My Thoughts on Resident Evil 4 [PC Version]

 The Woman in Red

 [Originally written on 9th Nov 2019] *contains mild spoilers*

This zombie survival horror game and I go a long way back. I first played it on my PC…I guess 7 years ago. Back then my PC had only a gigabyte of RAM and I didn’t expect that it would be able to run RE4, but it did. I had heard very highly of this game and had had a fleeting glimpse of it being played on a Playstation 2 at a game parlor I used to frequent. I was really impressed by the graphics and that’s why I didn’t think that it would run on my legacy system. Much to my delight, however, it did run and very smoothly at that.

My very first disappointment with it came soon enough. Like every other point-and-shoot game, I expected Leon’s aim to follow the movements of my mouse but as it turned out, the mouse was only used to get Leon to merely point his gun and shoot. The aim was moved with the arrow keys. Getting over this hurdle was not very difficult though; I quickly got used to it. The second obstruction was much tougher: remembering the button mappings. You see, whenever the game prompted players to press a button, it flashed a number instead of the actual button it wanted to be pressed. Each number was mapped to a button, and I had to remember this mapping. My memory would often fail me in emergency situations when I had to dodge something, say, a rock rolling down behind me, and only had a split second to react. My panic-ridden mind would refuse to comply and I would start the scenario all over again. Eventually I wrote the mapping down and continuously referring to it, memorized it soon.

At one stage, though, I really got stuck. Somewhere in Salazar’s castle, there’s a big hall where Leon has to protect Ashley from those black-hooded monk-zombies while she turns a couple of levers to open a door. Thinking back, I guess I didn’t show much interest in whatever the Merchant had to offer, be it new guns or tune-ups of the existing ones, because when I fired at one of these monk-zombies with my rifle, it had little effect. Obviously, it lacked the necessary firepower and Ashley was always carried away into the darkness. Moreover, I attributed this inability to protect Ashley to my aim rather than the rifle’s power. I figured my aim was all messed up because of the non-existent mouse support, so I decided I’d try it on my Playstation with the analog providing for better aiming.

Some summers later, I bought RE4 for PS2 and started playing with a firm resolve to rescue Ashley safely. Aiming was much easier this time, and I quickly crossed the village with the church bell, which I’d found insanely difficult on PC. After saving on the typewriter, I shut shop for the day, pleased with my decision.

The next day, my heart skipped a beat when I tried to load the game data. The save game had gotten corrupted. Holding on to hope, I convinced myself that this was probably just a game glitch and if I saved on subsequent typewriters, I could perhaps avoid it. So, I did just that, but to no avail. My save games kept on getting corrupted. Unless I could sit down for an RE4 gaming marathon there was no way I was completing it. I enquired around and was advised to buy a new memory card. Crazy as I was for RE4, I didn’t have the courage to ask my parents for a new memory card just for one game.

So I gave up on it.

Present day, I have a (budget) gaming laptop. I can (hopefully) try most of the new game titles with rich graphics and astounding gameplays. I did, but among my “Games to be played” list was one, much older title.

Now this time, I had solved both the problems: I had a controller so aiming was not an obstacle anymore, and I was playing on my laptop so saves getting corrupted was also out of the equation because they worked fine when I used to play on PC. Also, this time around I was ready to face that dreadful “Save corrupt” message. I’d decided that this was one last try and if this didn’t work, I won’t look back at this game again. Well, I might play a rebooted version on a console if I bought one, but not this particular one. And so I set off.

It worked fine this time, gameplay was good, saved fine, loaded fine, controller aimed fine as well. And that’s it for why I was playing RE4 on a (budget) gaming laptop in 2019.

Moving on to what I think about it.

