![]() ![]() That's especially apparent in the absurdity of its stereotyping, its characters, and its dialogue… and the less said about escorting Ashley and the litany of Quick-Time Events the better. The further you push beyond the boundaries of the village, the further Resident Evil 4 dates itself. And then Leon says it, the line that better make it into the 2023 remake: "Where's everyone going, Bingo?"Īs legendary as this opening section is, coming into Resident Evil 4 in the aftermath of the phenomenal Resident Evil 2 Remake reveals how much has changed in 17 years. You allow a deep breath to enter your lungs. Just as all hope seems lost, the bell tolls. What follows is a desperate struggle for survival you're forced to prioritize shots between enemies stumbling over one another up a staircase, those that are crashing ladders through windows, and the bodies amassing on adjacent rooftops – all of it soundtracked to the low-roar of an approaching chainsaw. By the time you come across a shotgun and a few loose shells to feed into it, you've already heard the first rev of certain death. Handgun ammunition is diminished by the time the third body hits the floor, and your options are reduced to barricading windows, blocking doorways, and desperately rooting through decay to find anything that can help turn the tide. That Resident Evil 4's unrelenting push to never let you settle into anything resembling a coherent rhythm or routine is the best reflection of an era where developers could be less frugal with their resources and more ambitious with their constructs. Kennedy in an effort to both obscure your field of vision and lend you precision when you need it the most. That Resident Evil 4's scenario design established a framework most third-person shooters continue to follow, the camera clinging tightly to the shoulder of Leon S. I could, after all, make the argument that Resident Evil 4's claustrophobic action is the best interpretation of survival horror since we were first able to stalk the corridors of The Spencer Mansion. If you were to view it purely through a prism of nostalgia, it's even easier to believe that the action, horror, and shooter genres have failed to make any significant strides beyond the achievements of Resident Evil 4. But only a slight edge, because I love everything RE4 does too.It's easy to overlook just how far the video games industry has come in 17 years. I think I might give a slight edge to RE2, just because I prefer the sense of isolation. I would have a hard time choosing between the two. But each game embraces the core of Resident Evil - unsettling tension (I said it again) - in a completely different way. Both games are fantastic and do exactly what they set out to do. I think what is ultimately going to be the deciding factor for what game people like more is their sense of taste. Ah, the benefits of writing a thread on a video game forum instead of for a journalistic website. Have I said tension enough times yet? I think an editor would take issue with how many times I've said tension. Both games also excel in using their uncomfortable atmosphere to embrace this tension. Where RE2 uses isolation and weakness to create tension, RE4 uses action and overwhelming odds to create tension. The way Leon controls feels heavier and clumsier than in RE2, probably to make combat feel more tense and difficult. RE4's tension is structured around combat and how to get through each encounter. However, what both games do embrace is the concept of tension. "What the fuck" and "Oh my God" have been replaced with "Yesssss" and "You twisty bastard." Just compare Leon's in-game quips between games. This is a 180 from the grounded reactions to the world around them the characters had in RE2. ![]() This is also apparent in the script, where Leon and his supporting cast act like they are too cool to look back at explosions for the entire game. There is no aspect of fragility in this game. In these gauntlets you are encouraged to kill every last thing that you see before moving on to the next area, and even after you think you do that, the game throws more things at you. The game is not comprised of haunted house mazes, but rather (sometimes) interconnected gauntlets. Leon is given plenty of tools to complete this mission, and is allowed to upgrade and even choose between which tools best suit the player's tastes. This changes the entire dynamic of the relationship between the player and the game. ![]()
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