Resident Evil 4 - Wii
This is my second game review on this site. I've also finished a Pikmin 1 since my last review but I will probably do a double review with the second game later.
Failing at being a horror game, more a horror themed action game re4 was really good. One of the biggest turnoffs for me when playing old games is how they handle death and lives, especially if it means repeating large portions of the game after failing.
Luckily it saves itself from a lives system and just resets the player to the start of the combat encounter when you die. In what was going to be re4, the original Devil May Cry, lives are handled a lot worse with you needing a special item to respawn or you have to start the whole mission over, really breaking the flow of the game
I'm glad most modern games do away with life systems because they really don't have much value in a lot of games cough Mario cough. Not to say they can't be used well, just most games don't.
Rant aside, the tank controls and pointer aiming of the Wii version add a lot of tension to each fight. The game has been tuned around the player's move set so each encounter feels really tense because of the control that's taken away from the player. For example, you can't move while aiming so you have to aim fast so you can move again and dodge attacks.
The ammo system is also super well balanced. You can't just use a single weapon the whole game because you don't get enough ammo. You have to keep cycling through your whole arsenal which keeps variety in combat.
There were random quick time events with motion controls but at least the fail animations were funny.
The writing was also so silly. Leon really says "women ☕️" at one point. The dialogue was still sincere though so the characters were fun to watch with most of the comedy coming out of either the cheesiness or the characters acting completely normal while being presented with McDonalds toys of everyone they know speaking lines like it's been compressed through a wiimote speaker.
Complaints
Some of the bosses are a little tedious. Just damage sponges that require nothing more than unloading all of your ammo on them until they flop over. Most of them were really good though.
Flash grenades are also borderline useless. Only after searching up what they do did I realise they could be used against the parasites.
Final thoughts
This was my first RE game after being a dmc fan for a while and I can totally see where the inspiration comes from. Feels like an old action movie. You should totally play it, but I would totally recommend playing on the Wii with motion controls if you can. One day I will play the remake (once I get something that can run it well) and the vr mode (if I ever get a headset). vr headsets are so annoying because different headsets have whole ranges of different exclusives. Re4 remake vr is only on PSVR2 which is too expensive :( I wish that all vr games were just cross-platform given how small the library of games is overall.
Capcom also has so many good games I need to play still. Maybe okami or monster hunter? Kunitsu-gami looks really unique too... and ghost trick.
9/10
Remember, my opinion is objectively true and if your opinion differs from mine you are wrong.
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