, little does he know they're infected. Leon shows the villager the picture of Ashley(the daughter) and if he has seen them, the guys spits back some rude latin language, picks up his fork, and try's to kill Leon. These zomby's, work in harmony, and peace, they communicate, they plan, they dodge bullets - that's how smart they are. They are called 'ganados' not zomby's. and they are the result of LAS PLAGAS, the virus which made them all into this- airborne. So the story on Leon begins, theyre is a mysterious character which Leon failed to save in Re2, she makes her return in Re2. Also, there is this new guy, Luis Sera - you're going to love him, pure bad ass, He's a researcher for the virus, but help Leon..and i'll not tell you why play it for yourself.
All in all, the story isn't much, its sort of dull, like another case for rescue job for 007 James Bond. this is where Re4 failed for us old Re fans, and scores for newcomers to the series.
GRAPHICS and SOUND -
This is taking the best out of the ps2, Leon's face and hair is so detailed, all the expressions you can see on the ganado's faces, the lightning effects are the best in the night time. a 10/10 on this area. I won't say anymore.
For sound, there's not much BGM, making it much more real, but the sounds from ganados and other enemy's will scare the wholy **** out of you. there's no much to be said on this, because it couldn't have been better.
OVERALL
The best. action. game. ever.
If you've played games like Max Payne-Hitman etc, you'll find those games not even in Re4's league after you've completed one of its area. Take that a written from me. the camera angles, the shooting and fighting, as you keep advancing further is not only better - but a very different experience of gaming. its very easy to get into it, the past RE-SH type gameplay took some time to get into, and once you do, it becomes just as hard to actually succeed in it.
You buy and upgrade your weapons along the game. You earn them with your money found from dead enemy's and other places. It's very cool, you start with a handgun, quarter way through te game you get introduced to this system, i bought this upgrade for the gun, and was picking off heads the next moment! Later, i sold the upograded handgun, as the store got something much more better alternative to it. You have a huuuuge veriety of guns, around 5 handgune with arnd 10 upgrades each, 4 rifles, 4 shotguns and verious other one's as well like rocket launcher, magnum revolvers, and automatic machine gun each of them with their upgrades.
All in all, this game is for the one who loves Sci-Fi Horror action adventure, the atmosphere is plain dark and creepy. Especially in the night during the rain, when you've got an army of ganados with torches running on your back!
The first half is plain action-very fast linear gameplay-the second half, gets a little slow, you encounter a lot of new enemy's, ganado's just disspear, and these new one's are much harder to kill. That's when the game will actually start, it takes a steep turn and all of a sudden become VERY HARD. So you might want to save up the money and collect as much money as you can for the upgrades and new weapons. each enemy consumes upto arnd 7 handgun bullets for the top notch handgun, if you don't manage to get a headshot which can do an opponenet one one shot but very hard to perfrom of course. Sencond half of the game is when you'll start playing the game seriously old fashioned consverve all the ammo style, as the first half was slap-happy trigger free action.
The number of extra's a freakin HUGE! There's 4+ hours of extra mini games which will get uncloked after you complete the main game first time.
3 minigames -
Seperate Way's
Assignment Ada
Mercenaries
All these have tons of missions. Mercenaries alone takes about 2.5 hrs to complete on easy, the rest 2 are even bigger.
Also a lot of costumes, old Re2 gamers are in for a treat as they can unclock Re2's Leon costume in this. plus there's a lot of other as well.
NEGATIVE DRAWBACKS -
one main will be found by old RE gamers, as the story just broke off, dissapoitnig for some, but the good news is CAPCOM said they will fix that with Re5 on Xbox360 and on Ps3, it will come back to the series.
Also,
Ashley is very annoying, once you save her, you actually have to now take care of her, she must not get hurt, you'll have to protect her from enemy's, one shot-she's dead-game over. One bite from the enemy-she's dead-game over. fortunately, Capcom put in commands you can order Ashley to, like Stay-hide. So i used to run back, order her to stay behind a building while i cleared the mian area of the enemy's. Which can become tiresome after a while. Also sometimes wathcing the cutscenes over and over again will become frustrating, as they are also a part of the gameplay like said before, you tend to forget all that and just get lost putting the controller away in the scene-and all of a sudden for only a second you get this command you must perform or else you'd be beheaded...and bam, gameover, start over, go to the point, and do it all over again.
But then again some also love this system.
