RE4 had a knack for keeping you on your toes, which only added to the pulse-pounding stresses of playing as Leon. Resident Evil 4 is heralded as the first modern third-person shooter, but it was so much more. Highlights included quick time events, and although they've been overused in modern games, they arguably got their start here. Away from just solving puzzles as a survival horror, the game taught you to preserve ammunition and think before you fire - with it often being wiser to avoid a battle altogether.Įven though Resident Evil has always relied on its horror elements, RE4 had this in bucket loads.
Shuffling zombies were swapped out for the Las Plagas-ravaged villages, while the gloomy skies offered just enough difference to move the series forward. If that wasn't enough, he also comes across the ghosts of his past and ties to Umbrella thanks to the appearance of a certain Mr Wesker.Īlthough Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 grew bigger and flashier, Resident Evil 4 captured the spirit of the original game and the confines of the Spencer Mansion - albeit in a Spanish castle. Ashley Graham has been kidnapped by a terrifying cult, while Leon also has to face-off against parasite-controlled villagers, his own infection with Las Plagas, and escape a booby-trapped castle. In the final version, Leon heads into darkest Spain in an attempt to rescue the President's daughter.
When Mikami went back to the drawing board, Resident Evil 4 was eventually born. There was the "Hallucination" version that saw Leon and his partner climb levels of the castle however, it was deemed too expensive and was also scrapped. A second "Fog" version took Leon to the castle-like headquarters of Umbrella, while the famous "Hook Man" iteration (seen above) was dubbed Resident Evil 4's lost version. Ironically, this early project was eventually reworked into Devil May Cry. The first idea focussed on an invincible protagonist called Tony, however, producer Shinji Mikami thought it strayed too far from what made Resident Evil what it was. Capcom threw the rulebook out the window (several times) and actually went through four iterations of Resident Evil 4. Resident Evil Zero was also a big hitter on the GameCube, but there were accusations things were growing stale. Here's hoping we'll get a better look in the future.By the time Capcom came to plan Resident Evil 4, the franchise had already found great success and was sitting pretty on the legacy of Resident Evil 3 and the wildly successful REmake. I would've loved an actual look at the game, but that wasn't in the cards today. Which makes this reveal fairly disappointing. I'm more excited for the Resident Evil 4 remake than any other game we currently know about the original is one of my all-time favorite games. Our look at gameplay ends as Leon walks up to a house in the middle of the forest – which ostensibly is where Leon encounters the first Ganado, as is the case in the original RE4. You'd be excused if you expected a glimpse at those thrilling battles, but unfortunately, no such look came. "Of course, there will also be thrilling battles." "We want to nail the feeling of loneliness and fear of not knowing what lies ahead, even more so than the original," Hirabayashi said during the presentation. Compared to the original game, the forest is far darker and scarier. The footage is set during the very beginning of the game, when Leon arrives outside the village in the forest.
We then see our first look at gameplay, and to be clear, visually, it looks great.