When I first played it, it absolutely spooked me out, no kidding. Even now it does, but the initial levels have lost a bit of charm because I’ve played them so many times. First off, the world of RE4 is beautifully designed, and I’m not saying ‘beautiful’ in the aesthetic sense. The environment is gloomy as hell. It really made me feel alone and desolate in the village when there was no one around, and when I was being attacked by Los Ganados I felt genuine fear. Even when I was observing them from a distance as Leon does in the initial stages of the game, their mannerisms and voices were giving me the “heebie-jeebies”. I was thinking to myself, Damn, how would I face them, man…

It’s all so effective that even when I started playing this time around, I had to play NFS Rivals just to break away from the depressing mood of RE4. Those infected people and the way they scream at you, the way they lunge at you with their hands outstretched and mouths open…chills run down my spine every time this happens. When I hear their sinister laughter just behind me, my thumb does tremble before pushing the analog stick to move Leon away from them. Needless to say, NPC modeling and behavior programming is one of the best aspects of RE4.

Getting to the story, it’s an interesting one though there are certain holes here and there if one thinks logically. I’ll mention one later on. The game is basically an aftermath of a particular virus outbreak that took place in Raccoon City six years ago. Ashley Graham, the US President’s daughter, no less, is abducted and taken to a village somewhere in Spain and government agent Leon Scott Kennedy, who is a survivor of the Raccoon City incident, is assigned to rescue her. Embarking on his mission, Leon soon discovers that this is far from a conventional kidnapping and a malicious ploy is behind it which has its roots in the aforementioned virus outbreak. I haven’t played any other Resident Evil games so forgive me if I can’t make the connection.

The game might feel slow and stretched out at times, maybe because of the sheer number of enemies, but the story and the exciting developments happening at regular intervals keep the player interested. One major aspect to mention here is the boss battles. The fear that is developed in the player by the regular enemies plays a big role leading up to a boss battle. The dread makes the battle look harder than it actually is. Actually, though, no boss battle is very difficult in RE4, despite what the game works so hard to make you believe. Except one or two. These will get an honorable mention later. Even the last battle is not difficult at all, so no matter how much the game feels stretched out, it doesn’t turn into a bland mixture of long levels and repetitive tries at beating the bosses.

Another element that gives this game a fresh flavor after the player completes it is ‘Separate Ways’. This is a game mode that is unlocked in the Extras after the main story arc is completed, and features Ada Wong in a storyline that runs parallelly with the main story. This story is the kind which makes the player go ‘Ahh…so that’s why that thing happened with Leon at that point. Okay, so that’s how that happened.” Think of GTA IV and GTA: Episodes from Liberty City and you’ll get what I mean. Furthermore, Separate Ways establishes Ada’s prominence in the storyline and lifts the veil of mystery shrouding her in the main story.

There are a bunch of other game modes in the extras too, though I haven’t tried them. Completing Separate Ways and Assignment Ada (wherein Ada has to collect 5 samples and get to the pickup chopper) gets you rewards which you can use when you play the main story again (which I’m not doing, BTW; can’t walk among a bloodthirsty Ganado in that desolate village and eerily silent castle.).

Now that we’ve put Separate Ways on the table, I can talk about the plothole that I mentioned earlier. In the main arc, Leon kills Krauser, but in Separate Ways, Ada kills off Krauser too. That’s a hell of a mutant if he needs to be killed twice. Another thing that’s hard to digest is the presence of a “special” rocket launcher to kill Saddler just where he and Leon face off for the last time. Who placed it there? It certainly wasn’t Ada, she just found it there and threw it to Leon. Who was it? Time for another side story, perhaps?

Those difficult boss battles, now. Despite what other players believe, I feel defeating Krauser in both the main story and Separate Ways and fighting Saddler in Separate Ways were harder than other battles. But then, as with all boss battles, it’s only a matter of finding the weak spot and hitting it again and again. Once that’s done, boss battles are a piece of cake.

And…there’s one other thing about RE4. Character design. Especially female character design. The graphics may not be at par with today’s realistic ones, but that didn’t keep me from developing a crush on Ashley Graham and browsing for more pictures of Ada Wong, the Woman in Red :P.