Having Resident Evil 4 for my 100th game for this blog is very satisfying (and totally unplanned) because it’s one of the few major influencers that I played at the time of release, and I can really appreciate the impact it’s had on the industry since its release. Whilst it took the series in a direction that wasn’t entirely beneficial to it – and oh god, I have to play 5 next – it popularised the off-shoulder camera that has been in so many games I love. If not for this game, I doubt I would have given the TPS genre the time of day, and I would be so much poorer off for it.

It also helps that people don’t refer to these other TPS games that utilise this camera angle as “Resi 4 clones” either. God, I hate people sometimes.

This is the fifth platform I’ve played this game on now! I played the original Gamecube release, then the PS2 version, then the Wii version (and god do I wish I could forget about that…), and finally the PS3 version. It’s not a game I deliberately come back to, but it is a game I can replay periodically without getting bored of it. They just keep releasing it, I think “Ooh, Resi 4!” and end up buying it to play it again, haha. I have it on Switch as well, so no doubt it’ll get another replay on that before the decade is out.

Coming off Resi 2 and 3 it was a little hard going with the controls, though. It’s…painfully clunky. More than once I couldn’t quite swing around in time to avoid getting smacked with an axe or flail (seriously, why do so many enemies have flails in this game?!) and compared to Resi 2 and 3 it was borderline tank controls sometimes. I was of the opinion that Resi 4 didn’t need a remake, and after having played it I’m going to very hastily revise my stance and silently pray for a PS5 remaster of this with a Resi 2/3 control scheme, because with updated visuals as well that would be amazing. Beyond amazing. This is one game that definitely deserves it, and honestly I’m disappointed that it doesn’t handle as well as it could have, because I do feel Capcom could have done more with it than what they did.

But otherwise, this game has held up beautifully over time. I’m actually appalled that it’s 16 years old this year and that it plays better than some modern titles I’ve had the displeasure of experiencing, and nostalgia aside (and I have no nostalgia at all for anything post-Salazar in this game…fucking Regenerators) it’s still a really fun game with good pacing and an off-the-rails narrative that is completely inappropriate for this series yet somehow fits into it perfectly.

I mean, I knew it was ridiculous, but I didn’t really recall just HOW ridiculous it was. You can tell this is the same company that makes the Devil May Cry titles, because the dialogue is absurd – especially once Salazar enters the equasion, and then Saddler decides to start calling you on the radio to chat at every opportunity – and some of the action sequences are ridiculous within the boundaries of…some kind of common sense. I mean, I *suppose* a trained military officer could spin kick and suplex enemies to death, but I doubt he could make their heads EXPLODE from doing it. I mean, what are these guys even made of?

The first three Resident Evil titles and Zero made some pretense at trying to explain with science why there were zombies roaming about, and how the mutants came into being. Resi 4? “Oh, we found some fossils of parasites in the ground and they’re totally evil.” I…don’t even know what to say to this, honestly. I love it, but at the same time it’s so disconnected from the first games it might as well be in another dimension. There’s a reboot, and then there’s a reboot. The scattered lore you find only heightens the sense of crazy this all gives off.

One thing I had forgotten was just how many bosses this game has. I ended up buying a rocket launcher for most of them, because weapon upgrades are mostly unsatisfying (and some weapons are completely unnecessary) and bosses eat ammo like Skittles. Also, some of them are…pretty damn scary, honestly. No way I’m running around in circles whilst the Verdugo stalks me, thank you very much. Despite the absurdity of his character Salazar’s plaga form is pretty horrifying as well.

I suppose the biggest, most glaring flaw that this game has is that it’s basically one very long escort mission. Ashley is very loud, very shrill, and very useless. Literally all my game overs in this except for one (I didn’t get out of the way of Salazar’s Verdugo tentacle thing fast enough) were because I accidentally shot or knifed her. The little fist-pump animation that she makes when you kill an enemy is ridiculously adorable (although very disturbing, considering she’ll do this even if you blow someone’s head clean off…) but…ugh, my GOD. “Cringe” is about the only word I can think of to describe Ashley, and I hate the way that word is applied these days. But from the moment you meet her to the very end where she asks Leon for “overtime” she is absolutely insufferable.

Also…yeah, I’m not overly fond of the third locale of the game. Going from a village to a castle made a certain sort of sense, but from castle to island filled with militia – with very few of them using guns – just didn’t feel right, and despite this being the most survival horror part of the game (I really do hate Regenerators, both for the sound they make and their durability…and Iron Maidens have a plaga on their back is a pain in the arse) it’s just not as fun as wandering around through the other two. It felt like a very deliberate throwback to the lab setting of Resi 2, and it just…didn’t fit.

But overall, I still love this game, and whilst the controls have aged poorly, the rest of it hasn’t. Just because it took the series in a direction it probably shouldn’t have gone in doesn’t make it any less enjoyable as a standalone experience, and it has just the right amount of the ridiculous to make it an entertaining story, even if the “horror” moments are few and far between…especially when you realise you can just toss a flash grenade to get rid of plaga-head ganados. The TMP also works rather well too.