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LTTP: Resident Evil 4 – Why is this considered the best RE game?

It really stepped up the bar in terms of how a game placed you in its atmospheric world. Along with the really detailed enemy interaction mechanics (sounds like you played on Normal and didn't use any close combat attacks, OP?) it was a recipe for classic – at the time.

Looking back, an insane amount of games have copied Resident Evil 4's innovations, and have broadly done the same things far better. So it's no surprise you found it very underwhelming.

It was the first game to use a horizontally level over the shoulder camera to place us in a slow-paced survival-action-focused world, with relatively open areas we could explore at our own pace, and lots of secrets/collectibles placed in the world. It was also the first survival-action game to tie in subtle collectibles and clever crowd management mechanics.

But yes, other games have done it better. And going back, it's not very impressive at all.
 
SargerusBR said:
Its a great action game and the best modern RE. But overall, REmake is still the best of the franchise.
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First post gets it.

1. REmake
2. RE2
3. RE3
4. RE4
5. RE (probably would rate higher with me if I hadn't played 2 and 3 first)

I haven't played the other mainline games.
 
Magic Mushroom said:
Such as?
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I don't necessarily mean these are better games, but they definitely smoothed out the mechanics and experience as a whole in their own ways, using the same sorts of techniques:

- Resi 5
- Resi Revelations 2:
- Dead Space
- The Last of Us
- Souls

May be others I can't remember.

I adore Resi 4, it's one of the GOATs in my opinion, but I can see how people who've played any of the above could go back to it and feel a bit 'nyeh' about it. It's like a skeleton draft of some of these later games.

Fitts said:
First post gets it.

1. REmake
2. RE2
3. RE3
4. RE4
5. RE (probably would rate higher with me if I hadn't played 2 and 3 first)

I haven't played the other mainline games.
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I agree. FYI 5 and 6 are fantastic games just as fun romps, but you sort of have to switch off the 'Resident Evil' expectations your mind has.

Also if you play Resident Evil Revelations 2 with another person, solely as a co-op game, it's fucking brilliant. Up there with 2 and 4 imho, but again, only as co-op. Singleplayer it's not very good at all.
 
SomTervo said:
I don't necessarily mean these are better games, but they definitely smoothed out the mechanics and experience as a whole in their own ways, using the same sorts of techniques:

- Resi 5
- Resi Revelations 2:
- Dead Space
- The Last of Us
- Souls

May be others I can't remember.

I adore Resi 4, it's one of the GOATs in my opinion, but I can see how people who've played any of the above could go back to it and feel a bit 'nyeh' about it. It's like a skeleton draft of some of these later games.
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Souls is a completely different game. None of the others - while really good games (though 5 is lacking) - offer the sheer variety, amazing pacing and wonderfully thought out encounter design of RE4. They do some things really well and stick to it, but man, Resi 4 has:

- A open village sandbox in which you could go into every house, climb ladders (and throw them down), throw yourself through windows, fights on rooftops, barricade doors and shotgun a chainsaw wielding maniac in the face. That precision aiming, the hit reactions, the crowd control and the way you could set up enemies for melee attacks are still in a league all of its own.

- A boss fight on a boat in a lake against a Cthulu-esque creature, complete with its own mechanics.

- A cabin siege, in which you had to defend multiple entry points

- A wonderfully tense bit in which you had to defend a girl with a sniper rifle

- A mine cart chase to rival Temple of Doom. You even fought enemies inside the cart.

- A switch to another playable character, with none of Leons tools

- A knife fight

- Enemies that required different tactics, from the Regenerator to Resi's own version of the Predator to a clawed monstrosity that hunts by sound.

- A jet ski escape.

I could go on and on, but apart from its wonderful moment to moment gameplay, it also kept changing things up, going from one wonderful set-piece to another without repeating itself.

It's one of the true greats of gaming and I was happy that Edge picked it as the number 2 game of all time (behind Ocarina).
 
I like 5 better than 4 as well. If 4 had the same pacing, controls, mechanics but was scarier, it would be better in my opinion. Instead it felt like an action game where you couldn't action.
 
