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Resident Evil 4
01/05/2005 . Source: Jonathan Shewry 
Computer Game: pub: Capcom. Developer: Production Studio 4. Format: Gamecube (Playstation 2 version release t.b.c.). Price: £29.99 - £39.99 (UK). Buy Resident Evil 4 in the USA - or Buy Resident Evil 4 in the UK  check out website: www.capcom.com
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The term 'interactive movie' has struck fear into the ailing hearts of gamers everywhere for years, even when it was still fresh. So it's ironic that now it has taken on the rotten bouquet of one of Capcom's shambling undead, they've released a game that really shows what can be done with the genre.
You play Leon Kennedy, who long-term fans will recognise from the second game, 'Resident Evil 2', in the series and that's about it for the old, so what's new? Leon is now a 'government agent' who has been sent to a remote European location to locate the kidnapped daughter of the president and revealing any of the games other plot points would constitute a spoiler. Like any good Science Fiction or horror film, it's better enjoyed with all of its twists and turns firmly intact.
All of the games wildly varied locations are fantastically well realised. The opening one is no exception and arguably its most atmospheric: a remote Spanish forest whose silence is broken only by Leon's harsh, ragged breathing, the distant calls of the Spanish speaking locals, blackbirds and the occasional chattering of a chainsaw for cutting back the obligatory bizarrely limbed and spooky looking trees only of course...
Its running and dodging through these trees for the first time that you realise just how quick this game is compared to previous ones in the series. The camera hovers over Leon's shoulder as he trots along at a brisk pace, his soon to be replaced handgun gripped in both hands and you feel like you are in the action like never before.
The gun can be potentially replaced with a large number of other weapons that are essential when on a mission as important as this: more powerful handguns, shotguns, sniper rifles, etc. Here lays one of the games most innovative and welcome changes because throughout the game you are given the opportunity to upgrade your shooting-iron of choice, as opposed to just replacing it. This means that you can choose your favourites in the first few hours of play and continue to bond with and develop them resulting in a small but devastatingly powerful portable armoury towards the end of the game.
In common with the rest of the game, each weapon is impeccably modelled and animated. Each one comes with its own unique, extremely well realised, just slightly to drawn out reloading animation that results in some deliciously tense moments as you get all fumbly with the shotgun shells and the enemy hordes press irrevocably forwards...
Enemies this time around may not be what you were expecting, though some of them don't stray to far away from the formula already established in previous games. One area in which some of them do, however, is self-preservation. They often appear quite reluctant to just obediently walk onto the end of your laser-sight, which all weapons come equipped with. It's genuinely scary when things do start to get a bit busy just how quickly they can suddenly be on your left, right or behind you, hungry fingers and teeth reaching for your throat. This is only added to by the lack of a strafe ability, forcing you to move, shoot, move, shoot, as well as use some of the hand-to-hand combat techniques that are part of Leon's repertoire of survival skills. Again, you feel more in the action than ever before and quite often you have to wait until you can see the blood and gristle buried between the teeth before you can pull the trigger or slash the knife. Just occasionally, they do something that really makes you sit up and think, Did I just see what I thought I saw??
Any survival horror game obviously needs scares and this game achieves them in a variety of ways. The least of which are those difficult to define gaming moments when all elements of the gaming engine conspire to take you beyond the technical limits of the chosen genre and the platform that its played out on so that you feel that you're experiencing something genuinely special. Wading through the reeds at the fringes of a waist deep lake, mist clinging to its surface when a flash of lightning reveals a solitary silhouette ahead, its arm upraised and holding a sickle, approaching a lone Blair Witch-style cottage in the woods when the game cuts to reveal somebody watching you from between the wooden planks covering its windows. All standard horror movie tropes but handled with real style and panache. The cinematic reference points are different here than in previous games. The aforementioned 'Blair Witch Project' very much present, as is 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 'Friday The 13th', 'Mimic' and any number of infamous genre movies can be spotted, even including a cheeky and effective but over all to quick reference to the first 'Resident Evil' movie itself.
So are we 'talking 'bout a revolution?' That may be hyperbole but the choices that have been made for this game are incredibly canny and effective ones, demonstrating an intelligence that is apparently leaps ahead of other current games developers and publishers courting your cash and your attention at the moment. Even with the incredible graphics, arguably the best to be seen on the current generation of consoles, any pretensions to 'realism' are, of course, lost because of the essentially ludicrous nature of the plot and the occasionally hammy voice acting. Despite this, however, in breathing new life into the survival horror genre let's hope Capcom have guaranteed their own survival and the survival of this series. In attempting to do so, they've created an interactive playing experience that is by turns scary, funny, exciting and relentlessly enjoyable and one which despite its linear nature cries out to be played again. Gamecubes can be picked up very cheaply these days and it's absolutely worth investing in one just to play this.
Jonathan Shewry
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