Guest Review: Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition

In the world of gaming you will always have the greatest of impressions and worst of disappointments. It’s rare to ever find a series that will be enjoyed by its fans title-for-title without a single folly, and so it is this fact that I come into all of my reviews.

Resident Evil 4 is a game that I was in no hurry to obtain. I like the series, but it’s never the first I aim for, so it took me a little while to get it. However, when I got my Wii I needed games, and this was both cheap and popular, so I picked it up. To my delight, it was one game that the hype did not exaggerate.

Resident Evil is a game that is going to pull you in the moment you see the title screen. It is done with an outstanding presentation that perfectly suits the series and flows very well. There is very little, if any, over-use to anything, and just enough to work. The cutscenes, much like the one that begins the game, are beautiful and far beyond the capabilities of even the most advanced titles before. But that’s just the introduction, we have not started the game yet.

The game is put together in the traditional fashion of any numerical Resident Evil installment. A flashy, yet macabre visual theme and your basic options. Very straight-forward and simplistic. The difficulty settings are all like usual and very fair, and nothing really draws away from the classic feel you would hope to expect.

The game takes place in a small, rural Spanish village isolated by thick wooded area. The objective is for Leon Kennedy, the returning hero of Resident Evil’s second major title, to obtain the kidnapped daughter of the President. Simple, right? But when is Resident Evil ever simple? As you’ll quickly realize, the citizens of this village are not your typical friendly and hospitable bunch, but instead come off as violently territorial. The game starts you off on the bad side of a long rope-bridge over a thick gorge. You’ll find yourself on a dirt path in a seemingly uninhabited section of the forest. Your only companionship is that of two very brief-spoken Spanish law officials in the car they drove you in with. Providing nothing more than the direction of the nearest village, you will quickly realize you are, like many times before, completely alone.

As you travel down the path you will learn that the path, like logic would insist, was indeed made for a purpose when you come across a small wooden cabin. Taking a quick look inside will reward you with what else but your first meeting with one of the oh-so welcoming locals? It won’t take long for you to realize how ’friendly’ he is, and have to take action. At this point, you’ll get to witness your first real interraction with your assistant via radio transmission.

The game will continue on in this fashion, leading you through a harsh section of Spain’s less explored terrain, occupied by nothing more than the hordes of aggressive, fiendish, yet very intelligent locals who seem to so badly want to get rid of you, and are quite good at it. Encountering mobs of violent, farm-tool wielding lunatics, hard to spot traps that will leave you in wake, and completely explorable, item packed houses, you’re in for quite the experience.

While the game shares the same familiar feel and atmosphere of the previous titles, this installment offers a great deal more innovation and complexity than you would have ever hoped for. While you won’t find any zombies (and I do stress any), what you will find is something far worse, and far more brilliant. The most intelligent and complex of all beings infected by the T-Virus could not hold a candle to some of the creatures that this game labels as mere underlings, but don’t let this frighten the more novice of players out there. While the artificial intelligence and intensity of the fiends in RE4 is much greater than ever before, the abilities of Leon are vastly increased. He is nowhere nearly as stiff in motion as the previous RE venturers, and is capable of a lot more damage. Between a mixture of fiery, last-moment physical assaults that leave enemies grounded, and an extremely powerful arsenal, Leon is more than a match for what you will be challenged with here. But capability and potential isn’t everything, and Leon won’t fight on his own. You’re going to need to know how to use him in order to lay waste. But that’s not a problem for you, right?

Despite this game being a port, there is nothing in it that seems to be lacking for the Wii. The graphics are superb, absolutely top-notch for Nintendo, and the content and general size of the game have more to offer than you would generally expect. The control system, which is heavily incorporated into the Wii-mote’s virtual motion controls, is the best RE has ever seen, and it will be this that really gets you started. Using the Wii-mote to aim and fire your weapon with superb accuracy, and the ’chuk to easily wander the vast reaches of this desolate wasteland, you’ll find yourself less a gamer and more the hero himself. The game also follows closely behind Leon, giving you a very accurate view over his shoulder at what is coming ahead, while resisting the full grasp of a First-Person view.

As for the storyline, it’s far more elaborate than ever before. There is so much going on, and so much that is initially hidden from you, that it’ll keep your mind magnetized, and reeling, from beginning to end. But elaborate isn’t everything, and RE4 is far from perfection.

The first flaw you’ll notice with this title is that, while it starts off brilliant, and never truly lets you down, the storyline tends to stray so far away from the main theme of the series that it begins to feel like an entirely different series all together, and with how unique the gameplay is, it’s hard to really feel like you’re even playing a Resident Evil game after a certain point. So sorry to any of you who were expecting the same ol’ same ol’, but RE4 has changed a few things up a great deal. While mostly for the best, some things just felt unnecessary.

The masses of enemies you will encounter can, at times, also be a bit ridiculous. While this did not really hurt the game for me, I sometimes felt less challenged and more irritated with the repetitive, seemingly endless new arrivals on screen. This isn’t frequent, but it’s also always like this.

The boss battles this time around are incredible, though, and really put the previous RE’s to pure shame. Not only are there plenty of them to offer, but they’re all quite unique and different. The concepts for the bosses themselves are very interesting and addictive, with a strong resistance to repetition, a great physical design, and most of all the ability to challenge you without being cheap. That’s right, you aren’t going to find any giant mutant lizards leaping clear across the room only to take your head off three times faster than you can blink, but instead you will find free-styled brawls with some of the most horrificly murderous hell-spawns to ever confront Mr. Kennedy.

Oh, but you might be thinking “Well my eyes and hands are pleased, but what about my ears?” Well, you don’t need to keep that concern another moment. RE4 features a remarkably subtle, yet very finely tuned soundtrack that really escalates the intensity of the atmosphere, as well as the action. The voice overs are incredibly accurate and clear, never leaving you to wonder what the characters are talking about or actually saying (with the exception of the ones who do not speak English… you’ll meet plenty of them), and the sound effects are both clear as a bell and remarkably realistic.

The game is also a very extensive game, and only runs short due to playing it so passionately that you’ll feel like it just started when the credits begin. By no means is this game short, but it does certainly express the relevance of “Time flies when having fun.” But you should not worry, because even beyond the extent of the primary storyline, there is plenty to keep you playing. Not only do you get to experience the entire game all over again from another familiar character’s entirely different perspective, but you get to take that same character on a quest of her very own, as well as take a total of five different characters on an endlessly enjoyable and challenging mini-game. Even the main storyline has plenty to offer a second, and even third time, with an arsenal of newly earned costumes, weaponry, pathways, and just the general experience of a very addictive game.

To put it frankly, the makers of this title knew exactly what they were doing, and every bit of the game will keep you around for more. The only really harsh problem with it is… even after you’ve completed everything more than once, you’ll just keep wishing it would go on forever.

Thanks to Okiru who took the time to write this review!