Resident Evil 4 is regarded as one of the best games of all time, even to this day. It's a masterpiece, in my eyes anyway, that combines a great story and characters, fun, fast paced combat extremely intuitive for it's time, and just the right amount of fear for survival, albeit in a different way from the rest of the franchise. Another new aspect to this entry was the over-the-shoulder style of play, which was among the first, if not the first, to make this style as popular as it is today in third person shooters of many genres. The entire point of the game is being sent on rescue mission, so for a good third of the game, you must baby-sit them along the way, though it's not nearly as tedious as that makes it sound. This was the first Resident Evil title to differ from their original formula, in the core games of the franchise at least (there was a god awful First Person Shooter for the PSX).  Anyways, on to the review!

Graphics 10 / 10 -- The graphics are extremely solid. I really enjoyed everything they did with the visuals, down to the littlest of details. The characters look phenomenal, from their appearance to the flow of their clothes while running. Even Leon's hair has some pretty darn good physics for it's day. All of the enemies look great, even though they're not technically zombies anymore. When they get in close, you can really see how lifeless in their eyes they look, yet also the anger in their face while trying to kill you. Sometimes they end up carrying torches to swing at you, among other weapons, and the details put into any form of fire in this game look breathtaking for the generation. All of the bosses look great, really striking fear into you, and each in their own way, showing how strong and intimidating they are. The design for all the bosses is great too, since most of them really give you that gross and creepy feeling that the franchise is so well known for. They all give you that amazing sensation of "I'm locked in here with THAT!?!?" Also something of note would be the environments. The lighting effects look incredible, always adding another level of realism, as well as the perfect ambiance for where you are in the game. The environments themselves look gorgeous, especially when you're inside the castle or trudging through the woods in the very beginning. All of the items / options in the inventory and menus look extremely well detailed as well. All of your weapons look like the real thing, as well as all of the items having a perfect design / color scheme for what they are, allowing you to easily organize your inventory. Even when viewing the collectibles, no detail was spared in making them look great. The reason this gets a 10 instead of 9 on the PS2 is because it's a GameCube port, so for what the original system could handle, this earns a perfect score.

Sound 9 / 10 -- Again, loved everything about it. All of the voice acting was spot on. I absolutely adored Leon's actor, always providing the perfect feel for what was being said, as well being the perfect choice for the role. All of the supporting cast did just as well, all the way down to the simple (Spanish?) mutterings of an enemy closing in on you for the kill. It's amazing seeing as how in this game's time, not many games featured full voice acting, let alone also playing them for every single instance when a character would speak aloud. Even during combat, there would be short clips of voices. For instance, Ashley would say something like "Watch out!" or cry out loudly saying "Leon!" when an enemy would pick her up to abduct her. One of the best of these is any time you get a Game Over through losing Ashley in any way while Leon is still alive, he will drop to his knees with one of the most sincere "Oh, no..." you'll ever hear while the Game Over screen appears behind him. All of the sound effects are spot on as well, though most of it is what you would expect. The sound-bit for finding a Key Item is really cool though, providing an immensely ominous tone in only a few seconds of audio. The soundtrack is absolutely amazing, and exactly what you want in a game like this. Most every track is extremely ominous and eerie. Though they all give the same vibe, they also all differ enough from one another to never get boring or tire you out on them. Even the boss battles still have more of an ominous vibe than anything, as well as picking up the intensity of the music to let you know just how dire your situation is. Some of the tracks even have vocals, but not like what you think. It's more like a choir moaning, or simply singing notes (no real words though) in the way you would expect the enemies of the game to, almost giving you a sense of being surrounded by them as they await you in the shadows. Oh yeah, and the Merchant's "'Ello, Stranger!" comment when you talk to him is something I'm sure you'll come to love.

