Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

...Of Evil

Resident Evil was first released on the Playstation many moons ago (1996, to be exact) and while it wasn’t the first survival horror game (that honour belongs to the French game, Alone In The Dark) it became the most famous survival horror game and practically kickstarted a genre that now includes games such as Silent Hill, Fatal Frame and a huge Resident Evil empire including an ungodly amount of sequels, remakes and ports, ...
...four years after the announcement, Resident Evil 4 was finally released on the GameCube. It turned out to be worth the wait, and has since gone on to be ported to the more successful PS2 with some sizable extras (much to the chagrin of Nintendo fans, who felt betrayed by the game’s director, Shinji Mikami, who claimed he would cut off his own head if the game was ever to be ported to the PS2; he has since apologised for the port) and awarded over ... more

Made a few edits and corrections here, including updating the section about 480p. Enjoy!

A Brief History Of Evil

Resident Evil was first released on the Playstation many moons ago (1996, to be exact) and while it wasn’t the first survival horror game (that honour belongs to the French game, Alone In The Dark) it became the most famous survival horror game and practically kickstarted a genre that now includes games such as Silent Hill, Fatal Frame and a huge Resident Evil empire including an ungodly amount of sequels, remakes and ports, movies, books, music and more.

Resident Evil 4 was first released in 2005 on the Nintendo GameCube after a long, convoluted development period that saw three early versions of the game scrapped (one of which being salvaged and turned into the PS2 action game, Devil May Cry) and numerous delays. It was part of a series of games called the ‘Capcom Five’ five brand new games, that would be exclusively available for the Nintendo Gamecube. One – Dead Phoenix – was cancelled early in development, and only one of the games, the critically panned and commercially comatose PN 03 remained on the GC. Still, four years after the announcement, Resident Evil 4 was finally released on the GameCube. It turned out to be worth the wait, and has since gone on to be ported to the more successful PS2 with some sizable extras (much to the chagrin of Nintendo fans, who felt betrayed by the game’s director, Shinji Mikami, who claimed he would cut off his own head if the game was ever to be ported to the PS2; he has since apologised for the port) and awarded over 30 Game Of The Year titles, and was recently voted the second greatest game of all time by readers of Edge magazine and various members of the video game industry (The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time on the Nintendo 64 came first, in case you were wondering).

So it was a pleasant surprise when Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition was announced in early 2007. At first just a rumour, it was soon confirmed by Capcom and it would be coming out fairly quickly and at a budget price! The game has gone on to sell quite well, sparking rumours of a Resident Evil 5 appearance on the Wii, which hasn't been denied by Mikami, in fact increased sales of this would be seen as an encouragement, so there's one reason to buy it.

Where’s Everybody Going... Bingo?

If you already own a version of Resident Evil 4, I’ll save you some time – The Wii edition is well worth buying, the added ‘waggle’ is mostly well implemented, and for GC owners, you’ll love the new extras.

For the millions who didn’t buy the game let’s have a look at why you should drop thirty of your (or your parents') incredibly well-earned pounds on this. Resident Evil 4 is set in Spain, 2004, six years after the events of Resident Evil 2. Leon Kennedy – once a rookie cop – is now a secret agent, trained by the US Government and has been set to Spain to rescue Ashley Graham, the president’s daughter who has been kidnapped by a bunch of creepy members of a cult called Los Illuminados. Along the way, Leon has to get past the locals -- the Ganados -- who are infected with a parasite called Las Plagas, which has taken over their bodies and determined to hack/burn/electrocute or otherwise maim Leon. Along the way you’ll explore villages, a gigantic castle, caves and various other locations as you try to keep Ashley save, and stop Los Illuminados from taking over the world.

It’s ridiculous, over the top, badly acted nonsense. It’s Resident Evil, and it’s brilliant. Some people may be put off by the cheesy dialogue and the even cheesier acting, but the gameplay and incredible set pieces more than make up for it.

