../residentevil4

Why Resident Evil 4 (2005) is the perfect video game

Resident Evil 0 isn't a terrible game. I actually quite like it and think it's overhated by fans. It's gorgeous, the 2 player mechanic is cool, and the new mindset needed when approaching and managing inventory is a delight for experienced users. But it's "old hat".

Zero and the previous Resident Evil remake were just not what audiences wanted. The traditional fixed camera/tank controls rollout wasn't as popular as it used to be, and more dynamic styles of game design were starting to spread. Capcom needed something fresh and new for a modern age.

I am not going to give you a history of Resident Evil 4 because everyone on earth has done this and it's boring to say nothing new. Instead, I'm goign to focus on what the game means to ME and why I view it as good.

Classic Resident Evil is characterized by tight resource management, cinematic camera angles, and feeling of lack of control. The "survival horror" is not in scary presentation (Resident Evil games are not scary), but in having deeply limited resources to work with.

3D games began to standardize from the roughness in N64/PSX/Saturn controls doing literally whatever and we began to have fairly conventional control schemes across games. Resident Evil 4 is a defining game in shifting this paradigm and being one of the first games to have th "over the shoulder" perspective means it's also one of the most unique in how it synthesizes the old with the new.

In Resident Evil 1, 2, 3, Code Veronica, and 0, you have limited visibility as a result of fixed cameras. You literally can't see stuff from certain angles and there's a level of fear and discomfort that comes from reluctantly turning a corner. There could be a zombie or something worse the second the camera switches. It's a similar approach horror movies use and it properly conveys the unknown.

Resident Evil 4 is not a game with fixed camera angles. It is one centered around everything being a moving, cohesive, rendered environment. This means the normal tricks employed cannot work here. Instead, RE4 implements the trepidation and discomfort in these earlier games through other means:

These restrictions give RE4 an incredibly claustrophobic and panicked gameplay loop reminiscent of the older games in a new framework that is more action-focused. the constant feeling that you are being swarmed is further reinforced by the adaptive difficulty scaling -- the game is designed to always make you feel like an action hero, slightly competent and feeling "cool" always. The QTE actions and reliable staggering further reinforce this -- they feel good.

RE4 in general feels really good! Everything has a clear bit of feedback. The inventory menu makes an iconic noise when being opened, guns have a noticeably satisfying noise when bullets land, and crits feel great to land. Melee attacks are snappy and satisfying. Everything has slow cooldown and controls are precise to a tee.

Feeling like an action hero is crucial in Resident Evil 4's narrative. The actual plot the game feeds you isn't the entire story -- part of it is personally experiencing the journey with Leon and Ashley.

"Dry" and "wet" games

RE4 is in my eyes a great example of a "dry" game. Dry games are games that have stiff, snappy controls and feedback and precise movement akin to their arcade roots. Incredibly fine-grained control is crucial in how you experience everything.

Wet games are games with long, drawn out animations, controls that emulate real life running, and which emphasize fluidity. A great example of this is Yakuza 6. 6 is a game centered around its increased realism compared to past games, which come across as "stiff" in comparison.

Both styles are good, but the industry has become dominated with wet games that simply don't do it very well! So many games have long, drawn out animations and feedback that make you feel like you're high. Most of the RE Engine games, including Resident Evil 4 Remake, do this. It is not necessarily "bad", but it is not a style I enjoy.

RE4 is peak "dry game". Everything is snappy and fast and precise, like I've said. Leon doesn't move like a real person, he moves like a video game character. But that's okay.

Leon's trauma from RE2

Leon had a hard first day on the job back in '98. On his first day of being a police officer, his girlfriend dumped him. He arrived on the job late because he was drinking his brains out, just to realize he's smack dab in the middle of a fucking zombie apocalypse. Throughout Resident Evil 2, he realizes just how over his head he is and how his entire life had been consumed by Umbrella, drowning in the trauma stemming from the entire city being bombed to oblivion and losing Ada, a woman he barely even trusted by the end. While Claire finds herself endlessly searching for her brother, Leon kind of had nothing to go back to or look for.

"Hey. It's up to use ta' take out Umbrella."

The irony here is Umbrella Corporation gets offscreen shut down in the beginning of RE4. This is an intentional decision from Shinji Mikami-- this is a new generation of Resident Evil games for a new era, and Umbrella is dead. Their reign of terror is presumably over, but what about all the broken pieces left over?

Leon is directionless after RE2 and on some level he never really got over the bullshit that day. Rather than being a sad boy like the remakes aim for, he covers it up in aggressively confident, yet cheesy quips.

THIS NIGGA IS INCREDIBLE OMG

With Resident Evil 2, his actions are recontextualized as a way to stay confident as shit goes sour with a parasitic outbreak akin to the T-Virus. However, this Leon is gonna face his bullshit head-on.

If Resident Evil 2 is a relentless struggle, 4 is a triumph and a power fantasy for Leon Kennedy, one where he's able to do things one more time without being the gullible one left behind all the time. He's the one doing cool shit, dodging lasers, and kicking the shit out of everything in sight. He's been groomed and government trained for this, and it's finally an opportunity to live it out.

The villains like Salazar and Saddler playing into it just makes it feel even better. Resident Evil 4 is deeply self-aware of what it is in the best way possible. You are the protagonist -- the action hero, and this is your stage to paint.

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