Addictiveness 9 / 10 -- This game is extremely fun to play. The combat starts off slow, with almost every enemy taking their time walking towards you, and picks up as you go, with more and more of them able to run, albeit just a little bit slower than you can. This game really brought into the limelight the over-the-shoulder style of play it has, always keeping the camera in a fixed location where you can see everything your character would, but with a little more freedom to look around. When aiming, the camera will focus in even closer to the shoulder, as if you're aiming for them from a camera that was sitting on their shoulder. The game also provides a laser sight for aiming which was unique and intuitive for it's day. The enemies can also use weapons, but are not intelligent enough to operate fire arms at least (something that completely killed the vibe in future titles I might add). The most advanced weapons the foes can use are crossbows and chainsaws, though the latter is more of a mini-boss type of character encountered only fairly often. As for the crossbows, with some skill and quick aiming, you can actually shoot (or if you're really good, swat them with your knife) the bolts out of the air. There is a huge variety of weapons to choose from, and they are all upgradeable with currency found throughout the game in various ways. There are also Merchant shops found along the way where you can buy items (not ammo though) or more weapons, as well as being the place you pay for upgrades. The boss battles are extremely fun, providing the perfect amount of challenge, as well as having you exploit their weaknesses in unique and interesting ways. For many of them, you have to accomplish some task, like leading them to a certain location and pulling a switch for the environment to weaken them before you're able to cause significant damage to their weak spot. The collection aspect of the game is also fun without making you feel like you literally have to explore every nook and cranny if you don't want to. There are also shooting range mini-games you can participate in for bonus currency and collectibles, which you get even more bonus currency for collecting an entire set of. On top of all this, the game also features 2 different side stories of another character in the game, but plays the same way as the original for the most part, as well as a Mercenaries mode, which basically throws you into one of the game's areas, and you have to kill as many enemies as you can (they throw plenty at you, believe me) before the timer runs out, giving bonus time for doing well. I'll cover the extras more in the Depth section.

Story 9 / 10 -- As far as Resident Evil goes as a whole, I believe this game has the best story out of them all. Umbrella is gone at this point, having been outted for the incidents at Raccoon City. Though the company itself is out of business, many of it's influential members still have ways of doing what it is they do, just through other means. Leon, after gaining recognition for being one of the only survivors to make his way out of Raccoon City in game number 2, was employed by America's Secret Service, his assignment being to protect the President and his family. Right after being put on the job, literally right before he could start doing so (remind you of number 2 anyone?) the President's daughter is kidnapped by an extremist organization known as the Los Illuminados. The government's intelligence agencies managed to track them down to a remote area of Spain, and you are being sent to investigate, if not bring back the daughter when you find her. Little does Leon know he will be walking into yet another nightmare he thought was finally behind him for good. The enemies aren't actual zombies as I've stated before, but it takes you a while to figure out what they really are, so I won't spoil that aspect for you. The game has quite a few twists and turns to keep you guessing, as well as an appearance from a certain woman in a red dress (it's in one of the trailers, so it's not technically a spoiler). There's actually another character besides her that makes a return appearance from the franchise, but I'll leave that to your imagination as to who it may be. Said woman is actually the focus of the 2 side stories you can play through outside of the core game. I feel like I should give the story a higher score than this, but in comparison to every game, not only the franchise, this seems about right.

Depth 8 / 10 -- For a game of this genre, it actually gives you a ton to do. The core game, if not rushed through, probably provides around 20 - 30 hours of play, if not more. The core game is large, offering expansive areas for the most part to explore and search through for loot or ammo. You can also hunt for valuables and currency in the game, which can be spent on items and upgrades at the many Merchant shops found through out the game. Hunting these will be key, as the enemies get harder to kill as you go, but not to the point it's overbearing. Some of the valuables can even be combined, letting you sell it for a higher price than the 2-4 of them individually (like a mask that you can insert jewels into). Though keep in mind you need specific collectibles to combine, as not all of them are able to do this, and even the ones that can only have 1 of each type that can be added to it. The 2 side stories available for play are probably about 10 - 15 hours in length, adding a great deal more to play through if you so desire. They also provide a lot of insight to the story, showing a lot of what happened from a different perspective, which is something I love to see in a game. There are shooting range mini-games, which allow you to not only hone your skills, but provide great incentives for completing them with a high score. On top of all this, there are also collectibles you gain from completing the shooting range levels with a perfect score. There are 4 sets of 6 figurines to collect, and each set completed, in order of difficulty, give you a huge bonus in currency, as well as the figurines themselves each having their own sound-bit of the characters voice or the weapon their using (for instance the chainsaw one sounds like a chainsaw revving it's engine). There's also a Medallion mini-game implemented into the core game, where if you can find a certain number of blue medallions strewn about the areas, and shoot them, you get a prize from the Merchant when you see him next. The Mercenaries mode of the game is extremely fun and challenging, testing your ability to slaughter massive amounts of enemies. Though it's not as simple as just mowing them down, since the enemies become more powerful as time goes on. You also have various small collectibles to go for if you want to complete the game 100%, though they're not really worth going into detail over. As I said, for a game of this genre, it really stands out in terms of how much content it offers you.