Resident Evil 4 was a good game, I enjoyed it. Yet it was a forgettable experience. A very weak plot for my taste, and definitely not what I expected from the praise this game has gotten.
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Thank. YOU.

I did a playthrough of the entire RE lineup to outline where the series went to hell and I was able to confirm that I *still* don't understand why this is considered one of the greatest games of all time.

Overrated to hell and back.
 
Magic Mushroom said:
Souls is a completely different game. None of the others - while really good games (though 5 is lacking) - offer the sheer variety, amazing pacing and wonderfully thought out encounter design of RE4. They do some things really well and stick to it, but man, Resi 4 has:
[snip]
I could go on and on, but apart from its wonderful moment to moment gameplay, it also kept changing things up, going from one wonderful set-piece to another without repeating itself.

It's one of the true greats of gaming and I was happy that Edge picked it as the number 2 game of all time (behind Ocarina).
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I totally agree man, I'm on your side on this. A handful of the things you mentioned have been done by other games, like Dead Space had loads of enemy types which required drastically different tactics, and The Last of Us has a few of these aspects, too, which it also out-performs Resi 4 at.

What none of the games I listed achieved is the freedom of movement - as you mentioned, entire buildings you can go into and out of and around, etc. The Last of Us and Revelations 2 capture this quite a few times. But Resi 4 definitely nailed it.

Also, Souls' level design is very like Resi's. It's long-form adventure in a limited open world, and like Resi, many of the buildings/locations in Souls can be explored in a very three-dimensional way. However, you're right, any comparisons aside from that are invalid.

The most important thing is how much its heritage is clear in a lot of modern games. And that's clearly a key reason Edge placed it at #2 – which I agree with in that sense, too.

It might be a curious comparison to make, but I've got a feeling Metal Gear Solid V is going to be another step in game-changing gameplay detail, especially re the level design and setpieces. Apparently townships you explore can go from stealth/action spaces into survival horror spaces in the blink of an eye when certain enemy types dynamically/randomly show up.
 
I wouldn't call it the best but it's my favorite.

HippieHobo said:
I hate to say this, but I don’t think Resident Evil 4 is a great game at all. In fact it feels like a less polished less refined, a rough draft of Resident Evil 5. So many elements of Resident Evil 4 are present in 5.

Call me cray but for me, Resident Evil 6 and 5 were some of the best in the series (not the best, but some of the best), and Leon’s Campaign in RE6 is one of the best moments in the Resident Evil franchise. But I guess that’s another topic for another day.
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I feel the opposite. If you think about the level design in RE4, you play from start to finish sequentially; the challenge being 'can you maintain your supplies?' It's not realistic survival or anything (the 'supplies' are arcade magic drops from crows and pitchfork wielding not-zombies) but it's very satisfying and feels balanced and challenging at least to some challenge.

RE5 by comparison allowed you to replay levels, obviously it's optional so you could still do a straight run, but the temptation is to just replay chapters and harvest for massive quantities of items. It also feels disjointed, there's no anxiety or tension leading to the ending because you zap in and out of chapters risk free.

RE6, of what I played, was so slow and heavily scripted; yet there was a fun but janky control scheme (elbow zombies in the face!). I'll get back to it and finish it at some point, it seemed fun but very sloppy.
 
Inmy opinion cause it was new, it was the switch between traditional RE. It was an evolution to the serie. Like CoD4 was for Call of Duty.

All the games afters RE4 and CoD4 were more an add on than a completly new game.
 
Amazingly fun action game, great atmosphere. Really interesting locations.
The plot is super weak and silly, but the game is just one of the most fun experiences. The freedom of the village at the start, the ways to counter the enemies. The giant and extreme boss battles. Really awesome.

As a Resident Evil title I'm #TeamClassicRE, but RE4 stands out in it's own way. Just the whole design of the game from start to finish is so awesome. I tried RE5 but it threw out all the subtlety that made RE4 so atmospheric. Amongst the action and silly plot, they still made it creepy and eerie with a sense of dread in places. I really love how the art was incorporated at places, and just the art direction in general is flawless.
 
