*Spoilers*

I just beat Resident Evil 4 and I'm going to have to say it's not as good as the others. I know, I know, where have I been all this time? I just recently picked up a PS2 :P

The main thing that I thought wasn't as good was the story line. I just didn't care for the cult themed story line, with ties to Umbrella corporation. I thought the last clip after the credits was funny though.

One thing I kind of missed was the fixed camera angles; in this game it follows right behind you so it reduces that panic of not knowing what's around the corner. Although the fixed angles are somewhat cumbersome at times, they added a delicious amount of tension that the new following camera lacks. One way that the developers tries to replace the drama from the past games is tohave zombies run up to you just to get ten feet away from you which is done in an unexplainable context and makes it feel like a cheap tactic to bring back the nostalgic feel. I was hoping for a bit more ingenuity.

This iteration has a bit more focus on the action, which is more fun than having to try and coup every single bullet possible, but the lack of some sort of weapon quick switch forces the player to dive into the menu everytime they want to switch. Diving into the menu while your in the action makes the game feel less suspenseful; they could have opted for a real time switching system for a more dramatic approach.

There are some creepy moments in this game that got under my skin, like the body bag moving in the dumpster and when the zombie's head popped off to reveal the alien spore, so in that regard it seems just like Resident Evil.

One thing that became a really obvious clue to enemies in the vincity was that the music would play until all the enemies in the area were dead. All at time it can be suspenseful, it also alerted me to an enemy presences that might have shocked and scared me instead. I would have loved to see the developers program the environmental cues so that it would keep players guessing. For example: for the first 5 enemy encounters have the music start up before the fight, and then on the next one have no music playing.

One thing that I realize after playing through the entire game was that most enemies moved very slowly, and it didn't make the game feel as exciting as it could have been. There were many situations that I would stand in the corner and go through 3 or 4 weapons to dispose of 10 enemies.

The bottom line was that the game was good, but it didn't do anything drastically better than the previous Resident Evil's. I think it lost some of it's survival horror element, so I'm going to say it's great. It's a decent game.

7.5/10

___________________

quote:

Originally posted by dj_alfi change your avatar for fucks sake.