Resident Evil 4 review

Unless you've been hibernating in a PC bunker for the last two years, you've probably played this one already. It hit GameCube in early 2005 and blasted onto the PS2 later that year with a deflated price point and extra content. Now it's 2007, Resident Evil 4 is on PC, it's got all the added goodies of the PS2 and the same addictive gameplay. Unfortunately, Capcom forgot to add mouse support, upgraded textures, any kind of scalable graphics interface, or anything new beyond the PS2 version.

That being said, RE4 is still a great game. As Leon Kennedy you head to Europe in search of Ashley, the U.S. President's daughter. Craziness ensues as you discover a town of not quite zombified villagers, robed cultists, and all sorts of other monstrosities and curiosities. Resident Evil 4 wowed gamers when it first came out with its willingness to buck many of the stagnant thumbprints of previous Resident Evil games. It introduced a new control scheme to make shooting and maneuvering less of a migraine, put a larger emphasis on action, both in number of opponents and twitch reaction sequences, and told an interesting tale. It still, however, forces you to stop and aim before you shoot, a mechanic that I, personally, still don't understand. It must be written somewhere in the cosmic expanse that "Thou shalt not make a Resident Evil game where you can shoot from the hip." It's a poor mechanic for close-up fighting, and it's still in this one.

More importantly, RE4 tells an expertly well-paced tale, one of the most attractive aspects of the game. There's rarely a moment during the lengthy run through where you're bored, or you feel like you've completed the challenge ahead a nauseating amount of times before. You will have to retrieve two or three halves of a symbol to open doors on multiple occasions, but the method for acquiring them is always entertaining. Each area feels new, the enemies keep changing forms, weapons, and incessantly surprise you, and your responsibilities switch between protecting your own skin and that of the President's daughter. Wait, escort? Don't vomit just yet; this isn't the kind of escort gameplay you're used to, it's really well done in RE4. The game gives you spots to hide Ashley when you're busy clearing enemies in front, provides an easy to use stay / follow system that doesn't glitch out, and even includes some charming extras, like pressing a button to catch Ashley when she hops from a ledge, or giving her a piggyback boost to open a gate.

Here's the main caveat with the PC version: you can't configure any of the controls to the mouse. If you're without a gamepad, such as an Xbox 360 controller or whatever else, you shouldn't play this game. With no mouse support, you're forced to aim with the keyboard. If you should choose the take such a route, the amount of cursing, self-inflicted injuries, and noise complaints filed by neighbors the ensuing frustration will cause is no fault of ours. We can't quite figure out why Capcom chose not to support the mouse, especially considering Lost Planet, the Xbox 360 original they're bringing over soon, doesfeature mouse support. They're clearly capable of doing it, they just didn't. Using a gamepad solves the control problem, though the instant action sequences can be disorienting. At various points during the game you'll be prompted to hit two buttons at once to avoid some deadly threat, such as a moving car, swinging blade, or falling axe. Whereas on the GameCube and PS2 these prompts corresponded to the buttons (be it A and B or Circle and Square), the gamepad only shows up as "1" or "2." Thankfully the prompts tend to be displayed onscreen in positions corresponding to their layout on the gamepad, but even late in the game it'll still feel awkward.

The visuals are another area where someone manning this port clearly fell asleep or just didn't care. Character models have been given a significant detail upgrade. They don't look anything as good as with other PC titles with action so up-close, but they're not going to wrinkle your forehead. The backgrounds and cut-scenes, on the other hand, are two very different shades of disappointing. From a distance background visuals look nice, but that's mostly because the level architecture is so well done. Get up close to a brick wall and you'll have to pop some Tums. The lighting is sad compared to other modern PC games, with little to no shadows or attention to realism. Finally, there's simply no excuse for the cut-scenes, which are so horribly compressed it looks as though somebody is dragging a rake across the back of the monitor's screen.

Framerates do remain smooth, however, and there's a lot more to like about the visuals. Enemy designs and animations are fantastic, particularly once you start fighting the painted cultists and giant insects later on. Boss designs can be truly harrowing too, overflowing with gristle, gore, and metallic spikes. Assuming you haven't played this before, some of the boss fights are so unnerving you might even forget about the dungeon wall that looks like construction paper behind them. Amazingly, the game somehow supports a 1920 x 1200 resolution. We can only assume there was some sort of divine intervention to prompt this.

Like in the previous versions, the sound is terrific. In gaming, there's little more satisfying than a booming shotgun blast splattering three heads at once, while other enemies spin and slink to the ground in pain. Thundering weapons effects and eerie enemy howls and chants bring the world of Resident Evil 4 to vibrant life. The voice acting, as seems to be a tradition in the franchise, still sounds forced, like a golf ball through a stirring straw.

Yet another element that didn't survive the port in good shape is the UI. It's been included in a horribly low resolution; a pang of visual discomfort you'll be assaulted with every time you open the menu. You'll see it in the bottom right corner of the screen as well, your health ammo display; a constantly visible, blurry circle adding to the sizable portfolio of things done wrong or not at all for the PC version.

The Verdict

While there are a substantial amount of complaints in this review about graphics, the game still plays very well. The puzzle mechanics work smoothly, environments are introduced in skillful fashion, and the fighting is always interesting and low on frustration factor, aside from the aim-to-shoot mechanic in close quarters combat. If you don't have a PS2 or GameCube lying around, you really should play this game, and to do so you really need a gamepad. The game's got five extra missions where you play as Ada Wong, some new weapons and costumes, and a 20 dollar price tag. If you can get past the graphics and input calamities, it's not hard to enjoy.