SomTervo said:
I totally agree man, I'm on your side on this. A handful of the things you mentioned have been done by other games, like Dead Space had loads of enemy types which required drastically different tactics, and The Last of Us has a few of these aspects, too, which it also out-performs Resi 4 at.
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Dead Space and The Last of Us don't have near the variety of enemies RE4 does. Halfway through Dead Space you start seeing the same enemy types, only a different color with bigger health bars. The Last of Us relies more on level designs to use its small sum of enemies to create new and interesting encounters despite not have much diversity on the enemy front. RE4 is constantly introducing new enemy types and variations throughout the entirety of its very long campaign.
 
Melchiah said:
Just like some old Silent Hill / Tomb Raider / Mass Effect / Halo fans were, when the series took a different direction than they would have hoped. Kinda odd thing to love.
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It's funny because the attitude in that post he was bafflingly pervasive. The older Resident Evil games are easy, fairly simplistic games, and require no more thought than the later ones (and this is coming from someone who likes 1, 2, and REmake a lot). So it's kind of embarrassing to see fans of the older games complain about the series being dumbed down, or try to make it seem like fans of the later games are lesser players. It's perfectly understandable to say "the later Resident Evil games don't appeal to me like the earlier ones did" but the bitterness in that post is laughable.
 
I agree mostly. If it had been a new IP, all of my complaints with it would become irrelevant. I enjoyed the game a LOT, but only because I've always enjoyed action-packed shootbang games, in addition to slower-paced survival horror games. But I don't like the two mixed together - they are inherently contradictory to me and it just doesn't work well. When I'm in the mood to shoot things I don't play Resident Evil, I play TF2. When I'm in the mood for some fun scares, I don't want to play RE4, I want to play REmake.

I consider Code Veronica a much, much better *actual horror* game than RE4. And that one seems to be reviled by a lot of the fanbase for some reason. Heh

JimmyJones said:
It's considered the best by people who were too scared to play the originals.
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This guy gets it.
 
Bizarre. RE4 was the first RE game I played properly and I played it for the first time last year. I think it is one of the best games ever made. The way you criticise the opening scenes, which I would personally call one of the best openings in any game, make me think that me and you just have incredibly different tastes.
 
First if you are not playing it on Wii you are doing it wrong in my opinion.

I played 1, 2, Code Veronica, and 4. And I liked them all.

4 is also praised because it was the first one that brought a different angle on how the game should be played with a new view.

I also think it got praised a lot because this game involves lots of different situations. Outside, in a swamp on a boat, running away from big monster, in a castle, manage another character etc.

That you want it or not it's a great game nonetheless. It would be like saying Mario N64 is not as great as everyone says it is because Mario Galaxy trumps it in many ways.
 
Tbh, RE4, Remake and RE2 will be a tie for the best RE titles imo.

Cant forget that moment where you have to fend off the ganados from all angles in that small building with Luis sera.

Also that moment with the plaga spawned from the head of the ganado. That's when you know you have to change that decapitation tactic.

And those sneaking behind the blind garrador so you can fire at the weak spot.

And that moment when you bring el gigante to its knee, then climbing onto its back and slashing at the exposed plaga.

Lots of memorable moments in RE4 here.
 
I'm a contrarian in most regards. If a hyped game is less than perfect I'm disappointed. Conversely, if a shit game is average I'm happy with it. A good example is my dislike of ME2 and my affection for ME3. While objectively the games aren't that much different from each other, the hype created around them effected my opinion.

With that said, RE4 and RE5 lived up to their reputation. RE4 had excellent level design and enemy placement. Most notably the cabin level was extremely well done. Forcing you to switch weapons because reloading took too long. What magnificent pacing they created all throughout that game. 'Wutcha buyin' I loved that guy.

So I heard RE5 was a shit game. But hey, it can't be as bad as people say if it's anything like RE4, right? Wrong, the worst part about 5 was the girl you had to micromanage. Suddenly I'm not worried about rationing the health sprays and ammo for just myself. I have to ration it for an uncontrollable and shitty AI. More than anything else I think that's what damaged the pacing, level design, and enemy placement the most. Because you had to deal with her RNG elements, they couldn't properly pace the game.

