Resident Evil 4

Written by Nick Doukas  on January 03, 2005

Demo Hands-On: Villagers and chainsaws and shotguns, oh my...

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Resident Evil. What can I say? Actually, not all that much, since I've already said it in numerous articles and reviews. That said - I love Resident Evil. In fact, it's one of the big reasons that I bought a GameCube in the first place. Finally, after numerous delays and a bunch of trips back to the drawing board, RE4 is almost upon us. Having recently played a demo of the near final build, I'm pretty impressed. It retains the classic RE atmosphere, while reinventing a lot of the series prior conventions. Read on for my initial impressionsЕ.

As the demo opens, it's been six years since the events chronicled in the initial games. Having survived the horrors of Raccoon City (and seeing it toasted by a nuke courtesy of a very pissed off U.S. Government, as well as the dismantling of Umbrella in its entirety) Leon Kennedy is now working as a special agent for the president. Tasked with finding his missing daughter, you begin as Leon is dropped off by two seemingly shady European law enforcement agents, who make a couple of smart-assed comments as you enter the woods proper. At this point you take in how gorgeous the game world and main character look. Everything is ultra-detailed, and the forest full of trees seems ominous and foreboding, with lots of grays and browns Ц it's a dark color palette that suits the mood perfectly. Leon's clothes and weapons are lovingly modeled, and the animations of both enemies and the main character look realistic and convincing. Running on a modified version of the RE-make engine, it's still startling to see just how clean and visually dynamic the look of the game is.

Of course, it wouldn't be RE if you didn't move like a tank, and turn like a circus chimp on acid, but the over the shoulder, pseudo first person view when targeting is a welcome addition. Gone are the fixed camera angles, tossed in favor of a floating view that follows Leon nicely, and overall the movement and view have evolved, at least to a certain extent.

Moving along the forest path, Leon eventually comes to a clearing and finds a run down looking house. Upon entry, he encounters a man tending his fire. Unresponsive to your questions, he suddenly lurches at you with an ax, and your first taste of combat is at hand. Armed with a 9mm automatic, you can specifically target body parts on the crazed villagers with a laser sight, a new feature that works quite well. After dispatching the freak, you can search his home (and corpse) for gold (a new addition to the RE universe, you'll be able to use cash from downed foes to purchase upgrades from a mysterious traveling merchant) and items Ц the good old herb is back, as well as ammo pickups and weapons. You'll also need to check out crates that are scattered about. Breaking them open will sometimes reveals items.

As you search the filthy shack, you come across a horrific altar of rotting human skulls, and as you furtively move upstairs, a huge commotion is heard out front. Seems some more of the zombie villagers have taken an old truck and rammed the two police officer's car into the deep ravine. From the sound of things, it's not looking too good for those poor saps. At this point you can hit the action button prompted on-screen (A), and Leon will crash through the upstairs window. Or, you can choose to simply go back downstairs and exit through the front door. Either way there are now 3 drooling villagers in the front yard, and you need to move quickly to cap them all before they get their hands on you. Animations are sweet when your bullets find their mark. Heads rock back, blood flies, and overall the movement is all eerily realistic.

After dispatching Larry, Curly and Moe, you move further down the path into the gloomy forest. Up ahead is a clearing, and the first signs of booby traps. Strung between the trees, you can clearly see trip wires attached to explosives. They seem easy enough to avoid, but you need to choose your path wisely, since other traps in the vicinity may not be so obviousЕ.

Once past that, you encounter a few more shacks with items ranging from herbs to gold and handgun ammo. Did I forget to mention that you'll come across a few more surprise freaks that need impromptu lobotomies? Forging ahead, you move past a huge metal door into the next area (brief load times accompany entirely new areas, but there are no more frequent УdoorФ loading animations) and come across УThe VillageФ. Just ahead of you is the village center where an impaled body hangs in the center of the town square and many possessed villagers roam about. At this point you're again prompted to use the action button to УlookФ. Leon gets stealthy behind a tree and has a look at the proceedings using on screen binoculars with a zoom function - looks like the village sacrifice is actually one of the officers from the introЕ.creepyЕ.

From here until the demo's end, it's a vicious fight for your life against the insane villagers. And they are most certainly very insane. You'll be able to find some explosives and a shotgun if you keep a low profile and search the areas, poking behind buildings and sneaking into some of the houses, but eventually, one of them will see you and raise the alarm - and then all Hell breaks loose. Lunatic peasants attack from all angles with pitchforks, blades and even a chainsaw. You'll need to make your way across the rooftops, and make a final stand from a strategic position to take out the enigmatic village creeps Ц and then you'll have to wait until January 11th...