Resident Evil 4

Man I love Leon Kennedy in this goddamn game. At one point, in the middle of a villain’s speech he just blurts out “NO THANKS BRO” like… come on that is such a perfect interruption to all of this insane illuminati christian cult nonsense.

I’m in chapter 4 now, last night I went through the garden of madness, had to puzzle shoot my way out of a terrible dinner party, kill another caged monster wearing wolverine claws and then defend a chained up Ashley. 3-2 was a HUGE chapter that was really challenging and had some tense moments. I’m enjoying how this game never feels insurmountable. It always gives me the option of changing up how I get through a specific area - whether I approach the rooms differently or use different weapons, or just retry the same strategy by brute forcing my way through. For this particular playthrough I have decided to stay with the TMP, the Punisher (my prize for clearing all the blue plates), the standard rifle and standard shot gun. I’ve invested enough time and money into those guns where I do no feel held back. I will at some point pick up the magnum; in my experience with Resident Evil, you want to have a Magnum for the final boss and I’ll adhere to that. I’ve also found a rocket launcher in a back room and I’m keeping that for just the right moment.

There was a moment where you had to shoot Ashley out of her restraints and then protect her long enough for her to gain a key. Then you get to play as her! She’s got a flashlight, likes crawling and setting guys on fire. It was a tense area that was just the right length. This game isn’t the scariest Resident Evil I’ve ever played, but it plays with tension in a way that is all its own. From the way the music drones on, the chanting that begins when enemies enter an area, all the crows cawing. Sound design is so important here and it’s a masterclass in using it correctly.

With this hallway area Ashley was exploring, you have a flash light and are walking through corridors filled with big suits of armor armed with scary weapons and after you find the widget that will unlock the next area, those sumbitches come to life! You know it’s going to happen - you thought it would happen when walking down the hallway - but when it does happen it ramps up the air of terror. It’s great. And then you get back to Leon and go on a couple of relaxing mine cart rides together. Game of the century.

I really like how this game winds you through the insane lives of these insane people. You start in the creepy dilapidated village, end up in a run down castle, push through the sewers then wind your way through caves until you hop on another boat and end up on “the island.” The island is a crazy place made for crazy people. It looks as though its been under constant siege since being built with sandbag bunkers and barricades all over the perimeter.

There are big scary guys running around with mini guns and dudes with psycho gas masks waving around cattle prods. Why this island exists in such a state I’ll never know. I love how gross resident evil games make everything, they generally take place after shit hits the fan so it makes sense but these are bio-medical facilities for gods sake, they should take some pride in keeping things sterile.

The island section just keeps getting weirder and weirder too. Ashley gets kidnapped (yet again) and Leon runs around some claustrophobic spaces to try to find the way to get her out. There is a keycard writing machine in a freezer and once you escape a new variety of horrible monster you can get in there. This horrible monster, according to a conveniently placed memo, have plagas under the skin but can only be seen through an infrared imaging device. This sets up the rest of the next section and introduces my least favorite mechanic in the game. I wish this scope would fit on literally any other weapon than the rifle, like why not the TMP? That thing should absolutely be able to take a scope. I also wish it didn’t have such strong magnification as we’re in these VERY claustrophobic corridors.

And that’s a wrap on Resident Evil 4!

I wish I was more familiar with Resident Evil 2 & 3 so I could properly talk about the changes that 4 brought and how it steered the franchise towards a more action oriented game as opposed to the bullet-pinching, slow paced, mansion exploration survivor horror that we’ve been told time and time again RE is at its core. However what I can talk about is the time my sister’s terrible boyfriend lived in our families basement as he was “going through some stuff” and needed a place to live. We put a TV down there and he brought his playstation and burned a blueberry candle and I would sit down there in an old, run down recliner, half hiding under a blanket while he played through the first Resident Evil and nothing will ever be as terrifying as that setup. Whenever I play one of these games I’m in some small way transported back to that basement, to that tension in my families household, to the uncertainty of the unfolding world before my small, developing eyes - I can try to capture that moment and hold on to it and that makes any Resident Evil scary.

I’ve had kind of an intense week since I started this. On Monday I had to get a filling/cap replaced on a wisdom tooth. As I was sitting in the chair waiting for the dental hygienist to get prepped I took a chance and asked them if they were a video game guy. Turns out he is! Mostly a Monster Hunter player (playing rise on PC and mainlining the dual blades after being a longsword user since tri). But I was happy because it gave me 1 minute to have verbal diarrhea about my time with RE4. I was thinking about it when away. A few days later, I had my galbladder removed - a surgical procedure that was actually way more intense than I had expected. I had been playing through this game that had lots of set pieces centered around hospital beds and medical instruments - operating rooms as a concept, despite not being in the clean room as I was describing earlier but for this franchise any kind of small, dingy room could be used to operate. And as I was wheeled into my actual operating room (that was more evenly lit than TV would lead you to believe) I again started thinking about Leon and Ashley trying to escape Los Iluminados. And as that anesthesia wore off I was surprised to learn that I was commenting on Sephiroth and his lack of history with surgery (which is clearly wrong) as opposed to my adventures in the mountains of Europe.

I’m glad I played through the original (xbox ported, hd upscaled) version of this game as opposed to the original. I appreciate how Capcom has kept the spirit of the series alive and people enjoy the remakes, they are often spoken of with high regard. And I understand the appeal of wanting to play something that has a nice new shiny coat of paint over it. But when it comes to a creator like Shinji Mikami and a game so highly regarded like RE4, I think its important to see why it earned the reputation it did. The controls for RE4 are unconventional for an action game, especially one released during the generation of dual sticks. So when you first flick that right stick and Leon tosses his head to and from, giving you a peek at his periphery, you begin to understand why he moves in a straight line. Being able to back-peddle, instead of just turning around is more useful when repositioning yourself to take out a few bad actors. Having the option to quickly turn heel and run by pressing down+run is a brilliant piece of control tech that I wish more games would employ (my favorite being Left4Dead which has an assigned “turn the fuck around” button). I think the brilliance of this game is in the controls, and how everything is fine tuned to work and dance together. From the reach of the enemies, to the kickback of the various guns, to forcing you to use long range rifles in small environments; it’s all part of a grand design that works brilliantly.