Edit: I hated RE1 through Code Veronica. I bought most of those titles in a Dreamcast bundle off ebay back in the day. So I'm not even an RE fan. Talking about the originals vs RE4. RE4 is completely different than those titles and for the better. Mostly because the camera is in a 3rd person view and you get infinite saves. God, I hated the old school RE camera.
 
It's accessible and less trivial than the previous games and is also overall really well designed. REmake is the best RE game though but it's always fun to run through RE4 a few times every few years. Wii version w/ GC controls were just too good.
 
"I hate to say this, but I don’t think Resident Evil 4 is a great game at all. In fact it feels like a less polished less refined, a rough draft of Resident Evil 5. So many elements of Resident Evil 4 are present in 5"

This is just plain wrong. There's not a game in existence that is more polished than RE4. Even in extremly well-rounded games like The Last of Us, in just the right spot, you can occasionally see it fall apart at the seams. I have played RE4 upwards of 10 times and I've never seen it behave in unexpected or broken way. It is the definition of polish.

Not to mention, RE5 uses RE4 as a crutch in it's design every step of the way. And when it doesn't, the result is something horribly misguided like dubious partner AI or half-baked cover based shooting.
 
Whenever I see someone saying RE4 has bad controls all I read is "I can't strafe and move
like in other TPS, this sucks!". RE4 was built around tank controls, "in place" aiming and an over the shoulder aiming camera. Everything is tailor made to that type of movement, that type of aiming and that camera.

It has nothing to do with "you had to be there" and it has nothing to do with not being able to finish the old RE games, RE4 is simply a masterpiece where everything is meticulously designed, balanced and crafted.
On the subject of being the best RE, well, it's so different from classic RE, I hardly think you can compare them.
 
TropicanaTwista said:
Loved 4, the wii version. I feel like it might not be a popular opinion but I loved playing it on the wii.
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It's completely fair. Anybody says something against it has either not tried it out or is deliberately narrow-minded in his/her point of view. The game complemented the control scheme without taking away the skill level and disrupting the game experience to fit into the control scheme. The wii-mote just so happens to be perfectly utilized for the experience.
 
Man, playing RE4 now, 10 years after release, 10 years of playing some of the innovations since RE4, thats tough.

At the time, it was an amazing game and very fun, controls and all. Compared to RE5 and 6, it is still my favorite.

I disagree with but I understand your point. Some games don't play as well today compared to what we are playing now.
 
For its time it was the best game ever, since it was so fresh, and a new take on survival horror with third person shooting, and the graphics were stunning, but that was 11 years ago, evil Within is what resident evil 5 should have been, just needed more polish, and better shooting controls.
 
HippieHobo said:
For all the disdain that Resident Evil 6 got for its QTE’s, I never felt that in 6 the QTE’s were as annoying as 4.
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RE6 has "look, parachutes!". RE4 does not.

The QTEs in RE6 are just thrown in without reason or consistancy. They don't achieve anything when used so sporadically, the tension they create doesn't gel at all with the tone of the game, and they just don't work in co-op.
 
InsaneTiger said:
Man, playing RE4 now, 10 years after release, 10 years of playing some of the innovations since RE4, thats tough.

At the time, it was an amazing game and very fun, controls and all. Compared to RE5 and 6, it is still my favorite.

I disagree with but I understand your point. Some games don't play as well today compared to what we are playing now.
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What? I just played it again a few months ago and it still plays better and is better designed than pretty much every action/TPS game that has come out since.
 
I keep trying to get into RE with RE4. I don't know why. I have the Wii and Steam versions. I get into a phase where I want to play it and I really try. Then I start playing and I find the beginning difficult but not because it's super challenging but because of tank controls. People seem to love tank controls, I guess. I've heard it's supposed to add to the tension or something like that? That seems insane to me. Being difficult to control just frustrates me. Plus, if a bunch of infected or zombies were coming at me I can guarantee you I wouldn't stand in one spot, turn around to run, turn back around, fire, and do it again. I don't remember if you can move or slowly move and shoot in this game but that's one of my biggest issues with any game with tank controls. But I still want to beat this game. Like anything, I'm sure I can get used to it with enough time.
 
Fanuilos said:
I view it as RE4 is to the Resident Evil series as Ocarina of Time is to Zelda or Mario 64 is to Mario games. Sure they haven't aged perfectly, but they changed the way the industry looked at the series AND their respective genre.
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This.

