1998…I'll never forget it I mean hello and welcome to under the super scope where
we take an indepth look at some of the most famous games of all time and work out exactly
what makes them so good and whether they still hold up today.
It doesn't matter if they're 5 or 35, all we want to know is why these games are
fun.
And what better game to take episode 2 than one that redefined an entire genre: Resident
Evil 4.
It may sound simple now but that idea of putting the camera over the shoulder makes so much
sense for aiming.
Before this games would just have floating reticules or change entire perspectives but
Resident Evil 4 popularised what has now become a standard of any third person game.
Sure some other games also toyed with the idea but when you're as miraculous as Resident
Evil 4 the whole industry will start to take notice.
But of course the genre didn't stop evolving after Resident Evil 4 and with games like
Gears of War – the shooter genre started to get a bit more flexible.
Even Resident Evil 6 adopted the evolutions of its peers but one question I'll put forward
is: is this evolution and enhancement?
Well in a lot of cases yeah, sure.
But for Resident Evil 4 this limited third person gameplay has a ton of perks.
See the best games have limitations and they relish in them.
For instance let's look at double jumps in platforms briefly.
These give you more accuracy, more control and they make landing those tricky jumps easier…so
why doesn't Super Mario Brothers have one?
Well because every level in Mario is built around that one particular jump mechanic.
There isn't a pit you can't clear or an enemy you can't stomp and not once do you
think to yourself, man I wish I could double jump right now.
Mario relishes in its jumping limitation with every single aspect of its level and enemy
design and it's the exact same thing with Resident Evil 4.
If we slapped on dual stick controls suddenly the whole game just doesn't work anymore.
Every single enemy in Resident Evil 4 understands that you can't move and shoot, this is very
deliberate.
Notice how from a distance these guys will all sprint towards you in a rage only to slow
down to this creepy demonic swagger.
Resident Evil 4 abandoned a lot of the horror aspects of the series but one thing it didn't
shake was tension.
You have this constant decision to make: is it time to run or is it time to shoot?
You read your environments, read your situation and decipher the moment where you turn around
and give 'em hell.
Everything is designed around this stop and pop flow.
That's why the enemies slow down when they're near you, if they always chased you at full
speed then you'd never have time to reload your guns or stop to aim.
You need that slight head start and what better time to slow them down then at the most horrific
moment, when they're right next to you.
If we just went around like this, suddenly the whole foundation of this game is gone.
That calculated player risk of knowing when to shoot is so important and sometimes games
need their limitations.
Breath of the Wild's stamina meter offers a greater sense of player accomplishment when
you finally scale a tall mountain, limiting the player to six Pokemon incentives party
balance and sacrificing movement for aiming your weapon is a key pillar in what makes
Resident Evil 4 so enjoyable.
All of your favourite video games are purposely limited in one area or another and while options
are good, the best games are the ones that provide these options by expanding upon one
limited function.
In Resident Evil 4, that function is your weapon.
The gunplay is Resident Evil 4 is phenomenal to say the least.
You feel every single blow in Resi 4 and makes even the most vanilla of weapons satisfying
to use.
If I shoot an enemy in the shoulder they'll stagger and shake away the pain, if I shoot
their legs, they'll collapse and buy me some time and if I shoot their head of kneecaps
you get maybe the best thing of them all: melee attacks.
Now this is where the tone of Resident Evil 4 is really set in place.
When you're roundhouse kicking infected villagers while passing through oncoming attacks
with invincibility frames you know this is no longer a horror game – but it is still
a survival action game.
It gives Resi 4 this tense arcade like action which is further exemplified in the infinitely
replayable Mercenaries mode that does away with story and contextual pacing and just
crutches on pure combat.
Combat is only a small pillar of what makes this game so masterful but it's astonishing
that it holds up on that alone.
Hey they could make a whole game out of Mercenaries and skimp on content.
As you make your way through the game not only are you progressing in a linear sense
but you're also progressing as a character.
Your inventory will grow, you can upgrade your weapons in whatever you want and I think
this is part of what makes Resident Evil 4 so replayable.
Not only is the gunplay masterful but you always feel like you're working towards
something.
