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Tuesday 15 January, 2008
Resident Evil 4
Game Log 1:
Summary
In the survival horror game Resident Evil 4 you find yourself controlling character by the name of Leon Kennedy. The “main” objective of the game that starts the ball rolling is to have Leon Kennedy fight his way through enemies and fulfill numerous objectives for all for the sake of rescuing the president’s daughter. Leon is in control of an extremely large amount of weaponry though at the beginning of the game you are started out with the standards; A handgun, and a knife. These weapons along with Leon’s agility in the martial arts provide the basis for the control of the game as he is generally confronted by and gruesomely assaulted by an incredibly large score of grotesque creatures, ranging from the typical zombies, (or las plagas) to mutant giants and chainsaw wielding maniacs.
Game Play
As I had started this game some time before, and decided to willfully ignore its existence due to my being situated in a particularly tricky portion at the beginning of the game several months before, my feelings when reentering the game were extremely mixed. Instantly upon restarting from where I left off I felt horribly out of my element. This was a survival horror game, there were zombies lurking behind every corner and all that greeted me was a horrible silence and lack of familiarity as to my situation. The situation was not to be made any better by the realization that I was supposed to be in a certain house to be trapped in and horribly defiled by a hoard of Spanish screeching zombies.
Upon the instant I was past the load screen the extremely creepy mood of the game began to manifest. The music and horribly dark, dank, and foggy environment mingled in a wonderfully chilling fashion making the player much more susceptible to the shock of an enemy attack when one finally would occur. Being incredibly fond of the character that I controlled didn’t help the situation much either, especially with the previous memories of Leon getting his head sawed off by a chainsaw wielding maniac were too many and too often.
Upon finally confronting an enemy and promptly setting him on fire with my handgun, I was able to switch gears from the horror aspect of the game to the survival aspect as Leon single-mindedly climbed areas, shot items, and dispatched enemies in order to reach his destination. While progressing through the game I became painfully aware once again of the quasi realistic conditions that the game set, unlike other games, ammo was expendable and health was not to be so easily regained so careful monitoring and handling of supplies and weaponry was not so much desired as it was required.
Game Log 2:
Game Play
Upon returning to the game I was in the exact same position in which I had started before except armed with knowledge from the session before. Upon performing the same menial task that I had been partaking ever since I last hit the snag in my previous game play, I found myself hit again and again with the same challenging situation. I was still trapped in a house with a Spanish Guy with a gun and the president’s daughter, and was about to be brutalized by a seemingly never ending siege of las plagas.
I could not but marvel and inwardly seethe for an instant at the all the game mechanics whipping me in the face in this one event that had plagued me for so long. In the desperate situation that Leon was forced into, I was simultaneously forced to moderate and carefully select my weapons, exact a proper timing concerning the easily expendable resources, and make frantic use of my environment. Except as this was a special event, I did not have the option of flight or even enough time or space in order to constantly shift into a better position for survival.
As such, the games extremely intuitive designs served to aide me in the raid upon the house. With the controls I was able to execute very contextual actions such as being able to temporarily being able to block weak points in the house with movable shelves giving me time to stock up on my supplies with the items lying about the area before taking up arms and bracing myself for the assault. Timing was key to the completion of the event as the zombies attacked in stages making the situation predictable but still difficult as one misfire or ill-timed reload or heal could put all my efforts to waste.
Design
In design Resident Evil took a departure from the rest of the series. It made combat much more efficient by implementing a laser to facilitate aiming at enemies making it easier for skillful players to conserve ammo. Skill took an even greater effect on the game experience by the very situational aspects of the game. A skillful player could with one hand gun wield several useful results rather than simply taking the beginner’s route in frantically shooting the enemies in the hopes of them eventually falling and being unable to get up. If the standard zombie is shot in the arm or hand, he would drop his weapon, if shot in the feet or the knees he would fall allowing Leon to dispatch him with a kick or a knife, and shots in the head kill the enemy more quickly than indiscriminate shots.
Item storage was conducted by a grid system rather than by a set limit of items and made a separate inventory for key items, in order to further make full use of the storage. Context such as in the case of the gun shots became extremely important in this game, as one would be able to execute commands very helpful in a certain situation that would be unavailable otherwise. Even cut scenes began to gain an unprecedented level of control as you would be expected to make split second reactions lest you produce a less desirable outcome than you would have hoped making it truly impossible for you to let your guard down for a single moment during game play lest the knife that your enemy throws at you in a memorable confrontation ends with it hitting its mark, rather than Leon skillfully dodging and using the same knife to injure his assailant.
The story is incredibly engrossing providing new twists and turns with every objective Leon completes leaving you intent to continue if only to find out what happens next, as well as increasing the uncertainty you feel about your current situation in the game. Finally, Leon himself is a good enough reason to play the game as he is a character that can surprise as much as the zombies in the game with his skills in everything that is government agent oriented being able to adapt and overcome to absolutely everything thrown at him.
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