Resident Evil 4 is one of the few games I've played that actually lived up to the hype. Strangely, I hadn't actually played any Resident Evil game before that (mostly because my parents were opposed to me playing M-rated games, and RE4 came out shortly before my 17th birthday). The graphics looked amazing, I loved the art style, the enemy and boss designs, and the Gamecube was sorely lacking in shooters (Timesplitters 2 is the only one I can remember off the top of my head that was any good). Amazingly, I only played through the game a single time, but those 20 or so hours were some of the best gaming I had ever done. Years later when I was in college, I found out that a close friend of mine had never played it, so I forced the game and a Gamecube controller in his hands within a week. It quickly became one of his favorites as well.
Resident Evil 4 was beloved when it came out, but over the years its reputation has fallen, presumably because its success lead to an excess of third-person shooters. Gears of War and Uncharted are heavily inspired by RE4, but while those games are good, eventually the genre became oversatured with imitators. Resident Evil 5 stuck close to RE4's formula, but Resident Evil 6 was almost universally reviled. The seventh numbered entry is on the way, but its tone is more inspired by Amnesia and Outlast than any of the more recent Resident Evil titles. I'm actually looking forward to it a lot, but with the recent PS4 release, I decided to go back to what I consider one of my favorite games of all time. And to my excitement, it totally holds up.
Except for the fact that you can't walk sideways. That kind of sucks. But everything else is good.
The precision aiming of Resident Evil 4 feels so good. Every bullet feels like it has an impact, every gun has a distinct purpose, and it's a ton of fun trying to decide whether to upgrade your current weapon or hold out for a better one down the line. Every encounter feels fresh and exciting with different set pieces, requiring different strategies to get through. The bosses are all well-designed, though at this point I'm so good at the game that I easily save up enough money to just buy a rocket launcher and kill them in one hit. Almost feels like I'm skipping content, but I prefer to think of it as just saving precious ammo and healing items.
But it's not just the gameplay that's fantastic - the story is hilarious. I'm not saying it's good, just that it's really funny. Leon S. Kennedy travels to Spain to save the president's daughter, he gets involved in a plot to take over the world, blah blah blah, it's all standard. But Leon is confident in that cheesy, 80's, Arnold Schwarzenegger way, constantly cracking one-liners even after narrowly escaping death. He tells his advisor over the intercom that he was a little tied up after literally being tied up. He interrupts Salazar's monologue about terrorism with a knife to the hand. He forces Ashley to jump down a garbage chute, then says he knew she'd be fine if she landed on her butt. It's so dumb and cheesy that you can't help but laugh. He's charismatic in a way that Nathan Drake wishes he could be.
And speaking of Salazar, he's got to be one of the weirdest villains in all of video game history. In a series all about zombies and super mutants and officials injecting themselves with super serums, you get a short guy dressed as Napoleon with a squeaky voice. How the hell did the head of Capcom hear the dev team's pitch for a villain for the company's next big release and go "Yep, that'll do." But it somehow works, and Salazar is a far more memorable villain than the much more generic Saddler because of it.
While I'm here, I have to give a shout-out to the unlockable Mercenaries mode after you beat the game. It's a shame that this is unlockable, because it's of such high quality that for some people, it may actually be played more than the main game. This arcade-style extra gives you four maps and five characters to choose from to wander around and try to kill as many enemies as possible. The game's combat really shines here as you try to chain kills together while still running around the map, collecting ammo, health, and extensions on the time limit. Each map offers different challenges, and each characters has a totally different playstyle, making it endlessly replayable.
Sometimes I go back and revisit an old game or TV show I really enjoyed, only to find that it hasn't aged well, ripping off my nostalgia goggles and forcing me to face reality. But Resident Evil 4 was amazing back then, and it still holds up well today. It's kind of amazing that it and Resident Evil 1 are both great games in their own way, and that RE7 is coming out and looks fantastic too. There's a surprising amount of diversity in this series, though if you keep releases sequels, I guess that's bound to happen. If you haven't played RE4, you owe it to yourself to check it out.