With that i'll end my review. i could've made it better i had more time though. But after reading this you will find following other professional reviews like the one here on gamespot and 1up more easy to follow. They more or less say the same things i've said above.
NOTE - The screens are very low quality jpg pics from IGN. if you want the real stuff check out some of the highest quality trailers here-
GameSpy: Resident Evil 4 Trailer, Videos and Movies
params7
------------------------------------------------
-----
This is for the ps2 version of Re4 - Just released a couple of weeks ago.
---------
First of all, let me begin by saying - 'Ignore the number'! Meaning, you don't even have to be an Resident Evil fan to play this. The story is new and has very, very little to do with past Resident Evil's. The gameplay has been thoroughly changed, the story(no more Umbrella) is starting from scratch. So if you're new, you will get very well adapted with it.
1st up -
GAMEPLAY -
This, without a shadow of a doubt - is the single biggest reason to get this game. The gameplay, is so fluid, so fast, you'd be cursing the save screen as it almost pauses the adrenaline. The game picks up right from the star-till the end. Normally, all games tend to have this 'dull' area where you just wished you'd hurry up collecting/completing the area, so you can get on with the main game, that in fact is not the case with Re4. Resident Evil, Silent Hill etc have this a lot, item collecting, puzzles, boring areas, and sometimes you even find yourself just advancing through the game for the story, wishing the next room taps in a boss fight or a cool cutscene. Normally, in previous RE's and SH's, only 65% of the game time was spent on fighting-combating the enemy's, while the rest was spend on thoroughly checking rooms, collecting ammo, solving puzzles(yea i know i've said that already) so you may not agree with yourself here, halfway through the game-you do sort of get frustrated, wishing there was something much more exciting to do than running around the whole room only for items. NOT the case with Re4, all the areas are prone to enemy attacks, you get ammo and guns with the money the enemy leaves after you kill it. And nearly 90% of the game is spend fighting enemy's all the time. Ask anyone who's played the game and they'll tell you the same in comparison with past RE's.
In fact, the cutscenes are NON-Skippable-you'd have to pay a lot of attention to it mainly because out of nowhere the character Leon(the hero) is talking with can get knife out of nowhere to stab him, for that 1 second you will get a button combination you need to tap in to advance further in the cutscene-Or else game over
Belive me when i say this, you'd be wishing the game goes on forever and ever. 
This time, there's an over-the-shoulder aiming system. Every gun Leon uses has a Laser sight, which allows you to pin-point where you want to aim. The camera sifts back to the 3rd person prospective when the screen is clear of enemy's. You'd be glued to the chair waiting for the next enemy to pop in from nowhere, so you can pop out its head, though i can't say the same if an army of 'them' arrive.
All in all-this may sound very repetitive, a typical for a reviewer to say for the best games, but i swear this time it really means it - It is exciting. Even when collecting items, it is very well done.
STORY -
Leon Scott Kennedy first made his entry as a rookie cop in Resident Evil 2. After making it out with Claire Redfield and Sherry Birkin right before Racoon City was nuked, he was contacted by a suspicious member of the governemt. They asked him to join the U.S Governemt secret Service, they offered him full training.
Now umbrella(the pharamceutical company responsible for the creation of the virus's which resulted in zomby's and other mutations) is dead. The connection from the past RE have almost completely broken, this is more like a side story.
In Resident Evil 3, Jill and Carlos make it out of Racoon City(this is also shown in the second movie, though in a horribly wrong fashion) Raccon City is nuked by the U.S. Governemt (Not Umbrella as the movie states) umbrella does its best to convey the press that all the illegal bio-genetic research theory against them is false, and they are only a pharmaceutical company that procudes skin creams and medicines, they convey the press, but not the people. Soon after, the stock market for Umbrella falls, Umbrella's underground research crashes as its products don't produce in enough cash. And is finished. Period.
6 years later -
The president's daughter has been kidnapped by some cult group in the deep dark villages of Europe. The governemt has got the hint that other bio-genetic research is being conducted, so they send in somewhere with more experience with this kind of a sitatuion-Leon S.Kennedy. he travells all the way from America to Europe, to the deep dark village. There he finds a villager, little does he know they're infected. Leon shows the villager the picture of Ashley(the daughter) and if he has seen them, the guys spits back some rude latin language, picks up his fork, and try's to kill Leon. These zomby's, work in harmony, and peace, they communicate, they plan, they dodge bullets - that's how smart they are. They are called 'ganados' not zomby's. and they are the result of LAS PLAGAS, the virus which made them all into this- airborne. So the story on Leon begins, theyre is a mysterious character which Leon failed to save in Re2, she makes her return in Re2. Also, there is this new guy, Luis Sera - you're going to love him, pure bad ass, He's a researcher for the virus, but help Leon..and i'll not tell you why
play it for yourself.All in all, the story isn't much, its sort of dull, like another case for rescue job for 007 James Bond. this is where Re4 failed for us old Re fans, and scores for newcomers to the series.
