Title: Resident Evil 4
Developer: Capcom
Released: 18th March 2005 (UK)
Price £34:99

The Specs



# GameCube exclusive for most of 2005
# Anticipated next installment in the Resident Evil franchise
# Play as Resident Evil 2's Leon S. Kennedy and other characters
# Embark on an epic adventure to save the President's kidnapped daughter
# Travel through a remote European village, an ancient castle, underground caves, a lake, and a wide assortment of industrial areas
# Do battle with a dazzling set of enemies from possessed villagers and crazed monks to a giant, water-dwelling creature and ogre-like beasts
# Unravel the mystery that surrounds the village through a wide selection of in-game cinematics that progress the story
# Discover why the things that inhabit the area are neither zombie nor human
# Rated M for a reason: extreme violence and gore
# Arm Leon with a plethora of weapons and special items from rocket launchers to sniper rifles
# A new action system enables Leon to perform context-sensitive moves such as jumping through windows or dodging enemy attacks
# Meet with traders to buy new weapons, sell items, or tune-up Leon's arsenal
# Leon can save at any typewriter -- no ribbon required; up to 20 saves per memory card
# 20-plus hours of gameplay
# Takes place in full 3D
# Stunning new graphics engine displays unequaled visuals on GameCube
# Runs in progressive scan mode
# Not true anamorphic widescreen; letterboxed
# Dolby Pro Logic II support


Resident Evil 4

Past Coverage: Shown early last year 2004 in it's revamped form, Resident Evil 4 has been one of the most eagerly awaited titles for the gamecube, various trailers can be found at IGN.com, and Gamespot.

Graphics

Straight from the off it is apparent that Capcom had been working close with Nintendo to ensure that the best was pumped out of the gamecube and it's ATI processor. The enviroments, although mostly grey and looking gloomy in the forest areas are brimming with activity, Grass blowing, crows flocking, cows grazing, it's all there. The game doesn't feel as cosmetic as previous installments, little went on in the pre rendered backgrounds of the earlier games. What really makes the game stand out here is the character models, each model has been given special care to ensure they all have their own distinctive look. Capcom even took this to mind when they developed enemie models, each enemy has their own distanct look/marking that sets them out from the next, be it clothes, hats, weapons, voices, or faces they all stand out from each other. Animation very rarely takes a step wrong here. All the characters move smoothly, managing to keep the game at a good framerate when the screen is littered with enemies. So far RE4 provides the most technically smooth and challenging showcase of graphics for the Gamecube so far, better that Starfox Adventures and Metroid Prime.



Sound

Something the Resident Evil games have always excelled in, the game doesn't count on music to make an impact but on it's sound effects, Capcom haven't dissapointed here, with mostly top notch voice acting. Each character shows enough emotion to give themselves there own personality. The highlights of the voice cast have to go to the actors of Luis and Leon. They both have some pretty interesting conversations and are brimming with personality. The foreign tone of the villagers are very well done too each with their own distinctive tone in cutscenes. As always Weapon FX are very well produced, each weapon having it's own unique feeling to it when a shot is fired, especially the shotgun which gives off a satisfying bang and splat when an enemy is hit in a key area. Music is very scarce in Resident Evil 4 but the peaceful tone of the save room music and the upbeat heavy tone of the in-battle music helps make the game more atmospheric than what it already is, and with Pro Logic the experience is even better. Top Notch.



Gameplay

Definately the most dramatic change to the series. Resident Evil 4 takes a few lessons from Zelda and introduces players to a "Context Sensitive" action button. This means that the A button can be assigned to do jobs depending on the situation, these can range from button mashing tests, like bashing A to run from a specific object that could kill you stone dead and knocking down stuff to interactive cutscene moments where you have to press a certain combination of buttons to escape a situation right in the middle of an action cutscene, this element is also used in some of the boss scenes making the battles extremely rememorable. The feature is implemented bueatifully keeping you on your toes at all times. Enemy AI has also taken a dramatic change. The games previous enemies were Zombies that acted just like a typical movie zombie. Slow moving creatures that are easy to beat down at a distance, the new breed of zombies in RE4 are not as primitive. They use the enviroment around them to their advantages, brandishing weapons and grenades, hiding from an enemy is not just simply a case of running through to another room, they can now break down house doors and flush you out with molotovs or a similar form of hand based projectile.And lay traps for you such as plastic explosives, trip wires, and bear traps. These are just a few of the things these super breed of zombies can do now, you'll discover a lot more things that they can do and you'll have to figure out a strategy of stopping them before they stop you. The camera has also been radically changed now with a camera view that spans behind the player and not at a fixed angle, this is mainly due to the fact that the camera is not fixed anymore and can be moved around as you view your surroundings this makes targething much easier as well due to the over shoulder view that is implemented when aiming. This helps the player to pin point a weakspot on an enemy such as a head shot or a knee shot which will slow the enemy down. The enemy reacts nicely to wear you shoot them allowing you to exploit their weaknesses when hit in key areas. All this adds to the atmosphere already showcased by the great graphics. I could talk more about it but this would ruin a lot of the surprises, moving on.....



Lifespan

Unlike other RE games, this has a lot of replay potential, the multiple difficulty sections is neat with an unlockable extra difficulty and a high score attack mode after beathing the game once. These ensure the player has multiple stabs at the games single player campaign, stretching the lifespan out, great stuff.



Graphics: 9.8/10
Sound: 9.4/10
Gameplay 9.8/10
Lifespan: 9.5/10

Overall: 9.7/10

The Lowdown: A must own title for the gamecube, ranking amongst one of the finest gaming experiences of all time, up there with Metroid Prime and Halo 2.