Bye Bye, Tank Controls

Resident Evil 4 was notable upon its release, because it was the first Resident Evil that did away with the infamous ‘tank’ controls and fixed camera angles of the previous games in favour of an innovative and influential ‘over the shoulder’ view (Hideo Kojima has taken notice, and has a modified the technique for use in Metal Gear Solid 4, for the Playstation 3). The camera always remains behind Leon’s shoulder during combat, and moves slightly back and above to a more typical third person camera system when walking/running around. It makes the game completely unrecognisable as a Resident Evil title, and solves many of the problems in the previous games where you’d have trouble seeing what you were hitting. The controls are also a lot better than previous versions, and are almost perfect with the Wii Remote. You aim using the remote, a grey reticle is on screen whenever you’re holding a gun, and you use the remote's trigger button to draw a weapon. The reticle helps by changing colour depending on the status of a target – red for enemy, green for ally. The aiming, mostly fine in the GC version, but sometimes slightly clumsy, is now precision-perfect and much more immersive using the remote. With the lights off, and the curtains drawn on a late evening you really do feel like Leon blasting away some poor Spanish gits, and battles are much more tense and exciting using the remote.

The game also uses Shenmue-esque quick time events. This is basically a cut scene where an instruction to press a button with briefly flash on the screen, and you’ve got about a second and a half to react and press the button, lest a nasty event happens to Leon, killing him. The Wii version has slightly different ones. You have to shake the remote to run away from a boulder that’s rolling down a hill, intent on turning you into Leon paste. Shake the controller to swim away from a huge sea monster that’s about to make you dinner, and yes, shake the controller to stab your knife. It gets a little tiresome, because it’s neither intuitive nor fun.

The nunchuk is used for moving Leon about, or drawing his knife, which you use by slashing the remote. The controls for moving Leon around are still initially clumsy. You can't run and shoot, and you can't strafe, which may bug action junkies. They're also slightly hard to get your head around for the first fifteen to twenty minutes, because you expect the camera to move with the reticle, but it doesn't. However when you get used to it, it becomes second nature, and remarkably fluid.

Unfortunately – but understandably – you don’t have 1:1 control when using Leon's knife (as in, it doesn’t move exactly as you move, like the baseball bat in Wii Sports) but it’s slightly better than just pressing a button. Unlike the sword in The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess, or Red Steel, you only have a single type of slash, so it’s not as cool or immersive when swinging the remote, and truth be told, it becomes a little tiring after a while. Reloading is done by either pressing the D-Pad (which is a little out of place, and awkward to do) or by shaking the remote whilst drawing a gun. It's not an entirely logical motion, but it's fine, and you get used to it, and it's a slight improvement on using buttons.

The game never, ever feels boring, and there's always new environments to explore (each one more beautiful, and interesting to traverse) and new things to do, and new types of enemies to blast to bloody pieces. It's not shoot zombie, find key, open door, shoot zombie like previous RE games (although they did a fine job). Gone are the b-movie level shocks and jumps, now it's pure terror. And gore. Lots and lots of gore. And tentacles. The bosses and enemies get more and more over the top and grotesque, and there's even a boat you can race along on at incredible speeds.

Eye And Ear Candy.

Resident Evil 4 was easily the best looking game in 2005, and probably ever at the time. It really pushed the GC to the maximum. Combining a fantastic art direction (the characters and locations are just stunningly beautiful to look at, and you can tell years of effort and skill were poured into it) and still brilliant graphics (although not quite so brilliant if you own a 360 or PS3) with an immersive soundtrack and some truly frightening sound design, Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition is easily the best looking game on the Wii, and probably will be for a while. It’s a little disappointing knowing the Wii can handle games that look as pretty as this, and looking at the ‘effort’ put in by other developers. Not naming any names, Ubisoft, but some games are just disgracefully and needlessly ugly. If you’re a graphics whore and have been disappointed by the Wii’s output so far, you should be more than happy with RE4.

