Game Debate #25: Resident Evil 4

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

 

[ifightdragons | 234]

First half was a great, and fresh experience. During the latter parts, it started to feel like a chore.

[Hammerfestus | 3,823]

It’s been a while but I really enjoyed it. It was the first one and last one I’d played since RE2 until Biohazard.

[cj_robot | 540]

It was a really good game, but I definitely didn't love it as much as everyone else at the time. I enjoyed my time with it, but I'm not dying to replay it any time soon.

 

 

[DoctorEncore | 3,690]

6/10 for me. I played this about fifteen years after release and wasn't particularly impressed. I tried to judge it based on its contemporaries, but still found it pretty boring. It sure did get a ton of love on release though.

Edited November 27, 2020 by DoctorEncore

[Webhead123 | 675]

I picked it up on GC on release and it certainly blew me away. At the time, I would have given it a 9/10. It had a few annoyances but the overall experience was pretty amazing for its time. I went back to replay it a few months ago and it certainly feels a bit clunkier today but there's still a lot of enjoy about it. Some of the late-game areas are a real slog. I'd give it an 7.5-8/10 today and still think it's worth a play, even if you don't finish it.

Also, in hindsight, QTE's are one of the most annoying things to happen to modern gaming and RE4 helped popularize them. 

Edited November 27, 2020 by Webhead123

[Brickman | 3,982]

I went with a 7 but could see why it is also an 8.

It has a strong start but the second half really dragged for me. I also hated the QTE and hate that this game helped popularised them.

Everyone definitely needs to play it at least once though. 

[Californication | 1,477]

Should have played it before picking it up on three consoles. - 6

[MegaMan52 | 2,441]

The GameCube version still holds up after all these years.

Edited November 27, 2020 by MegaMan52

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

Meh... 5. This feels like one of those games I just played at the wrong time. Dragged through it and never really had interest in replaying it even though I didn't really dislike it. I found the game to be drab and muddy even though that's likely intentional. I definitely found it a little too long for what it is. Didn't really like the merchant and inventory changes. 

[erac | 78]

It is the best RE to me, and playing it on the Wii, aiming with wiimotes is excellent. Beats controller stick aiming heads down.

[rdrunner | 422]

Never played (and I don't do survival horror).

[AstralSoul | 502]

So right off the bat I think RE4 is a 10. For many years it was one of my favorite games of all time and certainly my favorite RE. However once the RE2 remake came out that changed. RE4 didn't look like the perfect RE game anymore. But I will say it's still amazing, RE or not.

[SpoonMan Abrams X | 697]

5/10

It was good for what it was, but never really got me hooked. By this point they were really seeming to settle into what would come to define the series for years to come, and not in good ways.

Still alright for a playthrough or two

[Jeevan | 8,909]

Stopped after RE 2 

Probably won't play this, but I wouldn't be opposed to it.

[Gutling | 31]

5 from me. I never understood the hype over it, bland to me. re2 will remain king to me 

[Kguillemette | 1,543]

Never been a resident evil fan. Never played, never will.

 

[Renmauzo | 1,198]

6/10 for me. I enjoyed the game on release, played it again for the extra content when released on PS2, and that was the last time I ran through it.

I liked the mechanical changes to the game, but the two main reasons I've never bothered to go back to this game are the same reasons I don't go back and re-play any of the RE games that came after: I'm not really a fan of the change from a virus to a parasite. I know there's a little more to it than that, but I really do prefer the story and intrigue of the first three games. The other reason is ease; I found this game to be too easy, and in general, most of the games post-4 make the characters feel too powerful and the sense of being on edge was lost for me after 3.

[TDIRunner | 2,727]

I've never played through the game myself, but I remember watching my college roommate play it on his GameCube and thinking that it looked like a pretty cool RE game despite being pretty different from the original formula.  I remember thinking that it was more of an action game than survival horror, but I was ok with that at the time.  I think that it still had just enough elements of survivor horror for me to be ok with it.  RE 5 and 6 went too far into the action genre for my liking.  I've seen enough of the game to feel that I would probably rate it a 6 or 7 if I played it, but I can't ever imagine liking it more than 1 and 2.  However, since I haven't actually played it myself, I won't give it an official rating.  It's still a goal of mine to get through this game someday.   

[Gloves | 11,761]

8.

I first played it on PS2, so my experience included all the improvements that came with that version.

I found it very replayable with the unlockable and everything, and I loved the silly playthroughs with Leon using an infinite ammo Tommy Gun, and Ashley in a fuckin suit of armor. Just hilarious. 

The proverbial shark jump happened in 5; 4 was a great mix of kitch and horror, while 5+ went way too far down the action lane. There's nothing to be scared of when you have watermelon arms, lookin at you, Chris. 

[MagusSmurf | 577]

10/10.

RE2 and RE3 were good but I always felt like they were missing something. These aren't really action games so the combat not feeling great is acceptable but I dunno, I didn't think their inventory management or route planning are particularly involved or awesome either. Other aspects of the games helped fill the hole somewhat, but while they did fairly good on the atmosphere, they can't really match the Silent Hill games or their own later REmake. And the story in this series certainly has never provided much worth caring about. Additionally, even in Hard Mode RE2 had basically no difficulty whatsoever past the very beginning if you even halfway know what you're doing. RE4 solved the problem for me by actually making combat fun and maintaining the spooky atmosphere where appropriate while tossing in a ridiculous amount of cheese. Preventing you from running and shooting at the same time helped maintain some of the tension from the more limited combat in earlier games. Also liked what they did with Inventory. Even the motion controls in the Wii version are good, to the point that they arguably imbalance the game a bit because you probably shouldn't be able to aim as quickly and precisely as they allow you to.

Quick time events suck, though.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

I'll give it an 8, as far as that genre is concerned.

I would love to have RE1 with RE4 controls, since too much of the difficult in RE1 is simply bad play control.

RE4 has some of the best 3rd-person play control of any game, on any system.