Okay, so after a whole week when I a dit “The Resident Evil 4 review will be out tomorrow”, I am finally going to do the actual review. Yeah, I know, I should have done it sooner, but toi know, school and finals and junk. Anyway, how about that review. We all know that Resident Evil is one of the best horror franchises out there. It managed to make survival horror what it is today. Sure, we may have just gotten out of the dark ages of Resident Evil, what with Resident Evil 6 being a Michael baie movie and Umbrella Corps being the worst thing ever, but I think Resident Evil VII is a step in the right direction. Hell, it’s better than whatever the hell Konami is doing to Silent Hill. But, aside from that, there was a time when a plus action oriented Resident Evil was the best thing ever. And I am not talking about Resident Evil 3. Maybe another time. No, I want to talk about something better. And that is a game called Resident Evil 4



Now, I am going to start off this review par saying this… I don’t think Resident Evil 4 is a good horror game. Now hang on, before toi castrate me with a ours trap, let me explain. I do not, I repeat, DO NOT, think Resident Evil 4 is a bad game. In no way at all. I think Resident Evil 4 is one of the greatest and most genre refining games of all time. Hell, I like it plus than Silent colline 2… As a game, anyway. As a horror game, however… Yeah, that’s where I think Resident Evil 4 lacks, but, despite bringing it up that much, we’ll talk about why later on. First, let’s get into the story. So, six years after the Raccoon City Outbreak, Leon S. Kennedy… Somehow ends up working as the president’s bodyguard. Yeah, he goes from his first jour as a police officer to the president’s guard. I guess surviving a zombie outbreak gives toi special privileges. Anyway, on his first assignment, Leon is tasked with finding the president’s daughter, Ashley Ghramm. So, Leon travels to an unspecified area in Spain where he soon finds it overrun with crazed villagers called Ganados, who are infected with a dangerous mind controlling parasite known as Las Plagas. Along the way, toi will run into enemies with other Spanish names. These include the giant mutated monster known as El Gigante (The Giant), man-eating chiens called Colmillos (Fangs), Las Plagas infested Suits – Avocats sur Mesure of armor called Armadura (Armor… yeah, these names aren’t so cool when they’re translated, huh?). Now, the game may be silly… And it is. But damn if it isn’t amazing.



Resident Evil 4 is a game that is amazing just for being so… simple. Okay, to be fair, it was different back then. Back when shooters were average to come across at the least, Resident Evil 4 was a game that dominated the shooter market at the time. The game has an over-the-shoulder third person perspective that isn’t awful… Like Fallout’s third person. The game will have toi use many different firearms to fend off your enemies, from handguns to shotguns to rifles to… whatever the dart gun is. The world of Resident Evil 4 doesn’t revolve around exploration and taking one puzzle item to a different puzzle. Instead, it’s very linear, and toi are to follow a set path from one location to the next. It manages to surprise me every time though, and always manages to be very fun to explore. I remember how shocked I was when I found a seconde papillon lamp par going out a window when I was searching for all the treasure. I never knew that before buying the treasure map. Aside from killing enemies and keeping Ashley from sticking her face into a ours trap and tripwire, toi can also look for treasures. toi could just sell them on their own, but a better idea is to see if toi can combine treasures together to sell them for higher amounts. Money, believe it ou not, is a very necessary thing in this game, as toi can buy upgrades, new weapons, maps, and health, but no ammo for whatever reason. And finally, one of the best things to try out in the main game is the shooting range. There are four different shooting ranges with four different modes. Completing all of them will reward toi with special bottlecaps with the game’s characters. They are kinda pointless, but damn if they don’t give toi that extra bit of push to keep trying out the shooting range.



Now, with most of the gameplay out of the way, let’s look at the characters. Well, Leon is here to save Ashley. How is she? Well…. I mean, I can see why everyone would hate Ashley. She stands around, screams, and is easily captured, but I never had that much trouble. That’s not to say carrying her around like a mule was without problems. She would always just yell whenever I was gone for five seconds, run headlong into ours traps, and would refuse to déplacer when a regenerator was already swatting at her, and just crouched in place until she died. If toi ask me, tell her to wait in the poubelle, benne à ordures (Right where she belongs). It makes things way easier. Aside from her, you’ve got Luis Sera, the Spanish man. He’s funny and really kills it… ironically, considering… Well, spoilers, spoilers. Anyway, we have the lovely Osmund Saddler, the main antagonist and evil cultist. All I know is that he is able to control his Las Plagas… somehow, so when he becomes totally and utterly fucked in his monster form, he can just fix it and turn himself back to normal, unlike most Resident Evil villains. Then you’ve got Salazar. He’s a high-pitched midget……. Remember, this is a horror game. Jack Krauser is shit- I mean, Jack Krauser’s an asshole- I mean…. I’ll get to Jack Krauser later. And finally, you’ve got the best character of them all. The loveable and huggable Merchant. Every time I see the Merchant, I get the same amount of comfort from him I got from Barry in the first game, and that is always good in my book.



