The Woman in Red
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.
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