Resident Evil 4

"It's not so bad a game, as long as you get some mods or a gamepad."

Resident Evil 4 for the PC is kind of a mess as is, due in some part to it being ported from the PS2 version. Thanks in part to the forewarning of the Asian and European releases, the modding community released several fixes to the many problems that Resident Evil 4 faced long before it actually landed on American shores. Without these mods, you may find that your Resident Evil 4 experience is a bit impaired. Let's start with the...

Gameplay

As with the console versions, RE4 for the PC requires the player to press a key to ready a gun, aim with the movement controls, and fire with a different key. Now, under the default configuration, that means that you'll be performing three functions with one hand. I died three times in the first big fight because I kept accidentally letting go of the "ready weapon" key, forcing me to start aiming all over again. Also, apparently sensing that PC users would be using a gamepad (which I highly recommend, by the way), all the quick-react sequences display numbers rather then actual keys. I died way more then three times trying to dodge a boulder before I figured out what 1 and 3 meant. It didn't help that the two numbers got mixed up in the manual.

Story

Thankfully, Ubisoft didn't redub the dialogue, meaning that the plot has remained intact from the console versions. After RE2, Leon is in a government agency that apparently specializes in backflips. When the president's daughter goes missing, Leon investigates a possible lead that brings him to some place where everybody speaks mangled Spanish. The locals, known as Ganados, get violent and yellow-eyed, and begin attacking Leon in a similar manner to zombies, except of course for the fact that they try to strangle you rather then eat you. The plot has the typical twists that can be seen coming from a mile away, but it's still a very plausible story. The voice acting is all top-notch, and the characters deliver their lines in a very logical manner. This part hasn't suffered much.

Graphics

The same can't be said for RE4's graphics. While the US release automatically has the European patch installed on it, the graphics still aren't the same quality as the GC version. The dynamic lighting previously seen in the GC version is mostly missing from the PC release, making everything seem a little dull in comparison. At least it's not all muddy now. Where the graphics truly suffer though is in the cutscenes. Ported from the PS2, the resolution of the cutscenes was apparently not adjusted properly, making every one of them seem a little blurry and washed-out. Same as the PS2, the cutscenes are separate movie files, meaning that Leon and Ashley will always be wearing the default costume in them. Shame, that.

Sound

Here is one area where the quality of the game hasn't suffered much. The game still sounds very atmospheric, and with the proper surround sound you'll often be able to tell exactly where the mangled Spanish of the villagers is coming from. The guns all sound quite impressive, especially the shotgun. You'll definitely feel that you're carrying around a weapon with tremendous power whenever you fire that sucker. The only disappointing-sounding weapons are the fully-automatic weapons that Leon and the Ganados use, as they sound more like you're firing an automatic BB gun.

Overall

I was tremendously disappointed by my first 15 minutes of playing Resident Evil 4. However, once I had downloaded the proper mods off the internet, I found that the PC version compared quite favorably to the console versions. The moral of this story, I guess, is that you will definitely need to get some add-ons to have much fun with this game. As such, my ratings are:

Unmodded version: 5/10
Modded version: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/17/07

Game Release: Resident Evil 4 (US, 05/15/07)