Episode 98: Resident Evil 4

When Resident Evil first came out in 1996, it wrote the book on what 3D survival horror was meant to be. Fixed camera angles, a creepy atmosphere, tank controls and bizarrely themed puzzles - these were now synonymous with the genre, whether you liked it or not. And for the most part, people liked it very much indeed, with its mainline sequels (and a couple of the spinoffs) sticking to and refining what made the original so compelling.

It's no surprise then that Resident Evil 4 was released to some degree of controversy. It takes elements of the originals that many might view as sacred and throws them out the window. It introduced (we don’t talk about Dead Aim) the third person camera angle, adjusted the tank controls to something a lot more smooth, and was more interested in throwing 20 enemies at you at once than tightly restricting your bullet count. The story gave up any pretence of being anything scary, and Leon Kennedy returns as a badass action hero instead of a vulnerable rookie.

But for all its radical changes, the game received astoundingly good reviews on release, and is still a fan favourite all these years later. Does Resident Evil 4 deserve the praise of being a kickass action game that in many ways has never been topped? Or has everyone been wowed by the move away from the classic controls and camera in favour of the new hotness?

On this episode, we discuss:

• Resident Evil 4 features many, many different kinds of cinematic set pieces as you traverse from village, to castle and finally military outpost. Does this constant focus on setpieces get boring in favour of focusing on the more essential moment to moment combat?
• How well does Resi 4 execute on its vision of a more tactical and involved take on third person combat? Does its control scheme, camera angles and enemy AI work in harmony, or is there tension between all three preventing it from coming together?
• Resident Evil 4 has a different take on level structure, with strictly linear macro level design and far more expansive tactical spaces on each level. Is there a problem with linear level design, and to what degree are you encouraged to make the most of its larger spaces?

We answer all these questions and more on the 98th level of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

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Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Resident Evil 4 OST: Shusaku Uchiyama

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Our Resident Evil REmake Episode

Resident Evil 4 HD Project

Resident Evil 4 Remake Trailer

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Is there a spinoff to the main Resi games that is secretly better than the two we’ve already played? Is there another survival horror series in its entirety that we’ve been neglecting? What did you think of the adaptive difficulty of Resi 4? Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!