Now, we all know that Resident Evil 4 is a classic game with few flaws. But few flaws just means that there are still some flaws to be found. Like the quick time events. I know that everyone hates on the massive escort mission and while I can easily agree with that, it was never too big of an issue for me (Maybe I just have a higher tolerance for this sort of stuff), but what I was mostly pissed about was the quick time events. It doesn’t matter how sudden they are, if toi don’t get that button pressed in that instant, toi are either going to take damage, or, in most cases, toi are going to die. This is what I hate most about the Jack Krauser fights… Yes, fights. Plural. As in plus than one awful fight. Jack’s first fight is the worst, since toi just have to hit the right button at the right moment. If toi screw up, toi are forced to do the whole fight again. This is completely unskippable each time toi play this game and it is just one of the dullest, most tedious parts of the game. Jack’s other fight, thankfully, isn’t as bad… Until toi notice that toi have to kill him within a time limit. And this guy sucks up bullets like a sponge, it took me a while to realise that he is weak to knives…. Yes, your melee couteau does plus damage to him then the Striker. You’ve got to be kidding me with this shit. Thankfully, that’s just one awful fight in this game. I can forgive the others… Mostly because they weren’t just awful quick time events. Also, this complaint is a nitpick for me, but what’s with the world? toi start out in a rural village, makes sense. Then toi go to a castle, alright, odd, but maybe part of the architecture. And lastly, toi go to a heavily secured prison island…. What? Maybe it’s just me, but I find it funny and kinda dumb that toi go from a château to a maximum security prison. I mean this island has a laser room for God’s sake.



Alright, so I think I talked about the gameplay and characters and what little story toi care about enough. I think now is the time to discuss the horror of the game, as all Corner of Horror reviews go. And trust me, though Resident Evil has very few horrifying moments, when it does montrer them, it’s very intense. First off, let’s talk about everyone’s most known moment of horror in Resident Evil 4, the Regenerators. Everyone who has anything associated with Resident Evil 4 knows about these guys and everyone I know is terrified of them. Even if toi know what toi are getting into, these things still shock and scare you. The Regenerators are a created B.O.W that is nearly impossible to kill. They will slowly lumber towards toi and will attempt to eat toi alive, even stretching their limbs to grab you. If toi shoot them in the head ou in the torso, it won’t slow them down. It will just fix itself up in a matter of seconds. And if toi shoot their legs, it only makes the situation worse, because they’ll just jump at toi like some frog from hell. These guys suck up so much ammo, but if toi have an infrared sniper scope, toi can find their weak spots, and shoot them. But toi still have to deal with their haunting breathing as they wobble towards you. And these guys are just about everywhere once toi first run into them, popping up all over the place at around every corner. And I mean literally right around the very suivant corner, just standing there, wanting to take a bite out of Leon. And don’t even get me started on the Iron Maidens. Those spikes on them just make the situation a whole lot worse. But I think what is better is the subtle use of the Bag. Now, what is The Bag? Well, in chapter 5-4, there is a dumpster, and inside the poubelle, benne à ordures is a white bag. If toi look at the bag, it will begin to struggle, montrer toi that there is something alive inside the bag. What is it and what is it doing inside a bag, ou a poubelle, benne à ordures even? No one knows, and Capcom sure as hell never told us. Is it a monster, is it another villager, is it a failed experiment, ou could it be an animal? We may never know, but what I can say for certainty is that I l’amour this Bag. And finally, this sort of horror is a lot plus depressing horror…. Almost like Silent colline 2 (I really need to stop comparing things to Silent colline 2). We already know about the Ganados that come at us in packs with sickles, axes, knives, and pitchforks, and that shooting, stabbing, and suplexing them is hilarious. But after toi beat the game, for whatever reason, this game about an American searching for the president’s daughter while killing a cult of parasite carrying Europeans in a château and prison, tries it’s hardest to depress toi with the end credits, montrer toi the life of the villagers in the past. They were all friendly and kind and lived a normal life, before the cult, Los Illuminados, came and injected them with the parasite, making them violent and evil within their residence (Jesus Christ). toi could say that this did the whole Resident Evil VII thing about kind people turned evil, but I felt it was done better in Resident Evil VII. But, I guess it was very effective for what it was.



It’s not hard to see that Resident Evil 4 is one of the best video games of all time, and debatably the best Resident Evil game out of them all. I can say that it is definitely a haut, retour au début contender for the category of best Resident Evil game. Is it the scariest game ever? No. Hell, it isn’t even the scariest Resident Evil game. But as a videogame, in general, Resident Evil 4 is one of the best. If toi want a game that has a nice blend of creepy atmosphere mixed in with some of the best gameplay of the sixth generation, toi can get it easily. This game came out on several consoles back in the day, and is now out for download on Xbox One and PS4, so it’s pretty easy to get ahold of. And it’s worth every penny. Take care