No Boredom for Me!!

This week i have been playing Resident Evil 4 on the PS2. I bought it from Game in Bolton, having traded in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within and Dark Chronicle n.b. i managed to get £12.00 part exchange for Dark Chronicle, which is the oldest and least popular of the three - will found out why!

The first Resident Evil was released nearly ten years ago in August 1996 (US), developed by Capcom of Streetfighter and Megaman fame, on the then top of the range Playstation 1 (as well as the usual PC counterpart). It popularised the genre of 'survival horror' and undoubtedly influenced games such as the Silent Hill series as well as later titles like Headhunter.

(ABOVE LEFT)Silent Hill 2 (ABOVE RIGHT)Resident Evil Zero
Predecessors to this title, and the genre itself, are sparse but I feel that some influence may have been taken from the ‘puzzle horror’ games like The 11^th Hour and maybe even point and click style ‘movie games’ like the Phantasmagoria games. The appearance and style of the game is likely toh ave been taken from the Alone in the Dark series pictured below, namely being a character stuck in a mysterious environment and trying to fgure out what is happening, whilst warding off attacks from bizarre creatures.


(ABOVE) Alone in the Dark

Featuring evil zombies and a suitable ‘corporate conspiracy’ storyline the storyline and the atmosphere of the game made it an instant classic and led to numerous sequels and spin-offs (Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil Survivor and various others).

(ABOVE) Resident Evil Soundtrack CD Cover

The game characterised the 'isometric 3D' viewpoint in games, i.e. the players sprite/character acts within a pre-rendered viewpoint. This I believe was done partially to add atmosphere, but mainly due to the limitations of the machine. The graphical quality of some of the areas in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis really are quite lush in their appearance, and this is solely due to the fact that the scenery isn't animated - i.e. the camera doesn't move so neither does the scene.

In a nutshell, aliens have taken over a village under the premise of a religion, and the villagers have all succumbed to the parasitic monsters and are under their control. The villagers are conscious to an extent and therefore they call in their peers to the attack, use weapons and their environment against the player and are considerably lighter on their feet n.b. and they do creep up on you with surprising efficiency!. The Umbrella Corporation (featured in all previous games, and of course both films) have gone bust and to be honest have little relevance to this title, with the exception of a few slight references.

(ABOVE) Resident Evil 4 screenshot

The key mechanic here is that of a basic fight. Your character must fight his way out of the scenario that the plot has placed him in. As this game is fairly linear when you strip the story away your character is basically palced somewhere where they must use their head or their gun. Whether you win or lose depends on having the (gamplaying) ability and inventory to overcome the enemies that attack you.

Also there is a strong puzzle mechanic, commonly that items have to be found by investigating areas and usually overcoming 'boss' enemies. The items are then used as some sort of a key to progress through a stage, either literally putting a key in a door or swapping an item with another character. Also the rearrangement of your environment plays a strong part in the bulk of the puzzles in this title.

When fighting certain characters there is a puzzle element too. The enemies called 'regenerators' can only be killed using an infra-red scope add-on that you find, and their weak point is only exposed after having read a document slightly earlier in the game.

Without the scope the creature is more or less invincible, unless you get lucky. So the puzzle mechanic transcends quite nicely with the battle mechanic as well.

There is a character building element to this game, but it is solely concentrated on firepower. These are bought from a trader that you encounter early in the game, and can be resold along with treasure you find in the game. As the game progresses the trader sells more powerful weapons, at a cost.

(ABOVE) The Merchant in Resident Evil 4

This element encourages the player overall to explore the environment to find all the hidden 'treasure' they can, in order to sell them, buy better wepons, kill more enemies and therefore live longer.

Also at many parts in the game a character called Ashley (n.b. you can control her on two occasions, but only briefly) follows you around and has to be protected. The enemies will pursue either you or her depending on who is nearest. You have the option of either having her follow you or placing her somewhere safe. If she dies or is abducted, you lose the game.

Protecting Ashley is one of the more challenging elements in the game, as you have to watch out for two characters at once.

At the end of each level/chapter you are rated on your weapon accuracy, your overall progress time is recorded as is the number of times you have 'died'. Monitoring and beating your own scores provides you with a way of self-monitoring your progress (n.b. i found that once i had completed the game and restarted it with the best weapons, i killed more enemies with less ammo so i was less careful. I found myself running out of ammo through my own carelessness, whereas when every bullet mattered i was more sparing), using these measures can help you set your own challenges such as 100% accuracy or not dying at all and still finishing the game.