Best of all though, no matter how strong your gun is or how many you have, the way you use
you use them and how you play mirrors everything you learn in only the first 5 minutes of the
game.
It doesn't take long at all to learn what's essentially every mechanic of the game and
it's all done with an invisible tutorial.
Never does a message show up on the screen saying "hold R to aim" never does Leon
mutter to himself out loud "if I pull this lever, maybe this gate will open".
And that's not to say those kind of tutorials are bad but Resident Evil 4 teaches the very
same thing silently through level design.
There's never a waypoint in this game and that's something again, Resident Evil 6
messes up on.
In this linear hallway with only one direction, where am I being pointed where to go?
All I focus on is this arrow and when you take that away you start to actually acknowledge
your surroundings.
Without a waypoint or on screen map, the sense of atmosphere can be so strong and this is
something Dark Souls does really well too.
You just have to ensure your level design is still intelligent enough for players to
go the right way.
And Resident Evil 4's first chapter, 1-1, has a striking resemblance to another famous
1-1.
Now I'm going to show both levels at the same time and see if you can spot any patterns.
Super Mario Brothers opens with this calm blank safe blank screen.
Here I can test the controls, I can work out that B is run and A is jump and I can try
going left only to figure out the screen doesn't scroll that way.
Once I'm ready to go I'm met with a road block.
A goomba.
I'm forced to learn the jump mechanics to overcome this Goomba and once the game has
accepted I know how to jump, it's time to iterate and expand upon the key mechanic.
Next we have multiple pipes all differing in height, what this is teaching us is we
can jump in different ways.
If we hold it down A for longer we'll jump higher and we'll also learn how momentum
carries into our jumps.
The faster I move, the further I jump.
Now what Mario has is a lot of space to continue to teach, expand and iterate upon the basics.
He'll run and jump through basic designs with 1 or 2 enemies occasionally occupying
the screen.
Now here comes the climatic ending for Mario.
Four goombas, the most we've had together so far but nothing we aren't prepared for
with everything else we've learned.
Let's quickly recap from the perspective of Resident Evil 4.
Empty space with no threat to learn the controls.
Pushed in the right way if I try to turn back One on one encounter with a Ganado who we
have to defeat to progress.
Iterate with three more Gandaos while mixing running and shooting, we're moving in different
ways.
Space to continue to teach Culmination of everything you've learned.
In this brief segment we've already become masters of the game.
We know to balance running and gunning, we learnt that in only our second encounter.
We know about melee probably by accident through trial and error.
And we're even taught to explore with visual design.
Mario has these tantalising floating blocks and Resident Evil 4 has boxes a lighter shade
than anything else on screen which draws attention to them.
Of course Resi 4's 1-1 has a final act to it after the village encounter but the core
fundamentals of teaching remain the same as Super Mario Brothers.
This is essentially 3D version of it and with that comes a few original ideas to keep the
player on the right path.
What Resident Evil 4 does a lot is camera framing and contextual cut scenes.
Right at the start the camera faces us forwards as that's the direction to progress and
although we can turn around, we're quickly told not to go that way.
As we move forward we get a cut scene showing us the inside of a house.
This doesn't necessarily give us story but it gives us a goal.
See what's in the house, this is further encouraged by the camera which is now framed
towards the door.
If we continue to ignore this and try to go the other way we'll find a truck blocking
the path.
Lesser games like Resident Evil 6 rely on waypoints to guide the player but this is
such poor visual design.
The levels should be smart enough to not only look like a convincing world but one with
clear direction.
It's a tricky balance but Resident Evil 4 always pulls it off.
It's not just visual ques either, sound is just as important.
Shortly after Leon's killed four ganados you'll hear the whimpering of a dog.
His colours don't necessarily stand out and the camera doesn't focus on him but
the audio design is so distinct that you're still drawn to this creature that's hardly
even visible in the camera frame.
What follows is a common trick to humanise characters where to make up to make them seem
less like murderous psychopaths they'll have them rescue a cat out of a tree or in
this case save a dog.
If you do this you'll even be rewarded for it later but there's no prompt telling you
this.
