Game review: Resident Evil 4 (the original)

I finished this game on stream two days ago, and am gonna play Ada’s story today and tomorrow. However, the main game is done, and thus, I can write my review. What did I think of this game? Be aware: massive spoilers!

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Six years after the events in Raccoon City, Leon Kennedy, now a federal agent, is sent to a rural part of Spain to rescue the U.S. President’s kidnapped daughter, Ashley Graham from a sinister cult.

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You play as Leon S. (Scott) Kennedy, an American of Italian descent currently employed as a federal agent by the Division of Security Operations (D.S.O.), a counter-terrorism agency with direct Presidential oversight. Kennedy is a known survivor of the 1998 Raccoon City Destruction Incident, then as a police officer. Following his escape, he was offered a job in the US.STRATCOM team devoted to anti-B.O.W. combat and served it until 2011 in repeated operations around the world.

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The blond girl is Ashley, the President’s daughter you’re supposed to save. Now, let me start complaining right off the bat. This character, not even caring if she’s NPC or something else, was the most annoying side character I’ve ever come across in a video game. I get she’s the President’s daughter and probably has never been exposed to any kind of danger, but isn’t she supposed to be taught self-defense? She doesn’t carry a gun, hides behind Leon when enemies attack you, even when you use your weapons, and she keeps screaming ”Leon, help!” every second once abducted by an enemy in-game or in/after a cutscene. And that’s not all. She’s 20 in this game and acts like a 12-year-old who’s incapable of doing anything in order to survive. She won’t jump down any ladder and needs to be caught, though at the end she admits she has the hots for Leon (and honestly, I do too), but still. You see she’s clearly capable of jumping down the ladder when you get to play as her for a bit. She’s a liability throughout the game and not of any help, which is why I truly hope they’ll make her a lot more helpful in the remake. I’ve never hated a side character that much before.

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What I loved about the game, however, was the huge amount of guns you could pick from. Sure, they weren’t free and you had to buy them with money, but you had lots of choices. All those guns had their own unique characteristic to provide more firepower or other technical feats that certain types of guns have. You could buy these from the merchant, and my god did I love that dude! Each time I saw him I knew I was safe and could sell him treasures I had found to upgrade my guns and buy new ones. Ammo is pretty scarce, however, but you still get a good amount to help you beat the game. You find ammo in hidden boxes and barrels, and sometimes killed enemies drop them too, just like they drop money, herbs, and a type of grenade.

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This brings me to yet another complaint: the controls. There’s no standard dodge button. In certain boss fights, you must press L2 and R2 at the same time. No issues there. However, sometimes, you must press X and Square, and you don’t get much time to do that correctly. More or less, you fail X and Square the most as they’re buttons that are too close to one another and you technically can’t push both at the same time unless you place your finger just right. But, that’s not the biggest issue I had throughout the game. I truly hope that they’ll fix this in the remake. The camera is the most annoying thing I’ve ever come across in a video game. You use the left joystick to walk and use the camera at the same time, and the camera doesn’t turn the full 180 degrees. You have to push the joystick your way to make him turn around fast, and once he aims, you can’t walk. You can only, very slowly, annoyingly slowly, turn the camera whilst aiming to try and find the enemy you want to kill. That caused many unnecessary deaths because I couldn’t aim that quickly and enemies ran towards me.

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It was nice to see Ada again though, and the lines in this game were phenomenal! I swear, Leon had the best lines, and the most as well in one whole video game. I’ve never heard so many amazing one-liners in a game before! I do hope they keep those in the remake because they were honestly one of the best ones I’ve ever heard Leon say. As for the story, it was pretty enjoyable and pretty easy to follow, still having some elements of what Resident Evil stands for, though also a bit different adding a cult to the world. I however liked that different element, it added something else to Leon’s story and experience, and my experience as a gamer within the fandom of Resident Evil. Boss fights were pretty doable if you have the right ammo and dodge certain attacks in time, though the regenerates were definitely the most annoying enemy in the game. Those, and the guy with the automatic machine gun that you can’t kill unless you’re quick enough to use 6 riffle bullets in his noggin’. The map was a little disorienting sometimes as the areas are pretty big and they keep dragging on for quite some time. It also didn’t specify if you had discovered an area already or if you had fully searched it already. Also hope they’ll change that up in the remake. I also loved Luis, and I was super upset when he died. I feel like he could’ve added so much more before his death, also in terms of interacting with Leon and the enemies. Oh, and the chopper sequence, was so epic! I loved how it kept firing at those enemies, blowing them and the area up from time to time. I hope they keep that in!

End conclusion: yes, I recommend this game, but with a few negative aspects. I shall give Resident Evil 4 (the original), 4 out of 5 stars!

Love, Skye Lewis ❤

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