New Review Posted: Resident Evil 4

Daniel Weissenberger · 01-26-2005, 09:08 PM

Scott Jones reviews Resident Evil 4 and likes it more than his history with the franchise would lead you to suspect:

"The Resident Evil series has always told stories about the helpless and the hopeless: helpless characters in seemingly hopeless situations. Instead of "powering up" like typical videogame characters, Resident Evil's helpless and hopeless protagonists must constantly come to terms with their vulnerabilities and limitations. Instead of feeling empowered, they feel weak. Instead of celebrating cliched notions of heroism, i.e. standing my ground and fighting, Resident Evil was the first game to make "running for my life" not only a viable option, but a perfectly acceptable strategy."

The rest of the review is right over here.

Sajon · 01-26-2005, 11:28 PM

Scott's right about most of that stuff... but I know if I were writing this review I wouldn't have been able to avoid pointing out that RE4's story is actually the shittiest thing on Earth. :P

-Matt

EnduroGamer · 01-27-2005, 01:48 AM

Good job on the review, Scott. It sounds like you and I have shared the same opinion of the RE series over the years (with the exception that you actually bothered to play them whereas I always gave up in frustration) so I'm going to give this game a try based on your recommendation. The game sounds fun and if it does control like you say, I should be very happy.

Hypatia93 · 01-27-2005, 09:33 AM

Well Scott, thanks for inclining me to spend /more/ money than I have on a game which I will have little time to play.

I sure hope it comes out for the XBox; if not, I'll just buy a cheaper copy of the Cube's (or maybe PS2's) version.

Btw, considering all the discussion on these boards about RE4's plot, what did you think of it, and furthermore, why did you leave that part out of your review?

Chi Kong Lui · 01-27-2005, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EnduroGamer

Good job on the review, Scott. It sounds like you and I have shared the same opinion of the RE series over the years (with the exception that you actually bothered to play them whereas I always gave up in frustration) so I'm going to give this game a try based on your recommendation. The game sounds fun and if it does control like you say, I should be very happy.

Don't mean to sidetrack the discussion, but have you played RE: Dead Aim? If you like lightgun games, I think you'll be surprised. Check out my review for more details. I think if Dead Aim was given more of a budget and hyped up more, it could have easily passed for RE4.

Chi

Chi Kong Lui · 01-27-2005, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hypatia93

Btw, considering all the discussion on these boards about RE4's plot, what did you think of it, and furthermore, why did you leave that part out of your review?

Let me see if I can guess and Scott can confirm. Scott isn't into narratives as much as pure twitch interactivity. Action is primary and story is secondary. Am I close?

Chi

GC_Scott · 01-27-2005, 05:02 PM

Matt's right--the plot blows. (How very astute of you to point this out, Matt.) The dialogue, while strong at the beginning--I love Leon's line, "Where's everyone going? Bingo?"--quickly gets half-assed, irreverent, and corny as all hell.

Chi, you know damn well that I'm all for deep, complex, multi-leveled plots. That said, I didn't really expect one going into RE4. So I wasn't all that surprised when I didn't find one there. (Though I do, in fact, love my twitch gaming.)

Hypatia, as for why I didn't cover this in my review...well, I didn't set out to write the definitive, all-comprehensive RE 4 review. Just very humbly wanted to draw attention to the sparkling gameplay. (And the fact that I was--surprise, surprise--enjoying the game so goddamn much.) Besides, I needed to leave a little something for my second oppers to tackle.

Side note: the review was originally much shorter than it is in its current form. I thought it was "concise;" Brad disagreed and asked me to "fatten it up."

Brad, as usual, was right.

Damn you, Brad. Damn you all to hell.

Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to playing some Resident Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil.

-jones

Sajon · 01-27-2005, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GC_Scott

Chi, you know damn well that I'm all for deep, complex, multi-leveled plots. That said, I didn't really expect one going into RE4. So I wasn't all that surprised when I didn't find one there.

