Friday 15 June 2012

'Hello Stranger...what are ya buying?!'


Resident Evil is a series known for it's zombie horror/survival aspects. Capcom and the world felt that the series was becoming stale, so they reinvented the entire game. What they then brought out is often referred to as the best game ever made, in the category of Final Fantasy 7 or Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time! I agree, as Resi 4 has become my favourite game of all time, with over 200 hours of play time and 100% completion in every way possible. It is superb, and is now available on XBLA and PSN as a downloadable title... so go pick it up and throw yourself into one of the best games ever made.



The warmest welcome in the world...
Resi 4 follows the story of Leon S. Kennedy, a US agent called into Europe to follow up a lead into the kidnapping of the Presidents daughter. Yes, that is really the story. You arrive in a dank and grey Spanish village... and things quickly go bad. You leave your escorts in the car as you enter the first house, you creep up on a man making  fire, asking if he has seen the young girl (Ashley) he totally ignores you. Out of nowhere, he pulls an axe on you. You put him down and things get significantly worse for our hero. A truck pushes your ride off the road, killing the men you came with and a handful of villagers break into the house through windows and doors. You reciprocate their hunger for

your death by emptying your handguns clip out of fear. You push further into the woods, hoping that the hostility shown towards you means that they are hiding something. You find women pinned to the walls, punctured by knives... a dog trapped in a bear trap... along with several more villagers who don't seem happy at all. You finally reach a village, taking out your binoculars you scout the area. Along with the many villagers going about their business, you notice a burning pyre in the centre of square. After close inspection you see that one of the officers who drove you to the village is impaled on a spike as his flesh is burned from the fire beneath. Something is definitely not right. Suddenly, the villagers spot you. Calling out you are quickly being stalked by the entire village... with very little ammo to your name, you are forced to run. Hiding in houses and blocking the doors with furniture is purely a prevention as the villagers hammer down the doors and windows. However, as the saying goes... out of the pan and into the fire... Leon meets a seriously pissed off villager. The revving of a chainsaw sends chills down your spine as your ammo dwindles and you are left to run for your life. The villagers increase and you begin to think you won't survive, until a bell chimes. The villagers stop straight away, dropping their weapons to the ground they shuffle into the church. Suddenly you are alone in creepy Spanish village, bodies lying around and a man burning alive next to you. Welcome to Resident Evil 4.

They dislike you. This is evident.


Now here is where I am going to go all nostalgic on you. This part of the game is the scariest part of any game I have ever played... and I love scary games. When I first attempted playing Resi 4, I physically could not play past this first part because I was scared. This may sound stupid... but bear in mind I had never experienced this aspect of survival... I was used to point and shoot, not point try and shoot then realise you have no time so run away. It was an incredibly chilling moment, and it is also still creepy as hell when I replayed the game on my Xbox this year. The game admittedly loses a lot of creepy momentum as it progresses, with only a handful of jumpy or tense moments the rest of the way. The one thing this game does have is a great quality to build tension, even if sometimes it might not I've up to it properly.

BEST. CHARACTER. EVER.
BEST. QTE. EVER.



























So, the game is full of colourful characters. But I will neglect certain ones that become a chore after about 5 minutes (ASHLEY THE STUPID PRESIDENTS DAUGHTER WHO CANT THINK FOR HERSELF). Two of my favourite characters are the Merchant (left) and Krauser (right in red hat). The merchant is an enigma, travelling through the game you come across him several times and with his distinct cockney accent he asks you to take a look at his wares. Resi 4, for the first time in the series, allows you to upgrade and buy new weapons. The fact he always pops up and it is never explained, along with his distinct tone, giving players an atmosphere of safety made him a cult hit. He also brings a shooting range mini game that unlocks little mini statues. I can tell by now (unless you have played it) that you don't care, so lets move on to Jack Krauser. This mean fella was once a pal of Leon, meeting again in what has to be the best cutscene in the game. Krauser is a fan of knives you see... and it just so happens he is a dab hand with one. So you meet him in a knife fight, in a cutscene full of QTE's... quick time events for those uninitiated. I shall embed the video below so you can enjoy the movie quality exchange between two old friends. Krauser makes another appearance later on in the game, as he was infected with the same biological experiment injected into the villagers, known as Las Plagas. His arm turns all Alien and he becomes even more dangerous than expected. This guy is my favourite character in the game, purely because he is dangerous and damn cool as he does it.



^^ Thats not a knife, THATS a knife!!!


Robson Green Extreme Fishing my arse
Now an absence of zombies pissed people off when the game hit stores. BUT, Capcom managed to make up for the lack of flesh eater sin the form of crazy villagers, death obsessed priests and mad prisoners. But one of the other best things about the game is its bosses. i mentioned Baghead, the chainsaw fella, well meet his two twin sisters who both wield chainsaws and attack in one go. Or meet the ogre/troll that you face several times in the game, two at once in one part! These mini bosses are scary enough... but it is the unexpected bosses that taste that much sweeter. Take the lake crossing early on in the game. You find a boat and cross a huge lake to reach your destination, but you are met with a monster and a unique boss battle where all you need is a spike!!!


He wears a cloak sometimes..
Next is one of the right hand men for the middle sections boss. Ramon Salazaar is a midget with a big ego. But his henchmen, aka these scary looking bastards are even worse. You can't kill them with bullets, so when you face off with him down in cellar you are pushed to find new ways to attack him. He is a jammy lil dodger and will attack you from nowhere without any warning... HINT, use the canisters provided to freeze his ass!!









Free Hugs?


This beaut of a guy is what is known as a Regenerator. You meet him late on in the game, inside a surgery. He is just chilling on the table. As soon as you walk past him, he jumps up and attacks. He follows you everywhere, you can run but he will find you. If he gets close enough, see those spikes... well he implodes and you are killed instantly. Until you get a specific upgrade, these enemies are the bane of your life... and they will not die. Seriously, they chase you EVERYWHERE!!!! *SHUDDER*











So as you have noticed, I have kept away from the story more so than in any of my previous blogs, but I do that because if you can you should play it. Resident Evil 4 redefined the action genre when it was released, which if played now you could question, with tank controls and a clunky menu system. But this just adds to the tension. The game culminates in crazy action set pieces and really marks it out as a superior game. Like a film, the hero confronts the big villain in the closing moments, yet as in any good action film our hero should always be outmatched by the power of the villian. So in Resi 4 our big bad nasty man goes from priest with creepy stick to a cross between a stick insect and a crab.






















funny gifs
SO MINT.
After a battle, you are thrown an RPG... and you go all 'black guy in predator' on its ass. Not seen it, here is the scene with a Duck Hunt video game twist. And then the curtain closes on an incredible adventure. Or does it? The game then opens up its Mercenary mode, a time attack high score game where you use specific characters and try killing as many enemies as possible in a certain time. You can also unlock the story of Ada Wong. She (as well as having a hilarious name) is a mysterious character that pops up throughout the game...including that there video of the knife fight. Her story crosses paths with Leon's on several occasions without the player realising, and you get to the bottom of why she is there and what her true purpose is... very much an incentive to get involved and play through it!


After their adventure, this couple can never complain again!!
And so another blog comes to a close, hope you liked it. This is my favourite game ever, so i hope I did it justice. My next blog will be Grand Theft Auto 4, which will take a while due to the length and size of the game so bear with me. Please share and follow my blog site as I will continue to post blogs each week. Thanks for reading everyone.
WOOOOOOOOO
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