Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition

"Regardless of the changes it's made, this is still a kickass game."

What do you think when you hear "Resident Evil"? Horror? Cheesy? Scary? Zombies? Limited Ammo? Well, there are many things to describe the older Resident Evils. Well, Resident Evil 4 got rid of all the elements in the other Resident Evils. It's no longer a Survival Horror game, more like a Third-Person Shooter/Action/Adventure game. It doesn't have the cheesy B-movie dialogue anymore. It's definitely not scary in the least bit. No longer are there zombies, instead there are crazed villagers who carry a different virus. And ammo is always around. Practically the only thing Capcom brought from other Resident Evils was Leon Kennedy who was a character in Resident Evil 2.

Now, despite all these drastic changes, this is still one of the best games ever. It's my second favorite Resident Evil falling behind Resident Evil 2. Many fans of the series say this game sucks just because there is more ammo and no more zombies, which is definitely not a significant reason. The gameplay is excellent and has some of the most entertainment in a game ever. It shouldn't bare the name "Resident Evil" in it's title, but it's still a damn good game that's action-packed. It's one of the best games on the Wii and definitely a must-buy for the system, regardless of the changes it's made. All though the gameplay should stay the same, the enemies should be changed back to zombies (Yay, Resident Evil 5!).

Story: 6/10

The story is OK. You are Leon Kennedy, a cop from Resident Evil 2. Now, he's not a cop, Umbrella is long-gone and Leon is now an agent for the government. Now the president's daughter, Ashley, is kidnapped and who do they send? Their top agent, who happens to be Leon who is sent to Europe. I think it's a Spanish-speaking country that doesn't exist. So he's dropped off at a village awaiting the horrors about to come.

Now, this is just the main story of the game. Within the game, there are some other things going on with other characters from previous Resident Evil games. I'm not going to spoil anything, but your mission is the retrieve the Ashley.

Gameplay: 10/10

This is practically an identical version of the PS2, it has the Seperate Ways Campaign and all those extras.

Now departing from the basic formula of previous Resident Evils, this takes you on a top-notch thrill ride. Right when you first start the game (Well, when you first take control of Leon), you will notice how the camera is more close-up. Also how you have to aim first before you shoot. Now on the PS2 version, I hated this and it made me stop playing the game until I got the Wii version. To you make your ways towards the house and you go to a room with somebody in it and a cut-scene occurs where Leon askes a man about Ashley, whilst showing him a picture. The guy spazzes out and he's your first enemy in the game. This is where you noticed they aren't zombies. The enemies are much more intelligent and aren't afraid to use weapons or brilliant, strategetic tactics to kill you.

For weapons, you have a briefcase which is where you store and retrieve your weapons and other items. This is a really nice feature in which I love so much. There is also a weapons merchant who sells you weapons, items, and upgrades. Like a bigger briefcase to store more weapons/ammo and items, things to improve your aiming, firepower, reload time, etc. You could also sell things back to him for a lower price. Also, there are MANY guns in this game, and a good variety to please anyone. For health, you mainly use herbs. There are green (Which is the primary herb), red (2nd rarest), and yellow (the rarest) herbs. Green gives you a little bit of health, combine the green a red herbs and it'll restore all health. If you mix all three, it will actually raise and give you full health. Or just red and yellow which will give raise a little bit of health and restore some of it.

There are some epic boss battles in this game. Most of them fall on the easy side, but they are still entertaining. This game uses realistic physics in the gunplay. What I mean by that is the placement of where you shoot a Ganado (The "zombies" of the game) it has realistic effects. If you shoot them in the leg, they will stumble. Shoot them in the arm and they'll drop their weapon. Shoot them in the chest and they will be stunned for a couple seconds. And a couple shots in the head will kill them, all though the head explodes most of the time when you shoot them there.

After you beat the main, lengthy adventure, you can play Seperate Ways Campaign. All though not as long as Leon's campaign, this shows how significant one of the characters that you have several encounters with impacted you. Also, you play as Ada.

Despite the lack of enemy types, which makes since only having one type considering they are just humans that are infected, the amount of weapons and variety makes up for it. Which is indeed a rare occasion. The gameplay is intense and one of the most action-packed shooters of all time. The only downfall, which absolutely has no effect on gameplay, is how the Ganados are repeated. Meaning a lot of them have the exact same face.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics are practically exactly the same as the GameCube's graphics, which are superior than the PS2's version of the game. The graphics are detailed and beautiful, but they could have at least fixed the problem where you sometimes "go into the objects." You probaly know what I'm talking about.

Control: 10/10

Obviously, since it's on the Wii, you take advantage of the Motion-Controls. You hold B to take aim and A to fire. You also swing the Wiimote (Maybe it's the Nunchuck) like a knife to slash your knife, I guess simple logic would tell you that. The controls are practically flawless and have served no problems for me, thus far.

Sound: 9/10

The background music goes perfect with the game and the voice-acting is good. It's not incredible, Leon to me has too deep of voice. He looks like wimp, but sounds like a tough guy. The actors who does the voice-over for Luis is pretty impressive. All in all, the voice-acting, sound effects, and background music are well done.

Final Rating: 9/10

Pros:

-Excellent action-packed gameplay.
-The boss battles are superb.
-It actually turned out really good, despite the major changes from previous Resident Evils.
-The controls are excellent and honestly, I can only play this game with the motion-controls.
-A lot of replay value.
-It's only $20.
-A very lengthy campaign.
-Seperate Ways and Mercernary Mode.

Cons:

-Has nothing new, apart from motion-controls, from the PS2 version.
-Got rid of the laser-pointer and replaced it with a cross-hair.
-Boss battles are excellent, but fall on the easy side.

This is an excellent game and a must-buy for many Wii owners. I'm not going to say every Wii owner since it's not going to be enjoyable for people, namely ones who enjoy E to T-rated games and people who don't like shooters. Despite the several changes Capcom decided to make, this is still a solid game that's very entertaining.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/20/08

Game Release: Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (US, 06/19/07)