The game runs in 480p for those with expensive HD tellies, but the results aren't so good, at least on my television. With composite cables (the ones supplied with your Wii) the game looks very washed out, and too dark in areas. Fiddling with my settings didn't help much, and it really does take away from the experience a little. Upgrading to component cables and 480p does help somewhat, but there's still some areas that are a little too dark, and there's some unpleasant flickering in places. However, it could just be my crappy television. You mileage can and probably will vary. I’ve mostly played the game on an ancient CTR, and it STILL looks amazing, so it’s bound to look brilliant in 480p if you can manage to sort your settings.. For the first time, exclusive to this version, the game also runs in true 16:9 widescreen, except for the Mercenaries mode where there are small, but noticeable borders. Put simply, it’s beautiful. ‘nuff said.

Why You Should Buy It.

There’s various reasons for different people, really. For newcomers, you’re going to get a huge, 16+ hour action-adventure. Featuring some intense, amazing, terrifying and incredible set pieces and boss battles. You’ll be battling giant sea monsters, huge ogres and hordes of chainsaw/cattle-prod/axe-wielding enemies trying to blow you to bits. I’ve never played such an intense action game, and probably won’t until Resident Evil 5.

When you’ve completed the main game, a host of other modes are unlocked for you to dig in. There’s the slightly boring and borderline pointless side game, Ada’s Assignment. In this you control the mysterious Ada Wong, as she goes around various locations in the game collecting samples of the parasite for her boss. It might have been a decent little addition, but it’s made obsolete by the previously Playstation 2 exclusive mode, Separate Ways.

Separate Ways is where you really start to get your money’s worth. In this mode you get five new chapters to play as Ada Wong. It’s a side-story to the main game, and actions you do affect Leon in various ways in the main game. For example, when you first start the game as Leon, it seems like you’re going to get overwhelmed by some villagers, when a church bell suddenly rings mysteriously, causing the villagers to walk off in a hypnotised stupor. In Separate Ways, it’s your job as Ada to ring that bell and rescue Leon from a grisly fate. I won’t spoil the mode any further, but it’s a brilliant addition, and easily adds about three or four hours game time, and features a brilliant section about a boat where you get your hands on some VERY heavy artillery. It’s not merely Ada wondering about in locations Leon has been in, you get to explore brand new areas, and use some new weapons and items, including a crossbow and Ada’s hookshot gun. Each chapter you finish gets you some additional info on Ada’s background, why she’s doing what she’s doing, and just who she’s working for. If you’re really into the story, it’s sort of interesting, but mostly skippable filler.

Another mode is Mercenaries, where Resident Evil 4 suddenly turns into a high score-oriented shoot ‘em up. Playing initially only as Leon (you can go on to unlock four other characters and levels) you have a short time limit in which you have to blast away as many enemies as possible. When you're being chased by a double-chainsaw-wielding maniac, frantically trying to save your skin as well as your high score, it can really get quite intense, and I feel satisfyingly sick after finally beating this mode after narrowly managing not to get my head sawn off. It’s a fun little distraction, but quite hard and isn’t just a throw away mode.

Other bonuses include a movie browser that allows you to watch any of the cut scenes again, if you’d want to do such a thing. Unlike the scenes during the game, these are FMV and so long a little bit blurrier and not quite as good. The PS2 exclusives like the costumes and weapons are all here (but there’s no new costumes, unfortunately). The bonus costumes add some unintentional amusement, however. During the game you may be wearing a policeman’s uniform, but when a cut scene comes on, you’ll suddenly be wearing a brown coat and when it’s game time game you’ll magically be wearing the uniform again. It’s odd and slightly distracting, but you’ll get over it.

Is It Really The Second Greatest Game Of All Time?

I don’t know about that, but I will say this is definitely the best action game I’ve ever played. The difficulty scale is absolutely perfect, and the game design is almost Nintendo-esque in its perfection. There’s never any time where I scream at the came for clumsy design, or pure unfairness – just when something particularly horrific is unfolding on-screen. Capcom have refrained from adding any pointless gimmicks or mini-games to this version, instead combining the brilliant graphics of the GC version, the excellent additions to the PS2 version, and combined them to make if not the greatest game, or second greatest game of all time, certainly the greatest action game of all time, and certainly the best the Wii has to offer at the moment. And all for £30. You would be mad as a Las Plagas-infected Spanish villager not to immediately snap this up and spend all weekend playing it. Seriously, £30. Why are you still reading this? Order it. Now. 

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