Game #1000: Resident Evil 4

  For number #1000 I'm brining out the big cheese.

 There are few games one can say that changed everything, but Resident Evil 4 is one such game. It revolutionized 3rd person shooters forever thanks to its innovative over-the-shoulder aiming, as well as changing Resident Evil, although some would say for worse. I wouldn't. I love me some classic Resident Evil, but I also love modern REvil.

 Resident Evil 4 says good bye to zombies, now you fight Spanish people possessed by Las Plagas, so sometimes that oh so satisfying head-shot pop may have the Plaga show its ugly, sharp head to attack you. Leon is not the most nimble hero, you can outrun your enemies, since they are even slower than you, but in order to shoot you must root yourself to the ground. It works really well, the aiming is fun and fighting enemies is fun. This game also introduced melee attacks, by hitting enemies in certain body parts(Head, Knees) they may enter a special stagger animation during which you can run up to them and press X for a powerful melee attack that works wonder to disperse enemies around you.    

 Furthermore, chests are a thing of the past, you get a single inventory and have to play tetris with the items you find. The game, on the basic difficulty setting, features an adaptive difficulty, the better you do, the more aggressive enemies will become and the stingier the game gets with pick ups. There were a few times in which I was cutting it close with ammo and herbs, but I never found myself out of anything. Alongside that, in this REvil you can upgrade your health via Yellow Herbs and spend money, dropped from enemies or containers, to upgrade your weapons, which was a brilliant addition.

 The game does have two points of contention. Firstly, it abuses QTEs. There are way too many, the worst one being a knife fight near the end of the game. Thankfully, the game is SO good I didn't mind them all that much, I got a few cheap deaths out of QTEs I wasn't expecting, but nothing too bad. The other point is... over half of the game is an escort mission, as you must protect Ashley. It's not too bad, really, usually you can find places to have her hide from enemies, and enemies are slow enough so they give you plenty of time to stop them from capturing them. Ashley and Leon are separated a few times throughout the adventure, and the game is definitely at its best when Ashley isn't in the picture, but trust me, it's not too bad.

 The game is very meaty. This was my 3rd playthrough, although the last time I played it was EONS ago, on my ol' Switch, and it still took me about 14 hours. And after you finish the game you unlock a mini-campaign with Ada, 'Separate Ways', a mini-game, also featuring Ada, 'Assignment Ada' and if that wasn't enough you unlock Mercenaries mode, with four stages and about 6 characters. Not to mention more weapons for New Game+ as well as costumes for Leon and Ashley. Needless to say, this is quite the game.

 The game features top-notch production values, the graphics and sound design are phenomenal, reminiscent of Silent Hill with its more brown and grainy textures, as well as the audio cues and what not. That said, this PS2 port is probably the weakest version on a home console. So, the controls are not as great as the ones on Wii, that's fair, but it still works REALLY well, but this one has easily the lowest quality textures. Not only that, cut-scenes are pre-rendered instead of being displayed in-engine. They look pretty sharp all things considered, but you'll see some pixels here and there. Look, it's Resident Evil 4 on the PS2 and it runs very smoothly, I'll take lower quality cutscenes if I need to!

 Resident Evil 4 is still every bit as good as it once was. I mean, I've never hated escort missions as much as other people, so I don't really mind the Ashley factor, that said, I am the number 1 QTE hater, but when the game is REALLY good, like the God of War series or this very game, I can take them. I'd be all up for a remaster that removes them though!

 10