Summary

Resident Evil 4 is a survival horror game released in 2005. It was published and developed by Capcom. We will of course be playing the 2023 remake, as I've done with the previous titles. In RE4 we play as Leon Kennedy (my boy) who has been put on a mission to rescue the President's daughter. Rather a big promotion from when we last saw him slumming it up in the Raccoon City Police Department (RIP).

Another game I've been quite excited for. I was aware prior to beginning this series of games that 1, 2, and 4 are widely regarded as some of the best of all time. And I would pretty well agree with that from what I've seen thus far. So interested to see where we go, because this feels like it's gonna be a big departure from the previous games, given the vastly different setting.

Review

I got two general complaints about RE4. Firstly, I feel like this one was too long. Resident Evil 3 was notably super short. A bit too short. But at the very least it was extremely focused. Jill gets her groove back and sends Nemesis to hell. I feel like with RE4 we went in the other direction. This one started to drag a bit in a way that I feel RE1 and RE2 didn't. Particularly the end on the island. Which leads to my general second complaint and that is that I wish we would stop going to the lab.

Have been experiencing Resident Evil for the first time, but I think I've got enough of the games under my belt to say that the lab bits at the end of each game are far and away the worst section. They rarely add anything new to the mix and have always dragged on longer than I would like. I would either drop them completely or shorten them a lot so they're not a whole section of the game. Every time I get down there, I'm ready for things to be wrapping up, but the game insists on having this vestigial sequence that doesn't connect exceptionally well to the rest of the game. I feel like RE1 is the only case where the lab is particularly notable as an area. Working around the silly funhouse mansion the whole time, it made sense to have the lab.

In RE4, the "lab" bit being the whole island is just far too long, in my opinion. I was super certain I was nearing the end of the game as I was going through the later castle bits and that wasn't remotely the case. There was hours and hours of stuff to do. It wasn't bad per se, RE4 is a fun game at the worst of times. I just think that we really sold past the close. I did enjoy the regenerating bastards that were introduced on the island, but we could have very easily deployed them elsewhere in the game. Maybe they're an advanced knight in the castle. You hit a couple weakpoints, the armor shatters and then suddenly you've got a slippery little devil causing you trouble.

The other thing that I don't like about the island bit is it felt like a such a thematic departure from the early game. In general, I think the beginning of RE4 is far stronger than the rest of it. The rural Spanish village section has such great atmosphere and was itself an interesting departure from what we had seen from the rest of the series. The gameplay felt familiar, but we had been cast off into unknown seas with our buddy Lean, eager to see the world and the horrible things it had in store. But of course, we gradually work our way back into familiar ground. I would have liked for the castle to be our ultimate area. Again, I think the village is stronger, but I can see an argument for keeping a bit of familiarity. The castle definitely reminded me a lot of the original funhouse mansion. But by the time we get to the island...I've seen this episode before. Rerun!

Also, please please delete that anime Metal Gear Solid military character from existence. Hated him beyond hating. No idea why darkened our doorstep with his presence.

Moving on to things I did like. The demon Merchant is one of my fave characters in this series. He can do no wrong and is invited to cross my entryway whenever he likes. He is a friend to me. Gun rhymes with fun! I also quite liked Ashley. We're back to having good protags across the board! She does a good enough job dodging enemies that it doesn't feel like a total shitshow when she does get caught. There was never really a time when I was tired of her being around. And she shows herself to be capable enough with the unlocking and the wrecking-balling that she ends up feeling like more of an asset than a liability. Even if we can't fucking keep her in one place for more than 5 minutes. That did get tiresome the constant getting her and losing her. Would cut out like one or two of those incidents.

Overall a good game. I can see why RE2 and RE4 are widely held up as some of the paragons of this series. There are a couple small things I'd like to change, but I still had a good time. I do plan on continuing the series, but will take a break for a bit as I'm aware we've gotten to the bad times and it's only hits we're playing for now.

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