Difficulty 7 / 10 -- Overall the game is perfectly balanced in difficulty in my eyes. The learning curve is very gradual, and allows you to hone your skills as you go. There are plenty of opportunities to save along the way, and they removed the "Ink Ribbon" concept (limited number of times allowed to save) from this entry, so that lowers the difficulty a bit. Every time a big event is about to start, there will be an opportunity to save, so make the most of them and you won't have too much to worry about if you fail. Baby-sitting Ashley isn't nearly as difficult as it seems, since unless you direct her to do otherwise, she will stay right behind you at all times, even crouching and staying behind you when you aim (unless you aim at her, then she will simply cover her head and duck). Though keep in mind she is extremely fragile. The enemies will not directly attack Ashley, only hitting her if they were trying to get to you (excluding a boss fight or two). They will try to pick her up and carry her off, resulting in a Game Over if they manage to exit the area with her in their possession (if they go where you would need the game to load to get there). In quite a few areas through out the game, there are dumpsters or other hollow objects you can instruct Ashley to hide in, allowing you to clear out the area without worrying over her. You can also instruct her to "Stay," telling her to wait in a certain spot, and then whistle for her when you're ready. Using this to your advantage definitely makes the game quite a bit easier to tackle, though she cannot do certain things on her own, like jumping down from pretty much any ledge in the game, so you have to instruct her to jump down into your arms. The bosses are challenging, and on your first time through, will probably require a few tries to get the hang of their movements and how to best exploit their weaknesses. Many of them must be taken down in phases, so the way they move and attack is constantly changing through out the battle. Ammo and supplies aren't too difficult to come across, though taking the time to not waste anything is still key to survival, as well as hunting down as much of the supplies as you can. You will also need to be proficient with each weapon type you choose, since there isn't nearly enough ammo for you to use only a single type of weapon all the time. The inventory is based on a squared grid, and each item takes up so much space in that grid. Inventory management will be a big factor here, as you only have a very gradual opportunity to expand your cache as the game progresses. For ammo, a certain number of shells / rounds can stack in each ammo box, so at least there's some leniency there, but those are the only item in the game that function this way. Your average enemies are fairly easy to dispatch on their own, but they often travel in groups, and have a very basic understanding of how to use weapons, as well as using simple tactics like a pincer move, spreading out as they close in. Head shots still deal extra damage, but there's a twist added to this I won't spoil for you. I will only say even though head shots do the most damage, it's not always the most efficient way to kill them seeing the unique concept they placed on what the enemies actually are. Sometimes going for only head shots will actually make the battle take longer, as well as making the enemy more dangerous when it comes to the foot soldiers you encounter. 

Overall 9.5 / 10 -- This game is widely regarded as a Masterpiece for good reason. Everything it does, it does extremely well. I very highly recommend this game to everyone, regardless of what genres you enjoy. Even if this game is not your thing, it still definitely deserves a chance, as long as you can stand very minor bits of mature content (language, tiny bit of gore, enemies look like something from a horror movie, etc). This game, myself included, is regarded by many to be one of the best of all time.

I hope you enjoyed the review

If I enjoyed the review? I look like an amateur next to you! This review is a masterpiece; you went into great details about the game without being redundant, you made ample comparisons with previous Resident Evil and other games to show where it stands and your text flows naturally. I guess I still ahve a lot to learn

The reveiw you made was incrdible. I agree with you on many key points like with the graphics for example. They where incredible for their time. And the plot was also amazing. I myself am more of a resident evil 2 kind of guy. Mostly because it was my first. But that is beside the -point. But great review none the less. (: