I can't believe your gamecube section does not discuss this game. I am here to remedy that.

Yes I know it is no longer a Gamecube Exclusive, but I bought nintendo's lunchbox spicifically for this game, which means this is the home console. Anyone who says otherwise can reimberse me for the $80 I spent on the system.

If you follow video games at all, you've probably heard some of the media machine buzz about this most Evil of Residences. The game critics of the world almost uniformly loved it.

The die-hard Resident Evil fans, the ones who have played every RE since the original...they almost uniformly hated it, calling it too much of a departure for the series, missing the "boo" moments that came from never being able to see where they were going, and the difficulty of combat, saying it encouraged a more suspenseful, run-for-your-life sort of feel.

These people are wrong. The RE series had gone as far as it could with the system it had, and when your new games are just cookie-cutter copies your older games, it's time to mix things up a little or risk loosing your crown as the king of your genre. RE4 didn't just reinvent Resident Evil as a franchise, but survival horror as we know it.

Gone are the set camera angles in favor of an over-the-shoulder viewpoint that lets you see, and aim, at everything comming at you. That's right, it eliminates the outta-your-blindspot-boo suprises that were the bread and butter of the other games in the series, but you know what, the stuff that you can see comming for you, in a neverending stream, thirsty for your blood, ready and willing to tear you limb-from-limb...is downright terrifying. Chainsaw wielding bloody-bandage wrapped grandmas. Tattooed monks chanting thier desire for death. Giant Armored Blind Monsters with Wolverine Claws. Huge Giants ready to squash you flat. Twisted psudobugs spewing acid and hissing like roaches. These new not-zombies mean all kinds of bloody buisness, weilding everything from kitchen knives to scythes to Wolverine Claws to gattling guns and one-hit-kill chainsaws; they move fast and will actively try and surround you: before you know it, you're clinging to the controller like your life really does depend on killing them before they kill you.

Of course, that doesn't mean RE's fabled ambience has fallen by the wayside. Forget the cheap scares: some of the most suspenseful moments of my gaming life came from walking around the intricately designed and wonderfully gruesome areas, jumping at small noises and knowing, full well, that things would not be this quiet for long. I had to put down the controller and stop playing for two days, simply because the atmosphere building up to the Operating Room was too intense for me to handle. I was shaking like a leaf when I finally got up the guts to go in there: and was rewarded by a Regenerator-induced hicky for my trouble.

My point is, this game is scary. You feel heavily armed and competant, but up against creatures who are inhuman and without mercy. You can't even relax during the cutscenes: if you miss the button-command imputs, it's a one-way trip to the "you are dead" flatline. The art direction, skillfully crafted atmosphere, and grotesquely awesome monster designs will have you both looking forward to and dreading the next fateful encounter with these evil resident biohazard waste products gone homocidal. Even the soundtrack and monster-noises will make you nervous.

But how's the story? Not much to say about it, besides that meh, it's interesting. It has a nice aura of mystery to it. The poorly-translated dialog (a staple of RE) is here in full effect alas, but the voice acting is suprisingly good.

How does the game play? Like a dream. Actions are executable in real time (context sensitive commands appear when the time is right), once you get the hang of aiming you'll deal out death like no-one's buisness, your knife is always equipped, even reorganizing your inventory is fun and laiden with strategy.

I could write much more about this game and how awesome it is, but I think you get the point. It's just amazing. Definately a 5/5, easy. Play it. You know you want to.

This post has been edited by DreamerM: Jan 4 2007, 11:51 PM

Yes I agree. Resident Evil 4 is another must have for the gamecube. The camera angle of the game is in second person perspective which was a good upgrade. You can say goodbye to akward aiming and weird camera angles which was present from the other RE titles. The voice acting and ambient sound where top notch. Almost every villan ingame speaks spanish or has an accent. I recommend you get a spanish to english dictionary to understand what they are talking about. Graphics are great! They used the same engine as the RE:rebirth and RE Zero!

For some reason Capcom adjusted things a little. Being an RE fan myself, I noticed that they made the bonus game called Mercenaries a lot more fun than the main game. Mercenaries will keep you replaying the game over and over till your eyes bleed and thats a good thing of course.

Overall, I would give this game a 4.5 out 5 in the richter scale. Have fun ppl!

This post has been edited by Uberprinny: Jan 5 2007, 07:49 PM

I agree, it is one of the games you will want to play again and again.