Again, Leon doesn't mutter "Hey if I throw this dog a bone, maybe he'll throw me one
later".
You just do it because the sound design drew attention to this venerable creature.
Sound design is usually used as a warning in Resident Evil 4.
You can hear the 3D direction of enemies and sountrack ques let you know when it's ok
to relax.
The melody of the merchant in particular is this relaxing score that let's you know
it's ok to let your guard down.
Though we've nailed to the mechanics early on, how we expand them continues to be taught
through the very same methods.
Visual design, sound design and contextual cut scenes.
Let's fast forward all the way to 3-1.
As we step forward a cut scene triggers to show us two enemies preparing a device that
launches projectiles – there's a red barrel next to them.
Then we're back in control and the projectile won't hit us, it's too far away.
But it does hit a nearby structure and completely demolishes it.
So what have we learnt in those few seconds?
We know the location of the enemy with a clear idea of how to take them down, being the red
barrel and we know their shots are powerful enough to take down stone structures.
From here we'll continue forward in the only clear direction while being sure to avoid
projectiles using both sound and shadows.
Now iteration kicks in.
There are more of them but we can also see what we saw in the cut scene.
Red barrels.
If we take cover in this small structure and occasionally pop out we can deal with them
one by one.
Stuff like this happens all the time in Resident Evil 4.
In 3-4 an enemy from above throws an explosive that won't hit me but it tells me he's
there and to look out for him.
Here a giant death machine is accelerating towards me and a brief cut scene shows two
enemies manning it.
Now I know what to aim for.
Here's a ceiling coming down to rush me but the camera is framed in a way that emphasises
these red patches on the ceiling which we of course shoot because that's what we're
taught to do with shiny things.
In fact a lot of the games cut scenes really don't have anything to do with the story,
most are to setup gameplay possibilities.
Near the end of the game after your fight with Krauser, you'll naturally be low on
ammo and low and behold you're joined by a fighter jet who does all the shooting for
you.
The cut scene establishes it, you collect ammo along the way and then it unfortunately
gets shot down during cut scene.
What did this add to the story?
Beyond building a little bit more anger towards Sadler, nothing.
This was purely contextual for the gameplay segment.
So's this.
So is this.
So is this.
So is this.
In other instances the game uses colour to emphasise importance or interactivity.
We've already touched on red barrels but how about our first interaction with Blue
Medallions.
Now these are hidden around the game and shooting enough of them will grant us a free weapon
but how do we learn about them.
Well as soon as we enter this screen your eyes will instantly focus on the colour blue
amongst the browns and greys.
The blue poster is of course the primary draw but you'll also likely see a smaller, sparkling
blue object above it.
Of course we shoot it because that's our key action in this game.
Now the poster does explain what these medallions are but if you're like me you just wouldn't
have even bothered reading it.
I already know to look out for them because now my eye is drawn to this vibrant colour
and this mysterious counter popped up telling me there's more of them.
Even boxes and crates follow this philosophy, they're a much brighter shade of brown which
makes them stand out.
When we first meet garrador, don't these golden bells stand out?
Well the cut scene shows us his eyes are sewn shut and he doesn't seem to track us like
other enemies.
Soon you discover he only responds to sound and suddenly those bright golden bells are
almost ringing themselves.
Then there's other instances of visual aid – Resi 4 never requires you to move the
camera as turning is handled just by moving left or right and so to help with depth perception
these swinging blades have an ingrained line on the ground to show you exactly where you
shouldn't be standing.
And again here the camera moves automatically to show us the best angle with these moving
pillars.
It's a far cry from the fixed camera of classic Resident Evil games but Resident Evil
4 makes very intelligent use of its angles.
It knows when to pan out, it knows what to focus on, it knows where to position you after
a cut scene.
At the time manual camera control wasn't at all popular with Japanese players and so
many Japanese developed games like Devil May Cry and Metal Gear Solid 2 continued to ignore
the right stick for camera control and there's case to argue that all three of these games
relish in that limitation.
We can move the camera but it's a huge help and actually in moments like this where I'm
being chased by a mob I don't need to turn around to see if they're still following
me – for two reasons.
