by Andrius Davydauskas

Created on: May 13, 2009   Last Updated: May 18, 2009

Residen Evil 4 ( Biohazard 4 ) was first released for the Nintendo Gamecube back in 2005 and a bit later on the Play Station 2 . It won countless awards for its fun and fantastic gameplay, fun tone, and many interesting features . Most reviews gave it near-perfect scores and ranked it as one of the best games available one the Gamecube .

The game puts you in the shoes of Leon Scott Kennedy . Fans of the Resident Evil series will remember him from Resident Evil 2 in which he had to escape from the zombie infested Raccoon City . In RE4 Leon is working as the president's bodyguard and , after the president's daughter Ashley is kidnapped , has to go to Spain to find her . After arriving in a small Spanish village , Leon gets attacked by the village's peasant population who apparently have become mindless zombies and has to fight his way through them and other more serious threats to find and rescue Ashley .

You play the game from a third person perspective . When you order Leon to aim his weapon your camera moves behind his shoulder . This character control system works really well and adds to the overall immersion . The gameplay is a mix of third person shooting and puzzle solving so it isn't just a mindless " run and gun " . A lot of the puzzles are pretty hard , but solving them feels rewarding . The action is just as fun . Barricading inside a house , hearing a horde of zombies trying to break out the door and then seeing them all start swarming around you from all sides is pretty suspenseful . There is a huge selection of weapons , all of which can be upgraded . This adds some strategy and quite a few customization options . On the other hand , the dialogue is just horrible . Leon says a lot of cheesy comeback lines while talking to the villains . It is annoying at first , but , once you get used to it , goes great with the slightly comedic tone of RE4 . The game is fairly long and will take about 15 hours to fully complete the first time .

The sad thing is that it was only ported to the PC in 2007 . The PC version does look dated graphically , but the gameplay is as good as ever . There is also a short bonus campaign exclusive to the PC version . The most important thing to mention about the PC version is that it is a straight forward port from the Gamecube . This means that there are no mouse controls and controlling Leon with the keyboard is a horrible experience . If you don't have a gamepad for the PC , Resident Evil 4 is a great excuse to get one as it will keep you entertained for days .

Learn more about this author, Andrius Davydauskas.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.