Hobo, this thread saddens me. It's a bit of a mess.
 
This game is great, but not as a Resident Evil game, rather the genre defining masterpiece, which set down the path for modern TPS, hell any shooter games. But mainly because of that, it is also considered to be the best RE game, which it arguably isn't. I bet true fans would say RE 2 without hesitation... or REmake. Loosing it's roots, it simply cannot be the best in something, that is entirely different.
 
Taruranto said:
A lot of 4 fans didn't play old RE or hated them.
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A lot of RE4 fans played the old RE games and loved them.

Also, the people that were bitching then, and still bitching about how RE4 is not a "real" Resident Evil game because of how much it changed must have either forgotten about, or had not played all of the previous games. The formula was super stale by the time RE4 was released. Plus, the classic formula peaked with RE2 before REmake (which was more of just a huge facelift than anything).
 
It's not the best 'Resident Evil' game neccessarily (no real survival elements, not 'real zombies', etc) - but it is easily the best game in the franchise. RE4 drew the attention of a lot of people who weren't in love with the original games - and innovated the action game space in some key ways. It's also got outstanding atmosphere, and some awesome set piece moments.
 
Phil-NeoGAF said:
I would classify Dead Aim and Outbreak as trash titles, compared to the rest of the series. But you know what's crazy? I actually had fun playing them both.
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I had a lot of fun with the Outbreak titles. I really wish I had the opportunity to play them online. I know the servers are back by fans but it's a lot of work. I had it going once.
 
zma1013 said:
Dead Space and The Last of Us don't have near the variety of enemies RE4 does. Halfway through Dead Space you start seeing the same enemy types, only a different color with bigger health bars. The Last of Us relies more on level designs to use its small sum of enemies to create new and interesting encounters despite not have much diversity on the enemy front. RE4 is constantly introducing new enemy types and variations throughout the entirety of its very long campaign.
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Sorry, that was badly written on my part. When I said The Last of Us I was referring to other elements on his list.

Also, my Dead Space comment actually mainly referred to Dead Space 2. 2 is when they started introducing tons more enemy types, some of which you only see near the end of the game. And they're mixed up in lots of ways. Dead Space 3 did this too. Lots and lots of enemy types who require some different tactics.
 
Sanctuary said:
A lot of RE4 fans played the old RE games and loved them.

Also, the people that were bitching then, and still bitching about how RE4 is not a "real" Resident Evil game because of how much it changed must have either forgotten about, or had not played all of the previous games. The formula was super stale by the time RE4 was released. Plus, the classic formula peaked with RE2 before REmake (which was more of just a huge facelift than anything).
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Agreed.
In the time frame from 1996 (RE1 release) to 2002 (REmake and RE0) we had 7 classic RE releases if we count CVX. I think that can be considered as milking and of course the formula got stale by that point.
 
The pacing praise for 4 is always what bothered me. The game starts to fall apart halfway into the castle imo.

I also think it's disingenuous to dis 5 for being too actiony when 4 wasn't really scary either.
 
I love RE4.

The first few times I attempted to play it, I had most of the same issues at the OP. I thought it was overrated and I never really got too far into the story.

Then last year I decided to give the game one more shot. And, I dunno....something clicked. I fell in love with it. I hated the game play controls on my first few playthroughs but then they became something that I loved. It just adds to the overall atmosphere. I played the game back-to-back-to-back and I never do that with any game.

I played REmake on Gamecube about a month later and I just couldn't get into it as much (I played the original RE back in '96).

In the end it's just diff'rent strokes and all that.
 
Emulated Hype said:
The pacing praise for 4 is always what bothered me. The game starts to fall apart halfway into the castle imo.

I also think it's disingenuous to dis 5 for being too actiony when 4 wasn't really scary either.
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How does the pacing fall apart then? You're still getting new enemies, new bosses, perfect mix of combat and downtime, new level design quirks, new weapons etc. Maybe the game was too long for you but the pacing holds true for the entirety.

4 was creepy enough as well. The village at night, the chainsaws, garrador, verdugo, the maze with It, some of the music, etc.
 
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