1: I can hear them with sound design and 2.
The visual design tells me they're still following as Ashley is looking back for me.
Now let's talk more about Ashley.
Escort Missions I feel are given an unwarranted poor reputation.
Sure there are some games that execute the practise poorly but that's true of any mechanic.
Now we don't partner with Ashley until 1 and a half hours into the game.
In that time we've taken down a village, an output, a giant sea monster, we've learned
to not rely on headshots as they can now spout these tentically things, we've faced a pack
of wolves and toppled a giant ogre.
It safe to say Leon practically a super hero at this point and we're more than comfortable
with everything the game has thrown at us.
Here's where it brings it grounds things.
Ashley makes this newly found expert player venerable.
She's an extra body to look out for, an extra person to heal.
Importantly though Ashley doesn't limit Leon in any way.
Everything we've learnt is still the same and she'll even lock behind us while aiming
or if we're parted she'll duck when our line of sight.
What Ashley does is provide an extra layer of tension to a player who's become too
comfortable with the game.
Suddenly you may start taking things slower, maybe you aren't going to run through hoards
of enemies as your hitbox is essentially now twice as large.
And if you really don't like her you can put her in a bin and come back for her later.
And that's kind of an interesting part of Ashley.
Upon the replaying the game she accompanies us far less frequently than I remember.
In fact most of the time it's just Leon on his own and the game's really intelligent
about when to separate the two.
Basically segments with fast enemies do not feature Ashley.
There's a segment where Leon and Luis take on a hoard of infected as they stay locked
in a house – Ashley's no where to be found as she's shut herself in a cupboard upstairs.
She just so happens to stay outside before the boss fight with Chief Mendez.
She's captured at the end in 2-3 and whatd'ya know the first enemy encounter of 3-1 is a
fast invisible insect monster – oh and she just so happens to get captured in 3-3 before
in encounter with these insect monsters.
Ashley is never present when you face these guys.
Ashley achieves her goal of grounding the player and when she's never present in moment
where she'd be a hindrance.
I also like how she does this when you shoot enemies on the cable car.
Only potential design flaw with Ashley is if you don't have a rifle during this segment
things get a little tricky and you may end up accidently hitting her.
Being overencumbered sucks, right?
It's a chore in games like Skyrim when you've picked up too much and suddenly have to sort
through your inventory.
So why does Resident Evil 4 get it right?
Well I think part of it comes down to the hands on approach.
Your weapons menu is essentially the inside of a brief case and you're manually able
to squeeze in whatever you can.
This causes you to become selective, you can't just bring along 5 rocket launchers and kill
everything in one hit, you may sometimes even have to sell off beloved weapons as you simply
don't have space for them.
And every time you visit the merchant you make the conscious decision of do I use my
money to buy a larger case, buy new weapons or upgrade my existing ones.
And maybe this is all incentivised from being so involved with the process you're committed
to play along with it.
The only issues here is I would have liked some quick dpad mapping for weapons, especially
later in the game you'll be opening up the menu a lot to change weapons and it can get
a bit tedious.
More than maybe any other game Resident Evil 4 knows when to change things up.
It's the king of pacing.
Throughout this adventure we disrupt lovely farmers just trying to have a good time, we
sail the seas, we have bombastic moments full of terror and hoards of infected and then
we have quiet moments with the familiar blue flame of the merchant where we know we're
safe and we can upgrade our weapons, buy new ones – and then we're being chase by a
giant robot version of one of the main villains.
It knows exactly when to let off, when to let you just soak in the environment and catch
your breath and when to throw you in at the deepend.
From beginning to end we consistently see new forms of enemies and new situations for
older enemies.
Here's a neat a form of evolving a simple concept.
There's a tripmine here that I should shoot from a distance otherwise I'll take damage
from the explosion – oh look that explosion killed some birds and those birds dropped
money.
Hm.
Fast forward to later and oh look at these unsuspected birds just sitting around.
Now we're in the money.
Then we take that concept a step further on actual enemies.
They're all so neatly lined up here, it just makes sense.