I think that's fair. (The game *is* good.) The reason it was a bigger deal for me is because I might be one of the few people who actually thinks the prevous RE plots aren't so bad. Dialogue aside, at their best they present information in a nice and suspensful fashion that leads to a revelatory climax. I was expecting RE4 to be cheesy sure, but I was sorta shocked by how much WORSE its plot actually was than previous RE games. RE: Survivor, lord help us, actually generated more suspense and mystery than RE4. RE always sorta had interesting plots--they just needed serious dialogue overhaul. RE4 not only had the same bad dialogue, but it actually *did away* with the only narrative virtue RE ever had: plot construction. For me, this made RE4 an utterly hollow experience in the end, since the narrative pretense it has isn't merely flawed as in past games but virtually non-existent.

-Matt

Snack Eater · 01-28-2005, 02:45 PM

What happened to all those excellent, thought-provoking reviews? This review is a bit of a blowjob. I mean, for the 13 hours I spent with it before my new Gamecube killed itself, the game was occasionally mind-blowingly awesome, but not taking Capcom to the chopping block for the awful plot is a sin.

I always thought the other plots were intriguing enough, but this one just blows. It stopped being about a faceless corporation and gave the antagonism a face--a horrible, badly written face. And the good guys are cliches wrapped in an enigma wrapped in another cliche.*

I know the review was to gush about the gameplay, which is pretty damn fine, but to barely mention the story is ridiculous.

*wrapped in a tortilla...on fire...on a stick

drunken_fist · 01-28-2005, 03:52 PM

Quote:

*wrapped in a tortilla...on fire...on a stick

LOL! hey did u ever figure our what happened to ur system?

Gouty · 01-29-2005, 12:29 AM

It has a videogame plot, they're all shit. I love this game.

HommyGfunk123 · 01-29-2005, 01:28 AM

I agree that the plot needs some critical reviewing. I ranted about it through more than one post in the RE4 Impressions thread. However, considering the focus of the review is fine considering how dramatically changed the gameplay is. Tackling the plot is a bigger issue that should be taken care of, as Scott implies, in the second opinion piece.

Dale Weir · 01-29-2005, 08:23 AM

http://media.cube.ign.com/media/726/726571/vids_1.html
Would anyone have liked to see Resident Evil 4 completed in its initial form (as seen in the videos linked to above)?

While it looks boring as hell, it is a beautiful game and more in keeping with the (tired) Resident Evil play style. I'm not surprised that Capcom's Shinji Mikami went in and remade into its current form. I'm also not surprised that there are some people who are crying how they would have preferred the original.

Dale

Asz · 01-29-2005, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drunken_fist

LOL! hey did u ever figure our what happened to ur system?

I'm going to assume Resident Evil 4's horrible plot/story killed it. *rimshot*

Dale, while the "old" RE4 looks interesting in some ways, namely the ghosts and the once again return to a mysterious mansion, I don't think it would have been nearly as much fun as RE4 turned out to be in the end. Overall the videos show the RE series at its worst (or perhaps best?), cheap/obvious scares, mindlessly running around into walls repeatedly press A to inspect something important, and cheap fights (shoot 2 shots, run, turn, repeat.) It also shows a lot of the better ideas shining through, being able to block and shake off attacks, context sensitive button pressing, complete manual aiming, and LOVELY graphics (Leons coat looked pretty awesome in this.)

HommyGfunk123 · 01-29-2005, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Would anyone have liked to see Resident Evil 4 completed in its initial form (as seen in the videos linked to above)?

Believe it or not I sort of viewed that video longingly. I think a lot of the crappy dialogue and half assed story was rooted in the action oriented gameplay. Part of me feels like CAPCOM would put a lot less effort into making Leon sound more like Dante of Devil May Cry if he didn't play much more like him.
I love the new gameplay, but it just sort of feels connected to the crappy story I guess.