Zombies and Football

Hello chums, it's Saikyo here. Where have I been lately? Well, it's World Cup time, and this is traditionally a time when Saikyo goes mad and sits in front of the TV for hours watching teams from obscure parts of the world play football. This doesn't leave a lot of time for FFXI, although rest assured as the tournament slows I will be back again.

I also have a new gaming fancy, which is Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube. One of the first games I ever owned on the PS1 was Resident Evil and since then I have been a big fan of the series. I still sometimes mutter "STAAAAAAARRRSSS" in a menacing voice in tribute to Nemesis from Resi Evil 3.

Resi Evil 2 was almost ruined for me by reading a review in some crap Playstation magazine which gave away about 90% of the shocks and set pieces. Morons. I managed to avoid such things for Resi Evil 4 so except for the fact it is meant to be good and quite different from the earlier games, I was pretty ignorant about it.

(MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW)

Well, having played it pretty heavily I can say that it is indeed a very good game. It is subtly different from the other Resi's in terms of control and features a few new features. (No ink ribbons for example, and none of the magic teleporting boxes that used to annoy me in the earlier games). It also lacks zombies - well, zombies in the traditional sense of the games. The deranged villagers are pretty much zombified although they do pack a few nasty surprises.

Maybe I'm rusty but it seems a bit harder than earlier Resi games. In those games, it was incredibly rare to get killed by zombies. Deaths came at the hands of bosses and some of the higher tier monsters (like Hunters in the first & third games) but hardly ever to the bog standard dead guys. Not so in Resi Evil 4 - the villagers have a few nasty tricks, and a couple of times I've fallen foul of them.

The game features 'reaction' cut scenes where you have to jam down a button or two to avoid immediate death. I really hate these; cunningly the buttons you have to press to dodge don't stay the same, so there's no simply memorising what buttons you need to press and mashing them. However, it is kind of annoying to die repeatedly in this fashion. A boss fight starts with an immediate dodge required or else instant death results - get past that and you still have to kill the boss himself. Bah. There's a continue system at least, although I assume overuse of continues will give me a bad rating.

Obviously the graphics are spiffy, special mention too for the sound. I have been playing with headphones on for extra atmosphere and in parts its very spooky indeed. Early on in the game a thunderstorm breaks overhead, and the rain / thunder sound absolutely awesome, great atmosphere.

On the other hand, the dialogue is absolutely rubbish, but thats nothing too surprising. Characters say and do the most ridiculous things and no one seems phased that the village the characters are in is Seriously Wrong. Still, Resi Evil has never been known for great dialogue and there aren't enough of these daft scenes to detract from the overall atmosphere, which remains very good.

Anyway, although I am enjoying the game immensely, its not really that different from the earlier games. It's a new enough twist to make everything fresh, but the basic gameplay remains the same. Considering Resi Evil games have always been very linear, its quite an achievement that they remain fun to play. There's a kind of horrible inevitability that the area you went through 30 minutes ago when it was empty will be full of blood drinking beasts when you return to it. And that's no bad thing!

So yes, Resi Evil 4 and the World Cup. It's a potent combination!