And again here – only this time they're further away so I have a real chance of missing.
The game's essentially split into three acts.
The village, the castle and the island.
I often hear the sentiment that the quality dips after the village but I disagree.
I mean sure the village is one of the finest openings of any video game but would a 10
hour game set souly there continue to engross?
I'm not sure.
Resident Evil 4 is a game about building upon a foundation and to dwindle in one location
kind of goes against every other aspect of the game.
Even when you revisit areas they're different.
Unlike previous Resi games set in a small open areas full of backtracking, Resi 4 is
very linear but it never really feels like that because environments loop around.
Here's the village on three different occasions during different chapters.
Sure we're back in the same area but each time we come and go through a different door.
Watch how it plays out here and here and here.
Instances like this make the game feel like more than just a string of levels and along
the lines of a real fully connected world.
It's done again in the castle where we need three pieces of this ornament to open a gated
door.
We don't go around on a fetch quest to find those pieces, we carry on as normal and push
onward.
We pick them up by normal means – never backtracking and eventually we've looped
back into the room from a previously locked door.
And again here we need a medallion to open this door.
We find another path, go through an elaborate underground mine where we somehow end up on
this minecart rollercoaster which manages to loop us all the way around the map back
to where we started and we finish off by picking up the medallion.
When we can picture how things connect we stop viewing them as segments of a game and
start appreciating the context behind the environment and Resi 4 is full of context.
Sure it doesn't make sense how unarmed people can drop ammo or how they throw their axe
and then pull out another but it finds the line between fun and immersion.
Check out this set piece here.
We run along the rim of this dam without really thinking anything of it and as we carry on
we find our path blocked by a waterfall.
So we carry on going the only clear way we can go and we find a lever.
Now let me show you edited version of what we need to see purely from a gameplay perspective.
Now let me show you what we actually see.
The game loves explaining its mechanisms and how things work and it makes me appreciate
the level design that much more.
There's even a side mode called Separate Ways that adds further context to the story.
Here you play as Ada on an adventure parallel to Leons and it explains things like why the
bell rang during the Village sequence, what this dashboard was intended for and why Luis
leaves after the house onslaught.
I never really questioned any of these holes during the main story but it's really satisfying
to understand the context behind everything.
Going back to the village – castle – island tiering – it's almost a disservice to
generalise the games content under such small labelling because this is all village, this
is all castle and this is all island.
Just like enemy, weapon and puzzle variety, the locations change so frequently as does
the tone.
The island may be one of the most bombastic playgrounds the game has to offer but then
you hear these eerie groans – the regenerators.
The build up to this encounter is incredibly tense as we explore this testing lab full
of discarded experiments, every single time you enter a room you almost expect one to
just jump to life and when we finally see them?
Boy is it terrifying.
Usually cut scenes introduced new elements but this is purely in game.
And the island plays with our expectations again.
We're taught that the lack of music means that we're safe but then we encounter this
enemy in pure silence.
And then moments after – oven man!
The island is also home to whatever you class this as.
It's certainly a broad location.
Resident Evil 4 is packed with ideas and the pacing of each one is executed near perfectly
but as the forefront of it all are the simple mechanics you learnt in only its first few
minutes.
I don't personally believe good games can age.
I believe genres can evolve and graphics can become dated but the best games are the ones
like Resident Evil 4 that dedicate themselves to their limitations.
I mean I could and have spent dozens of hours just playing the Mercenaries mode which in
theory should be the most limited and repetitive mode of the game – yet after 13 years it
still feels as fresh as it ever did.
Fun doesn't age.
So while a lot of modern shooters may have new standards, how many of them will we still
be playing a decade later?
How many of them are truly designed around their limitations and is the structure housing
those limitations intelligent?
Well Resident Evil 4 is so intelligent.
Not only is it mechanically excellent but every single element is pure fun.
There's no perfect game but if I had to pinpoint one with the fewest flaws, this one
make the cut.
Resident Evil 4 still holds up and it's one of the greatest games of all time.
Thanks for watching and be sure to subscribe to GameXplain for more episodes from Under
the Scope and other things gaming too.
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Now we can go.
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