GRAPHICS and SOUND -
This is taking the best out of the ps2, Leon's face and hair is so detailed, all the expressions you can see on the ganado's faces, the lightning effects are the best in the night time. a 10/10 on this area. I won't say anymore.
For sound, there's not much BGM, making it much more real, but the sounds from ganados and other enemy's will scare the wholy **** out of you. there's no much to be said on this, because it couldn't have been better.
OVERALL
The best. action. game. ever.
If you've played games like Max Payne-Hitman etc, you'll find those games not even in Re4's league after you've completed one of its area. Take that a written from me. the camera angles, the shooting and fighting, as you keep advancing further is not only better - but a very different experience of gaming. its very easy to get into it, the past RE-SH type gameplay took some time to get into, and once you do, it becomes just as hard to actually succeed in it.
You buy and upgrade your weapons along the game. You earn them with your money found from dead enemy's and other places. It's very cool, you start with a handgun, quarter way through te game you get introduced to this system, i bought this upgrade for the gun, and was picking off heads the next moment! Later, i sold the upograded handgun, as the store got something much more better alternative to it. You have a huuuuge veriety of guns, around 5 handgune with arnd 10 upgrades each, 4 rifles, 4 shotguns and verious other one's as well like rocket launcher, magnum revolvers, and automatic machine gun each of them with their upgrades.
All in all, this game is for the one who loves Sci-Fi Horror action adventure, the atmosphere is plain dark and creepy. Especially in the night during the rain, when you've got an army of ganados with torches running on your back!
The first half is plain action-very fast linear gameplay-the second half, gets a little slow, you encounter a lot of new enemy's, ganado's just disspear, and these new one's are much harder to kill. That's when the game will actually start, it takes a steep turn and all of a sudden become VERY HARD. So you might want to save up the money and collect as much money as you can for the upgrades and new weapons. each enemy consumes upto arnd 7 handgun bullets for the top notch handgun, if you don't manage to get a headshot which can do an opponenet one one shot but very hard to perfrom of course. Sencond half of the game is when you'll start playing the game seriously old fashioned consverve all the ammo style, as the first half was slap-happy trigger free action.
The number of extra's a freakin HUGE! There's 4+ hours of extra mini games which will get uncloked after you complete the main game first time.
3 minigames -
Seperate Way's
Assignment Ada
Mercenaries
All these have tons of missions. Mercenaries alone takes about 2.5 hrs to complete on easy, the rest 2 are even bigger.
Also a lot of costumes, old Re2 gamers are in for a treat as they can unclock Re2's Leon costume in this. plus there's a lot of other as well.
NEGATIVE DRAWBACKS -
one main will be found by old RE gamers, as the story just broke off, dissapoitnig for some, but the good news is CAPCOM said they will fix that with Re5 on Xbox360 and on Ps3, it will come back to the series.
Also,
Ashley is very annoying, once you save her, you actually have to now take care of her, she must not get hurt, you'll have to protect her from enemy's, one shot-she's dead-game over. One bite from the enemy-she's dead-game over. fortunately, Capcom put in commands you can order Ashley to, like Stay-hide. So i used to run back, order her to stay behind a building while i cleared the mian area of the enemy's. Which can become tiresome after a while. Also sometimes wathcing the cutscenes over and over again will become frustrating, as they are also a part of the gameplay like said before, you tend to forget all that and just get lost putting the controller away in the scene-and all of a sudden for only a second you get this command you must perform or else you'd be beheaded...and bam, gameover, start over, go to the point, and do it all over again.
But then again some also love this system.
With that i'll end my review. i could've made it better i had more time though. But after reading this you will find following other professional reviews like the one here on gamespot and 1up more easy to follow. They more or less say the same things i've said above.
NOTE - The screens are very low quality jpg pics from IGN. if you want the real stuff check out some of the highest quality trailers here-
GameSpy: Resident Evil 4 Trailer, Videos and Movies
params7
------------------------------------------------
