| If you’re a Nintendo devotee, or if you’ve come to the Wii via PlayStation 2 you may have already heard of and possibly played Resident Evil 4 on one or both of those consoles. Both previous releases had their own individual advantages and disadvantages but the Wii edition of Resident Evil 4 has the best of both of them, making it not only one of the best Wii games on the market, but also THE best edition of RE4 available on any console. If you haven’t experienced this game on either consoles before then you’re in for a wild time - an all-encompassing suspense-filled thrill ride! |  Available Through Amazon.com |
Fast, Frenzied, Frantic & Frightening
Resident Evil 4 reunites us with Leon S. Kennedy (from Resident Evil 2), now a highly trained government agent sent on a mission to rescue the President’s daughter. You know those days when you think you really shouldn’t have bothered getting out of bed? Well Leon is about to have one of those x 1000. His search takes him to a small Spanish village where he soon finds that all is not as it should be. For one, the villagers don’t appear to be all together human - and for two, they are trying their hardest to kill him without so much as an explanation! No sooner does the opening sequence get you up to speed on where you are and why you’re there, than you are set upon by a crazy, axe-wielding maniac (as opposed to a sane axe-wielding maniac?) - followed by a horde of villagers (you’ll find no slow-moving zombies in this town) who trap you inside a cabin in an effort to finish you off - and this is all within the first 5 minutes! There’s no time for pondering, you gotta think fast - there’s no time to panic but that’s all you can think to do at this point. You’re disorientated, you’re confused, you have menacing locals bearing down on you from all sides…and this is just a taste of things to come. There is definitely a heightened sense of adrenaline-pumping fear in Resident Evil 4 that is a step up from previous Resident Evil releases, which makes this game truly frightening. It’s less a case of something suddenly smashing through the window as you make your way down a creepy, dimly-lit corridor and more a case of frantically trying to escape the relentless pursuit of increasingly stranger, vicious and more difficult-to-defeat attackers. As you may have gathered the pace of this game is frantic and it really doesn’t let up. You’ll literally be wiping away the sweat in the rare moments you do get to catch your breath. The frenzied nature of the game adds a whole new level of terror, something previous releases in the franchise lacked. However those who like their scares the old-fashioned way will not be disappointed, as there are still plenty of sudden jumps and scares when you least expect it, to keep you on your toes. No more is this exemplified than when you play as the President’s daughter, Ashley who, with only a flashlight at her disposal, must silently creep past all manner of crazed weirdos, and act fast in her tasks to avoid detection, capture and death.
Monsters Galore!
So let’s talk about the beasties you’re up against then. Gone are the dim-witted zombies that trundle towards you at such a pace you’re able to have a shower, shave, shoe-shine and a shag before loading your gun, taking aiming and blowing them away. In this town you have the smart and quick footed villagers (complete with burning torches and pitchforks), creepy cultists, giant ogres-like creatures and a jaw-droppingly impressive (and scary) lake monster. Not to mention other increasingly difficult, weird and imaginative-in-their-appearance bosses you come across as you advance your way through the storyline (you get the idea without me having to give too much away). All the characters in this heart-pounding blood-fest have been created with an attention to detail never before seen on the Wii, which only adds to your ability to get fully immersed (and therefore fully frightened) in this white-knuckled, suspense-filled tale.
Point And Shoot - More Than Just A Wii Bit Better
Where the Wii edition of Resident Evil 4 stands out against the other console releases of the game is in its use of the unique Wii controllers for aiming and shooting the huge variety of nasties that mean to do you harm. Using the Wii remote, you can simply and effectively point at the target on screen with a speed and accuracy unmatched on other consoles. Here you can aim at the various body parts of your attackers with ease. Shooting at the legs of insane villagers is a cinch - and something you may find necessary when you’re low on bullets. Making a head-shot will be a walk in the park - albeit a gory one. When you are out of bullets (or any time you feel like getting “up close and personal”) your Wii remote becomes Leon’s knife, and you can slash away in the comfort of your living room, watching Leon on screen slice up some local nasties. A cool little feature is the addition of sound effects from your Wii remote speaker - so that the slashing of your knife or the reloading of your gun takes on an all more “realistic” feel.
Amazing Attention To Detail
Another major standout are the graphics. Everything from the buildings and landscapes to the towns “citizens” and the increasingly imaginative monsters has been created with blood-drenched attention to detail, giving this game the most consuming feeling of atmospheric suspense ever encountered in a survival horror game. Capcom, who is really the Godfather of the survival horror genre, have outdone even themselves with the look and feel of this epic horror action-fest. When this game was first released on GCN and PS2 a couple of years ago it really was breathtaking in it’s rendered beauty. By far the best looking game on the market. Sure, there haven’t been any improvements to the look of the game in the last two years, despite the Wii’s increased memory and processing speed, but that doesn’t detract from the game itself in the slightest. It is still stunning to look at, with some of the creatures you come up against simply mesmerizing in their brilliance. If you’ve played this game before on another console you’ll be so impressed with the fantastic use of the controllers and the other enhancements that it will almost be like playing it for the first time again (and even more so if you’ve only played this on GameCube, as the Wii edition contains the Ada Wong “Separate Ways” storyline that was only released on the PS2). If you haven’t played this before then you’ll just be impressed all round. Period.
No Bones To Pick, But Plenty Of Flesh
I really couldn’t find anything to pick at with this game. I’ve already mentioned above the lack of graphic improvements from the 2005 releases, but I never felt it in any way detracted from the overall experience the game presents, as the graphics from 2005 are still well above that of other games in this genre and certainly above any other Wii games. The sound is brilliant - creepy, atmospheric music and head-explodingly real special effects add even more depth to this already abyss-like release. The game play is an amazing 15-20 hours long (not counting the great replay value), and at the reduced retail price for the Wii that makes it tremendous value for money. All that being said, this game is certainly not for the squeamish - and if the sight of copious amounts of animated gore and violence is off-putting to you then you should definitely steer clear of this release. However if those things don’t bother you - or indeed if you find them an exciting prospect - then Resident Evil 4 is a must have, still managing to be one of the best Wii games after two years.