Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition

"Currently one of the best games on the Wii for only $30"

Introduction

Resident Evil 4 (denoted as RE4 from now on) was one of the best games to grace previous gen consoles and now it appears that Capcom has decided to debut it on the Wii because of its shear popularity. Capcom has played their cards extremely well because they did realize that it is in fact the 4th time this game has been released and decided upon releasing at a mere $30. Why would people want to pay a full price for a game that has been released 4 times and the only thing that changed was the controls? I know that most people would have waited until a price drop anyways to repurchase the same game that they have played time and time again. Also, because of the Wii's popularity with gamers who may not be too familiar with the previous gen of games, this gives them an opportunity to experience the greatness that is RE4.

Also, a note to take into consideration is that during the review I do not necessarily go into great depth into a review encompassing the whole game, but it is more of a comparison between this version and other versions of RE4. Anyways, on to the review.

Story

The story of RE4 really takes a leap into the future from where the other Resident Evil games left off. Umbrella has fallen because they have been rightfully accused of the events that occurred within Raccoon City. One of the only survivors, Leon S Kennedy, now works for the government as a secret agent because of his involvement with the Raccoon City incident. The game starts off with Leon sent to Spain to find the president's daughter because she has abducted by some weird cult. When Leon arrives he stumbles across a rural village only to find that its inhabitants are not what they seem. A parasite that was engineered called the Los Plagas has infested the people here and this parasite is easily controlled by the leader of the cult organization. Leon must traverse through the village and save the president's daughter while finding out what has actually happened along the way. The story is fairly solid, but there could have been a bit more to it. It is the characters that make this story good. There are some old characters that come back while adding a slew of new characters.

Gameplay

The gameplay in this game is flawless. I will mostly talk about the major difference between the gameplay in this and the other editions of RE4 instead of taking an in depth look into the entire gameplay that RE4 encompasses. The gameplay outshines the original Resident Evil 4 by multitudes simply because of the addition of the Wii controls. The problem with earlier editions was that when you wanted to aim, you had to press a button to get into aim mode that started you off in a starting position that was usually not the direction that you wanted to aim. Because of this you had to hold the aim button down and then aim to where you wanted shoot, which took precious time and could sometimes be the cause of getting hit, or more severely, death. With the Wii controls you still have to hold down a button before you are able to shoot but there is a cursor on the screen that dictates where the Wii-mote is aiming and Leon automatically aims at that location when the aim button is held down. Because of this you can simply aim to where you want to shoot before even going into aim mode which drastically buts down on the time it takes to aim at your enemies. This makes the game easier, but a lot more fluid and less frustrating. The only exception to this is with the use of weapons that have a scope attached to them where you have to use the analogue stick to aim. This does not deter you at all though because typically with these weapons you are far enough away where quick aiming is not as important as in close range combat.

Also, to use your knife you can either do it the old fashioned way and hold down a button to aim and then swing or you can simply just wave the Wii-mote around to slash. I found that sometimes when waving it around it almost took as long to register than to hold down the button to aim and then slash, so this doesn't affect gameplay overly much. The QTEs (scripted gameplay events) are slightly different as well just because instead of simply pressing buttons sometimes you are forced to frantically wave the Wii-mote around or turn it in a circular motion for using cranks.

Graphics/Sound

The graphics in this edition of RE4 are a little bit more refined but I found that there was no major difference between them. This isn't so big of a deal because for a previous gen game the graphics were some of the best seen on a console. To overhaul the graphics completely would have taken a lot more development and if they did do this the game probably would not have been released at $30. I did not mind the fact that the graphics were not overhauled completely because it still looks good enough as far I am concerned.

The sound in this game is pretty much the same, it seems that nothing much was changed here.

Replay Value

This game is full of extras and goodies to do to give the player to do after completing the game. The game itself is around 10 - 20 hours depending on skill level but after that there is a slew of extras that open up including a side story that opens up that opens up 5 new chapters, a quick romp through the final area with another character, and a mini game called the Mercenaries that will give you hours of fun filled carnage. Playing as some of the various characters that were encountered in the main story really makes these extras fun because each one plays a little bit differently. Some of these extras also open up additional elements to the story as well which is nice because it adds to the overall experience of the game instead of being just an extra past time. Also, there is another harder difficulty mode to play the game on that adds to the replay value.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, this game is simply a rehash of the other versions of RE4 but with improved controls. The improved controls alone make it worth purchasing this game because this version of RE4 is definitively the best version released. This game is definitely worth the $30 even if this is your 2nd/3rd time getting it and it is a fine addition to the Wii library (in fact it is one of the best games out for the Wii). To gamers new to RE4, you are in for a treat, and I would recommend this game in an instant.

Even though this is a rehash, this game deserves a 10 because it improved upon what I thought was the only major flaw that the other versions incurred. Now that this flaw has been worked out, this is truly the best Resident Evil experience to be had.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/16/07