Though the convienence of Gamefly, I have had Resident Evil 4 in my possession for about a week now and I'm about half way through it so I'd like to discuss thoughts on the game as I'm going along.

The biggest thought on this game is why has it been getting so much praise? I remember (may even still have) an old EGM where their cover story was this game and there were all these features that sounded so interesting, but now I'm wondering where they went wrong. The game has been not bad thus far, but I'm not feeling a whole lot of love emanating from this game. I think many things could have used more polish to make it even better. Now, I'm not a huge Resident Evil fan, but I know some of the general things from reading about the plot of the series every once in a while and I admit that it skews my thoughts on this game a little bit because I will focus more on the things that bring it down from not having a "RE4 ROXORZ MY SOXORZ" feeling. So lets do it, but I will note some positives about this game first.

The Positives:

- The new third person prospective gives this game a fresh new look compared to the older games. While you lose the beauty of the CG backgrounds, it makes the game feel much different than before. It is also a departure from the old 'tank' controls that some people found confusing (though I was fine with them).

- Aiming also feels fresh. Rather than being able to aim just up and down, you can aim everywhere and the game seems to do well in putting things you can shoot all over the place.

-Graphically, it's not a bad game and it's one of the better looking PS2 games out there.

Now that I've gotten some positives out there, let me move on to what I haven't liked about this game.

Negatives:

-Length: Some may argue that a longer game will mean a better game, I disagree in Resident Evil 4's case. I'm playing on the slow side (with not trying to waste ammo on enemies and suplexing them if I'm not outnumbered) and am about half way through with a 9-10 hour play time (with deaths, retries, and saving on ammo) and I'm wondering why the damn ride isn't over yet. There are some things that cause me to feel this way and I'll get to them below because it's a couple of things.

-Story: Half way through this game and the story has been crap with nothing explained. Most everything just feels like an excuse to send you through all of these environments mindlessly killing every enemy in your path. I understand that I've only completed half the game, but I think there are some serious flaws in the story if you have a whole cut-scene be with Luis catching up with you to give you something, realizing he dropped it, and then runs away again. I feel that segments could have been cut out and the story improved on because rather than being some kind of scary game, it's become almost pure action with the only scary parts being when a dog jumps out of a bush or you turn around to realize that an enemy is three feet away and about to attack. One huge complaint is with the Merchant, this guy makes no sense at all about why he's there or anything else about him. A few times when I've seen him, he looks like he can supply a small war and he apparently can't sell you any of that nice looking ammo he has lying everywhere.

-Sound: The sound is rather low quality. In-game dialog sounds very poor and it's made more intense when you hear enemies chanting and yelling. I feel the first village you go to at the start of the game was laughable with the same voice yelling every couple of seconds with the same voice slowed down in the pattern.

-Combat - Like I said above, the story of this game has felt like an excuse to pit you against like 20 guys in each room. Whats worse is that it feels like you're fighting morons who can't seem to decide if they want to charge at you, walk at you, or just blow themselves up with their own explosives. Every encounter is more annoying than exciting and they feel like gigantic hiccups in the progression of the game. What makes it worse are the controls and aiming. I'm enjoying the behind the shoulder camera, but still controlling like a tank with very little evasive options makes every time I'm hit a huge frustration. A side step would be nice, but I belive that the right analog stick does NOTHING while you're aiming your gun/knife so why can't the right analog stick at least be a little hop in the direction you've tilted it? Aiming is also a pain because the dot to tell you where you're aiming only appears if it's on something that can be shot at like an enemy or treasure for example. This makes trying to aim at anything that isn't right infront of you a pain in the butt and has resulted in some missed shots.

One of the most annoying things in this game are the enemies who's heads pop off to reveal creatures. Everybody I know who's played the game has warned that you don't want to shoot guys in the head. Fine, I say, I'll just shoot them everywhere else except the head or knock them down and knife them. Apparently it doesn't matter because you can try cutting off an enemy's toe and all of a sudden his head pops off which later in the game will result in a creature popping out. I wouldn't say it's a negative of the game itself, but it is VERY annoying.

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In the end, reviewers recommend that people should play this game and it isn't one you should overlook.

I ask why?

This is just absurd ... you actually see the GC and PS2 power difference the same as the PS3 and Wii ... you would just wish that the Wii would be s powerfull ;)

Edit : if you really want to play the worst version , try the PC version :P 

I'm sorry, I just cannot see eye to eye with someone who says the combat in RE4 is bad. The reason you can't strafe is to add to the very deliberate pacing of the game--if you could easily just sidestep while busting some caps, the game would lose a good chunk of the tension, I'm sure you'll agree.

The reason they don't give any warning or apparent thought to their attack plans is because they wanted to keep you on your toes. If you always knew what your enemy was going to do, would you be scared?

The reason the Las Plagas pops out no matter where you shoot them is because it would've come out no matter what when he died. It could kill the host and come out at will if it wanted to.

Also, with regard to the story, the first half is SUPPOSED to make you ask what the hell is going on (even the scene with Luis), only to be explained perfectly by the end.

No, the AI is the same in all three versions, the gameplay differences are only slight besides the obvious differences in controls. In the PS2 and Wii version enemies seem to take a little more bullets, but in return you get a little more ammo and a little more money, making it a little easier to upgrade your weapons.

I think IllegalPaladin's main problem is that he is approaching the game a little bit too serious. Resident Evil always had something of a horror B-movie, both in stupid enemies and ridiculous cutscenes. The moment you start asking yourself "why is it the way it is?", it's likely that you are going to kill an otherwise enjoyable and great experience (that's not only true for RE games, but for most games ever made).