9. Resident Evil 4

Warning: I'm about to tear Resident Evil 4 apart. I was actually going to make a dedicated post about why this failed as a Resident Evil game (in my opinion), but we're here now, so I might as well get it over with. To summarize: I have a grudge against this game because it completely changed the series, and not in a positive way. I also feel like if they were trying to turn Resident Evil into a third person shooter, the controls should have reflected that, with complete control over the camera and the ability to walk and shoot at the same time. Leon Kennedy...Is an imbecile. He has the worst one-liners I've ever heard. They're not even so bad they're funny, they're just bad. I really liked him in RE2, but I can't stand him in RE4.

So here's what's going on in the game. Leon is sent on a mission to rescue the president's daughter, who has been kidnapped by a cult. The T-Virus isn't present, instead, we're given Las Plagas. These infected are not zombies, they are mind-controlled humans. Or something. And they're not that scary. (Except for the ones dressed in robes who you hear mumbling in the castle, they're creepy as hell and I hate them.) I'm just not into the story or the enemies at all. This is where the series really changed. And it's because people loved this game, it did extremely well. I'm not sure if Resident Evil 4 was so well received because it attracted a bunch of new fans or if the old fans were really receptive to the changes Capcom made here, but I think I'm in the minority because I really didn't care for it.

A lot of RE4 was an absolute nightmare to play through (remember the water room?) and it only became somewhat tolerable on subsequent playthroughs after unlocking Ashley's suit of armor and the Chicago Typewriter. I don't like having to babysit characters in video games. For the same reason I hate The Sims. I want to be able to play a game without worrying about a really needy character. I don't want to feed you, or bathe you, or save you from being carried off by murderous cultists. I'm not good at multitasking, just give me one person to look after at a time.

Here's a list of grievances I have with Resident Evil 4:

1. The story changed completely from the zombie outbreak in Raccoon City (to be fair, the city was destroyed).
2. Giving players the ability to carry more ammo and having enemies drop ammo takes away from the survival aspect of the previous games.
3. The script is corny. The Resident Evil series isn't known for having the best dialogue, but this was especially cringeworthy, from beginning to end, with Leon being the worst offender (to the point of him being unlikable).
4. It's a third person shooter without the ability to move and shoot at the same time and you're not given full control of the camera. It's a disaster.
5. It's not scary. I know that's subjective, but hey, it's my blog, right? With the exception of the brief section that allows you to play as Ashley, I was never scared, I was just frustrated.

I don't think I have a problem with change. Resident Evil 7 was a huge step in the right direction for this series, I loved that it returned to a rundown, creepy estate, even if there are no technical "zombies" in the game. It felt claustrophobic, it was dark, and that feeling of dread was brought back (at least until you get to Lucas' part of the game, but honestly, I even found that really fun to play). As another example, Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 are my favorite games in the Silent Hill series, but I really loved Shattered Memories and Downpour, too. They were both very different than the original games, but they were done in a way that still worked.

I think Resident Evil 4 would have been more interesting if they had gone with the original idea involving "hook man" (which we're supposedly getting in RE8 now). It's hard to say because we've only ever been given a brief glimpse at a short demo of that version of the game, but that demo looked scarier than anything I saw in the entirety of the official release of RE4.

As for additional content, we're given three new modes upon completing the game once. The Mercenaries has you killing as many enemies as possible in a limited amount of time, to attain a high score. Assignment Ada has you playing as, you guessed it, Ada Wong, and your objective is to collect plaga samples. I actually like this mini game, so I'll add a point to my rating just for that. The final mode is Separate Ways and it's basically showing you what Ada was up to during the events of the main game.

I rate Resident Evil 4 a 4/10 for bad dialogue, poor gameplay and the fact that the changes it made to the series eventually resulted in RE5 and RE6.