"Resident Evil is back, completely new."

If you're wondering what Resident Evil is (shame on you!), it has been a long running survival horror game famous for its clunky, tank-like controls, claustrophobic camera angles and mutated monsters that want to eat you, rip your head off, or just plain kill you.

For those Resident Evil fans, you may recognize the main character, Leon Scott Kennedy, one of the main characters in Resident Evil 2. He Resident Evil 2, Leon was a newbie cop, destined for a life of busting criminals and chowing down donuts. Unfortunately for him, Raccoon City is over-run by zombies on his first day, not good, by first-day standards.

Leon is now back as a government agent, with an old-school haircut and a bomber jacket, in search of the president's daughter who has been kidnapped, apparently by a bunch of people in rural Spain. So off you go armed to the teeth. Well, as in a Handgun and a First Aid Spray.

The game takes place in rural Spain at first, in an old village filled with crazy people who want you dead for some reason. As you continue on, you end up in a gothic-medieval castle filled with creepy, cult, monks. After that, you're sent off to a military island where the game finally concludes.

Your enemy, as you recognize, are a bunch of crazed Spaniard villagers. Your first impression is, "Zombies!", but as you play on, you'll find out their true nature. These 'crazed Spaniards' are smarter than your average zombie, and will chase you up ladders, throw projectiles and corner you.

If you've played a Resident Evil game before, you'd instantly see that the controls are different. Very different. Instead of clunky controls, the game takes a sort of third-person shooter aspect, the camera tightly position behind you and by pressing the R1 button, you hold up your gun. The game does this on purpose to give a sense of fear and make you claustrophobic. Shooting is done simply by pressing X while aiming.

As you progress through the game, you meat a mysterious persona, The Merchant, a guy with a pirate accent, armed to the rim with shotguns, rocket launchers and maps of the vicinity. Weird? Well, with the variety of weapons, you instantly become a mini-army, blasting people with shotguns, mowing down enemies with your TMP, and setting a group of villagers on fire with a fire grenade. Ammo is plentiful, and you can simply go around blasting the crap out of everything. For some reason, villagers keep grenades and ammunition in their houses and their pockets, but don't ever use them.

Guns once bought from the Merchant, or found in the game, can be upgraded to make your killing pleasure all much better. You can upgrade a weapon's firepower, from a sissy little slap of damage, to a huge amount of firepower, allowing you to blow off villager's heads with ease. You can also upgrade the reload speed (how you upgrade that, I have no idea), firing speed as well as weapon capacity. One of the shotguns you later acquire has a capacity of 100, which is basically enough to last you the remainder of the game when you finally get that upgrade.

As with Resident Evil tradition, .45 caliber magnums are instantly the strongest 'legit' weapon aside from the rocket launcher. Ammo is extremely scarce and magnums are basically your boss killers.

Guns do different things depending on where you shoot them. Shoot them in the face, and you can run up and finish them with a meaty roundhouse kick. Shoot them in the hand to make them drop whatever their holding, or stop a crowd by shooting them in the legs, causing them to fall. A headshot gives a satisfying, explosion of blood and guts.

As well as your run-of-the-mill villagers, you'll get to fight many other monstrosities. Huge trolls, reminiscent of troll from LotR, giant insects intent on melting your face off, blind guys with supersensitive hearing and claws that could rend you in two and fat villagers sporting a potato sack on their heads and a chainsaw.

This calls to another topic, violence and horror. If you're a fan of violence and gore, you will love this. Leon has a variety of ways of dying, he can get strangled by a villager, head chopped off with a chainsaw, even crushed by a boulder, the variety of deaths truly is large. If you're squeamish, you'd probably do best avoiding this, since there is a large amount of gore and blood.

As for the horror, the game isn't really scary. Intense is more of the word. Resident Evil is a survival-horror, but this feels like more of an action-horror game. There are some scary moments, such as the creepy Regenerators, and the intimidating chainsaw enemies.

Cutscenes are generally short and to the point, characters trade quick comments, and Leon makes the occasional cheesy line. Also, cutscenes can kill you. You'd be talking with the villain, and suddenly, the game goes: "DODGE! L1+R1". You've got a split second to respond, or your head is impaled on a spike, smashed by boulders, etc. It adds a new layer to the game, and is rarely annoying, since if you're killed, you start from the beginning of the scene again.

As you progress, you'll find the president's daughter, Ashley, and you'll be forced to escort her to safety. Unlike many other escort missions, where characters will aimlessly walk into the arms of danger, Ashley is easy to control. She will either follow your, or wait in a certain place, which can be done with the press of R2. She can also hide in garbage bins, so that she can't be found. One thing to worry about is, is she is extremely frail. Leon can take a couple of axes in the face, even a dynamite explosion, but Ashley will fall after two or three hits with a heavy weapon, and an explosion is basically a guaranteed death. She can also get captured, if an enemy swoops down and grabs Ashley, you can simply shoot him to make them drop her. If she dies, or is captured, the game ends and you'll have to retry.

As for the audio, it's alright. It seems to have lost a bit of quality though, when ported from the Gamecube version. The music is nothing exceptional, but it fits the game well. Voice acting overall is good, although cheesy at times.

How about the graphics? Well, they're pretty nice to look at, it's realistic, which makes those gruesome death scenes that much more painful (and enjoyable!) to watch. This game is a port from the Gamecube, and like the audio, the graphics have taken a bit of downfall.

There is quite a bit of extra content. Completing the game opens up new special weapons, such as the Chicago Typewriter, a Thompson-styled machine gun that kills the toughest of bosses in seconds, to the P.R.L. 412, a laser that obliterates everything on screen. There are also cool costumes, such as Leon in a mafia suit, and Ashley in armor that makes her completely invulnerable.

Separate Ways, an extra set of missions which explain the story from another character's point of view (Ada Wong, also from previous RE games), filling in the gaps. There is also Assignment Ada, another extra segment as Ada Wong. As well as that, there's Mercenaries, a mini-game where you choose a character, an area, and your task is to kill as many things as possible without dying, and racking up a large score. Mercenaries opens up hours of endless fun, as you smash through a tonne of enemies, racking up a tremendous score.

Resident Evil 4 is truly a gem of a game, and if you're a fan of horror, or even just hardcore action, pick up this game!

Graphics: 9/10
Audio: 8/10
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Replay Value: 9/10
Total Score: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/07